Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Human Rights
GOVT 445-001, Fall 2016
George Mason University
Tuesday & Thursday 3:00-4:15 PM in Founders 308
Professor: Joseph Kochanek (email: jkochane@gmu.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesday 4:20-5:20 in Metropolitan 5045
Nearly every element of human rights is the subject of significant controversy, whether in the academy
or in public discourse. Human rights as an academic subject tends to transcend the conventional
disciplinary boundaries found in the social sciences and humanities. Even when considered more
narrowly in the context of a single field - politics - human rights implicates core concerns within
differing subfields, including international relations, political theory, and comparative politics. More
generally, human rights often seems, even to its advocates, to be a galling example of the gap between
rhetoric and reality. To others, the worth of human rights, or even the existence of human rights, are
open questions, and the substance of human rights is contested by those that otherwise agree in general
terms about their worth and existence.
There are, then, many contested questions that must be faced by those interested in human rights. This
course does not seek to settle them once and for all. This course does seek to arm students with as much
knowledge as possible, to allow them to think independently about these questions. This course
addresses two main topics, corresponding to the two halves of the course. The first concerns the content
and character of human rights. The second concerns the possibility of enforcement of human rights
through international institutions. The texts for this course have been ordered by the George Mason
Bookstore. Other readings on this syllabus will be available either through the course website or through
the George Mason Library Website. Books available at the bookstore:
1) Donnelly, Jack, International Human Rights. Denver: Westview Press, 2013.
2) Durch, William, ed. UN Peacekeeping, American Politics, and the Uncivil Wars of the 1990s.
New York: St. Martin‟s.
3) Hayden, Patrick, ed, The Philosophy of Human Rights. St. Paul, MN: Paragon, 2001.
4) Locke, Second Treatise on Government. Indianapolis: Hackett (ed. Macpherson).
5) Moyn, Samuel. The Last Utopia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Belknap, 2010.
Course Requirements:
1) Well-informed participation in class. Classes will be balanced between lecture and discussion.
Discussion will be driven by your questions about the material. I expect members of the class to
be prepared to speak about the readings in each class.
2) Two papers. These papers will be 1800-2200 words each, and will be due October 27 and
December 1. You will receive topics three weeks before the due date.
3) Weekly Assignments. A brief writing assignment will be handed out at the beginning of class
once per week, to be completed in the first five minutes of that class.
4) Final Exam. The final exam is scheduled Thursday, December 15, at 1:30 PM. The exam will
consist of four essays. One essay will specifically address the material treated in the last two
weeks of the course. The final exam will be closed-book, with no notes allowed.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Course Schedule:
Week One: Course Introduction: Locke, Political Rights, and Revolution
What are rights? What is the character of natural right, and what rights do we retain after we leave the
state of nature, according to Locke? What is at stake in thinking of rights as political rights, or natural
rights? How might these modes of thinking about rights inform our conception of human rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, August 30: Introductory Lecture.
o Lecture, Thursday, September 1: Locke, Political Rights, and Revolution.
Week One Reading Assignments:
 Donnelly, chapters 1-2, pages 3-35.
 Locke, Second Treatise on Government, II, III, V, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIX.
Week Two: Political Rights and Natural Law: Two Foundations in Advance of Human Rights
Debates about human rights are often grounded in debates about different conceptions that were created
in advance of the concept of human rights. What, if anything, is it that human rights do that political
rights fail to do? What, if anything, is authoritative about nature, such that one might think about rights
in terms of 'natural law'?
o Lecture, Tuesday, September 6: Rights, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution.
o Lecture, Thursday, September 8: Natural Law: Can Nature Tell Us How To Live?
Week Two Reading Assignments:
 Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, in
Hayden, pp. 343-352.
 Selections from Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and Jeremy Bentham, in Hayden, pp. 88-100, 118125.
 Moyn, prologue and ch. 1, pp.1-43.
Week Three: Growing Pains: Human Rights in the Mid-20th Century
What is the place of politics in our conception of human rights? Does politics sustain human rights, or
threaten to usurp the priority of human rights? What is the relationship between the concepts of human
rights and collective self-determination? In what context did human rights become an important goal of
international institutions?
o Lecture, Tuesday, September 13: Without the Sword: Human Rights in the Absence of Politics.
o Lecture, Thursday, September 15: The Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Week Three Reading Assignments:
 Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, ch. 9, “The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of
the Rights of Man,” pp. 267-302.
 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Hayden, pp. 353-358.
 Moyn, ch. 9, pp. 44-83.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Week Four: Theories of Human Rights after 1948
What is at stake in the question of the universality of human rights? Should human rights be conceived
with respect to what is possible, or with respect to what is ideal? How did the politics of decolonization
shape approaches to human rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, September 20: What Do We Mean by Human Rights? Two Important
Distinctions.
o Lecture, Thursday, September 22: Human Rights and the Politics of Decolonization.
Week Four Reading Assignments:
 Donnelly, ch. 3, pp. 37-55
 Maurice Cranston, “Human Rights, Real and Imagined”, in Hayden, pp. 163-173.
 Thomas Pogge, “How Should Human Rights Be Conceived?” in Hayden, pp. 187-211.
 Charles Taylor, “A World Consensus on Human Rights?” in Hayden, pp. 409-423.
 Moyn, ch. 3, pp. 84-119
 African Charter on Human and Peoples‟ Rights, in Hayden, pp. 359-366.
Week Five: Poverty and Human Rights
In what sense, if at all, is severe poverty a human rights violation? What duties fall upon those in a
position to render aid, if we presume that severe poverty is a human rights violation? How should we
understand human rights in the context of the economic and social forces that animate globalization?
o Lecture, Tuesday, September 27: Human Rights and Global Distributive Justice.
o Lecture, Thursday, September 29: Are Corporations Responsible for Fostering Human Rights?
Week Five Reading Assignments:
 Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Philosophy and Public Affairs 1:3 (1972), p. 22943.
 Andrew Kuper and Peter Singer, “Debate: Global Poverty Relief,” Ethics and International Affairs
16:1 (2002), pp. 107-128.
 Thomas Pogge, “Severe Poverty as a Human Rights Violation,” UNESCO Poverty Project, Ethical
and Human Rights Dimensions of Poverty: Towards a New Paradigm in the Fight against Poverty,
2003, pp. 1-38.
 Donnelly, ch. 14, pp. 219-233.
Week Six: Critical Approaches to Human Rights
How (if at all) is the public/private distinction relevant to human rights? Can the distinction be morally
or philosophically justified? Is moral philosophy even the right mode of justification? How stable (or
useful) is philosophy as a ground for human rights? Are there alternatives?
o Lecture, Tuesday, October 4: Is the Public-Private Distinction Harmful to Human Rights?
o Lecture, Thursday, October 6: Whither Moral Philosophy? Identity, Sentimentality, and Human
Rights.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Week Six Reading Assignments:
 Arati Rao, “Right in the Home: Feminist Theoretical Perspectives on International Human Rights,”
in Hayden, pp. 505-525.
 Catherine MacKinnon, “Rape, Genocide, and Women‟s Human Rights,” in Hayden, pp. 526-546.
 Julie Mertus, “The Rejection of Human Rights Framings: The Case of LGBT Advocacy in the US,”
Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Nov., 2007), pp. 1036-64.
 Richard Rorty, “Human Rights, Rationality, and Sentimentality,” in Hayden, pp. 241-257.
Week Seven: Human Rights and International Institutions
What has the role of transnational advocacy been in fostering human rights? What is the role of the
United Nations in fostering human rights, and how has it changed? What have regional human rights
accomplished to the end of realizing human rights?
o Lecture, Thursday, October 13: International Institutions and NGO's: Mobilizing Public Opinion.
Week Seven Reading Assignments:
 Donnelly, ch. 5-7, pp. 77-111; ch. 10-11, pp. 149-164.
 Moyn, ch. 5, pp. 176-211.
Week Eight: Human Rights and Foreign Policy
Should states pursue human rights goals through their foreign policy? Would this be effective? Is it even
possible? Or is it dangerous? Quite apart from ethical claims, separate from politics, is there a long-term
congruence between values such as human rights and the national interest?
o Lecture, Tuesday, October 18: Human Rights During the Cold War: When Did Human Rights
Become Human Rights?
o Lecture, Thursday, October 20: Stanley Hoffmann: "Moving Beyond Machiavellian Statecraft."
Week Eight Reading Assignments:
 Moyn, ch. 4, pp. 120-175.
 Stanley Hoffmann, “Reaching for the Most Difficult: Human Rights as a Foreign Policy Goal,”
Daedalus, 112:4 (Fall, 1983), pp. 19-49.
 Donnelly, ch. 8-9, 113-148.
Week Nine: Human Rights in Latin America during and after the Cold War
How did the end of the Cold War shape American and Soviet behavior in Latin America? How did the
rise of non-state actors shape the observance of human rights in the last half of the 20th century in Latin
America?
o Lecture, Tuesday, October 25: Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone and Central
America.
o Lecture, Thursday, October 27: Fighting Back: Institutions Fostering Human Rights in Latin
America.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Week Nine Reading Assignments:
 Donnelly, chapter 4, 57-74.
 Fen Osler Hampson, “The Pursuit of Human Rights: The United States in El Salvador,” in Durch,
pp. 69-102.
 Cath Collins, “Grounding Global Justice: International Networks and Domestic Human Rights
Accountability in Chile and El Salvador,” Journal of Latin American Studies 38:4 (2006), pp. 711738.
Week Ten: Human Rights and the Asian Values Debate
What are the “deep, underlying values” identified by Taylor as shared among cultures? Do you believe
these values can serve as the ground for a conception of human rights? Is the moral primacy of the
individual as essential element of human rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, November 1: Can Universal Conceptions of Human Rights Account for
Culture?
o Lecture, Thursday, November 3: What Were The Students Protesting in Tiananmen Square?
Week Ten Reading Assignments:
 Donnelly, ch. 12, pp. pp. 167-189.
 Fareed Zakaria, “Culture is Destiny: A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew,” Foreign Affairs 73:2
(March/April 1994), pp. 109-126.
 Fernando Tesón, “International Human Rights and Cultural Relativism,” in Hayden, pp. 379-396.
 Xiaorong Li, “‟Asian Values‟ and the Universality of Human Rights,” in Hayden, pp. 397-408.
 Ezra Vogel, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China (HUP, 2011):
 "Beijing Spring, April 15–May 17, 1989" (ch. 20, pp. 595-615).
 "The Tiananmen Tragedy, May 17–June 4, 1989" (ch. 21, pp. 616-639).
 "Standing Firm, 1989–1992" (ch. 22, focus on pp. 640-643, 648-654).
Week Eleven: Politics and International Intervention in Rwanda and Somalia
How did the history and geography of each of these countries shape their respective human rights crises?
What is the significance of the use of chapter VII of the UN Charter in the international interventions in
Rwanda and Somalia? What do these crises reveal about the ability of UNSC intervention to foster
human rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, November 8: Somalia and the Perils of Intervention.
o Lecture, Thursday, November 10: Rwanda and the Perils of Avoiding Intervention.
Week Eleven Reading Assignments:
 William Durch, “Introduction to Anarchy, Humanitarian Intervention and „State-Building‟ in
Somalia,” in Durch, pp. 311-365.
 Donnelly, ch. 13, pp. 191-217.
 J. Matthew Vaccaro, “The Politics of Genocide: Peacekeeping and Disaster Relief in Rwanda,” in
Durch, pp. 367-407.
 Samantha Power, “Bystanders to Genocide”, Atlantic Monthly 288:2 (September 2001), pp. 84-108.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Week Twelve: Human Rights, the U.N., and the Former Yugoslavia
What is meant by „the principle of self-determination‟? What is at stake in thinking of rights in terms of
peoples? What alternative loci are there for rights, other than peoples? More generally, what is the status
of group rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, November 15: Evaluating the U.N. Intervention in the Former Yugoslavia.
o Lecture, Thursday, November 17: Rights of Peoples and Rights of Groups: Do They Augment or
Detract From Human Rights?
Week Twelve Reading Assignments:
 William Durch and James Schear, “Faultlines: UN Operations in the Former Yugoslavia,” in Durch,
pp. 193-274.
 James Crawford, “The Rights of Peoples: „Peoples‟ or „Governments‟?” in Hayden, pp. 427-444.
 Will Kymlicka, “The Good, the Bad, and the Intolerable: Minority Group Rights,” in Hayden, pp.
445-462.
 Vienna Declaration, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious
or Linguistic Minorities, Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, all in Hayden, pp. 641-659.
Week Thirteen: Kosovo: Lessons Learned?
What was the legal status of the intervention in Kosovo? What is at stake in the distinction between
legality and legitimacy? How does increasing acceptance of the legitimacy of human rights claims shape
our ideas about conventional state sovereignty?
o Lecture, Tuesday, November 22: Assessing the Legality and Morality of the Kosovo Intervention.
Week Thirteen Reading Assignment:
 Independent International Commission on Kosovo. The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International
Response, Lessons Learned Oxford: OUP, 2000, ch. 2-6, pp. 67-200.
Week Fourteen: The Responsibility to Protect
How do the authors of Responsibility to Protect define sovereignty? What are the implications of this
definition for human rights? If adopted in full by the international community, how, specifically, would
the Responsibility to Protect help foster the protection of human rights?
o Lecture, Tuesday, November 29: Sovereignty and Non-Intervention: Enduring Truths or Archaic
Norms?
o Lecture, Thursday, December 1: R2P as Recapitulation of the Just War Ethic.
Week Fourteen Reading Assignments:
 Independent International Commission on Kosovo. The Kosovo Report: Conflict, International
Response, Lessons Learned Oxford: OUP, 2000, ch. 10, pp. 283-300.
 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. The Responsibility to Protect
Ottawa: International Development and Research Center, 2001.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Week Fifteen: Human Rights: Today and Tomorrow
How will the next generation of human rights scholars analyze recent events in Syria? How would the
Responsibility to Protect doctrine shape decisions about intervention in Syria? What events or concepts
might we expect to animate or shape human rights in the 21st century?
o Lecture, Tuesday, December 6: The Syrian Crisis: What is to be Done?
o Lecture, Thursday, December 8: Conclusion: Human Rights in the 21st Century.
Week Fifteen Reading Assignments:
 Monday, May 2: Raymond A. Hinnebusch and Tina Zintl, Syria from Reform to Revolt. Volume 1,
Political Economy and International Relations, 285-310.
 Monday, May 2: Reinoud Leenders, “How the Syrian Regime Outsmarted Its Enemies,” Current
History 112:758 (December, 2013), 331-337.
 Monday, May 2: Frederic C. Hof, “Syria: Stopping the Carnage,” Atlantic Council, December 18,
2013.
 Monday, May 2: Asli U. Bali and Aziz Rana, “Why There is No Military Solution to the Syrian
Conflict,” Jadaliyya, May 13, 2013.
 Moyn, Epilogue, “The Burden of Morality,” 212-227.
 Donnelly, ch. 15, 235-249.
Grading Breakdown:
Class Participation and Weekly Assignments: 20%
Paper One: 20%
Paper Two: 20%
Final Exam: 40%
Academic Ethics: GMU is an Honor Code university; please see the Office for Academic Integrity for a
full description of the code and the honor committee process. The principle of academic integrity is
taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely. What does academic integrity mean in this
course? Essentially this: when you are responsible for a task, you will perform that task. When you rely
on someone else‟s work in an aspect of the performance of that task, you will give full credit in the
proper, accepted form. Another aspect of academic integrity is the free play of ideas. Vigorous
discussion and debate are encouraged in this course, with the firm expectation that all aspects of the
class will be conducted with civility and respect for differing ideas, perspectives, and traditions. When in
doubt (of any kind) please ask for guidance and clarification.
Electronic Devices: Laptops and similar devices may be used for taking notes or for consulting
assigned texts in electronic format. Please do not use cellular phones or similar devices in the classroom.
Email: Mason uses only Mason e-mail accounts to communicate with enrolled students. Students must
activate their Mason e-mail account, use it to communicate with their department and other
administrative units, and check it regularly for important university information including messages
related to this class.
Syllabus Draft: 8/18/16
Disability resources: If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations,
please see me and contact the Office of Disability Services at 703.993.2474 or ods.gmu.edu. All
academic accommodations must be arranged through that office.
Important deadlines for this semester: Students are responsible for verifying their enrollment in this
class. Schedule adjustments should be made by the deadlines published in the Schedule of Classes.
Last Day to Add: September 6, 2016
Last Day to Drop: September 30, 2016
After the last day to drop a class, withdrawing from this class requires the approval of the Dean and is
only allowed for non-academic reasons.