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Study Human Rights from the Uniquely Catholic Perspective
When you access the application, please note that the M.A. in Human Rights is under the School of Arts and Sciences.
The Master of Arts in Human Rights, developed by the Institute for Human Ecology (IHE), is designed for students who wish to study human rights from a distinctly Catholic perspective. It draws upon existing courses of several schools at The Catholic University of America. The interdisciplinary degree is awarded by the School of Arts and Sciences. The program’s director is William Saunders, J.D.
“[William Saunders] is genuinely a human rights hero, a person who has literally put his body, put his life on the line upholding human rights in very dangerous places…but to stand in solidarity and to support people who were victims of terrible human rights abuses.”
– Robert George, Princeton University’s McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Advisor to our M.A. in Human Rights
The innovative, interdisciplinary Master of Arts curriculum will draw upon diverse academic offerings throughout The Catholic University of America. Its courses come not only from departments within Arts and Sciences but from the Schools of Philosophy, Canon Law, Theology and Religious Studies, Business, and Law. Full-time students form a strong cohort under the direction of Prof. William Saunders to support one another in their commitment to study human rights. In addition to the required coursework, students meet regularly with leaders from a wide variety of human rights organizations including those led by members of the program’s Advisory Board. Examples of these meetings can be found here. 
Following an introductory orientation week before the semester begins, the program consists of 30 semester hours of post-baccalaureate coursework, including a capstone course designed to bring together the insights from the other courses and which looks at the Church’s work at the United Nations and other international bodies. The capstone course consists of a seminar and requires completion of a research paper. The degree, which is completed in one year (if taken full-time), may occasionally include the option to take a summer course.
Students will have the privilege of taking a class and doing an internship on religious freedom under the supervision of former Ambassador Samuel Brownback as well as a human rights internship and former Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, Robert Destro. These internships will be in connection with established human rights organizations, giving students a wealth of options to choose from.
Students form a cohort and take courses together. Students must maintain a minimum of a B average in order to graduate. Students will fulfill the normal requirements for a Master of Arts degree in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Of the ten courses the student will take, ordinarily nine will come from the following list, as selected by the Program Director. (Note that offerings each semester may vary due to a variety of factors, such as whether a professor is on sabbatical; thus, the precise menu of core courses selected for each year will vary.)
Core Courses
An elective will be chosen by each student in consultation with the Director of the Program in Human Rights; he will advise students on electives that prepare them for their career goals.
This degree will prepare you to bring the rich Catholic perspective on human rights to a variety of different spheres, including:
Wherever people are, you will be a voice for human rights.
“To meet today’s human rights challenges, we need students who are rooted in the founding documents of the human rights movement, enriched by a deep philosophical and even theological understanding of the dignity of the human person. This is precisely what the M.A. in human rights at The Catholic University of America provides.”
Applicants must submit:
International applicants must submit:
Application Deadlines:
Fall deadline for international applicants, July 15
Fall deadline for domestic applicants, August 1
Admissions Mailing Address:
The Cardinal Newman Society Guide, Leonine Forum, Civitas Dei, and John Jay Institute alumni automatically receive a $5000 scholarship upon admission.
Merit-based Scholarships and Grants
In addition to Catholic University’s scholarships and financial aid plans, the Institute for Human Ecology offers partial scholarship to select students in the MA in Human Rights Program. For optimal scholarship consideration, submit application prior to the deadline, February 1.
Non-Catholic University scholarships
Tuition for the 2021-2022 academic year:
The MA in Human Rights offers a discounted professional tuition rate of $1,105 per credit hour. The total cost of the program for 30 credit hours is $33,150.
Full-time, the MA program is completed in two semesters and possibly a summer course (upon discussion with program director).
The information below is provided for convenience only; all updated figures may be found on the website of the Office of Enrollment Services here.
For details about FAFSA loans, please visit their website.
For Payment Plan information go to afford.com/options or call 888-713-7234.
Priority Deadline for scholarship consideration, February 15. Applications submitted after this deadline may still be eligible for scholarship consideration.
Final Deadline for International Applicants, July 1
Final Deadline for domestic applicants, July 15
Part-time students are ineligible for scholarships. All of our full-time students receive some scholarship assistance.
“This [program] will really bring something new to the table. That is an understanding of human rights rooted in the deep tradition of thought that takes us back to Athens and to Jerusalem, an approach to human rights that really anchors human rights in the truth about the human person and the flourishing of the human person. … We need that kind of deep understanding.”
– Robert George, Princeton University’s McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence
Members of the Advisory Board are actively involved in the program, meeting frequently with the students and lecturing as part of the Capstone course.
William L. Saunders is a religious liberty and human rights scholar at The Catholic University of America. He is Law Fellow with the Institute for Human Ecology, Professor and Director of the Program in Human Rights in the School of Arts & Sciences and Co-director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Columbus School of Law. He is Chair of the Religious Liberties Practice Group of the Federalist Society. Before joining The Catholic University of America, Mr. Saunders served as Senior Vice President and Senior Counsel with Americans United for Life for ten years. From 1999 to 2009, he was Senior Fellow in Bioethics and Human Rights Counsel at the Family Research Council.
Mr. Saunders attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a Morehead scholarship. He obtained his degree in law from the Harvard Law School.
Mr. Saunders was featured in Harvard’s first Guide to Conservative Public Interest Law in 2003 and again in the 2008 edition. He served on Harvard’s Advisory Committee for its 2008 celebration of public interest law. A member of the Supreme Court bar, he has authored numerous legal briefs in state, federal, foreign, and international courts.
Mr. Saunders’ latest book, Unborn Human Life and Fundamental Rights: Leading Constitutional Cases Under Scrutiny, was published in 2019. His articles and book chapters have been published by the university presses of Harvard, Villanova, Brigham Young, Fordham, Georgetown, Houston, Scranton, and The Catholic University of America, as well as by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Freedom House, Greenhaven Press, Rowan & Littlefield, Praeger, St. Augustine’s, and Intervarsity press. He has given lectures and participated in debates at many colleges, universities, and law schools, including Princeton, Harvard, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. He delivered the annual J. Michael Miller Lecture at the University of St. Thomas (on international law) in February 2007, the annual R. Wayne Kraft Memorial Lecture (on bioethics) at DeSales University in February 2004 and the annual James Moore Lecture (on human rights violations in Sudan) at Millikin University in 1999. He has also lectured, and/or has been published, in many foreign countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Greece, Slovakia, Mexico, Qatar, Malaysia, Romania, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom.
In addition to speaking and writing frequently on bioethics topics, Mr. Saunders has submitted testimony to the President’s Council on Bioethics, as well as to UNESCO’s Committee on Bioethics, and has briefed Congressional staff and state legislatures. He is a regular columnist for the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.
Mr. Saunders has appeared often in the media, including BBC World News, CNN, Fox News, EWTN, Vatican Radio, and National Public Radio. His articles on issues have appeared in a variety of journals, such as First Things, Human Events, Human Life Review, The Legal Times, Communio, The Family in America: A Journal of Public Policy, Ethics & Medics, and Touchstone.
Mr. Saunders served on the official United States delegation to the UN Special Session on Children in 2001/02. In 2011, he was a speaker at an official briefing at the UN, addressing the topic, why euthanasia is not a human right.
In 2004, he served on the NGO Working Committee in connection with the Doha Intergovernmental Conference for the Family.
Mr. Saunders is Senior Fellow with the Religious Freedom Institute, and Affiliated Scholar with the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Ethics at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is President of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and a member of the boards of the International Association of Catholic Bioethicists, the International Right to Life Federation, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, and the Society of Catholic Social Scientists.
In 1999, Mr. Saunders founded Sudan Relief and Rescue, Inc., to aid the persecuted church in Sudan. He has worked for and written on behalf of the persecuted church for many years.
Mr. Saunders teaches the Capstone Course.
World Youth Alliance (WYA) North America offers an annual internship to one student in the M.A. in Human Rights.
The M.A. in Human Rights program guarantees that priority scholarship consideration will be given to admitted students who are fellows or graduates of the Leonine Forum, John Jay Institute, Cardinal Newman Society or In Altum.
Graduates will:
The Institute for Human Ecology (IHE) at The Catholic University of America is the nation’s leading academic institute committed to increasing scientific understanding of the economic, cultural, and social conditions vital for human flourishing.
