Sara E. Brown
PS 380
Political Science 380: Human Rights in a Global Perspective
Fall 2015
Tuesday and Thursday, 11:00-12:15 EBA-345
Lecturer: Sara E. Brown
Department of Political Science
108 Nasatir Hall
Email: sbrown@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday: 12:30-1:30 and by appointment
I. Course Description: The 20th century witnessed unparallel levels of mass violence and
unmatched efforts to preserve international peace and ensure human security. This course explores
the history and evolution of human rights, human rights abuses including torture, genocide and
other crimes against humanity, international legal mechanisms for protecting human rights, and
the role of the U.S. This course will introduce students to the main political and moral debates
surrounding human rights as well as influencing values, norms, techniques, and processes.
Through critical analysis of scholarly work, firsthand accounts, government reports, international
conventions, and media publications, we will trace the cumulative evolution of international
human rights.
II. Course Objectives:
 Understand the main forms of human rights abuse and the existing tools available to protect
human rights;
 Understand and evaluate critical perspectives on human rights;
 Explore the changes in human rights discourse over time, the limitations of human rights
enforcement strategies, and the shifting boundaries of human rights in recent years;
 Recognize, analyze, and assess moral and political arguments presented in readings,
discussions, and other sources to arrive at independent opinions or interpretations;
 Develop critical reading and thinking skills and express ideas clearly in writing and class
discussions.
III. Required Texts: The following two texts are required and may be purchased at the campus
bookstore or online:
Donnelly, Jack. International Human Rights. 4th Edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 2012).
Goodhart, Michael (editor). Human Rights: Politics and Practice. 2nd Edition (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2014).
Additional required readings include conventions, articles, and book chapters which will be made
available on Blackboard (either in PDF format or as a web link). A web link will be provided for
any videos, radio excerpts, or images. I advise you to bring the required texts and a hard copy of
other readings with you to class on the assigned days.
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IV. Course Requirements: Your semester grade will be determined as follows:
Assignment
Questions (7)
Midterm
Final Exam
Points
70 points
50 points
80 points
Percentage
35%
25%
40%
1. Questions: Readings are not assigned as a suggestion – they are essential to your success
in this course. This course does not include pop quizzes. In preparation for every class, you
are expected to draft three (3) questions that stem from the assigned readings. If multiple
readings are assigned, be sure to pull questions from each reading. I will collect these
questions at random and without prior announcement. If you miss class on the day
questions are collected, you will receive a zero (unless you have a documented and
acceptable excuse – traffic and parking problems are not acceptable excuses). There will
be seven (7) in total.
2. Midterm: The format of the midterm includes essay questions that will test your ability to
critically examine and synthesize information, and organize evidence from the course into
a coherent response to a major question on human rights. This exam will be given in class.
3. Final Exam: The format of the final exam is the same as the midterm (see above) and will
be a take home exam.
Attendance and Participation: You are required to attend class and participate in discussions.
While I do not take attendance, I will periodically collect reading questions that are worth 35% of
your grade. In order to do well in this class, you must attend class consistently. You are
responsible for everything that occurs in class, including the content of lectures and discussions as
well as schedule changes. If you miss class on the day of the midterm or when questions are
collected, it cannot be made up unless you have made arrangements with me prior to the exam
based on a documented legal, family, or health-related emergency.
Submitting Exams through Blackboard:
1. Go to the Blackboard page for this course.
2. Click on Assignments and follow the link to turnitin.com, where you will upload your
paper as an attachment.
3. You will receive a “digital receipt” from turnitin.com once you submit a paper. If you have
technical problems submitting papers, call the help desk at 619-594-3189 or visit the center
(second floor of library).
Use of TURNITIN.COM for Final Exam: You are required to file the final exam electronically
on turnitin.com, a plagiarism detection software program. Turnitin.com analyzes your work for
possible plagiarism from over 1 billion web sites and from previously submitted student papers.
The university has asked that I provide the following disclaimer about this software program:
“Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission
for textual similarity review to turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted
papers will be included as source documents in the turnitin.com reference database solely
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for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. You may submit your papers in
such a way that no identifying information about you is included. Another option is that
you may request, in writing, that your papers not be submitted to turnitin.com. However,
if you choose this option you will be required to provide documentation to substantiate that
the papers are your original work and do not include any plagiarized material.”
V. Course Policies:
Communication: Check your SDSU email regularly as well as our Blackboard site for
announcements. Email responses may take up to 48 hours. You are also welcome to come and talk
to me about your question during office hours. Please DO NOT hesitate to reach out to me if you
have any questions. If you’re confused or want to discuss the course, email me or stop by my office
hours.
Classroom Environment:
No Computers: Laptops and tablets are not allowed in class. Please see me if you have a
legitimate medical need for a classroom computer.
No Cell Phones: Cell phones must be turned off and not used during class.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Lectures are interactive in order to foster class discussion and debate. As such,
please come to class ready to share your ideas about the course material and be willing to listen
and consider opinions that are different than your own. Disruptive behavior (talking while
someone else is speaking, sleeping, and personal attacks) will not be tolerated. Think global,
act local: let’s respect one another’s rights and enjoy learning!
Note-taking: Taking notes is a vital component of gaining mastery over the course material.
Therefore, it is important to use your own words when taking notes. Try to avoid simply copying
directly out of a book or writing down what I say in lecture verbatim. Frame your notes using
language that seems the most familiar and comfortable to you.
PowerPoint Slides: I make use of PowerPoint slides that reiterate the main points of my lectures.
The do not take the place of your notes! You should be sure to take supplemental notes on points
not addressed on the slides to help remind them of the overall message of my lectures. Writing
notes in your own words often helps facilitate learning and will assist with overall retention of
course material.
Learning Accommodations: If you are a student with a learning difference and believe you will
need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services
at 619-594-6473. To avoid any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact
Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not
retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you have
presented me with an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services.
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Academic Honesty: Plagiarism or cheating will result in failure and will be reported to the
University. You are expected to submit your own work for all assignments, in-class activities, and
exams. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism on written assignments and cheating on in-class
assignments by bringing unauthorized materials to class. Plagiarism is the deliberate use of ideas,
words, or statements of another person without appropriately citing the author. For the SDSU
Policies, see http://arweb.sdsu.edu/es/catalog/2012-13/parts/466-480_U_Policies.pdf (pages 4789).
Tips for Use of Outside Sources:
1. Wikipedia is a set of materials posted by anyone who wants to post, with no fact or analysis
checking to ensure accuracy and no academic legitimacy. It is thus NOT (repeat: NOT!) a
valid source for academic writing and should never be used in this course.
2. Please do not include dictionary definitions of words in your essays. It is fine to look up
vocabulary words you do not know, but assume that I either know the word or will look it
up as well if necessary. Beyond that, dictionary definitions of key terms have no value for
academic writing because they do not provide a theory of the concept captured by the term
and do not explain any of the debates over concepts that are central to academic inquiry.
Thus, a dictionary definition of “virtue” will often say “moral correctness,” “ethical
goodness,” and other such things, which doesn’t tell us anything philosophically. If you do
decide to use material from a dictionary, remember that you must cite this source just like
any other.
3. Much of the material (beyond Wikipedia) posted on the internet is of questionable quality.
Rather than trying to get ideas from some such source, you should trust that if you think
about our readings, lectures, and discussions, you will come up with some ideas that are
probably better than what you would have found on the internet. If you do choose to go to
the internet for help, be sure you are using reliable sources. I recommend running any
outside sources past me prior to submitting your essay.
4. The essays assigned in this course will ask you to apply your own critical analysis. This
means that I am looking for you to think for yourselves. So, even if you cite sources (which
you must, or it is plagiarism), if you over-rely on outside sources, your grade will suffer.
Grade Appeals: In you want to appeal an assigned grade, you must schedule an appointment to
meet with me to discuss the grade dispute in person. You must bring the original graded assignment
and a brief typed summary of the reasons why you are requesting a second evaluation to the
appointment. Note that appealing a grade does not guarantee a change in the original grade, and it
gives me license to adjust the questioned grade upward, downward, or not at all.
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VI. Reading Schedule
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of
looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by
someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has
come out, and taken yours.” – Alan Bennett
Theme I: Definitions, Debates, and Themes
Week One
August 25: Introduction; Syllabus
August 27: History of Human Rights
 Donnelly, Chapter 1
 Morsink, Johannes. “The Drafting Process Explained” in The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights: Origins, Drafting, and Intent (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1999), 1-35.
 Goodhard, Appendix I (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), II (International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), and III (International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights).
Week Two
September 1: Defining Human Rights
 Donnelly, Chapter 2
 Goodhart, Chapter 1 “Normative and Theoretical Foundations of Human Rights” by
Anthony J. Langlois.
September 3: Defining Human Rights
 Ignatieff, Michael, “Human Rights as Politics,” Tanner Lectures on Human Values 4-7
April 2000, 287-319
 Donnelly, Chapter 3
Week Three
September 8: Religion, International Relations, and Human Rights
 Goodhart, Chapter 3 “Human Rights and International Relations” by Tim Dunne and
Marianne Hanson
 Perry, Michael, “Is the Idea of Human Rights Ineliminably Religious?” in The Idea of
Human Rights: Four Inquiries (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 11-42.
September 9: Critiques of Human Rights
 Goodhart, Chapter 7 “Contemporary Critiques of Human Rights by David Chandler.
 Goodhart, Chapter 17 “Humanitarian Intervention” by Alan J. Kuperman.
Week Four
September 15: Critiques of Human Rights
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
Mutua, Makua. “Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights,”
Harvard International Law Journal, 42 no. 1 (2001): 201-245.
September 17: Cultural Relativism and Human Rights
 Ignatieff, Michael. “Human Rights as Idolatry” Tanner Lectures on Human Values 4-7
April 2000, 320-349
 Slack, Alison. “Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal,” Human Rights Quarterly 10,
no. 4 (November 1988): 437-486.
Week Five
September 22: Women and Human Rights
 Goodhart, Chapter 2 “Feminist and Activist Approaches to Human Rights” by Brooke
Ackerly.
 MacKinnon, Catherine. “Are Women Human?” in Are Women Human? And Other
International Dialogues (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), 41-3.
 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
September 24: Children and Human Rights
 Goodhart, Chapter 12 “Children’s Human Rights Advocacy” by Vanessa Pupavac
 Convention on the Rights of the Child
Theme II: Violations of Human Rights
Week Six
September 29: Torture
 Goodhart, Chapter 18 “Torture” by William F. Schulz
October 1: Chile and Argentina
 Donnelly, Chapter 4
 Listen to NPR clip: Forero, Juan. “Argentina’s Dirty War Still Haunts Youngest Victims,”
NPR 27 February 2010.
Week Seven
October 6: Torture and Accountability
 Pion-Berlin, David. “To Prosecute or to Pardon? Human Rights Decisions in the Latin
American Southern Cone” Human Rights Quarterly 15 (1994): 105-130.
 Cooper, Marc. “Chile and the End of Pinochet,” The Nation. 8 February 2001.
October 8: Genocide
 Lemkin, Raphael. “Genocide as a Crime under International Law,” American Journal of
International Law 41 (1947): 145-71.
 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Sections.
 Staub, Ervin. “Origins of Genocide and Mass Killing: Core Concepts.” In The Roots of
Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), 13-34.
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Week Eight
October 13: Genocide in Rwanda
 Gourevitch, Philip. We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our
families: Stories from Rwanda. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998), 15-43
 Power, Samantha. “Rwanda: Mostly in a Listening Mode” in A Problem From Hell:
America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 329-389.
October 15: Genocide in Cambodia
 Watch Documentary: Pilger, John. “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia,” 1979
Week Nine
October 20: Genocide Intervention
 ICISS Report “The Responsibility to Protect,” Chapters 2-5
 Donnelly, Chapter 13
October 22: Midterm Exam
Theme III: Enforcing Human Rights
Week Ten
October 27: History of International Prosecutions
 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Excerpts.
 Golden, Shannon and Hollie Nyseth Brehm, “International Criminal Justice Roundtable”
13 February 2013.
October 29: The ICC and Africa
 Mamdani, Mahmood. “The New Humanitarian Order,” The Nation (2008).
 Kimani, Mary. “Pursuit of Justice or Western Plot? International Indictments Stir Angry
Debate in Africa,” Africa Renewal (2009).
Week Eleven
November 3: The ICTR
 Kamatali, Jean Marie. “The Challenge of Linking International Criminal Justice and
National Reconciliation: the Case of the ICTR,” Leiden Journal of International Law 16
(2003): 115-133.
 Horovitz, Sigall. “How International Courts Shape Domestic Justice: Lesson from Rwanda
and Sierra Leone,” Israel Law Review 46, no. 3 (2013): 339-367. (Emphasis on Rwanda)
November 5: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
 Crane, Brent. “The Female Cadres of Pol Pot’s Regime” Phnom Penh Post 1 August 2015.
 Ciorciari, John and Anne Heindel. “Experiments in International Criminal Justice: Lessons
from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal,” Michigan Journal of International Law 35, no. 2 (2014):
370-442.
Week Twelve
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November 10: Human Rights Mechanisms
 Donnelly, Chapter 5, 6, 7
 Hafner-Burton, Emilie, and Kiyoteru Tsutsui. “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The
Paradox of Empty Promises” American Journal of Sociology 110 (2005): 1373-1411.
November 12: Human Rights Advocacy
 Donnelly, Chapter 10
Theme IV: The U.S. and Human Rights
Week Thirteen
November 17: U.S. Foreign Policy and Human Rights: Cold War Era
 Donnelly, Chapter 8
November 19: U.S. Foreign Policy and Human Rights: Era of Globalization
 Donnelly, Chapter 14
Week Fourteen
November 24: Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights
 Healy, Jack. “In Wyoming, Shooting Highlights Divide Between a City and a Reservation”
New York Times 29 July 2015.
 Andersen, Chris. “Global Indigeneity, Global Imperialism, and Its Relationship to
Twentieth-Century U.S. History” in Why You Can’t Teach United States History Without
American Indians edited by Susan Sleeper-Smith, Juliana Barr, Jean M. O'Brien, Nancy
Shoemaker (Chapel Hill: UNC Press Books, 2015), 287-306.
November 26: No Class, Thanksgiving Break
Week Fifteen
December 1: Japanese Internment Camps during World War II
 “Memories of the Internment Camp” in America Firsthand 9th Ed. (New York: Bedford,
2012), 222-7
 Turkewitz, Julie. “Revisiting a World War II Internment Camp, as Others Try to Keep Its
Story From Fading” New York Times 17 May 2015 and watch embedded film.
 View: Ansel Adam’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar (Library
of Congress Collection)
December 3: U.S. and the War on Terror
 Donnelly, Chapter 15
Week Sixteen
December 8: U.S. and the War on Terror
 “Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo” New York Times 30 November 2004
 McCain, John. “Torture’s Terrible Toll” Newsweek 21 November 2005.
December 10: Conclusion and Wrap Up – What does it all mean?!
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