ClassInfo

This 3 credit course will familiarize you with core principles and techniques for human rights fact-finding, focusing especially on interview skills. You will learn what fact-finding is and how it is used to advance human rights. You'll also learn how to plan and prepare for fact-finding; coordinate with partners and others; navigate security challenges; conduct interviews with survivors, witnesses, officials, and others; minimize the risk of retraumatization and vicarious trauma; and adapt fact-finding interview approaches for challenging contexts (e.g., emergency or conflict settings, detention facilities, or refugee camps).

You will practice interview techniques through in-class simulations, and learn to tailor interviews for specific situations and populations. Discussions and exercises will address specific considerations when interviewing LGBTQI survivors, children, people with disabilities, older people, and other groups.

While there are many possible approaches to fact-finding, this course will focus heavily on one-on-one interviews. We will touch briefly on other forms of fact-finding, including through the use of various technologies.

The course will draw heavily on my experience conducting fact-finding interviews and training staff at Human Rights Watch. Bear in mind that this is just one of many approaches to investigating the realization or denial of human rights. This elective course should be considered a supplement to other courses on research methods, not a replacement. I strongly encourage students to take courses on qualitative research methods and social science perspectives on human rights. The approach taught in this course is more like investigative journalism paired with advocacy than like social science research.

There are no prerequisites.

Meets full semester.

Learning objectives: Through this course, you will understand what fact-finding is, and how it is used in the human rights field. More specifically, you will have developed skills and knowledge that will enable you to:

• Plan for fact-finding

• Adhere to core standards and ethical considerations

• Interview survivors of human rights abuses

• Understand best practices for interviewing specific populations

• Interview government officials, UN representatives, and others

• Obtain secondary data and information

• Handle the stress of human rights fact-finding, and minimize the risk of vicarious trauma

• Prevent and handle security risks

• Conduct interviews for multimedia

• Understand options for technology-enabled fact-finding

No exams. Assignments will be practical, aimed at developing skills for planning and executing fact-finding.

Seminar style.