LW935-7-SP-CO:
Human Rights of LGBTI Persons
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Essex Law School
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
01 June 2022
Requisites for this module
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This is a ten week module (9 weeks with one two-hour lecture each, plus one reading week) that will run in spring term. The module will combine theory and practice to cover several large issue areas that affect LGBTI persons. The focus will be on using gender theory and queer theory to understand hetero-patriarchal structures and how these structures influence the way that the law regulates sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity. The module will then apply this understanding to various case studies of human rights violations that affect the LGBTI community and look at the ways in which international human rights law can be deployed to address these violations. The approached used in this module will be intersectional and global; Trans rights will be addressed throughout and also with a dedicated lecture.
1. To provide students with a theoretical framework within which to understand homophobia, transphobia and discrimination against LGBTI persons in general.
2. To provide students with a historical narrative of how LGBTI rights have been fought for and recognised at a domestic and international level.
3. To provide students with an intersectional and global vision of LGBTI rights, meaning that the module will go beyond the standard white, male, global-north narrative of gay rights.
4. To demonstrate to students how the hardships faced by LGBTI persons are intersectional.
5. To examine how the discourse of cultural relativism has been deployed in certain areas to affirm that LGBTI human rights are not universal.
6. To examine how the discourse of freedom of religion has been deployed against the protection of LGBTI human rights.
7. To examine how heterosexist bias is at the root of the following major issues: violence against LGBTI persons (including hate crimes, so-called corrective-rape, so-called conversion therapy, etc), criminalization of homosexual (and other queer) behaviour, denial of family rights (including marriage equality, adoption, inheritance, consultation of medical decisions, etc.), denial of healthcare (including safer sex information, HIV/AIDS treatment/prophylaxis, gender transitions, etc.), denial of sexual and reproductive rights and discrimination in the workplace.
8. To examine how international human rights law has been and can be deployed to force states to respect and guarantee LGBTI rights.
By the end of the module students are able to identify human rights issues that affect the LGBTI community and their root causes. Students should be able to use the solid theoretical base provided by the module to not only identify current issues but also to identify future issues that will arise in this field. Furthermore, students should be comfortable working with international human rights law to address these issues both domestically and internationally.
Enrolment in or prior knowledge of Public International Law, and Human Rights and Women would be helpful.
This module will be taught via weekly 2-hour seminars.
The module teaching team will upload all relevant teaching materials on Moodle. You will find reading lists, the textbook, weekly handouts or PPS notes on Moodle. The materials in question are designed both to help you navigate the material to be covered in the seminars and to equip you to analyse the required readings. You will be expected to have completed the required readings in advance of your seminars.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr. Patricia Palacios Zuloaga
p.palacioszuloaga@essex.ac.uk
Yes
No
No
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
Essex Law School
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