The Human Rights Minor provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Human Rights Studies, orienting students to the scholarship and practices of historical and contemporary human rights projects.
The Human Rights Minor is a flexible course of study for students looking to gain a basic knowledge and understanding of human rights issues. Human rights are critical to all aspects of our contemporary society, making the minor an excellent complement to almost any area of academic study. It requires a total of 5 courses for a minimum of 15 total credits.
Students who entered Columbia University prior to the 2024-25 academic year may pursue a Concentration in Human Rights. Degree requirements for concentrators are available on the Columbia College and General Studies school bulletins.
Minor Requirements
Introduction to Human Rights (HRTS UN3001)
International human rights is a powerful idea in our time, but also the focus of numerous controversies: it not only embodies a set of ideals but also functions as a political tool, which different forces try to bend to their own ends. The result of this struggle is a process of norm contestation and norm change that the course seeks to understand. The course looks at the laws and institutions that define human rights as an international regime, in the context of key intellectual controversies and political puzzles surrounding human rights theory and practice. It discusses how human rights norms change, and it analyzes some of the challenges of contemporary human rights advocacy.
In addition to Introduction to Human Rights, all students pursuing the Minor are required to take four elective human rights classes, for a minimum of 12 credits.
Please see the undergraduate course list for the current list of courses that fulfill the minor requirements.
Student Advising
Advising is available to all students enrolled in or considering the Major. Contact us to schedule an appointment.
Minor Worksheet
To assist with planning and track progress, students should complete and update their the minor worksheet regularly.
Students pursuing the Minor are encouraged to consult with the program during each semester's registration period in order to verify that selected courses fulfill degree requirements.
Academic Policies
Academic and administrative policies for all human rights minors are outlined below and are available on the human rights bulletins for Columbia College and General Studies.
No course with a grade of D or lower is credited towards the minor.
One course, with the exception of Introduction to Human Rights, can be taken for Pass/D/Fail. The student must receive a grade of P for the course to count toward the requirements of the minor. All other courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Human rights minors may transfer a maximum of one course (3 Columbia-equivalent credits) from other institutions. This includes study abroad credit and Advanced Placement courses. The application of transferred courses to the minor must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies or the undergraduate advisor.
Students wishing to count transfer courses toward the minor should email [email protected] with their Entrance/Transfer Credit Report or transcript, the syllabi of the courses they want to count toward departmental requirements, and a statement of how they want to apply the transfer credits to the requirements.
In accordance with the academic policies of their school, students pursuing another program of study (a major or a minor) may double‐count a maximum of two classes towards the Human Rights Minor, provided that the classes are approved to fulfill a requirement for each program. Students should consult the academic policies of their school for specific information regarding the double-counting of courses taken to fulfill Global Core or other school requirements.