Jorge Araya

Since 1996, Mr. Araya has worked in the field of human rights for the United Nations. Professor Jorge Araya is Secretary of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and an official of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Previously, he served on the Secretariat of the Human Rights Council for the Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the OHCHR Petitions team. He has also worked in regional and country offices of the OACNUD, and previously for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala. He was an official of the judiciary in his country of origin and is also a visiting professor at the Master of Human Rights at the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain and at the Master of Human Rights at the Rafael Landívar University in Guatemala, in the period 2000-2003 and 2006-2007.

Course

LA PROTECCIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE LOS GRUPOS VULNERABLES (INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS) (LAW-989-E001) (Fall) (Spanish only)  An introduction to the concept of vulnerable groups: who they are, why they are considered “vulnerable,” and what their rights under International Human Rights Law are. We will appraise state and non-state actors’ responsibility vis-à-vis vulnerable groups. We will analyze in detail the tripartite typology of state obligations in the field of human rights and a framework detailing obligations of non-state actors. The first vulnerable group that we will examine will be children. To this aim, we will explore the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the mandate of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. The examination of the practice of some regional human rights bodies that have enforced children’s rights will complete the overview of the protection of children under International Human Rights Law. Subsequently, the course will focus on the protection of people living with HIV/AIDS by analyzing Article 12 of the 1966 UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the practice of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights. We will also tackle challenges of the protection of internally displaced persons (IDPs), both under International Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law, and the legal protection of disabled persons at the UN, African and European level. The course will conclude with an analysis of the human rights of the Roma Population and the protection afforded to the human rights of the poor and destitute by the South African Constitutional Court and the Indian Supreme Court.