Human rights is a broad term that is most commonly associated with the UN Declaration of Human Rights. However, the ideas of human rights – and wrongs – develop and change over time. The Human Rights, Equalities and Diversity research cluster look into this territory, assessing areas such as global genocide, abuse of human rights, forced labour and femicide. Equalities and diversity also make up the cornerstone of how this cluster works, bringing together academics from broad interdisciplinary interests with a focus on equality in relation to gender, age, disability, race and ethnicity and sexual preference.
Areas of activity
- Patterns and evidence of inequity and difference as key features of modern societies, using diverse perspectives and disciplinary tools and methodologies,
- Human rights and abuse of human rights in comparative, local, national and regional perspective, building understanding of how human rights are conceptualised in different ways and how world society can work together to support human development in this area,
- Difference and diversity in social policy, social psychological, sociological or from any of the adjunct disciplines of the social sciences, recognising that broad skills are needed to support positive change,
- Scholar-activism in diversity and equality work
- Organisational inequalities and (lack of) diversity practice, best practice in achieving equal opportunities in areas such as gender and race and ethnicity in, for instance, the Academy and Local Authority work,
- The mapping and outlining of the experiences of those who experience inequality around diversity, to ensure they can be heard, advocating, supporting and helping them to speak truth to power (civic engagement and advocacy),
- Developing solutions-based approaches to embedding diversity and equality practice into organisations and various contexts.