The NORHED II Project 70921: Partnership for Peace: Better Higher Education for Resilient Societies (NORAD) and the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights invite applications for the PhD-level course “Human Rights Methodology and Approaches” to take place mainly in person in Oslo, on 8-10 October 2026.
Practical information
Expenses for the selected participants from the partner institutions will be covered under the Norhed II project.
The course is open for both PhD-candidates and junior faculty members. The deadline for sending in your application is 15 April 2026. When applying for a place in the course, please send the following documents:
- Short CV of two pages maximum; and
- Letter of motivation, demonstrating how this course is relevant to your PhD research project or research interests.
We have three guiding principles regarding the selection process, namely the strength of candidate; the relevance of the course for the candidates’ research; and gender balance within each represented institution and in the PhD course.
Application form
Applications should be sent via the online form:
Please note the 15 April 2026 deadline.
Course description
This PhD/professional training course provides insights into research methodologies in the legal and the social sciences, as well as the humanities, relevant for conducting research in the field of human rights. Some of the issues covered include the basic features of international law methods and their application to human rights issues; the basic features of methodological approaches employed in the various disciplines of humanistic and social scientific research on human rights; gender perspectives in human rights research; and ethical issues involved in conducting human rights research.
Some of the topics that are addressed in the course are the following: legal methods in international human rights law; environment, climate change and human rights; gender perspectives in human rights research; research methods in the social sciences; human rights diplomacy; political science methods and approaches to human rights; qualitative and quantitative methods and research design; interdisciplinarity; research ethics in human rights research; and, comparative and historical analysis of human rights. These broad themes are covered in two and a half days through mainly in-person lectures and seminars, taught by renowned experts in the field.
Attendance certificate and study points
Participants attending over 70% of the course will receive an attendance certificate. The course is also recommended for 4 (four) ECTS study points, upon assessment of a research paper of 5,000 (five thousand) words maximum (including footnotes), which is evaluated as pass/fail. Relevant instructions concerning the research paper will be provided during the course.