Our LLM International Human Rights Law is the oldest established human rights law course in Europe, as the University of Essex was the first university in the world to establish a dedicated LLM in this area. In 2009, the University was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in recognition of its excellence in the advancement of human rights. Our LLM International Human Rights Law has continued to grow since welcoming its first cohort in 1983 and annually attracts some of the most experienced and academically qualified students from around the world. The majority of our students go on, or return, to work in human rights as litigators, in NGOs and international organisations like the UN, in government (particularly Ministries of Foreign Affairs) and in academia. They are a conspicuous presence in all the key human rights hubs in the world. At Essex, our objective is to ensure you receive a rigorous academic education that also prepares you for working as a human rights advocate. Every member of our teaching team is a leading human rights academic, as well as a practitioner in the field. Our team includes former UN Special Rapporteurs, members of UN treaty bodies, advisers to a range of international organisations (like the OHCHR, UNHCR and WHO), as well as to NGOs around the world, and litigators before national courts, regional human rights commissions and courts, international courts and tribunals, and the UN treaty bodies. Our LLM International Human Rights Law aims: - to enable you to form an advanced conceptual understanding of the international law on the promotion and protection of human rights, at the international, regional and national level, that is informed by insights based on practice and scholarship at the forefront of the discipline; - to set international human rights law in its philosophical and historical contexts; - to enable you to understand international human rights law as it applies in various situations including states of emergency or acute crises, development and transition; - to produce graduates who can conduct independent research and construct coherent, well written papers (a number of which are later published in lading international law journals); and - to produce graduates who will be leaders in the field of international human rights law as advocates, field officers, legal advisers or researchers with governments and international and non-governmental organisations, and as academics. The first eight months of our LLM International Human Rights Law are spent taking modules, writing your foundation essay, research essay and sitting exams. Your dissertation is a major component of your course, with your topic chosen by you in agreement with a member of our teaching staff at the end of your third term. Your dissertation, of between 15,000 and 20,000 words including footnotes, must be submitted in September. During the year, we hold a careers session for our students in which we reflect upon our own careers and how they have been built as well as those from former students. We are always available to discuss career options and if you are interested in a particular area of human rights, we can link you up with the relevant alumni to offer advice. On graduating, you will be invited to join the Essex Human Rights Alumni Association which provides you with the opportunity to connect with and learn about the activities of Essex alumni around the world We strongly recommended that those without previous experience undertake at least a one-month internship with an intergovernmental or non-governmental organisation in London, Geneva or elsewhere. This can be accommodated while studying for your dissertation and extensions are available for those wishing to pursue this option. Students have previously interned with Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Article 19, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, the Council of Europe, JUSTICE, the International Commission of Jurists, the International Service for Human Rights, INTERIGHTS, Minority Rights Group International, REDRESS and UNHCR to name a few organisations.

Our School of Law graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers in international and intergovernmental organisations or employment with governments across the world, in commerce and banking, in non-governmental organisations and, as might be expected, in the legal profession and the judiciary. Recent graduates of LLM International Human Rights Law have found employment as National Protection Officer for UNHCR, an advocate for Refugees International, a lawyer for the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, an adviser or the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), the lead lawyer for the Human Rights Advocacy Centre/Memorial, and a trade promotion manager at the Department of Trade and Industry.