Master's Degree in Human Rights and Peace

This degree program trains professionals who are committed to serving society; professionals in an ongoing search for the truth, who are capable of proposing and developing viable and pertinent solutions to transform systems and institutions.

The Master's Degree in Human Rights and Peace encompasses a professional community that is committed to the promotion of human rights and the construction of peace, social actors who work to promote and defend human rights, and work with those who have suffered violations of their most basic rights and cannot satisfy their hopes for a peaceful existence.

Candidate profile

This master's degree program is aimed at professionals from all disciplines who are committed to society and its context, willing to take on complex problems and to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, interested in incorporating into their work practice the perspectives of human rights and peace in order to influence public decisions and help the people that have less access to a dignified life.

In this sense, the program is aimed at:

• Public officials from any level of government and from any of its branches.
• Members of civil and non-governmental organizations who promote and defend human rights and peace processes.
• Academics and researchers interested in studying human rights and peace issues.
• Consultants in issues of human rights, peace or public policy.
• Recently graduated professionals who wish to go deeper and specialize in these topics.

Reasons to study this degree program

ITESO is the first university in Jalisco to receive official recognition from the Mexican Ministry of Public Education as an Institution of Academic Excellence. It has a faculty made up of professors and researchers who are leaders in their area of knowledge, together with up-to-date study plans, and infrastructure designed to foster personal development in its multiple dimensions. ITESO offers education for life.

This Master's Degree program is part of ITESO's Graduate Programs in Sociopolitical and Legal Studies, which address national and local issues of systematic violations of human rights, especially among the most disadvantaged groups. They seek to use academic work to press for social and political change. This position is especially relevant in the context of the constitutional reform of 2011 in the area of human rights.

ITESO offers a variety of specializations, master's degrees, and Ph.D.s that will help you be a better professional and interact with outstanding members of the academy, civil organizations, the government, and the private sector. We have more researchers listed on the National System of Researchers than any other private university in western Mexico, and many of our graduate programs are recognized by the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs.

ITESO graduate programs give you access to networks of knowledge in which researchers, experts, and students work together on academic, professional, social, cultural, and economic projects. By studying at ITESO, you will get a closer look at the work of renowned academics who put human values at the center of their work; they are interested in making relevant contributions to knowledge and offering viable solutions to specific problems. For these reasons, ITESO is recognized as the most important private university in western Mexico.

Our professors are experts in their fields; they lead projects in collaboration with other academics, from both ITESO and other universities; they actively participate in collaboration and research projects, and are committed to the values and foundations of our educational project.

In addition, our university belongs to the Jesuit University System, a group of universities that has the most programs listed on the National Registry of Quality Graduate Programs (PNPC, in its initials in Spanish) of the National Science and Technology Council (CONACYT, in its initials in Spanish) in the private education sector.

Graduate profile

Graduates from the Master's Degree in Human Rights and Peace will be able to:

• Critically analyze social reality from human rights and peace perspective, making use of multiple disciplines.
• Design, implement and evaluate public policy from the perspective of human rights and peace.
• Interpret and apply international human rights law.
• Manage and transform conflicts peacefully.

Study plan

The graduate program has a flexible curricular structure that allows students to enroll in courses that address their concerns and meet their educational needs within a framework that focuses on attaining objectives, developing the final project, and meeting the program's graduate profile.

The Study plan is divided into three curricular areas: Fundamentals; Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI); and Electives.

Fundamentals

The courses in this area define the academic field and the program's identity and relationship to the Lines of Generation and Application of Knowledge (LGAC's, in their initials in Spanish).

• Theory of Human Rights
• Theory of Peace and Conflicts
• International Human Rights Law
• Contemporary Debates about Peace and Conflicts
• Public Policy
• Contemporary Debates about Human Rights

Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI)

This area is closely related to the Advisory Support System. Its purpose is to accompany students in their process of defining, developing, writing, and presenting their final projects. Students will receive group and personal advisory sessions called RDI courses.

• Research, Development and Innovation I. Advisory support and assistance in Professional Application Projects.
• Research, Development and Innovation II. Advisory support and assistance in Professional Application Projects.
• Research, Development and Innovation III. Advisory support and assistance in Professional Application Projects.
• Research, Development and Innovation IV. Advisory support and assistance in Professional Application Projects.

Electives

The purpose of this area is to give students the chance to dialogue with other fields of knowledge outside of their own discipline, in order to generate knowledge and solve problems related to their project and object of study. This area draws on courses from all ITESO graduate programs and from other universities that have a collaboration agreement with ITESO.

• Constitutional Law Clinic
• Political Communication
• International Cooperation
• Social Movements and Human Rights
• Judicial Reform and Constitutional Rule of Law

Advisory support system

The advisory support system seeks to encourage connections between students' research, innovation and development interests, and the Lines of Generation and Application of Knowledge of each particular graduate program, as well as links to the rest of the graduate programs.

The advisory support system is based on a person-oriented approach and gives preference to collective production scenarios. It consists of interaction between students and advisors that are intended to provoke dissonance through constructive criticism, as a way to encourage reflection and the collective construction of knowledge.

The support system articulates different educational dimensions (individual, social and historical) in each one of the program's curricular periods. Advisory sessions can also be taken in pairs or individually.