The University of Malta is coordinating a course leading to the Master's in Human Rights and Democratisation on behalf of a partnership of Universities and Human Rights institutions from around the Mediterranean.

The aim of the one year multi-disciplinary course is to train a number of young persons from Southern Mediterranean countries who will have an influence in their home countries in the building up of a human rights culture. This year is the sixth intake and so far more than 150 students have graduated from the course. The academic programme is managed by the Faculty of Laws of the University of Malta while the administrative and logistical aspects are handled by the Foundation for International Studies of the University of Malta.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the European Commission, a number of scholarships are awarded each year. These scholarships are available to students from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Malta. This year, 33 students have been awarded a scholarship and they hail from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Turkey.

The students of the human rights course which hail from different parts of the Mediterranean region

(from right) Professor Ian Refalo, academic coordinator of the course and Professor Lino Briguglio with students of the human rights course