M.A Program

• Specific objectives of the course are to:
• impart comparative understanding of basic concepts, history and theories of human rights imbedded in Eastern and Western values;
• acquaint students on the international instrument of human rights including interpretation of human rights and implementation mechanism at international, regional and national levels; and
• generate human resource competent in human rights professionalism and culture.

Students passing out this course are expected to be capable of:

• describing human rights principles and standards explicitly and interpret the events associated to human rights infringements independently;
• imparting knowledge on human rights to others independently and demystify vaguely jargonized and misleading interpretations and projection of values and principles of human rights;
• assessing the alleged cases of violations of human rights and refer them to the appropriate agencies for redress and actions; and
• furthering a culture of respects on human rights secularly and impartially in their respective working environments by their own human rights friendly performances and motivations to others.

• This course is designed to develop human resource having competence in human rights. Therefore, both theoretical and practical aspects of subject matters are given equal importance. As human rights are matters of realized in secular worldly life, pragmatic understanding of human rights is emphasized under this course.
• There will be four taught classes per week of 2.30 hours each at school. Field assignments should be performed by the students for outdoor study. Both of these carry evaluative weights for examinations. The medium language is English for the performances of the classes and examinations.
• There will be terminal examinations, writing of term papers and other academic performances for 40 credits in each subject and students should sit in Final Examination for 60 credits. Field research work and dissertation should be performed by students under the supervision of faculty teachers within the guidelines prescribed by KSL.

This course aims to indoctrinate the scholars with the contemporary relevance of international humanitarian law, practical implementation of human rights norms, humanitarian assistance to conflict victims, monitoring of human right violations, prosecution of heinous war criminals through ICC and different modules of peace building in the context of increasing threat of terrorism and rise of internal conflicts. On each occasion, practical application of cases and references of different countries will serve as suitable illustrations.
This course tailors the need of mid- carrier professionals who have carrier interest in UN Human Rights and Humanitarian agencies for reporting, recording, investigating and monitoring of human rights violations as well as assisting the conflict victims and providing peace/security during post conflict situations.

• International Humanitarian laws and implementation: The course enables the scholars to understand the international legal rules and principles relating to armed conflict. It strongly focus on International rules concerning the legality of the use of arm forces and the rules governing the conducts of parties during armed conflict as well as its implementation and monitoring thereon. In addition, this course will examine the UN laws relating to the conduct of armed conflicts, problems of enforcement of humanitarian law; war crimes; humanitarian intervention; protection of refugees; and the role of humanitarian organizations.

• International Criminal Law and Court System: This course provides an overview of the establishment of International Criminal Court (ICC), its jurisdiction and how victims should address a complaint, presentation of evidences, the participation of victims in trials; the protection and safety of victims and witnesses. It also highlights the execution of punishment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in order to put an end to the impunity through various ad hoc criminal tribunals.
  Besides these, international treaties against crime, extradition and mutual assistance treaties will also be analyzed along with the critical dissection of all the pros and cons for rectifying the Rome statute by Nepal.

• Protection of women and children in Armed Conflict: The goal of this course is to orient the scholars to reduce the effects of war on people and property and to protect particularly vulnerable persons i.e. women and children. The course discusses the issues of violence, masculinity, gender and militarism, women/child combatants, violence against women/children and exploitation.
  It tends to orient the scholars on the role and effectiveness of NGos & INGOs and critically assess the potential of these organizations to act as a third party for protection, return, resettlement, and reintegration of women and children and conflict victims as guaranteed by international law through multi-level and multi-agency community based rehab programs.

• Conflict resolution (Principles, norms and practice): This course introduces the scholars to various structure, practices and norms of establishing global peace by critically debating about the deployment of armed military forces in conflict situations through human rights lens. This course raises fundamental questions about the causes of conflict, ethnic/geopolitical dynamics of conflict, why conflicts continue and escalate thereby providing experimental learning largely through case studies including Kosovo, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Sri Lanka.
  Its major topics include multi disciplinary approach of re-integration of human rights principles and values in the context of conflict transformation through various modules.

• Report Writing and field research: This course intends the scholars to take up outdoor research on any of the burning areas prescribed within their area of study to gain a first hand exposure. This prepares the scholars to have a broader and practical outlook on the problems for prescribing alternative forms of solution and recommendations. The objective of this course is to boost the scholars with skills and confidence to present their research papers and float their ideas amongst national and international delegates.
  The research report thus prepared needs to be presented before the internal and external experts which needs then to be submitted to the University

• Dissertation: Each scholar ought to prepare an extensive and original research based dissertation written within the frame work of the prescribed course. The scholars are free to choose their topic and supervisors.
  The scholars need to undertake a series of seminar classes on dissertation writing for preparing their respective proposal/synopsis. The proposal thus prepared needs to be presented and defended among the faculty members before taking up their dissertation work.

This course is scheduled to be launched extensively over a period of 12 months. This academic course consists of regular classes as well as the three residential workshops, outdoor studies and institutional visits that form an integral part of this academic course. There will be four taught classes per week of 2:30 hours each.
Each candidates needs to prepare and present a term paper on each of the four subjects respectively. Active participation in field assignments, workshops, seminar and internal terminal exams will constitute 40 % of the internal marking whereas the University final examination conducted at the end of the session will constitute 60 % of the external marking. The assessment of the dissertation and field research/reporting will be evaluated as per the University rules.

• Kathmandu School of Law (KSL) is a leading academic institution that has been acting as a Secretariat of South Asian Law School's forum, in the promotion, dissemination, teaching and domestication of International Human Rights and humanitarian laws in the SAARC region.
• All its academic programs of both Five years Bachelor Program in Law and its two years Masters degree in Law in three different disciplines provide an open learning environment by embedding a culture of respect of human rights even on cross cutting subjects.
• The educational environment is participant centred supported by modern computer facilities. Similarly the Peace Negotiation Resource Center (PNRC) of KSL is fully equipped with research reports, journals, news paper cuttings, case studies, electronic documentaries including easy assess to information through internet research.
• It favours reflection and exchanges of views and experiences and promotes research through publication of the findings and recent developments in the field of conflict prevention and humanitarian laws. Each subject is facilitated by KSL faculty members, eminent human rights practitioners and international scholars in collaboration with ICRC-Nepal, UN High Commission, European Commission, SALS Forum, DFID and Danish Institute of Human Rights.

• ICRC
• National Red Cross Society
• Amnesty International
• NHRC
• Other Governmental and non-governmental line agencies

• University Registration, University Final Exam Fee will be charged according to University instruction.
  
• Students must pay their fee as per the school’s rules.