LAWS 2012: Human Rights: Perspectives From the Disciplines.
Taught under auspices of the IHRE Programme, 2007.
Course Coordinator: Prof Jonathan Klaaren
Lecture time and venue: Mondays 10:15 to 12:00, with a 15-minute break from 11:00 to
11:15. The venue is U3, Umthombo Building East Campus.
Lecture Dates: Mondays 23 & 30 July; 6, 13, 20, & 27 August; 3 & 17 September; 1, 8,
15, 22, & 29 October.
Tutorial times and venues: We have four tutorial slots: Tuesday, 12:30-1:15, LB54;
Wednesday, 14:15-15:00, CM4; Wednesday, 15:15-16:00, CM4, and Wednesday, 16:1517:00, CM4.
Tutors: Eddy Mazembo, Clement Phebe, and Amy Rawhani.
Guest Lecture Series: These will be coordinated by Dr A Kajee. This series will aim to
cover six guest lectures roughly coordinated with the six disciplinary modules of the
lecture course.
Examination Time: The two-hour examination in this course is scheduled to take place at
8:30 am on Tuesday, 13 November 2007 at the Old Mutual Sports Hall. This
examination will count for 50% of the mark in the course.
Assessment: In addition to the 50% final examination, six very short papers (2/3 pages
(one page = 250 words)) may be written with the top four being counted towards
assessment of 50%. (This means that students may skip two modules. This is changed
from five of six, in part for reasons of student overload.) (NB: different word limits for
Module One). Attendance at the tutorials is mandatory; attendance at the Guest Lecture
series is not mandatory but is highly recommended (and is open to other students as
well).
Readings: Are available in hard copy format from the International Office. Are available
in electronic format, as far as possible, at two separate sites. For the Wits-based
electronic readings, please go to http://juris.law.wits.ac.za/moodle. An alternative
indirect access is a link from the Wits Law School website (www.law.wits.ac.za, click
under academics). Please register for access to the course materials by going to this
address, and selecting “undergraduate” and then “Human Rights: Perspectives from the
Disciplines”. Finally, create a new account for yourself by filling in the profile. Once
you are through to the course moodle page, you will find an updated course outline and
some links to electronic versions of most of the reading material. This site will be under
construction as the course progresses so please visit it regularly. You may also take
advantage of the site’s news room and chat features to post materials and be in touch with
fellow students in this core course as you wish. The Bard site is reserveweb.bard.edu.
Style of Learning: This course fulfills two purposes both of which are relevant to its style
of learning. First, it functions as a core course for the learning programme International
Human Rights Exchange (IHRE). This programme held each second semester at Wits
comprises of about forty students selected upon application from mostly Bard College
and Wits. The programme has several electives and an internship course that the students
may choose to take but this core course is compulsory for the IHRE participants. Note
that, although there is an inevitable subject matter overlap, the core course will cover
different material than the elective courses.
Second, it functions as an elective course open to all undergraduates (subject to the rules
of their home degree and major). In particular, it is open to and earns major credit for BA
Law majors and earns elective (List 2) credit for LLB students. In 2007, this course will
have about 6 or 7 Wits students in addition to the about 35 IHRE participants. Unlike the
IHRE seminar-style elective courses, this course will probably follow a dominantly
lecture format. Greater interaction and participation will occur in the tutorials and in
attending the Guest Lecture Series.
Lecturers:
Dr Ayesha Kajee (Wits)
Office:
Office Phone:
Email:
Prof Thomas Keenan (Bard)
Office: Bard College
Office Phone: Bard College
Email:
Prof Jonathan Klaaren (Wits)
Office: Law Building 76
Office Phone: 717-8472
Email: jonathan.klaaren@wits.ac.za
Prof Peter Krapp (U Cal Irvine)
Office:
Office Phone:
Email: krapp@uci.edu
Prof Tim Longman (Vassar)
Office:
Office Phone:
Email: tilongman@vassar.edu
Prof Thaddeus Metz
Office: Central Block 10
Office Phone: 717-4346/5
E-mail addresses: Thaddeus.Metz@wits.ac.za
Consultation Times: By appointment
Introduction (23 July 2007)
Thomas Keenan & Jonathan Klaaren
Topic: An Introduction to Human Rights and Its Disciplines
Reading: ‘The Unsettled Status of Human Rights: An Introduction’ in A Sarat
and T Kearns (eds) Human Rights: Concepts, Contests, & Contingencies (2001) 1-24
Module One: Philosophy and Human Rights (30 July & 6 August):
Prof Thad Metz
Description: In this module, we will seek to answer these conceptual and
normative questions: what, exactly, is a human right? How does it differ from other moral
considerations such as desert or utility? Do human rights truly exist, and, if so, what is
their moral foundation? In particular, might we be justified in thinking that human rights
exist because of a requirement to treat human dignity with respect? In contrast, what
reasons are there for denying that there are any human rights, i.e., for thinking that talk of
"human rights" is akin to talk of "unicorns"? In particular, would the existence of human
rights be irrational or imply an egoistic and hence false morality?
Readings: Texts will be by contemporary Anglo-American philosophers Frances
Kamm and Warren Quinn, classic Continental thinkers Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx,
and the African intellectual Claude Ake.
Assignment: NB: This assignment will be a minimum of 1000 words and a
maximum of 1500 words.
Module Two: Right to memory /Right to forgetting (13 & 20 August)
Prof Peter Krapp
Description: An exploration of the rights to memory and to forgetting within the
context of amnesty.
Readings: P Krapp, ‘Amnesty: Between an Ethics of Forgiveness and the
Politics of Forgetting’; J Derrida ‘On Forgiveness’ in J Derrida On Cosmopolitanism and
Forgiveness.
Module Three: International Relations and Human Rights (27 August & 3 Sept)
Dr Ayesha Kajee (dates to be confirmed)
Description: An examination of transitional justice and contemporary African
issues.
Readings: C Call, ‘Is Transitional Justice Really Just?’; L Graybill ‘To Punish or
Pardon? A Comparison of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ (Human Rights Review July-September
2001 3-18); A Kajee, Dateline Darfur: Of Monsters and Saints, Villains and Victims
(August 23, 2006); A McLaughlin, Africa After War: Paths to Forgiveness (Christian
Science Monitor, October 23, 2006)
Module Four: African Studies and Human Rights (17 September & 1 October)
Prof Tim Longman
Description: Issues of universality and cultural sensitivity in the context of
human rights.
Readings: B Ibhawoh ‘Between Culture and Constitution: Evaluating the
Cultural Legitimacy of Human Rights in the African State’ (2000) 22 Human Rights
Quarterly 838-860.
Module Five: Migration and Human Rights (8 & 15 October)
Dr Darshan Vigneswaran & Dr Ingrid Palmry (Forced Migration Studies Programme)
Description: This module will begin with a brief introduction to the rights of
migrants in South Africa. Drawing on empirical research it will consider the nature of the
human rights abuses that migrants face and some of the possible reasons for this. We will
then focus more specifically on issues of gender including the right to apply for asylum
on the basis of gender based persecution, finishing with reports focusing on xenophobia
and the rights of Zimbabweans who have crossed the border into South Africa.
Readings:
Crawley, H. (2000) ‘Gender, migration and the concept of politics in the asylum
determination process’ in 9 Forced Migration Review 17-20. Available online:
www.forcedmigration.org
Gotz, G ‘The Role of Local Government towards forced migrants’ in L Landau
(ed) Forced Migrants in the New Johannesburg: Towards a local government response
(2004) 24-36. Available online: http://migration.wits.ac.za/FMNJ.html
Forced Migration Studies Programme, ‘Special Report: Fact or Fiction?
Examining Zimbabwean Cross-Border Migration into South Africa’ (4 September 2007)
Forced Migration Studies Programme, ‘Violence against Foreigners in Northwest
Province’ (June 2007)
Module Six: Constitutional Socio-Economic Rights in SA (22 & 29 October)
Prof Jonathan Klaaren (Law)
Description: This module aims to focus on a case that illustrates the potential and
some of the issues of the enforcement of the socio-economic rights in the South African
Constitution, as well as being an arguably pivotal case in the fight against HIV/AIDS in
South Africa. A guest speaker from the Aids Law Project will speak and lead a
discussion in the last hour, Monday 29 October from 11:15 to 12:00.
Readings:
Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (2) 2002 SA 721 (CC)
M Pieterse ‘Resuscitating socio-economic rights: Constitutional entitlements to
health care services’ (2006) 22 SAJHR 473