ADVANCED TOPICS IN HUMAN RIGHTS
THEORY & PRACTICE
Prof. Shareen Hertel Course
day/time: Mondays,
Office: 108 Monteith Room 319 Monteith
Email: shareen.hertel@uconn.edu
Office hours: Mondays, 1-3 p.m.
This course explores cutting edge areas in contemporary human rights theory, institutions and advocacy. Designed for senior undergraduates with significant background in basic human rights concepts, it is conducted in a seminar style. The aim is to strengthen students’ ability to grapple with a range of human rights topics through individual writing and group discussion.
All students who enroll in this course are assumed to have read the Academic Misconduct section of the Student Conduct Code regarding such matters as plagiarism and cheating on examinations. If there are any students in this class who have special needs because of learning disabilities or other kinds of disabilities, please feel free to come and discuss this with me.
REQUIREMENTS:
Course participation is essential. Students should come prepared for in-depth
discussion of the readings weekly. The instructor will post questions on WebCT
that will help guide our discussion; please come to class prepared to take part
in the discussion and having thought through how you would respond to these
questions.
A final research paper (20-pages, not including bibliography) on a contemporary
human rights issue or problem is also required, and will be due on the last
day of class. An outline, abstract, working bibliography, and first draft of
the paper are due at the beginning of the class during Week 8. Individual
meetings will be held to discuss these materials during Week 9. A full paper
(including abstract and bibliography) is due on the final day of class – no
extensions. Students should use
scholarly sources, supported with empirical material, and develop an original
assessment of the central human rights issue discussed in the course. Paper
topics must be approved by the instructor. All work should be typed, in
12-point font, using a font such as Times Roman. The overall course grade is
calculated as follows:
First draft: 30% of final grade
Final draft: 60% of final grade
Course participation: 10% of final grade
Logistics. Books are available for purchase in paperback and have been ordered at the UConn Co-Op. A book list is included at the end of this syllabus. These books are also available on reserve at the Babbidge Library. Nearly all articles assigned are available in PDF format via WebCT. Chapters of books not available for purchase can be viewed through WebCT.
INTRODUCTION
Week 1 (August 29, 2005)
DEBATES
Week 2 (Sept. 12, 2005): Universality and its challenges - Background
Daan Bronkhorst, “The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights: Origins, Significance and Future,” (Chapter 1 in Martha
Meijer, editor, Dealing with Human
Rights: Asian and Western Views on the Value of Human Rights (
Nancy Waring, “Assessing the Universal Declaration: Interviews Mary Ann Glendon and Makau Mutua, Harvard Law Bulletin (Spring 2000), available via: http://www.law.harvard.edu/alumni/bulletin/backissues/spri2000/article5.html
Week 3 (Sept. 19, 2005): Universality and its challenges -- Regional
perspectives
Fareed Zakaria in conversation with Lee Kuan Yew, “Culture is Destiny” (Chapter 4 in Mejier)
Kim Dae Jung, “Is Culture Destiny? The Myth of Asia’s Anti-Democratic Values: A Response to Lee Kuan Yew” (Chapter 5 in Meijer)
Makau Mutua, "Savages, Victims, and Saviors: the Metaphor of Human Rights," Harvard International Law Journal 42 (2001): 201-245. Available electronically via:
Week 4 (Sept. 26, 2005): Human rights and human security - Contemporary
dilemmas
Read an overview of Human Security Now (
Bharati Sadasivam, “All Call for Secure Lives: Review of Human Security Now,” Ford Foundation Report (Winter 2004). Available electronically via: http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=477
Jerry Piasecki, Marie In the Shadow of the Lion: A
Humanitarian Novel (
Judy A. Benjamin, “Conflict,
Post-Conflict and HIV/AIDS – The Gender Connections: Women, War and HIV/AIDS:
http://www.rhrc.org/resources/sti/benjamin.html
Recommended:
Ballen, Roger. “Charlotte, Grace, Janet and Caroline Come Home,” New York Times Magazine, 8 May 2005, p. 34-39. Available electronically via: Proquest (UConn library webpage) and via WebCT.
Week 5 (Oct. 3, 2005): Trade and labor rights linkage -- The
debates
Sandra
Polaski, Trade and Labor Standards: A
Strategy for Developing Countries (
Willem van Genugten, “Human Rights
are not for
Margaret Levi, “Organizing Power: The Prospects for an American Labor Movement,” Perspectives on Politics 1, No. 1 (March 2003): 45-68.
ADVOCACY
Week 6 (Oct. 10, 2005): Dilemmas of representation in human rights
advocacy
Center for
the Study of Human Rights,
Jonathan Fox, “Lessons from Mexico-US Civil Society Coalitions,” in Cross Border Diaologues: US-Mexico Social Movement Networking, edited by David Brooks and Jonathan Fox (La Jolla, CA: Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California-San Diego, 2002).
Please review website of NGO-Watch, an organization seeking to bring “clarity and accountability” to groups in the nongovernmental sector: http://www.ngowatch.org/
Week 7 (Oct. 17, 2005): Cyber-networking -- The power and challenges
Elisabeth
Friedman, “ICT and Gender Equality Advocacy in
John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt,
editors, Networks and netwars and the
future of terror, crime, and militancy (
NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Week 8 (Oct. 24, 2005): Human rights treaty-making, from the bottom up
–
The case of the landmine treaty.
Max Cameron, Robert Lawson, and Brian Thomas, editors, To Walk Without Fear: The Global Movement to Band Landmines (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), Chapters 1, 2 and 21.
Don Hubert, The Landmine Ban: A Case Study in Humanitarian Intervention, Occasional Paper #42, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University (2000). Available electronically via: http://www.watsoninstitute.org/pub/op42.pdf
Read the full text of the Convention on the Prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines and on their destruction, available electronically via: http://www.icbl.org/treaty/text.php3
Review the website of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines:
*** FIRST DRAFTS OF PAPERS DUE IN
CLASS **
Week 9 (Oct. 31, 2005): INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS TO DISCUSS DRAFTS
Week 10 (Nov. 7, 2005): Transforming debt relief policy through public
pressure –
The case of Jubilee 2000
Elizabeth
Donnelly, “Proclaiming Jubilee: The Debt and Structural Adjustment Network,”
Chapter 8 in Sanjeev Khagram, James V. Riker, and Kathryn Sikkink, Restructuring World Politics: Transnational
Social Movements, Networks, and Norms (
Bread
for the World, Debt & Development
Dossier, Issue #3, April 2000. Available electronically via: http://www.bread.org/institute/debt_and_development_project/dossier3.html
Josh Busby, “Bono Made Jesse Helms Cry: International Norms Take-Up and the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for Debt Relief,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, 28-31 August 2003. Available via: http://www.georgetown.edu/users/busbyj/debt.pdf
Week 11 (Nov. 14, 2005): Crafting a consensus on child rights -- ILO
182
Sheena
Crawford, The Worst Forms of Child Labor:
A Guide to Understanding and using the new convention (
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/files/sdd-childlab.pdf
Michael J. Dennis, “Current Developments: Newly Adopted Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” American Journal of International Law 94, No. 4 (2000): 789-796. Available electronically via:
International Labour Organization, A future without child labour: Global report
under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights
at Work, 2002 (
Week 12 (Nov. 21, 2005) – FALL BREAK
Week 13 (Nov. 28, 2005): IN-CLASS PRESENTATIONS
Week 14 (Dec. 5, 2005): Final session and course evaluation.
** FINAL PAPERS DUE IN CLASS **
BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
AT THE UCONN CO-OP
Martha Meijer, editor, Dealing with Human Rights: Asian and Western Views on the Value of
Human Rights (
International Labour Organization, A future without child labour: Global report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, 2002 (Geneva: ILO, 2002)