Hi, I want to be an international human rights lawyer and for my undergrad I didn’t know if I should major in human rights, international relations, or both. my plan is to finish college, then take a gap year to volunteer, work and save for law school and just intern in a few human rights organizations. My dream is to go to NYU for law school and get a human rights law degree. What do you think I should do?
Sounds like you have a plan to cover the human rights aspect via internships, regardless.
I would say IR plus any additional human rights courses you can fit in would be the best bet. Even better if some courses in human rights count for your IR major!
Incidentally, I’ve never heard of human rights as a major. I’ve definitely heard of it as a minor though. Which isn’t to say there isn’t some school out there that offers it as a major, but you’d need to check at each school of interest if that’s your intention.
International relations is broader, and includes issues like human rights; you can always make that a concentration or a specialization. An IR major would probably be a better fit (and you are more likely to find that, or international studies, than a human rights major - that is usually a minor, as PhantomVirgo said).
Also, you can’t get a human rights law degree. You get the same law degree as everyone else - a JD - and then you can go into human rights law. Some lawyers do choose to get a dual degree, like an MA in human rights and a JD earned concurrently in 4 years.