The Law Is On Your Side
A Crash Course on International Law and How To Use It for Collective Liberation
Course Overview
It is true that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. But knowledge on how to wield the tool or comprehend the house can help us build the collective strength for its dismantling. International law is a house and a tool, and it is embedded with contradictions. It promises freedoms and rights to each individual/it was drafted by European nations during and despite European colonialism. It holds nation-states responsible for harm caused to civilians/nation-states hold the United Nations hostage and prevent it from stopping harm to civilians. We have had about three hundred and seventy-eight years to make it a comprehensive body of law/the year 2025 saw the highest number of conflicts across the world since the second world war. But here is the fact of the matter: if you are a community organiser, activist, human rights advocate, practitioner committed to collective liberation, or even just a concerned citizen of the world, international law is on your side. So if your work is still focussed on:
Changing people’s minds (even though they don’t know how to influence the system any more than you),
Highlighting the humanity of migrants, refugees, or victims of the system (instead of highlighting the failures and obligations of the system),
Arguing that morality and humanitarianism should compel nations to uphold human rights (instead of reminding them that they are legally required to do so)
Then you are doing brave, important, and transformative work—which can be deeply enhanced by a knowledge of international law.
The Law Is On Your Side course seeks to empower participants with a basic understanding of how international law works.
Across six sessions, the course unpacks specific political ideas that are relevant in current global discourse (‘illegal immigration,’ ‘a state’s right to self defense,’ ‘terrorism’) from the perspective of international law.
Committed to decolonial pedagogy, it critically examines both its omissions and its impact, and what collective mobilisation can do to advance the law’s intrinsic people-centric inclination.
Who Is This Course For?
This course is designed for community organisers, activists, human rights advocates, practitioner committed to collective liberation, or any concerned citizens of the world. No prior background in international law is needed.
What You'll Learn
- A dip in the ocean of the legal field
- Practical knowledge and implementation strategies related to international law
- A practical and historically-grounded understanding of decolonialism
What's Included
Live Sessions
Interactive classes with your instructor
Session Recordings
Lifetime access to all recordings
Community Access
Connect with fellow learners
Certificate
Proof of course completion
Real-World Project
Learners will create an essay, infographic, pamphlet, video, or art piece that does a deep-dive into an issue they are passionate about and explains it in simple terms from the lens of international law.
About the Instructor
Restorative Justice Practitioner
Yukti Saumya is a restorative justice practitioner and a decolonial researcher. Her fraught relationship with the criminal legal system (as a tool and as a house) began as an adjudicator in a quasi-judicial body addressing cases of gender violence in India. She soon opted out of being a conduit for injustice and began training in restorative and trauma-informed justice practices, while also working towards a master’s in the field of international law and human rights. Alongside working with people who have caused or experienced interpersonal violence, she has represented civil society organisations at the G7 and the United Nations in Geneva, including at the UN Biological Weapons Convention, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Arms Trade Treaty meetings, non-state actor negotiations, and consultations with the Special Rapporteur on Toxins and Human Rights. Her work has received international recognition and she acts in an advisory capacity for projects pertaining to humanitarian law, human rights, and gender equality. Proceeds from this course serve to facilitate the continuation of her pro-bono work with people who have caused and experienced gender violence.
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25 students max
