Ending Violence Through Human Rights Advocacy equips you with the knowledge and tools to confront violence as a systemic human rights issue. Across contexts of peace and conflict, violence is shaped by militarisation, economic inequality, colonial legacies, and gender norms that link masculinity to dominance and control. This course helps you understand these structural drivers and shows how they can be transformed.

You will explore key theories on masculinities and examine how political and economic systems make certain forms of violence predictable. Rather than treating violence as individual pathology, the course situates it within institutions, markets, and state practices that normalise harm and reward domination.

A central focus is on using human rights frameworks as practical tools for change. You will learn how to work strategically with global instruments such as CEDAW, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and Human Rights Council resolutions, as well as regional mechanisms across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa. The course shows how these instruments can strengthen advocacy, inform shadow reporting, shape public debate, and hold governments accountable.

Throughout, we emphasise accountability in work with men and boys. Engaging men is not about centring male voices, but about challenging patriarchal power, supporting feminist leadership, and transforming the systems that sustain violence. You will examine how backlash against gender equality operates and how rights-based advocacy can respond effectively.

In the final module, you will develop your own capstone advocacy plan. Drawing on the frameworks and analyses studied in the course, you will identify a concrete issue in your context, map relevant human rights instruments and monitoring mechanisms, and design a realistic strategy for the next 6 to 12 months.

By the end of the course, you will be able to connect structural analysis with practical action, mobilise human rights tools in your own work, and contribute to building feminist peace grounded in equality, accountability, and care.

Syllabus

In this course, you will develop both analytical depth and practical advocacy skills. By the end, you will be able to:

Understand violence as systemic rather than individual, and explain how militarisation, economic inequality, colonial histories, and patriarchal gender norms shape men’s use of violence in both peace and conflict.
Analyse masculinities using feminist, queer, and decolonial perspectives, and assess how institutions, markets, and state practices reinforce or challenge harmful norms.
Identify the structural drivers of gender based violence, including the political economy of arms, extractive industries, austerity policies, and the commercial determinants of violence.
Work strategically with global human rights instruments such as CEDAW, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, Human Rights Council resolutions, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Navigate regional human rights frameworks in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East and North Africa, and assess how they can be used to strengthen accountability and advocacy.
Understand monitoring and reporting mechanisms, including treaty bodies, shadow reporting, and regional review systems, and apply them in your own context.
Engage men and boys as accountable allies in gender justice work, grounded in feminist leadership and intersectional principles.
Recognise and respond to patriarchal backlash, disinformation, and anti gender movements using rights based strategies.
Design a focused and realistic advocacy plan that links structural analysis, human rights frameworks, and concrete political action over a 6 to 12 month period.
Translate complex human rights standards into clear demands, compelling narratives, and strategic entry points for change in your own community or institution.