01:988:480
Professor:
Office Hours:
Julie Rajan, vgjulie@rci.rutgers.edu
Ruth Dill Johnson Crockett, 212
Overview:
This course contextualizes human rights in contemporary global politics. Students will explore international UN ideologies and mechanisms, and how they impact individual experiences in various local contexts. Topics explored include: dynamics between security, conflict, and “peace”; reproductive and sexual rights; the relationship between state sovereignty and human rights; the rights of the child; indigenous rights; the implications of defining human beings as “undocumented,” “stateless,” or as refugees; tensions over the execution of torture and terrorism; and hunger in the “first” and “third” worlds.
Requirements:
25% Attendance and Class Participation
25% Bi-Monthly Response Papers*
25% Presentation**
25% Final Paper*
*More information on the Response and Final Papers in separate handouts.
**More information on Presentation procedures in separate handouts.
Reading Material:
Most reading materials can be located on Dr. Rajan’s sakai site. It is your responsibility to access, print, and read the materials for each class. PLEASE BRING ALL
MATERIALS FOR THE CLASS THAT DAY TO CLASS THAT DAY.
One required text:
Sanja Bahun-Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds. Violence and Gender in the
Globalized World : The Intimate and the Extimate , eds. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
This can be purchased at the bookstore. Readings from this text will be noted with a double asterisk (**) throughout the syllabus.

WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS
September 6
Thurs 6
Logistics
Introduction, Logistics, and Overview
September 13 Before Human Rights: Imperialism the
Objectification and Devaluation of Human Beings
PAPERS GROUP A
Ann McClintock. “The Lay of the Land: Genealogies of Imperialism.” Imperial Leather
(Routledge, 1995).
Sander Gilman. “The Hottentot and the Prostitute.” Difference and Pathology
(Ithaca: Cornell, 1985).
Walter Rodney. “Some Questions on Development.” How Europe Underdeveloped
Africa (London: Tanzanian Publishing House, 1972).
Richard Mullender. “Nazi Law and the Concept of Community.” University of Toronto
Law Journal , Volume 58, Number 3 (Summer 2008): 377-387.
September 20 Human Rights 101: Re-Defining the Human Being,
The “Bill of Rights,” and National Sovereignty
PAPERS GROUP B
K.A. Mingst and M.P. Karns. “Human Rights.” In K.A. Mingst and M.P. Karns, eds.
The
United Nations in the Post-Cold War Era (Boulder., Co: Westview, 2000), 158-198.
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).” UN General Assembly Resolution
217A (III), December 10, 1948
< http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml
>
“International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).” UN General Assembly
Resolution 2200 A (XXI), December 16, 1966
< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
>
“International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).” UN
General Assembly Resolution 2200 A (XXI), December 16, 1966
< http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm
>
Christine Min Wotipka and Kiyoteru Tsutsui. “Global Human Rights and State
Sovereignty: State Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties, 1965–2001.”
Sociological Forum , Vol. 23, No. 4 (December 2008): 724-755.

September 27
PAPERS GROUP A
Conflict, Peace, and Security: The UN, the ICC, and Genocide
John Burroughs et al., eds. "The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court."
Rule of Power or Rule of Law ? (New York: Apex Press, 2003), 113-128.
Robert C. Johansen. “The Impact of US Policy toward the International Criminal Court on the Prevention of Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity.”
Human Rights Quarterly , Volume 28, Number 2 (May 2006): 301-331.
Charlotte Bunch. "Feminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security." Women and
Peace-Building , Vol. 22, No. 2, Fall/Winter, Canadian Women’s Studies (2002): 6-11.
Fred Grünfeld and Wessel Vermeulen, “Failures to Prevent Genocide in Rwanda (1994),
Srebrenica (1995), and Darfur (since 2003).” Genocide Studies and Prevention , Volume
4, Number 2 (Summer 2009): 221-237.
Salzman, Todd A. “Rape Camps as a Means of Ethnic Cleansing: Religious, Cultural, and Ethical Responses to Rape Victims in the Former Yugoslavia.” Bert B. Lockwood, ed.,
Women’s Rights
: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University, 2006).
THERE ARE 3 PARTS TO THIS PIECE. READ THE WHOLE THING.
Documentary: “I Came to Testify,” Women , War, and Peace (2011)
PRESENTATIONS
October 4 Global Social Movements, Civil Society, NGOs:
The Case of Women’s Human Rights
PAPERS GROUP B
“Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Violence Against Women (CEDAW).”
UN General Assembly Resolution 34/180, December 18, 1979
< http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm
>
ACCESS ENGLISH FULL TEXT VERSION.
Hilkka Pietilä. “Prologue—Women and the League of Nations.” Engendering the Global
Agenda : The Story of Women and the United Nations. Geneva: NGLS, 2002: 1-18.
Charlotte Bunch. “Women’s Rights as Human Rights: Toward Revision of Human
Rights.” In Bert Lockwood, ed.,
Women’s Rights
: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader
(Baltimore: JHU Press, 2006).
Irina Liczek. “Cultural Parameters of Gender Policymaking in Contemporary
Turkmenistan.” Comparative Studies of South Asia , Africa and the Middle East, Volume
25, Number 3 (2005): 567-583.

Women’s Human Rights Defenders (skim)
< http://www.spotlightnepal.com/Others.aspx?ArticleID=1411 >
UN Women (skim)
< http://www.unwomen.org/2011/01/un-women-begins-its-work/ > (skim)
Documentary: The Vienna Tribunal
October 11
PAPERS GROUP A
Development, Sustainability, and the MDGs
UN Millennium Goal (read)
< http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/index.htm>
The United Nations MDG Report 2012 . UNDP, 2012.
Philip Mwalali and Emmanuel Ngui. “Reduction in Maternal and Child Mortality in Sub-
Saharan Africa: The Yo-Yo Effect in Delivering on the Promises.” Journal of Health
Care for the Poor and Underserved , Volume 20, Number 4 (November 2009
Supplement): 149-169.
Adrian Guillermo Aguilar and Flor M. López. “Water Insecurity among the Urban Poor in the Peri-urban Zone of Xochimilco, Mexico City.” Journal of Latin American
Geography , Volume 8, Number 2, (2009): 97-123.
Gregory Hall and Tiara Grant. “Russia, China, and the Energy-Security Politics of the
Caspian Sea Region after the Cold War.” Mediterranean Quarterly , Volume 20,
Number 2 (Spring 2009): 113-137.
PRESENTATIONS
October 18
PAPERS GROUP B
Health, Reproductive, and Sexual Rights
“Women and Health.” Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World
Conference on Women, October 17, 1995
<http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/health.htm>
“Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health: Chapter VII.”
Programme of Action of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD),
October 18, 1994.
<http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/populatin/icpd.htm#chapter7>
“Social Protection That Works For PLHIV.” UNDP, 2011.

Rosalind Petchesky. “Beyond a Woman’s Right to Choose: Feminist Ideas about
Reproductive Rights.”
Abortion and Women’s Choices
: The State, Sexuality, and
Reproductive Freedom (1990).
Global Gag Rule:
<http://www.iwhc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3529&Itemid=12
17>
The Yogyakarta Principles : Principles on the Application of International Human Rights
Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity . March 2007.
On sakai or see: < http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles_en.htm
>
PRESENTATIONS
October 25
PAPERS GROUP A
The Rights of the Child: The CRC, UNICEF, and Education
“Summary of Rights Under the Convention of Rights of the Child.” UNICEF.
<http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf>.
Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-
General for Children and Armed Conflict, August 4, 2010
<http://daccess-dds ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N10/474/21/PDF/N1047421.pdf?OpenElement>
**Meredeth Turshen. “Algerian Adolescents Caught in the Crossfire.” In Sanja Bahun-
Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.
Violence and Gender in the Globalized World :
The Intimate and the Extimate , eds. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Heidi A. Ross, Payal P. Shah, and Lei Wang, “Situating Empowerment for Millennial
Schoolgirls in Gujarat, India and Shaanxi, China,” Feminist Formations , Volume 23,
Issue 3 (Fall 2011): 23-47.
Vincent J. Roscigno, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, and Martha L. Crowley. “Education and the Inequalities of Place,”
Social Forces , Volume 84, Number 4 (June 2006):
2121-2145.
Robert Brian Howe and Katherine Covell. “Child Poverty in Canada and the Rights of the Child.” Human Rights Quarterly , Volume 25, Number 4 (November 2003):
1067-1087.
PRESENTATIONS

November 1
PAPERS GROUP B
Labor Rights and Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Review International labor Organization (ILO) website: http://www.ilo.org/global/aboutthe-ilo/lang--en/index.htm
. See #169.
“Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).”
General Assembly Resolution, Into force 1969,
<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/cerd.pdf>
William F. Felice. “The UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination: Race, and Economic and Social Human Rights.” Human Rights
Quarterly , Volume 24, Number 1 (February 2002): 205-236.
**Valsala Kumari. “Microcredit and Violence: A Snapshot of Kerala.” In Sanja Bahun-
Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.
Violence and Gender in the Globalized World :
The Intimate and the Extimate , eds. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Denis Gordon Arnold and Laura Pincus Hartman. “Worker Rights and Low Wage
Industrialization: How to Avoid Sweatshops.” Human Rights Quarterly , Volume 28,
Number 3 (August 2006): 676-700.
Anita Chan. “Labor Standards and Human Rights: The Case of Chinese Workers Under
Market Socialism.” The Johns Hopkins University Press, Human Rights Quarterly 20.4
(1998): 886-904.
Isaie Dougnon. “Child Trafficking or Labor Migration?: A Historical Perspective from
Malia’s Dogon Country.” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights,
Humanitarianism, and Development , Volume 2, Number 1 (Spring 2011): 85-105.
Documentary: “On the Edge: Femicide in Juarez”
PRESENTATIONS
November 8 Legal Subjects?: Trafficked and Undocumented
PAPERS GROUP A
“Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others.” 96 UNTS 271, March 21, 1950
<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/pdf/trafficpersons.pdf>
Article 3(a) of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, Vienna, 2000.
<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/protocoltraffic.htm>

Yvonne C. Zimmerman. “From Bush to Obama: Rethinking Sex and Religion in the
United States’ Initiative to Combat Human Trafficking.” Journal of Feminist Studies in
Religion , Volume 26, Number 1 (Spring 2010): 79-99.
**Sealing Cheng. “The Traffic in “Trafficked Filipinas”: Sexual Harm, Violence, and
Victims’ Voices,”
In Sanja Bahun-Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds. Violence and
Gender in the Globalized World : The Intimate and the Extimate , eds. Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2008: 157-174.
Charlene Galarneau. “Still Missing: Undocumented Immigrants in Health Care Reform.”
Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved , Volume 22, Number 2 (May
2011): 422-428.
Laura Corrunker. “‘Coming Out of the Shadows’: DREAM Act Activism in the Context of Global Anti-Deportation Activism.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies , Vol. 19
#1 (Winter 2012): 143-168.
PRESENTATIONS
November 15
PAPERS GROUP B
Legal Subjects?: Tortured and Detained
The Geneva Conventions , Overview: <http://www.icrc.org/eng/war-and-law/treatiescustomary-law/geneva-conventions/index.jsp>
“Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners [1955].”
<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/treatmentprisoners.htm>
“Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment [1984].” http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm
V.G. Julie Rajan. “Re-Assessing Identity: A Post 9/11 Detainee Offers a New Perspective on Rights.”
The Subcontinental . Washington, D.C. (Summer 2003).
Rachel Ida Buff. “Deportation Terror.” American Quarterly , Volume 60, Number 3
(September 2008): 523-551.
Rhonda Copelon. “Intimate Terror: Understanding Domestic Violence As Torture,”
Rights of Women : National and International Perspectives . Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1994: 116-152.
Human Rights Watch Women’s Rights Project.
"All Too Familiar: Sexual Abuse of
Women in U.S. State Prisons.” New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996: 1-61.
Benjamin Whitmer. "‘Torture Chambers and Rape Rooms’: What Abu Ghraib Can Tell
Us about the American Carceral System.” CR: The New Centennial Review , Volume 6,
Number 1 (Spring 2006): 171-194.

November 22
PAPERS GROUP A
Legal Subjects? Displaced and Homeless
ABSTRACTS DUE
Sarah Kenyon Lischer. “Security and Displacement in Iraq: Responding to the Forced
Migration Crisis.” International Security , Volume 33, Number 2 (Fall 2008): 95-119.
Morten Kjaerum. “Refugee Protection Between State Interests and Human Rights: Where is Europe Heading?”
Human Rights Quarterly , Volume 24, Number 2 (May 2002):
513-536.
Kevin C. Heslin, Paul Langham Robinson, Richard S. Baker, and Lillian Gelberg.
“Community Characteristics and Violence Against Homeless Women in Los Angeles
County.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved , Volume 18, Number
1 (February 2007): 203-218.
**Musleh, Rose Shomali. “People Behind Walls, Women Behind Walls: Reading
Violence Against Women in Palestine.” In Sanja Bahun-Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds. Violence and Gender in the Globalized World : The Intimate and the Extimate , eds.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008: 59-74.
Documentary: To Die in Jerusalem
********THANKSGIVING WEEK November 22 ***********
November 29
PAPERS GROUP B
Legal Subjects?: Indigenous Peoples and Dalits
Siegfried Wiessner. “United Nations Declaration on The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples.”
Review International Labor Organization (ILO) website: http://www.ilo.org/global/aboutthe-ilo/lang--en/index.htm
. See Article 169.
Sylvia Arzey and Luke McNamara. “Invoking International Human Rights Law in a
"Rights-Free Zone": Indigenous Justice Campaigns in Australia.” Human Rights
Quarterly , Volume 33, Number 3 (August 2011): 733-766.
**Yifat Susskind. “Indigenous Women’s Anti-Violence Strategies.” In Sanja Bahun-
Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.
Violence and Gender in the Globalized World :
The Intimate and the Extimate , eds. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.

**Angéla Kóczé.
“ Ethnicity and Gender in the Politics of Roma Identity in the
Post-Communist Countries.” In Sanja Bahun-Radunović and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.
Violence and Gender in the Globalized World : The Intimate and the Extimate , eds.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008.
Sesha Kethineni and Gail Diane Humiston. “Dalits, the ‘Oppressed People’ of India:
How are Their Social, Economic, and Human Rights Addressed?”
War Crimes,
Genocide, & Crimes against Humanity, Volume 4 (2010): 99-140.
PRESENTATIONS
December 6 Religious Fundamentalisms v Human Rights
FINAL PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
Mariz Tadros. “Faith-Based Organizations and Service Delivery: Some Gender
Conundrums.” UN Research Institute for Social Development, 2010.
Martha C. Nussbaum. “Genocide in Gujarat: The International Community Looks
Away.” Dissent Magazine (Summer 2003)
<http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/India_Summer_03_Genocide_in_Gujarat_The_I nternational_Community_Looks_Away.pdf>
Ayesha M. Imam. “Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Rights and the Offense of Zina in
Muslim Laws in Nigeria.” Where Human Rights Begin: Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium . New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2005: 325-269.
Women Living Under Muslim Law (WLUML). “For Ourselves: Women Reading the
Koran.” For Ourselves : Women Reading the Koran . WLUML, 1997.
Daniel K. Williams. “The Christian Right's Partisan Commitment.” Historically
Speaking , Volume 12, Number 2 (April 2011): 7-9.
PRESENTATIONS