UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

The International Human Rights Exchange (IHRE) programme offers the world's only full-semester, multi-disciplinary programme in human rights for undergraduates. Each semester, students and faculty from southern Africa, North America, and other regions of the world come together to participate in a deep and multifaceted engagement with human rights.
The IHRE program is housed at the University of the Witwatersrand (also known as Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa and is a joint venture with Bard College.

Program Highlights

IHRE inspires and activates students by advancing their knowledge and experience of human rights.  Programme activities include: 

  • Rigorous and thought-provoking classes taught in a seminar style, including a core course on international human rights and a practicum on human rights advocacy
  • A multidisciplinary selection of elective courses, connecting human rights concerns to development, gender, and culture, literature, media, and theatre, and philosophy, politics and social work
  • A hands-on, mentored internship with a leading non-governmental organization (NGO) working on the front lines of social change
  • Guest lectures offered by leading luminaries in the human rights field
  • Off-campus exploration of human rights challenges through workshops, visits to Soweto and the Apartheid Museum, and other cultural excursions 
  • Participation in a diverse and global community of students and scholars committed to human rights 
Our Philosophy

The IHRE programme believes that the subject of human rights provides an excellent framework for realising the goal of liberal education. We aim to provide a challenging and rewarding experience by:
  • Enabling critical and creative thinking about human rights
  • Developing a democratic understanding of people’s role in society
  • Linking academic work with activism, advocacy, and building a culture of human rights
  • Implementing student-centered learning
  • Establishing relationships of equality, mutuality, and exchange among participants. 

We seek to promote a critical understanding of human rights as part of a broad intellectual and social movement, not simply as a code or set of laws. The IHRE programme believes that human rights is a discourse in transformation (and often in contest) that is best understood through a multidisciplinary approach extending to the humanities, social sciences, arts, and sciences.

For more information on our Undergraduate and Graduate programs go to www.ihre.org or contact

Lovelyn Bassey, Programme Coordinator
Tel: +27 11 717 4391
Email: lovelyn.bassey@wits.ac.za