This course seeks to introduce you to the academic study of international human rights. Special, and roughly equal, emphasis will be given to a) theories of human rights, and b) the global human rights regime (and associated issues of implementation).

I have ordered the following books.

Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice

Donnelly, International Human Rights, Second Edition

Ishay, The Human Rights Reader

Shue, Basic Rights, Second Edition

Hannum, Guide to International Human Rights Practice

Alston, The United Nations and Human Rights

Ishay and Alston should be arriving in late Sept and late October respectively, due to shortages in the publishers' stock.

Grades will be based largely on a research paper on a topic of your choice (approved by me). Instead of a traditional research paper, however, you may choose to work with a human rights lawyer, Bob Golten, on a case that he is researching. More details will be available the second week of the quarter.

Reading assignments follow. Items marked with a * are required.

Note that Human Rights Quarterly vol. 17-20, in addition to being available in hard copy, is available on-line through Project Muse. On the Penrose Web Page, chose electronic resources, then "by vendor," then Project Muse, then follow the links to Human Rights Quarterly. The URL for the Human Rights Quarterly Home Page is http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_rights_quarterly/ Access articles by volume and issue.

*Donnelly, International Human Rights, Introduction and ch. 1.

*Familiarize yourself with the UN Human Rights Website http://www.unhchr.ch/

*International Human Rights Covenants

*Jack Donnelly and Rhoda E. Howard, "Assessing National Human Rights Performance: A Theoretical Framework," Human Rights Quarterly 10 (May 1988): 214-48.

*Stephen P. Marks, "From the 'Single Confused Page' to the 'Decalogue for Five Billion Persons: The Roots of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the French Revolution," Human Rights Quarterly 20 (August 1998):

R. J. Vincent, "The Idea of Rights in International Ethics," in Terry Nardin and David R. Mapel (eds.), Traditions of International Ethics.

*Donnelly, International Human Rights, ch. 4.

*Donnelly, "The Social Construction of International Human Rights," available at http://www.du.edu/~jdonnell.

*Hannum, Guide, ch. 1, 2.

*David P. Forsythe. "The United Nations and Human Rights at Fifty: An Incremental but Incomplete Revolution," Global Governance 1 (1995): 297-318.

 

 

*Jerome J. Shestack, "The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights," Human Rights Quarterly 20 (May 1998): .

*Shue, Basic Rights, chapters 1-3.

*Donnelly, Universal Human Rights, ch. 2.

*Ronald Dworkin, "Taking Rights Seriously," in Taking Rights Seriously.

*Michael Freeman, "The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights," Human Rights Quarterly 16 (August 1994): 491-514.

* Ronald Dworkin, "Liberalism," in A Matter of Principle.

Morton E. Winston (ed.), The Philosophy of Human Rights

* Adamantia Pollis, "Liberal, Socialist, and Third World Perspectives on Human Rights," in Peter Schwab and Adamantia Pollis, eds., Toward a Human Rights Framework.

*Alison Dundes Renteln, "The Unanswered Challenge of Relativism and the Consequences for Human Rights," Human Rights Quarterly 7 (November 1985): 514-40.

*Donnelly, Universal Human Rights chap. 3, 4, 6.

*Rhoda E. Howard. "Cultural Absolutism and the Nostalgia for Community," Human Rights Quarterly 15 (May 1993): 315-338.

*Ann-Belinda S. Preis, "Human Rights as Cultural Practice: An Anthropological Critique," Human Rights Quarterly 18 (May 1996): 286-315.

*Abdullahi A. An-Na'im, "Religious Minorities under Islamic Law and the Limits of Cultural Relativism," Human Rights Quarterly 9 (February 1987): 1-18.

Kenneth W. Thompson, ed., The Moral Imperatives of Human Rights: A World Survey.

Josiah A. M. Cobbah, "African Values and the Human Rights Debate: An African Perspective," Human Rights Quarterly 9 (August 1987): 309-31.

Abdul Aziz Said, "Human Rights in Islamic Perspectives," in Pollis and Schwab, Human Rights: Cultural and Ideological Perspectives.

Tibi, B. "Islamic Law/Shari'a, Human Rights, Universal Morality of International Relations," Human Rights Quarterly 16 (May 1994): 277-299.

Bilahari Kausikan. 1993. "Asia's Different Standard." Foreign Policy 92 (1993): 24-41.

Fareed Zakaria. 1994. "Culture is Destiny: A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew." Foreign Affairs 73 (March/April): 109-126.

 

*Ishay, Human Rights Reader, xxx

*Donnelly, Universal Human Rights, ch. 5.

*Forsythe and Pease, Human Rights Quarterly xxx.

*David P. Forsythe, "The United Nations, Human Rights, and Development," Human Rights Quarterly 19 (May 1997): .

 

 

We will address another theoretical issue, to be decided by the class collectively in Week 4.

[The following are what ultimately was added]

Declaration on the Right to Development (GA Resolution 41/128)

(http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/74.htm)

Cees Flinterman, "Three Generations of Human Rights," and Koo Vander Wal, "Collective Human Rights: A Western View," in Jan Berting et al. (eds), Human Rights in a Pluralist World: Individuals and Collectivities.

Marlies Galenkamp, "Collective Rights." SIM Special Report No. 16, Utrecht, 1995.

Natan Lerner, "The Evolution of Minority Rights in International Law," Manfred Nowack, "Comments," and Jack Donnelly, "Third Generation Rights," in C. Brolmann et a. (eds.), Peoples and Minorities in International Law.

Donnelly, pp. 49-60 of "Human Rights, Individual Rights, and Collective Rights," in Berting et al.

*Hannum, Guide.

*Alston, United Nations and Human Rights.

Topics will be selected collectively by the class during Week 6.