Summer 2013

This course will provide a wide-ranging survey of conceptual foundations and issues in contemporary human rights. The class will examine the philosophical origins of human rights, contemporary debates, the evolution of human rights, key human rights documents, and the questions of human rights enforcement. This course will examine specific civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and various thematic topics in human rights.

In recent years, there has been an intense global debate about the human rights responsibilities of corporations. Business has helped lift people around the world out of poverty; but at the same time companies in all industries have contributed to human rights abuses, such as exploitative working conditions in factories, social and environmental destruction around oil and mining projects, and censorship and surveillance by internet service providers. This course is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between business and human rights: from a theoretical perspective, as we discuss the evolution of the debate about corporate social responsibility, and from an applied perspective as we focus on particular cases, industries, and issues. Students will gain a solid grounding in the background and current issues related to business and human rights; understand the perspectives of different stakeholder groups; and critically evaluate the actions of key actors in situations where corporate-related human rights abuses have occurred.

This course examines the relationship between visual culture and human rights. It considers a wide range of visual media (photography, painting, sculpture), as well as aspects of visuality (surveillance, profiling). We will use case studies ranging in time from the early modern period (practices in which the body was marked to measure criminality, for example), to the present day. Within this framework, we will study how aspects of visual culture have been used to advocate for human rights, as well as how images and visual regimes have been used to suppress human rights. An important part of the course will be to consider the role played by reception in shaping a discourse around human rights, visuality, and images. Subjects to be addressed include: the nature of evidence; documentation and witness; censorship; iconoclasm; surveillance; profiling; advocacy images; signs on the body; visibility and invisibility.

This course introduces the fundamental concepts and problems of public international law. What are the origins of international law? Is international law really law? Who is governed by it? How are treaties interpreted? What is the relationship between international law and domestic law? We examine the interplay between law and international politics, in particular with reference to international human rights, humanitarian law, the use of force, and international criminal prosecutions. No prior knowledge of international law is required. While the topics are necessarily law-related, the course will assume no prior exposure to legal studies.

Human rights play a distinctive role as "the political utopia" in contemporary international life. Still, human rights violations remain widespread and human rights norms are still the focus of numerous controversies, from their definition to their protection and promotion by various international actors with different moral and strategic agendas. This course will examine the place of human rights in the foreign policies of the US and a number of other countries around the globe. The course explores the social construction of human rights and national interests as well as the context, instruments, and tradeoffs in the formulation and implementation human rights foreign policies. Some of the questions this class will consider include: What are human rights and how is their protection best assessed? How have different states promoted and contributed to the violation of human rights abroad? How does human rights promotion strengthen and undermine other foreign policy goals? What's the role of non-state actors in the promotion and violation of human rights across the globe? When has the impact of the human rights norms and regimes been the greatest and when have the efforts of state and non-state actors to promote human rights at home and abroad made the most difference?

This course is designed to develop practical research and advocacy skills to protect and promote human rights. A focus will be developing a strategy on a current human rights issue, including the identification of goals and objectives, appropriate research methodology, and advocacy targets and strategy. Students will explore broad-based human rights campaigns, use of the media, and advocacy with UN bodies, and the US government. Over the course of the semester, students will become familiar with a variety of tools to apply to a human rights issue of their choosing. Case studies will illustrate successful advocacy campaigns on particular issues, such as child soldiers and landmines. Written assignments will focus on practical tools, including advocacy letters, press releases, submissions to UN mechanisms or treaty bodies, and the development of an overarching strategy incorporating both research and advocacy to expose a particular human rights problem.

This class uses a gender perspective to explore key issues related to women and human rights. This course will address gender as a subject of human rights and examine emerging and contested issues with a focus on international human rights law. The course introduces the international legal framework for the protection of women's rights and reviews regional and universal mechanisms which have been developed in the past three decades in particular. In addition, the course reviews comparative constitutional approaches to women's human rights, looking at case examples from the US, South Africa, the Americas, Europe and South Asia. The development of women's human rights is examined through a series of themes. Among the issues considered are regional systems and the UN system, equality in the public sphere and in the family, violence against women, religion and women's rights, and reproductive rights. Guest speakers from NGOs are invited to address specific themes where appropriate.