Since its inception in 1998, Cuadernos Deusto de Derechos Humanos has aimed to bring pressing human rights issues to a broad audience through a multidisciplinary approach. It balances scholarly depth with accessible language, featuring contributions from diverse fields including philosophy, ethics, law, anthropology, international relations, gender studies, social work, and psychiatry.
As noted by Prof. Felipe Gómez Isa—Professor of International Law, EMA Director at the University of Deusto the Pedro Arrupe Human Rights Institute, coordinator of this issue—Cuadernos “strike a balance between a scholarly tone and accessible content. We want the journal to serve professionals in education, development cooperation, social work, healthcare, and immigration.”
The 100th issue, titled ‘Derechos humanos: Logros y Desafíos’ (Human Rights: Achievements and Challenges), is published in Spanish, English, and Basque. It features sections on the Jesuit commitment to human rights, institutional and civil society perspectives, conflict contexts, human rights education, and the rights of vulnerable groups. The issue concludes with reflections on critical and utopian approaches to human rights. Contributors include faculty from Deusto and other universities, leaders from local and international NGOs, representatives of international institutions (such as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk), and government officials.
The publication features the chapter ‘Legal Literacy: A Key Competence in Human Rights Education’ by Prof. Thérèse Murphy and Dr. Orla Ní Cheallacháin, which answers the question about the place of law and legal knowledge in graduate human rights education today “by prescribing legal literacy, positioning this as part and parcel of the human rights literacy that is surely the quintessential graduate competence.”
As argued by the authors, even though “the law may be an imperfect tool, neglecting to teach it or to explore its capacities in multi-, inter- or trans- disciplinary courses would be irresponsible.” Prof. Murphy and Dr. Ní Cheallacháin claim that there are three reasons why legal literacy needs to be a core competence in human rights education: understanding the possibilities, limitations, and frailties of law as an avenue for recourse and innovation; cultivating skills in legal reasoning; and providing a method for managing tensions between diverse and sometimes opposing rights. Legal methodologies provide a scaffolding for accountability rooted in principle rather than pain alone, and can help address complex and entangled issues.
Additional EMA colleagues also contributed to the Cuadernos’ 100th issue, including Prof. Carmen Marquez Carrasco, EMA Director at the University of Seville, who wrote on the implications of Directive (EU) 2024/1760 on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence beyond Europe; and Prof. Aoife Nolan from the University of Nottingham (a member of the EMA network), who addressed child rights strategic litigation—a topic explored in a 2020-2022 project developed in partnership with Right Livelihood.
We invite you to explore this milestone publication: