The European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA) is a one-year, full-time course that provides a practice and policy-oriented approach to learning that combines legal, political, historical, anthropological, and philosophical perspectives of human rights and democratisation with skill-building activities and a field trip exercise.

This unique programme is carried out jointly by 42 European universities. Students are taught by leading academics representing EMA participating universities, experts and representatives of international organisations and NGOs, while studying in a multicultural environment.

The curriculum prepares participants for working in national, international, governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations as well as research institutions dealing with human rights and democratisation.

The programme offers a full semester in Venice and a second semester in a participating university, for instance the RUB.

For further information on the E.MA programme, please consult the website of the progam.

The European Regional Master's Degree in Democracy and Human Rights in South-East Europe (ERMA) is a unique regional interdisciplinary one-year full time MA programme. It was established in 2000, through the joint efforts of eleven participating universities and research centers, coordinated by the Center for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies of the University of Sarajevo in cooperation with the University of Bologna through its Istituto per l'Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica. The ERMA programme is an educational activity intended for students that would combine practical experience in human rights issues with further academic study. The IFHV is member of the network since 2007.

Further information can be found here. 

The postgraduate programme 'Master of Peace and Security Studies' at the University of Hamburg is a trans- and interdisciplinary programme of a two semester duration, combining theory-based education in the areas of peace research and security policy with a practice-orientated application of methods for research. The prime objective of the course is to provide highly qualified graduates from a national or foreign university and academically trained practitioners of a field-related vocational background with the fundamental basics of the discipline peace studies and security policy, as well as providing them with the instruments applicable for differentiated research in this field.

The course is a joint programme of the University of Hamburg and the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH). Students can spend one semester at the IFHV in Bochum.

Further information can be found here. 

The Global Campus of Human Rights is an inter-disciplinary centre of excellence supported by the EU. It strives to promote human rights and democratisation through higher education, specialised training programmes, research and outreach. This is done worldwide through its broad network of member universities.

It has a presence in seven regions of the world: Africa, Arab World, Asia-Pacific, Caucasus, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, South East Europe. Its regional headquarters are in Pretoria, Beirut, Bangkok, Yerevan, Buenos Aires, Sarajevo/Bologna, and it is coordinated by the main office in Venice, Italy.

100 Universities and 7 regional programmes make for the largest network of human rights educators in the world. Such a wide network, cooperating at both the regional and the global level, ensures that intersectionality and cross-cutting issues are always at the forefront of its programmes.

Further information can be found here. 

Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft e.V.  is an alliance of the nine German development and relief organizations Brot für die Welt, Christoffel-Blindenmission, DAHW, Kindernothilfe, medico international, Misereor, Plan International,  terre des hommes, Welthungerhilfe as well as the associated members German Doctors and Oxfam.

Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft was founded after the tsunami disaster in December 2004. It combines larger and smaller aid organizations, both church and secular – and thus reflects a cross-section of German society. The members provide short-term assistance, which instantaneously ensures survival, as well as long-term support in order to overcome hardship and conflicts in a sustainable way and prevent new crises. The alliance counteracts the current trend to only focus aid and donations on overcoming acute and possibly spectacular disasters.

The agencies continue to act independently, but also support each other and coordinate their activities. Donations are collected jointly and divided up equally among the organizations.

Since 2018 the IFHV cooperates with BEH within the project WorldRiskReport report. The WorldRiskReport contributes to analyse the links between natural events, climate change, development and preparedness at a global level and to draw future-oriented conclusions regarding relief measures, policies and reporting. 

VENRO is the umbrella organisation of development and humanitarian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Germany. The association was founded in 1995 and consists of around 140 organisations. Their backgrounds lie in independent and church-related development cooperation, humanitarian action as well as development education, public relations and advocacy.

VENRO's central goal is to construct a just globalisation, with a special emphasis on eradicating global inequality and poverty. The organisation is committed to implementing human rights and conserving natural resources.

Related through an extensive consortium project, the IFHV and VENRO offer a high-quality training programme to strengthen the capacities of German humanitarian NGOs funded by the Foreign Office.

The Völkerrechtsblog is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, academic blog covering all matters of public international law and legal thought and aiming at fostering and diversifying scholarly discussion about international law.

The IFHV has been cooperating with the Völkerrechtsblog since 2019. IFHV members contribute to the blog with approximately three academic articles – the so-called ‘BOFAXE’ – every month, while several IFHV-organised events are also livestreamed via the blog’s website. 

From August 2021 on, the research cooperation between the IFHV and the Völkerrechtsblog will intensify further. The IFHV will participate in the Völkerrechtsblog project as a cooperation partner, contributing to the operation of blog the academic services of one Managing Editor. This position will be held by Spyridoula Katsoni, who will be supported by Benedikt Behlert and Robin Ramsahye for the editing of the BOFAXE series.

In 2001, Aktion Deutschland Hilft was founded by ten renowned relief aid organizations in order to provide fast and effective help in severe catastrophes. Today, the alliance encompasses 23 aid organizations and is active in over 100 countries worldwide.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft, Germany's Relief Coalition is a union of German relief organisations that can provide rapid and effective aid in the case of large catastrophes and emergency situations abroad.

In exceptional cases, Aktion Deutschland Hilft is also active at home. The idea of integrating their respective knowledge and specific abilities, and through mutual extension to efficiently bundle measures for aid, unites the continued independent initiators of this mutual campaign. Overlapping and gaps in provision can already be avoided in the forefront of aid campaigns in this way.

The IFHV and Aktion Deutschland Hilft have - together with the Centre of Competence for Humanitarian Relief of the University of Applied Sciences in Münster - founded the academy for humanitarian action (aha) in fall of 2020.

Find out more about the aha here. 

NOHA is an international association of universities that aims to enhance professionalism in humanitarian action through education & training, research & publications and projects. As a network of academic institutions, NOHA brings a university ethos to the existing humanitarian principles that govern humanitarian action.

NOHA Network on Humanitarian Action was born from the idea that higher educational institutions have an essential role to play in enhancing professionalism in the delivery of humanitarian aid through education.

In 1993, the 5 universities that composed NOHA at the time – amongst them the Ruhr-University Bochum represented by the IFHV – set on board the pioneering task of finding space for universities among the then limited humanitarian stakeholder mix. They established a network of universities across Europe delivering a multidisciplinary Masters programme that would be managed and administered by academics from a range of related disciplines.

Over the past 25 years the network has expanded and now comprises universities from 9 EU member states as well as 9 global partner universities on different continents.

With the support of the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), NOHA has been able to grow its network and expand its range of activities. NOHA currently develops education & training programmes, research & publication initiatives, and projects to serve students, professionals, researchers as well as institutions and organisations in the humanitarian action sector.

Early 2015, NOHA launched NOHA Global which aims to support academic institutions in other regions of the world to establish their own NOHA networks. NOHA has also founded the Journal of International Humanitarian Action and is implementing several projects aiming at professionalization of the humanitarian sector.

Find out more about NOHA here. 

In September 2004, the European Commission first awarded the NOHA Master the status of an Erasmus Mundus Programme. The latter is a cooperation and mobility programme in the field of higher education that promotes the European Union as a centre of excellence in learning around the world. It provides EU-funded scholarships for a limited number of outstanding third-country nationals participating in Erasmus Mundus Master Courses. NOHA was selected again as an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in 2020 – with the current funding period to 2023.

Further information can be found here.

The European Commission is one of the most committed donors of humanitarian aid worldwide. With its help, the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA) was founded in 1993 with the objective to fill a serious gap in the European educational landscape which had ignored humanitarian action as an important issue in higher academic education.

Further information can be found here.

The German Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are impartial, neutral and independent organizations whose exclusive humanitarian missions are to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance. They direct and coordinate the international relief activities conducted by the movement in situations of conflict. They also endeavour to prevent suffering by promoting and strengthening humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles.

Further information can be found here (DRK) and here (ICRC). 

The IFHV cooperates with the SEF since 1994. IFHV scholars took part in many conferences of the SEF and published books and policy papers with this organization which was founded by Willy Brandt.

Further information can be found here.