DH – Human Rights

The Human Rights research group (DH) is dedicated to conducting high quality and policy-relevant research in the field of human rights and to fostering public engagement in human rights issues beyond the academy.

It draws on the expertise built by its predecessor – the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Human Rights (DH-CII) – while streamlining its research focus to prioritise four research strands which correspond to four key concerns in the implementation of human rights standards:

1. equality and non-discrimination (gender, race, religion, disability, and age);
2. health and bioethics (including medically assisted procreation, elderly care, privacy and informed consent);
3. international migration and migrant integration (including cross-border migration, refugee protection, citizenship and cultural diversity); and
4. human rights in a network society (including privacy and data protection).

DH fosters interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing members from different legal disciplines and from disciplines other than law (e.g. Sociology and Psychology). Also, its research strands allow for a number of collaborations across group lines within JusGov, such as research on Human Rights and Sustainable Development (with Glob), Human Rights and Electronic Profiling (with E-Tec and JusCrim), Gender Violence and Victimology (with JusCrim), and Citizenship and Migration (with CEDU).

DH contributes to the advanced training of young researchers through the Master Programme in Human Rights as well as through the organisation of regular workshops and seminars on ongoing research projects.

As part of its dissemination and outreach activities, DH continues the annual tradition of organizing a conference on International Human Rights Days and taking part in awareness-raising sessions hosted by junior high and high schools in the region. Since 2017, DH has published an online peer-reviewed journal – Yearbook in Human Rights – as a forum to promote human rights scholarship.