Professor Zarbiyev, could you outline the reasons behind the change of the title of the specialisation?

The objective of the change is to describe the focus of the specialisation with greater precision and clarity. The term ‘humanitarianism’ can be understood in different ways, including as a reference to a particular set of ideas, traditions, practices or intellectual positions. By replacing it with ‘humanitarian action’, we aim to offer a clear and inclusive description of the specialisation. The change, therefore, does not represent a break with the history of this specialisation. It is simply a change that reflects how the specialisation wishes to present itself in our increasingly complex world. 

Do you hope that the title change will allow for the specialisation to appeal to more students and if so, why? 

I certainly hope so as the new title is intended to be more inclusive. 

Could you briefly outline to us the specialisation and your approach to the curriculum?

As with all the other specialisation tracks, the Human Rights and Humanitarian Action specialisation is built around a compulsory specialisation course and a series of interdisciplinary and disciplinary elective courses. The large range of elective courses is intended to give our students considerable flexibility in designing their curriculum. At the same time, the courses offered on the elective menu have been carefully selected for their particular relevance for the issues that the specialisation broadly addresses.

Why do you believe that this specialisation is important and inspiring to students? 

I am very happy to see that the ‘Human Rights and Humanitarian Action’ specialisation continues to attract so many students despite the challenges that human rights and humanitarian principles face today. We have 61 students enrolled for 2026-2028, making it the largest specialisation in the MINT programme. The prominent international law scholar Martti Koskenniemi once pointed out that ‘commitment’ is not the word we use when we describe something whose success can be confidently taken for granted. We commit ourselves to things that we value even though they may not come to be. The attractiveness of the ‘Human Rights and Humanitarian Action’ specialisation should, in my view, be seen as an indication that we still have a generation committed to the ideals that place human rights and humanitarian principles at the centre of what we do. 

The past few years have reflected key changes in human rights and in international law globally. How has this affected your teaching process?

What the world has been going through the last few years cannot leave our approaches to world affairs unaffected. One lesson I am trying to convey to my students is this: the experience of the recent past shows how fragile the values that we sometimes took for granted – democracy, truth, honesty, the rule of law – are. That does not mean that those values have disappeared as a result of the attacks by populist, autocratic or grotesque political leaders. The fact that those values are fragile entails that we should constantly reiterate in words and actions our commitments to them without at any moment assuming that they go without saying. I also insist on the resilience of the fundamental norms of the international order and discourage my students from reaching hasty conclusions on the basis of episodes that, in the bigger scheme of things, remain limited in time. 

What is something you look forward to exploring further with students? 

My teaching philosophy is premised on the assumption that what students need in a graduate programme is not to be told what to think but a setting in which they can acquire the skills to think critically about the world. In other words, I do not intend to tell my students how they should change the world, but rather to give them the analytical tools to think about what changing the world means and what it takes. I look forward to working with our students to carry out this difficult but eminently noble task.