INTL 370: CONTENT & READING SCHEDULE
Date
Topic
Detail of Content
Readings
Assignments /
Events
PART I: INTRODUCTION: WHAT ARE (IS?) HUMAN RIGHTS
WEEK 1:
Monday 9/29
Introduction to
Course
Intro to Human Rights; teacher
and student introductions;
Syllabus
Ishay Introduction (pp 2-14)
Donnelly Introduction (pp 1-3)
In-Class Handout
Wed. 10/1
Can Rights be
“Universal”?
HR Controversies: Universalism
vs. Cultural Relativism (Group
Activity)
Rec’d: Donnelly pp 7-11
Donnelly, pp 93-105
{BB} Jacques Maritain: The Grounds for an Int’l
Declaration of HRs (1947) (in Ishay Reader), pp 2-7
[BB] Muzaffar (in Ishay Reader), pp 414-418
Rec’d: Donnelly, 106-118
{BB} Hunt, “On Disabilities Treaty, The Right Fights with
the Right,” The New York Times 2/23/14.
[BB] Fernand de Varenes, “The Fallacies in the
‘Universalism vs. Cultural Relativism’ Debate...”
PART II: THE HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS: HISTORICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, AND
MORAL FOUNDATIONS
WEEK 2:
Monday 10/6
Wed. 10/8
Historical
Foundations of
Human Rights
Early Ethical Contributions;
Religious contributions to the
concept of “rights”; “Human
Rights for Whom?”
The Enlightenment:
secularization and the rise of a
universal rights discourse;
Freedom of Religion and
Opinion
Ishay Chpt 1: pp 16-32 (stop at “Neither the Greek...”);
Response Paper
skim pages 47-61
1 Handout
Rec’d: Donnelly, 75-86
[BB] “Uganda Law Rolls Back Basic Rights,” Human Rights
Watch 2/24/14
Ishay, Chpt 2: pp 64-66; 75-91; 103 (from “What would
promote the development...”) – 107.;
Donnely, pp 86-87 (“The Modern Invention of Human
Rights”)
[BB] Browse several video clips from “30 Core Human
Rights” link
Rec’d: {BB} “Tunisia: Free Blogger Jailed for Mocking
Islam,” Human Rights Watch, 2/06/14.
**IMPORTANT: This syllabus content subject to change at any time** WEEK 3:
Monday
10/13
Historical
Foundations,
continued.
The American and French
Revolutions: the birth of the
liberal concept of “rights”
Ishay, pp 107-116.
Donnely, 88-89.
[BB] Excerpts from Paine’s Common Sense (1776) and
The Rights of Man (1791) (4 pgs)
**Response
paper 1 DUE
IN CLASS**
Rec’d:
[BB] Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy, “two versions of
‘We the People’,”pp 55-69
[BB] the United States Declaration of Independence
[BB] The French Declaration on the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen
Wed. 10/15
Reactions to the industrialization
and liberalization: The demand
for workers’ rights & universal
suffrage; the socialist critique of
the liberal perspective
Ishay, chpt 3, pp 118-120; 127-145
Rec’d: Donnelly, 40-45
PART III: THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
WEEK 4:
Monday,
10/20
WWII, the
UN, and
Human Rights
Treaties
Wednesday,
10/22
WEEK 5:
Monday,
10/27
MIDTERM
The Rise of the United Nations:
How the “War to end all wars”
and the concept of “Never Again”
gave birth to the modern HR
movement
Ishay, Chpt 4, 179-181
Donnelly, “The Universal Declaration Model,” pp 24-39
The “Institutionalization” of
Human Rights: An overview of
the covenants (ICCPR &
ICESCR) and their progeny; why
are all Human Rights not
“equal”?
In-class mid-term exam
(BRING GREENBOOKS!)
Ishay, pp 206-225
Donnelly, 161-170
Rec’d:
[BB] The UN Charter & the UNDHR;
Rec’d: Donnelly, 170-179
No Required Reading – Study for Exam
**IMPORTANT: This syllabus content subject to change at any time** **In-Class Midterm**
Wednesday,
10/29
Human Rights
and Foreign
Policy
The Cold War: Human Rights &
Foreign Policy
Guest Speaker
[BB] Donnelley, Chpt 12, “Human Rights and Foreign
Policy,” pp 197-213.
[BB] Tiezzi, “Obama walks tightrope with Dalai Lama
Meeting,” The New Republic 2/22/14
Rec’d: Ishay, Chpt 4, 191-198 (“The Anti-Colonial Struggle
after WWII”)
WEEK 6:
Monday. 11/3
Mass Human
Rights Abuses:
Genocide and
Ethnic
Cleansing
The relationship between
ethnicity, nationalism, and
democracy: ethnic cleansing
[BB] Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy, pp 1-30
Rec’d: Ishay, Chpt 4, pp 176-178
Genocide and Humanitarian
Intervention;
Donnelly, “Humanitarian Intervention Against Genocide,”
pp 254-273
Rec’d:
[BB] Samantha Power, “Raising the Cost of Genocide,”
(2002) in Ishay Human Rights Reader (2007), pp 456-461
Wednesday,
11/5
PART IV: HUMAN RIGHTS IN PRACTICE
WEEK 7:
Monday
11/10
The complexity
of Abuse:
overlapping
rights
Wednesday
11/12
WEEK 8:
Monday,
11/17
Globalization
and Conditions
of Vulnerability
Enforced Disappearance and the
Right to Truth; Film: Niños de
la Memoria.
**NOTE: 2 response paper
relates to this film**
The conflict between “security”
and human rights
[BB] excerpts from IACHR case Velazques Rodriguez
[BB] UN Report on the Right to Truth
Response Paper
2 Handout
nd
Cultural and Group Rights
Ishay, 279-293
{BB] “A Nation Challenged: House Passes Terrorism
Bill...,” The New York Times 10/13/2001
Rec’d: .[BB] Goldstein, “Human Rights as a Culprit,
Human Rights as a Victim: Rights and Security in the State
of Exception,” pp 49-74 in The Practice of Human Rights:
Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local, Goodale
& Engle Merry (eds) (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Ishay, 246-248
Donnelly, 45-54
Kymlicka, “The Good, the Bad, and the Intolerable:
Minority Group Rights”
**IMPORTANT: This syllabus content subject to change at any time** **Response
Paper 2 DUE in
class**
Wednesday,
11/19
WEEK 9:
Monday,
11/24
Wednesday,
11/26
Trade, Migration and
Transnationalism: The Rights of
Refugees and Migrants.
Human Rights
Law
Transitional Justice; Universal
Jurisdiction (UJ); domestic and
international human rights
litigation
Case Study: The Guatemalan
Genocide Trial
Rec’d: Ishay, 273-279.
[BB] Browse UN Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples (focus on the Articles)
Ishay, 267-273.
{BB} Refugee and Migrant Glossary of Definitions (CCR)
[BB] “State Fragility, Refugee Status, and ‘Survival
Migration’” in Forced Migration Review
Rec’d
[BB] Browse UNOHCR “Migration and Human Rights”
website, link available on BB
[BB] Sikkink, The Justice Cascade, Introduction (pp 1-28)
[BB] “Haiti Court Says Human Rights Charges Can be
Brought Against” Duvalier,” Reuters 2/20/14
[BB] Browse CJA.org and skim the “Chronology of
Guatemalan Genocide Case”, available at:
http://cja.org/article.php?id=1297 (Link also on BB)
[BB] Wilkinson, “Guatemala, Once a leader in War-Crime
Prosecutions, at a Stand Still” (LA Times)
Film: Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (Skylight Pictures,
available for viewing at UO Library)
PART V: CONCLUSIONS: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
WEEK 10:
Monday, 12/1
Wednesday,
12/3
Human Rights
The role of non-governmental
Law, continued. organizations (NGOs); can third
parties mitigate the “universalism
v. relativism” divide?
The
Final Questions: Has the HR
Possibilities and movement made things “better”?
Challenges of
Should the Notion of HRs be
the Human
expanded or contracted? What
Rights
can / should we do?
Movement
[BB] Hafner-Burton, Making Human Rights a Reality, chpt
9, pp 151-163, “Non-Governmental Organizations”
No reading – work on your paper
** FINAL PAPER DUE WEDNESDAY, December 10, 5PM **
**IMPORTANT: This syllabus content subject to change at any time** **IMPORTANT: This syllabus content subject to change at any time**