About us

The primary mission of the Human Rights Center (CDH, by its Spanish acronym Centro de Derechos Humanos) is to contribute to and strengthen Human Rights Education (hereinafter, HRE), while also addressing the challenges that human rights teaching currently faces, particularly in law schools and more broadly in the training of legal professionals. It is necessary to strengthen HRE in order to ensure the full realization of human rights.

HRE involves educating people about human rights norms and principles, the values that support them, and how they can be achieved and protected in practice. Furthermore, HRE emphasizes learning for human rights, in the sense that it empowers individuals to enjoy, exercise, respect, and defend their rights under conditions of equality and without discrimination.

Consequently, the CDH aims to work on developing processes and activities that foster critical thinking and analysis about the political, social, cultural, and economic context in which we are immersed; to question naturalized attitudes, values, and behaviors. Likewise, when it comes to the training of legal professionals, HRE requires the development of concrete skills for the defense of human rights in professional practice. Thus, it is not enough to merely transmit the fundamental principles of human rights; this learning must be practical in nature. The CDH intends to develop a series of activities aimed at deepening education for human rights, focusing on the development of specific skills in law students.

To this end, the following specific objectives are proposed:

• To build and strengthen a reference space for gathering and participation that supports, encourages, and guides students of the Faculty who are interested in developing their careers in human rights.
• To bring together, energize, and create working spaces in human rights, as well as to promote research in the field.
• To foster greater collaboration between the School, other schools, state actors, and civil society organizations dedicated to the defense of human rights.
• To increase the Faculty’s involvement in relevant issues of public discussion, with the aim of raising awareness or providing clarity on important matters involving rights.

Origins of the Human Rights Center

The Human Rights Center of the University of Buenos Aires Law School was created by a Resolution of the Executive Board of the University of Buenos Aires. Its purpose is to contribute to the promotion, research, and education in human rights and to provide the necessary tools for the practice of the profession with a human rights perspective.

Officially launched on April 23, 2015, the CDH is the result of a series of decisions made by the UBA Law School. After the restoration of democracy, the Law School decided to include Human Rights in the 1985 curriculum by incorporating the subject "Human Rights and Guarantees" as part of the course offerings from 1986, making it mandatory for all those enrolling in the Law degree. Later, it was proposed that in the second cycle of the degree, those opting for Public Law could choose a subject in Human Rights. However, the Law School did not stop at making a human rights course mandatory; it continued to advance the training of professionals knowledgeable in human rights by:

• Developing a professional traineeships in organizations specifically linked to human rights: For example, at the CELS, CISALP (Centro de Investigación Social y Asesoría Legal Popular), Defensa del Consumidor, CAREF (Comisión Argentina para Refugiados y Migrantes), CUD (Centro Universitario Devoto), Poder Ciudadano, FARN (Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), APDH (Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos), Procuración Penitenciaria de la Nación, ACIJ (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia)
• Participating in international human rights competitions (such as the Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court, organized by American University);
• Subsequently, in 2009, the Faculty launched the Master’s Degree and the Specialization Program in International Human Rights Law.

This path led the governing council to support the proposal by Dean Mónica Pinto to create a Human Rights Center at the Law School in order to capitalize on those generations of graduates, stimulate and train new professionals committed to the defense of human rights, organize activities to contribute to the construction of public policy in these areas, and lead stronger ties between the Law School and institutions dedicated to human rights.

 

Presentation video of the Human Rights Center

 

Staff