Professor J. Quataert
LT 809
Fall, 2006
Office Hrs: Tuesday 11:40-1:00;
Thursday 11:40-12:40
TA: Shelley
Rose
Office: LSG 266
Hours: T, 1:00-3:00; R, 1:15-2:15
HIST 333: Human
Rights since 1945
Human rights express the nobler parts of the human endeavor. They capture individual and collective efforts to safeguard liberties, raise the standards of acceptable behavior in public and private life and insure mutual tolerance and respect. They are both matters of law and of ideals. As codes of international law, these rights are the irreducible common entitlements that are seen to accrue to all people as members of the human race. As ethical principles not yet realized, they constantly point the way to a more perfect and just world community. In our age of global interconnections, human rights seem to be self-evident, with their language of equality, dignity and security for all human beings, everywhere. In practice, the human rights system falls short of its universal claims; in the international arena, it comes up against the realities of political and military power. There is nothing self-evident about human rights; they are not self-enforcing nor are they universally understood or accepted.
This course, then, explores the complicated history of human rights ideas, institutions and laws since their first implementation in the aftermath of the traumas, tragedies and genocides of the Second World War. It traces the many historical struggles at particular moments across the globe, which today have made human rights an increasingly important component of international relations and public debates about security world wide. It looks at the founding of the United Nations, which established the first full-blown human rights regime in world history; to the early human rights and humanitarian conventions; and at grass-roots anti-apartheid and Soviet dissident movements at the height of the cold war that were instrumental in shaping international NGO advocacy. And, from the perspective of victims and activists, it traces the process of redefining and expanding rights abuses as individuals and groups formed transnational alliances to defend their claims to dignity and life. These new human rights instruments include the conventions on disappearance and torture, new prohibitions on gender-specific violence, transnational migrant rights as well as minority and collective rights to development, education and welfare. It offers an assessment of the emerging human rights orthodoxy and its critics within and outside of the human rights community. The course also confronts the shortcomings of the international community of states to safeguard people at risk and what this means for human rights advocacy: specifically, since the end of the cold war, the failure to prevent the outbreaks of genocides and civil wars and the American-led “war on terror” after the 9/11 attacks. Seen typically as a ‘crisis” of human rights, more properly it is a crisis of the models of state multilateralism confronting genocide and the unilateralism inherent in the “war on terror.” Out of the development of human rights laws and norms, the fundamental political issue today is whether international human rights and criminal laws will be applied to all leaders, soldiers and citizens of all state, large and small. There also remains the ongoing challenges globalization (of poverty and injustice). There are no guaranteed victories in rights struggles.
Required reading for this course:
The following books are required for this course. They can be purchased at the University Bookstore on campus. Also, I have put the readings on reserve, so you can find them there if you prefer. In any case, you are required to do the assigned readings each week.
Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (second edition)
Charlotte Bunch and Niamh Reilly, Demanding
Accountability
Eric Stener Carlson, I Remember
Julia
Richard Falk, Human Rights Horizons
Philip Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that…
Alexandr Solzenitzyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
On e-reserve (required) password:
Bhikhu Parekh, “Non-ethnocentric universalism,” in Tim Dunne and Nicholas J. Wheeler, eds. Human Rights in Global Politics, pp. 128-159.
John Stuart Mill, "Considerations on Representative Government," in
Macheline Ishay, The Human Rights Reader, pp. 281-290;
Kenneth Cmiel, "The Recent History of Human Rights," The American
Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 1 (February 2004): 117-135;
Kenneth Cmiel, "Human Rights, Freedom of Information, and the Origins of
Third-World Solidarity," in Truth Claims: Representation and
Human Rights, eds. Mark Philip Bradley and Patrice Petro, pp. 107-130;
Ran Greenstein, “Socioeconomic Rights, Radical Democracy, and Power: South Africa as a Case Study,” in Neve Gordon, ed., From the Margins of Globalization, pp. 87-126.
On reserve (sections required):
Henry Steiner and Philip Alston, International
Human Rights in Context
Steven Ratner and Jason Abrans, Accountability
for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law
Micheline Ishay, ed., The Human Rights Reader
In addition, you must consult on a regular basis and print out and bring to class various human rights declarations and conventions. These are found at www.un.org/rights/index.html (categories: treaties, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Documents research guide).
I will also have required readings through blackboard. Check blackboard regularly for materials and questions to help guide your thinking and the ongoing class discussion.
Requirements for the Final Grade:
There is one in-class mid-term exam; a final exam scheduled by the registrar; furthermore, I expect that you will attend class and we will be taking roll. More than four (4) unexcused absences will jeopardize your grade (and you will not be able to take the course on a P/F basis). There will be general discussion nearly each class meeting (check blackboard for questions) and some classes are set aside specifically for in-depth discussion of specific readings and books (indicated on the syllabus).
Final Grade is comprised of : 35 percent for mid-term; 40 percent for the final exam; 5 percent internet assignment; class participation 20 percent. (You will receive an automatic l4 points if you do not exceed the limit for unexcused absences. Up to six extra points will be given to students who actively participate in the class discussions).
Weekly Assignments:
August 29: Introduction
PART I: The Universalist Project: Who Participates Globally?
August 31, September 5: Understanding the Human Rights System as a System
of Norms, Laws and Institutions
Donnelly, Universal Human Rights, pp. 127-54
Falk, Human Rights Horizons, pp. 67-85
UN websites and charts
Blackboard charts
September 7: Human Rights internet sites (how reliable?)
Internet assignment: find five sites on the web, preferably from different countries that provide information on Guantánamo Bay and debates about prisoners of war/non-combatants status and Geneva Convention protections. Assess each site briefly: how reliable are the sites? Whose viewpoint is represented? Are any “neutral?” Write up your findings briefly and email them to Shelley by September 6. We’ll take time in class to discuss what you have found.
Sept 12, 14: The Philosophical pros and cons of human rights (a dialogue): universality and cultural diversity (required class discussions)
Come prepared to discuss the following chapters and articles, which deal with the universal norms at the heart of human rights standards and the equally important principle of cultural and group integrity and diversity. Can these positions be reconciled? What do philosophers and political theorists say? Check blackboard for questions to guide your thinking.
Donnelly, pp. 7-21 and Part II, pp. 57-123
Bhikhu Parekh, “Non-ethnocentric universalism”
Falk, “The geopolitics of exclusion,” in Human Rights Horizons, pp. 147-164
PART II: The Historical Record
Historical Forerunners. Human Rights, a turning point in
international law?
Continuities or New Beginnings?
Sept 19, 21, 26: Historical Forerunners
Cmiel, “The Recent History” (e-reserve)
From blackboard sources and also the web (or Ishay, Steiner & Alston, on reserve) become familiar with the Hague Congresses (1899, 1907), Charter of the League of Nations; the Minorities Treaties after World War I, Atlantic Charter, Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech and the U.N. Charter. Please print out the preambles to the intergovernmental charters and become familiar with examples of Minorities Treaties. Who were covered, where? How universal were these covenants? Do they use a language of human rights?
September 28: NO CLASS (I am out of town)
Raising the Bar, (The human rights
revolution), 1945-49 (universal legal coverage:
UN Charter, Nurenberg Tribunal, Genocide Convention, UDHR, Freedom of
Information [failed])
October 3, 5, 10
“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” 1948 (UN website: print it out and come prepared to discuss this important document in class). Also look at and be prepared to discuss the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” 1948 and Covenant on Civil and Political and the one on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, 1966.
Donnelly, pp. 22-53
Cmiel, “Human Rights, Freedom of Information”
Falk, pp. 1-10
October 12: finish up work and review for exam
October 17: MID-TERM EXAM
A.
Establishment of Human Rights Orthodoxies: The First Round
Oct. 19, 24, 26: Creating transnational Human Rights advocacy networks in the Cold War: the Anti-Apartheid and Soviet Dissident Movements
Mill, “The Right to Self-Determination,” e-reserve
General Assembly resolution in l960 on self-determination; International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (1965)
“Helsinki Agreement” 1975, Principles VII-VIII and Basket III (get from web)
October 24 Soviet dissent: One Day in the Life (class discussion of the book)
Oct 31, Nov. 2: Mothers’ Courage (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Argentina)
Video presentation on the Mothers, Leora Cieplinski
Nov 2: class discussion of I Remember Julia
How did Helsinki impact these developments?
B. The Debate Continues: Critics and New Mechanisms
Nov. 7, 9: The Gender Factor since the l970s
Demanding Accountability, pp. 1-32; 49-62- and from p. 74 on…
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (l979), get from UN site
Be able to identify the prominent global women’s networks in l993
Nov. 14, 16: Citizenship, Rights and the Courts in the Age of Transnational Migrations
Declaration on the Right to Development, 1986, (UN website)
Demanding Accountability, pp. 63-73.
FILM: “Journey of Hope,” Barry Levinson and Mark Johnson
Nov. 16: Ran Greenstein, “Socioeconomic Rights” (class discussion)
C.
Human Rights at a Crossroad:
Wars, Crimes and Priorities
Nov. 21, 28, 30: Ethnic Genocides in the l990s and the ICC
FILM: “Cry Freetown,” Sorious Samura
Nov. 30: We wish to inform you, general class discussion
Demanding Accountability, pp. 33-48
Donnelly, pp. 242-260
December 5: 200l and History: The World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) and 9/11
WCAR and marginalization within the human rights system; unilateralist steps. Is the “war on terror” a new departure? What is new after 9/11?
Dec 7: Human Rights as a Framework for Global Justice?
Falk, all remaining chapters we have not covered
Final Exam: scheduled by the registrar