SÜLEYMAN ŞAH UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SYLLABUS
INSTRUCTOR: ASSOC. PROF. MAYA ARAKON
Office: C1-419
Extension: 4651
Email: marakon@ssu.edu.tr
Office Hours: Monday 10:00-11:00
Tuesday 10:00-11:00 (Please Take an Appointment via email)
1) COURSE TITLE
IRE 208 – HUMAN RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
2) COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course is about to show how and why human rights standards come into
being, impact the notion of sovereignty, become secondary or tertiary to other
values and goals, are manipulated for reasons other than advancing human
dignity and social justice, and sometimes change behavior to improve the human
condition.
3) COURSE OBJECTIVES
The central objective is to give the students an overview of decision-making
processes pertaining to human rights in the context of international relations.
The course seeks to show two important trends:
1. The extent of changes in international relations pertaining to human
rights over the second half of the 20th century, and
2. How difficult it is to mesh personal human rights with the state system
dominated by the realist approach to international relations.
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4) COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The lecture, discussion, quizzes, paper presentations and exams will be in
English. For this reason, fluency in English is essential. Students should follow
the world political events and make an analysis of them within the human rights
understanding context. Discussions about world affairs which link human rights
studies to the democratic progresses necessitate the students to keep themselves
up to date. So the follow up of international magazines is a must. There will be
given reading handouts, so the student is required to come to the course
prepared.
5) EVALUATION
Mid-term exam: 40 % (3 papers of 10 % each and a mid-term exam of 10%)
Final exam: 50 % (3 quizzes of 10% each, and a final exam of 20%)
Attendance and participation in the course: 10%
6) READING MATERIAL
Books:
Course Books:
1. Human Rights in International Relations
David. P. Forsythe
Cambridge University Press, 2003.
2. Human Rights, A Very Short Introduction
Andrew Clapham
Oxford University Press, 2007.
Recommended Readings:

Griffin, James, On Human Rights, Oxford University Press, 2008.

Lewis, James and Skutsch, Karl, The Human Rigths Encyclopedia, Sharpe
Reference, 2001. (Two Volumes)
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
Goodale, Mark and Merry, Sally E., The Practice of Human Rights,
Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Provost, René, International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law,
Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Wilson, Richard Ashby, Human Rights in the War on Terror, Cambridge
University Press, 2005.

Gorman, Robert and Mihalkanin, Edward, Historical Dictionary of Human
Rights and Humanitarian Organizations, The Scarecrow Press Inc., 2007.

Greer, Steven, The European Convention on Human Rights, Cambridge
University Press, 2006.

Forsythe, David P., Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy, The
United Nations University Press, 2000.
A selection of Articles:

Judd Birdsall (2005) Divine Roots of Human Rights, The Review of Faith
&International Affairs, 3:3, 53-56.

James Bohman (2005) Constituting Humanity: Democracy, Human Rights,
and Political Community, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 35:sup1, 227252.

Carlos Castresana Fernandez (2004) Justice, globalization and human
rights, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, 16:2, 199-205.

George E. Clark (2007) Environment and Human Rights, Environment:
Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 49:6, 3-3.

Steve Crawshaw (2004) Military activities and human rights, Whitehall
Papers, 61:1, 127-132.

Ramon Das (2003) World Poverty and Human Rights, Australasian
Journal of Philosophy, 81:3, 449-451.

Rosemary Foot (2006) Human rights in conflict, Survival: Global Politics
and Strategy, 48:3, 109-126.

Douglas Holdstock (2000) Intervention and human rights, Medicine,
Conflict and Survival, 16:3, 263-266.
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
Sam McFarland & Melissa Mathews (2005) Do Americans Care About
Human Rights?, Journal of Human Rights, 4:3, 305-319.

Roberta Medda-Windischer (2003) The european court of human rights
and minority rights, Journal of European Integration, 25:3, 249-271.

Ray Murphy & Katarina Månsson (2006) Perspectives on Peace Operations
and Human Rights, International Peacekeeping, 13:4, 457-461.

William J. Novak (2011) Legal realism and human rights, History of
European Ideas, 37:2, 168-174.

Mika Obara (2013) Global Society and Human Rights, Journal of
Contemporary European Studies, 21:4, 569-571.

Senthorun Raj (2013) Women's Human Rights, Australian Feminist
Studies, 28:77, 327-329.

Gershon Shafir & Alison Brysk (2006) The Globalization of Rights: From
Citizenship to Human Rights, Citizenship Studies, 10:3, 275-287.

Paul Stenner (2011) Subjective dimensions of human rights: what do
ordinary people understand by ‘human rights’?, The International Journal
of Human Rights, 15:8, 1215-1233.

Paulina Tambakaki (2009) From citizenship to human rights: the stakes
for democracy, Citizenship Studies, 13:1, 3-15.

Carl Wellman (2011) The Universality and Justification of Human Rights,
Criminal Justice Ethics, 30:3, 288-301.

Human Rights and Fight Agaisnt Terrorism, Publications of the
Undersecretariat of Public Order and Security : Edition 1 , February 2011.
Relevant Web Sites:

İnsan Hakları Daire Başkanlığı: www.inhak.adalet.gov.tr

Türkiye İnsan Hakları Vakfı: www.tihv.org.tr

Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org

İnsan Hakları Derneği: www.ihd.org.tr

Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org

Türkiye İnsan Hakları Kurumu: www.tihk.gov.tr
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
Kadının İnsan Hakları: www.kadinininsanhaklari.org

Avrupa Konseyi (Council of Europe): www.coe.int

Human Rights First: www.humanrightsfirst.org

University
of
Minnesota
Human
Rights
Library:
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/

Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative: www.humanrightsinitiative.org

Human Rights Agenda: www.rightsagenda.org

Women for Women’s Human Rights: www.wwhr.org

www.humanrights.com

www.humanrightsturkey.org
7) COURSE PLAN
1st week: Introduction: Human Rights in International Relations
2nd week: Establishing human rights standards
3rd week: Global application of human rights norms
4th week: Paper presentations, discussions and quiz
5th week: International criminal courts
6th week: Regional application of human rights norms
7th week: Human rights, foreign policy and the role of the United Nations
8th week: Paper presentations, discussions and quiz
9th week: The international crime of torture
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10th week: Food, education, health, housing and work
11th week: Discrimination and equality
12th week: The death penalty
13th week: Paper presentations, discussions and quiz
14th week: Final exam.
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