Putting human beings at the center of human rights policy
What’s the best way to advance human rights globally? Put human beings at the centre of rights-related policy, says Lucie Lamarche, Gordon F. Henderson Human Rights Chair at the University of Ottawa.
Professor Lamarche’s innovative economic and social human rights research at the University’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre supports policies that seek to improve the lives of impoverished and marginalized populations by placing the needs of people ahead of economic and state interests.
From her laboratory, Professor Lamarche and her team of students bring a human-rights perspective to policy-related research across the social sciences. Their dynamic interdisciplinary approach is helping the Human Rights Research and Education Centre build stronger links between human rights advocates and those working in governance, legal reform and international development.
“Students are at the centre of our research culture,” emphasizes Professor Lamarche. “We provide them with the training, professional contacts and hands-on research opportunities they need to make a difference in human rights.”
She says both undergraduate and graduate students in human rights law are helping address social and economic justice issues ─ including educational, labour and women’s rights ─ through their work with national and international organizations ranging from the Canadian Human Rights Commission to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
The key to continued progress, says Professor Lamarche, is to ensure that future researchers and policy makers are exposed to a human rights perspective early in their academic careers. With this goal in mind, she offers social science students an introductory course in human rights, which she hopes to extend to others in health sciences, education and engineering.
“It’s important to provide students with a solid grounding in human rights methodology,” she adds. “We want to encourage the decision makers of tomorrow to incorporate basic rights such as human security, equality and dignity into a broad spectrum of research and policy formulation.”
By Greg Higgins
Published: January 2009