University of Minnesota
Human Rights Program
hrp@umn.edu
612-626-7947


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Requirements

Admission Requirements

Human Rights Minor General Admission Requirements
Admission to the graduate minor in human rights is restricted to graduate students, and doctoral or professional students already enrolled in a degree program at the University of Minnesota. A G.P.A. of 3.0 is required. Students wishing to pursue the minor will submit a letter of application to the Human Rights Program describing the student’s background and motivation for applying to the Human Rights Minor program. Doctoral students must declare their minor before taking their preliminary oral examination. Both master’s degree and doctoral students are strongly encouraged to declare the minor when filing the degree program form. In general, students must take courses listed outside their home departments (unless the courses are cross-listed with other departments) to count them toward the graduate minor.

Freestanding Minor Requirements

The Human Rights Minor is available to master's and doctoral students. The minor is intended to provide an interdisciplinary foundation in human rights studies and practical experience in human rights work, coordinated through the program director.

Master’s Students
Must complete 9 credit hours: two of the four core courses, at least one elective course (3 credits) taken from a designated course list, and one six-week internship approved by the DGS (with a minimum total of 200 hours work). Students may meet the total hourly requirement over the span of more than 6 weeks subject to DGS approval.

Doctoral Students
Must complete 12 credit hours: two of four core courses, at least two elective courses (totaling 6 credits), and one six-week internship (with a minimum total of 200 hours work) approved by the DGS. Students pursuing the graduate human rights minor must have at least one faculty member affiliated with the minor on their oral examination committees and official dissertation committee.

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs (HHH)

Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs (HHH)
students (MPP and MPA) may pursue a pre-approved self-designed concentration in human rights. Requirements of the concentration are equivalent to those required for master's students (i.e. 9 credits and a six-week internship with a minimum of 200 hours work as explained above). HHH students wishing to pursue the concentration should propose it on their program plan and inform the DGS that they are pursuing the concentration. The faculty contact for HHH is

Katherine Fennelly
Office: 144 Humphrey Center
Phone: 612-625-6685
E-mail: fenne007@umn.edu
Website: Certificate Programs and Graduate Minors

Law School

Law School
Students must complete the requirements of the Law School's concentration in Human Rights Law (12 credit hours of course work of which at least two courses are from the core list and at least one course has a substantial writing and research component). The contact for the concentration in Human Rights Law is

Professor David Weissbrodt
434 Mondale Hall
Phone: 612-625-5027
E-mail: weiss001@umn.edu
Website: Concentration in Human Rights Law