Columbia College Chicago

Human Rights

50-2311

Dr. June Terpstra

Thursdays 6:30-9:30 PM

Course Description

The term 'human rights' tends to be employed as if we all agree on its meaning; it is a concept often wielded but rarely defined. Because of its uses and abuses (historic and current), it is a term that is ripe for manipulation. Using examples from contemporary global events, the course provides students with a thorough background for understanding how the term ‘human rights' can both support particular political agendas and also frames objective legal investigations.

Objectives

A political, philosophical, historical, economic, and legal consideration of global human rights concepts, including ideological and cultural origins; the sources of rights and rights violations; the impact of the nation-state system, governments and other institutions (such as corporations, churches and universities), and domestic and foreign policies (particularly of the U.S.); and the wide variety of political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights warranting protection. We'll give some special attention to human rights activists, human rights groups, and human rights movements, and the progress they've made in curbing repression. The course also examines our own social and individual responsibilities and our personal or human relationship to oppression wherever it occurs. We'll emphasize critical thinking skills for challenging the conventional wisdom about our society and the world. The course will provide a rigorous and challenging academic experience, with room for both intellectual growth and practical insights.

Course Requirements

1.  Class attendance and participation=250 points

2.  Weekly written reaction papers on the readings = 250 points

2.  A mid-term research presentation on a case of human rights violations = 250 pts

3.  A Final research presentation on the case you presented for the mid-term and what is being done by government, groups, and individuals to intervene internally and externally.  250 pts

TENTATIVE SYLLABUS

Week 1

Introduction and Definition-who defines, who benefits from the definitions?

Read and Respond:

•1.       Universal Declaration of Human Rights at http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

•2.       Human Rights at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/

•3.        Roots of Oppression  http://www.american-pictures.com/roots/index.htm

•4.       HUMAN RIGHTS: CHIMERAS IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING?

©Andrew Heard, 1997 http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/intro.html

Week 2

Nation-State System: Victimizer or Guardian?

Read and Respond:

1.  Violence in Columbia and Guatemala by Moser and McIlwaine

http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/External/lac/lac.nsf/265a7fff47916d7d852567e4004ce191/0a923cacd626afb4852568870058a0ee/$FILE/Moser.pdf

3.  Al-la nidam: an Arab view of the new world order - dis

Larbi Sadiki  at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2501/is_n3_v17/ai_17716338/print

4.  Seville Statement on Violence, Spain, 1986 at http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=3247&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Week 3

SOVEREIGNTY, CITIZENSHIP, COMMUNITY AND SELF-

DETERMINATION

Read and Respond:

•1.       Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/2/Add.1 (1994). http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/declra.htm

•2.       Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples Algiers, 4 July 1976 at http://www.algerie-tpp.org/tpp/en/declaration_algiers.htm

•3.       African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981 at http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/z1afchar.htm

Film:  Battle of Algiers

Week 4

Criminal Wars and War Crimes

READ AND RESPOND

1. Stay the Hand of Vengeance By Gary Bass at http://www.crimesofwar.org/tribun-mag/garybass_print.html
2. Bush's Illegal War Let Us Count the Violations By DANIEL BACHER at http://counterpunch.org/bacher05302003.html
3. Human Rights, Violence and the Oil Complex by Michael Watts at http://geography.berkeley.edu/ProjectsResources/ND%20Website/NigerDelta/WP/2-Watts.pdf

Week 5

Violations of Human Rights in the US

Death penalty; prison conditions; detention of alien minors including children asylum seekers.

Reading:

READ AND RESPOND

1.  Human Rights Record of the US in 2006 at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20070310&articleId=5038

2.  Killing Hope: US Military and CIA
Interventions Since World War II by William Blum http://members.aol.com/bblum6/American_holocaust.htm

Film:  Occupation 101

Weeks 6-8  Mid-term Presentations

Week 9

Exporting Repression: U.S. Foreign Policy

Read and Respond:

1.  What Uncle Sam Really Wants. Noam Chomsky. Copyright © 1993 at http://zena.secureforum.com/Znet/chomsky/sam/sam-contents.html

2.  Killing Hope by William Blum at http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/KillingHope_IntroOrig.html

Week 10

Social Justice

Read and Respond:

•1.         State Sovereignty at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28492-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

•2.        Intervention at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28493-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

•3.        Prevention at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28495-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

•4.        Rights and Responsibilities at http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-28508-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Film:  Fourth World War

Week 11

Prospects for Global Human Rights

1. Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Theology by Arundhati Roy at http://www.serendipity.li/iraqwar/arundhati_roy_peace_prize_lecture.htm
2. Solidarity: remembering Algeria and Fanon  By Toni solo  at http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-05/16solo.cfm

3. Speech by Frantz Fanon at the Congress of Black African Writers, 1959
   Wretched of the Earth http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/fanon/national-culture.htm

Weeks 12-15

Final presentations--Case Studies and interventions--Reports on Human Rights organizations, Activists & Movements