The right to peace is a growing principle in international law rooted in the United Nations Charter and developed through decades of advocacy by states and civil society. Peace is not simply the absence of war—it encompasses freedom from foreign intervention, the dismantling of systemic inequality, and the elimination of conditions that give rise to armed conflict. In 2016, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right to Peace, affirming that the peoples of the world have the right to demand peace from their states and the international community.

This course explores the legal and political dimensions of the right to peace as a tool for popular empowerment. It analyzes how power politics have shaped the recognition and implementation of this right; the evolving role of the U.N. Human Rights Council; and how national courts, such as in Costa Rica, have begun to institutionalize the right to peace in jurisprudence.