Department of Political Science
HR/PS V3001x,
INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS
Fall 2003 614
Schermerhorn, MW 10:45-12:00
Prof. Andrew J. Nathan ajn1@columbia.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday, 2-3, and by appointment
714 IAB
Prof. Shareen Hertel
Office Hours: Monday, 2-4, and by appointment sh451@columbia.edu
931 IAB
Teaching Assistants:
Danielle Celermajer dandc@bway.net
Candace Blake chb2002@columbia.edu
Purposes. Human rights is a powerful idea in our time, but it is also the focus of numerous controversies: it is not only an ideal but also a political tool, which different forces try to bend to their own ends. This course looks at selected intellectual controversies and political puzzles involved in human rights theory and practice. It explores the central institutions of the human rights regime. And it analyzes the challenges of contemporary human rights advocacy.
Requirements. The course grade will be based on two take-home examinations and two essays. The examinations will include identification items and essay questions. The essays should be 5-7 pages long and may be of the following kinds:
EITHER (a) A policy paper, which recommends a human rights-related policy in some specific domain or with respect to some specific issue, for some specific actor (a government, NGO, multinational organization, etc.). Here the websites listed (or others) may be useful, as may the course reading or sources that you find elsewhere.
OR (b) An exploration into a topic inadequately covered in the course, again using websites or outside reading. We do not want to receive merely an informational paper. You should explain why the issue is important and what conclusions you have provisionally drawn from the information you have gathered, and, as appropriate, you should criticize the biases or inadequacies of the information sources that you used.
Due dates are as follows: midterm is handed out Oct
15 and due back Oct. 20; essays due on Oct. 1 and Nov. 19; final exam handed
out Dec. 8 and due Dec. 15.
Readings. Books (except for Power and Allison) are in paperback and have been ordered at Labyrinth Books; a book list is included at the end of this syllabus. One book (entitled 25+ Human Rights Documents) can be purchased slightly more cheaply directly from Columbia’s Center for the Study of Human Rights (11th Floor, International Affairs Building) but is also available at Labyrinth. Books are on reserve at the Lehman Library Reserve Desk and some of them at Barnard. They can also be found at the Human Rights Reading Room, about which further information can be found at www.columbia.edu/cu/humanrights/hr_reading_room.htm.
Articles can be found in a course pack available for purchase from CopyQuick (located at 1211 Amsterdam Avenue, between 119th and 120th Streets) and some can be obtained online (online addresses are indicated in the syllabus). For those students who do not wish to purchase the course pack, articles (along with copies of chapters from books not available for purchase) have also been placed on reserve and can be found by going to the Columbia University library system’s online services, going to the Lehman Library website, and clicking on the instructors’ names and the course.
We recommend that you subscribe to the listserv for press releases from Human Rights Watch. Go to the organization’s main webpage (www.hrw.org) and in the left-hand corner, look for “Free Email Newsletter.” Click on that and you’ll be given a choice of lists; click on “Weekly Digest” and it will create an email message to the listerv manager. Send that and later, reconfirm it. You’ll then be added to the list.
September 3. INTRODUCTION.
Week of September 8. INTELLECTUAL HISTORY OF THE IDEA
Lectures by: Professor Nathan
Required:
Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), Chapters 1 and 2.
Week of September 15. HUMAN RIGHTS AS LAW
Guest lecturer, September 17: Louis Henkin, University Professor Emeritus and Special Service Professor
Lecture by: Prof. Hertel
Required:
Samantha Power and Graham Allison,
eds., Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (NY: St
Martin’s Press, 2000), essays by Henkin, Williams, Mendez, Goldstone, Roth,
Neier, Annan.
David P. Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), Chaps. 2-5.
Week of September
22. THE UDHR AND COVENANTS: WHAT DO THEY SAY?
Lectures by: Prof. Nathan, Prof. Hertel
Required:
Lauren, Evolution, Chapter 7.
Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, 25+ Human Rights Documents (NY: CSHR, 2001) - read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Culture Rights.
Charles Beitz, “What Human Rights
Mean,” Daedalus 132, No. 1 (Winter
2003): 36-46.
Please log on to and study the website on the UDHR compiled by Peter Danchin for the Columbia Center for the Study of Human Rights: http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/udhr/.
Week of September
29. HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM: NORMS AND POLITICS –
WHITHER THE BALANCE?
Lectures by: Prof. Nathan,
Prof. Hertel
Required:
Patrick Hayden, The Philosophy of Human Rights (St Paul, MN:
Paragon House, 2001), Document 48 (Vienna Declaration).
Andrew J. Nathan, “Human Rights in Chinese Foreign Policy,” The China Quarterly 139 (September 1994), pp. 622-643.
Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change,” International Organization 52, No. 4 (Autumn 1998), pp. 887-917. Available electronically through Columbia Libraries webpage (E-journals).
The Economist, “The Politics of Human Rights” (August 18–24, 2001), pp. 9, 18-20 (see course pack).
Recommended:
Week of October 6. INSTITUTIONAL
CHANGE ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS FRONTIER
Guest lecture, October 8: Priscilla Hayner, International Center for Transitional Justice
Lecture by: Prof. Hertel
Required:
On truth commissions: Priscilla Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity (New York: Routledge, 2001), Chaps. 1, 2, 3, and 13.
On the International Criminal Court: Review the “campaigns” section of the Human Rights Watch webpage, specifically background materials on the ICC such as “Closing the Door to Impunity: Human Rights Watch Recommendations for Renewing Resolution 1422.” (May 2003). Available electronically: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/docs/1422legal.pdf
Recommended:
Juan Mendez, “National Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, and the International Criminal Court,” Ethics and International Affairs 15, No. 1 (May 2001), pp. 25-44.
Brad R. Roth, “Peaceful Transition and Retrospective Justice: Some Reservations. A Response to Juan Mendez,” Ethics and International Affairs 15, No. 1 (May 2001), pp. 45-50.
Week of October 13. WOMEN’S RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS
Guest lecturer, October 15: Charlotte Bunch, Center for Women’s Global Leadership
Lecture by: Prof. Hertel
Required:
Hayden, Philosophy, Document 20 (Nussbaum), Sec. 9 (Women’s Rights)
Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, 25+ Human Rights Documents (NY: CSHR, 2001) - read the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds., Women's Rights Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives. (N.Y.: Routledge, 1995), Chs. 1-3, 15, 21.
Recommended:
Clair Apodaca, “Measuring Women’s Economic and Social Rights Achievement,” Human Rights Quarterly, 20, 1 (1998), pp. 139-172. Available electronically through the Columbia Libraries webpage (E-journals).
Sonia Alvarez, “Translating the Global: Effects of Transnational Organizing on Local Feminist Discourses and Practices in Latin America,” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 1, No. 1 (2001), pp. 29-67.
V. Spike
Peterson and Laura Parisi, “Are women human? It’s not an academic question,” in
Human Rights Fifty Years On: A
Reappraisal, edited by Tony Evans (Manchester, UK: Manchester University
Press, 1998), pp. 132-160 (see course pack).
Week of October 20. HUMAN RIGHTS AND SEXUALITY
Guest lecturer, October 22: Prof. Alice M. Miller, Law and Policy Project, Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health
Lecture by: Prof. Nathan
Required:
Hayden, Section 10.
Philip Alston, “Conjuring Up New Human Rights: A Proposal for Quality Control,” American Journal of International Law 78 (1984), pp. 607-621.
Alice M. Miller, “Sexual But Not Reproductive: Exploring the Junction and Disjunction of Sexual and Reproductive Rights,” Health and Human Rights 4:2 (2000), pp. 69-109.
Recommended:
Arvind Narrain, "Human Rights and Sexual Minorities: Local and Global Contexts", 2 Law, Social Justice and Global Development 2001, available at http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/global/issue/2001-2/narrain.html.
Ara Wilson, "The Transnational Geography of Sexual Rights," in Patrice Petro, ed., Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univesity Press, 2002), pp. 253-267 (see course pack).
Week of October 27. HUMAN
RIGHTS, GLOBALIZATION, AND “GLOBAL JUSTICE”
Lectures by: Prof. Nathan
Required:
Jagdish Bhagwati, Free Trade Today (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), Ch. 2.
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms (Cambridge, Eng.: Polity Press, 2002), General Introduction, Chs. 1, 4, 8.
Robin
Broad, Global
Backlash: Citizen Initiatives for a Just World Economy (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2002), Intro (pp. 1-13), Part I Intro (pp. 13-22), Part II Intro
(pp. 65-76), Part III Intro (pp. 117-127) – see course pack.
Week of November 3. LABOR AND ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN THEORY & PRACTICE
Lectures by: Prof. Hertel
Required:
Virginia Leary, "The Paradox of Workers' Rights as Human Rights," in Janusz Symonides, Human Rights: New Dimensions and Challenges (Brookfield, MA: Ashgate, 1998), pp. 22-47.
Audrey R. Chapman, “A ‘Violations
Approach’ for Monitoring the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly,
Vol. 18, No. 1 (1996), pp. 23-66. Available electronically through the Columbia
Libraries webpage (E-journals).
Kimberly
Elliott, Debayani Kar and J. David Richardson, “Assessing Globalization’s
Critics: ‘Talkers are No Good Doers???’” Working Paper 2-5, Institute for
International Economics (Washington, DC: 2002). Available electronically via: www.iie.com .
Carolina Quinteros, “Cooperation and Conflict,” Human Rights Dialogue 2, No. 9 (Spring 2003). Available electronically via: www.cceia.org.
Human Rights in China. China Rights Forum, No. 1 (2003). Read the article by Scott Greathead (pp. 27-29) and articles in the section on “Corporate Citizenship and Human Rights” (pp. 43-67).
Week of November 10.
HUMAN RIGHTS AS VALUES
Lecture by: Prof. Nathan
Required:
Joanne R. Bauer and Daniel A. Bell, eds., The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), Chs. 1-3, 5-9.
Patrick Hayden, The Philosophy of
Human Rights (St. Paul, MN:
Paragon House, 2001), Section 4 (Non-Western Perspectives), Section 6
(Universalism and Relativism), and Document 34 (African Charter).
Bilahari Kausikan, "Asia's Different Standard," and Aryeh Neier, "Asia's Unacceptable Standard," Foreign Policy (Fall 1993), pp. 24‑41 and 42‑51.
Week of November 17. INDIGENOUS
RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
Guest lecturer, November 19: John Scott (Deputy Director
of Secretariat, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)
Lecture by: Danielle Celermajer
Required:
(On the situation of indigenous peoples): Patrick Thorberry, Indigenous Peoples and human rights (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002), Chapter 1.
(On peoples and identity): Working paper by the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Mrs. Erica Irene-Daes, “On the Concept of indigenous people.”
(On peoples and identity): Michael Dodson, “The End in the Beginning; Re(de)finding Aboriginality”, Australian Aboriginal Studies 1 (1994).
(On self determination and sovereignty): S. James Anaya, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), Chapters 3.
(On self determination and sovereignty): Jim Tully, “The Struggles of Indigenous Peoples for and of Freedom” in D. Ivison, P. Patton, and W. Sanders, Political Theory and the rights of Indigenous Peoples (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
(On self determination and sovereignty): Will Kymlicka, “The Good, the Bad and the Intolerable: Minority Group Rights”, in Hayden, pp. 445-461.
(On recent developments): Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and Working paper from the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, “Indigenous Peoples: A New Priority.”
Recommended:
(On the situation of indigenous peoples): Audra Simpson, “Paths towards a Mohawk Nation: Narratives of Citizenship and Nationhood in Kanawake” in D. Ivison, P. Patton, and W. Sanders, Political Theory and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
(On self determination and sovereignty): Anaya, chapter 4, “Norms elaborating the elements of self determination.”
(On self determination and sovereignty): Mary Ellen Turpel, “Indigenous Peoples’ Rights of Political Participation and Self-Determination recent International Legal Developments and the Continuing Struggle for Recognition”, Cornell International Law Journal 25 (1992): 579.
Week of November 24. NGOs AND THEIR WORK:
Part 1 - Theory
Lectures by: Profs. Nathan and Hertel
Required:
“Human Rights for All? The Problem of the Human Rights Box,” Human Rights Dialogue (Winter 2000), Series 2, No. 1. Available electronically via: http://www.cceia.org/listpublications.php?prmPubTypeID=39
L. David Brown,
Sanjeev Khagram, Mark H. Moore, and Peter Frumkin. “Globalization, NGOs and Multisectoral Relations.” In Governance
in a Globalizing World, edited by Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue (Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2000), pp. 271-296 – see course pack.
William
E. Myers, “The Right
Rights? Child Labor in a Globalizing World,” Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science 575 (May 2001), pp. 38-55. Available
electronically through the Columbia Libraries webpage (Proquest).
Week of December 1. NGOs AND THEIR WORK: Part II - Action
Guest lecturer, December 1: Barbara Adams, UNIFEM
Lecture by: Profs. Nathan and Hertel
Required:
Sanjeev
Khagram, James V. Riker, and Kathryn Sikkink, editors, Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements,
Networks, and Norms (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002).
Read short chapter by Charles T. Call, “A Human Rights Practitioner’s
Perspective” (pp. 123-127) and select one case study chapter from among the
following: Chapters 3, 4 or 5 (see course pack).
Michael Edwards and John Gaventa, Global Citizen Action (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2001). Read Introduction (pp. 1-14) and Chapter 18, by Caroline Harper, “Do Facts Matter? NGOs, Research, and International Advocacy”, pp. 247-258 (see course pack).
Arthur and Joan Kleinman, “The
Appeal of Experience, the Dismay of Images: The Cultural Appropriation of
Suffering in our Times,” Daedalus 125: 1 (1997), pp. 1-23.
December 8. CONCLUDING
DISCUSSION
BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE
Labyrinth Books, 536 West 112th Street (Tel: 212 865
1588)
Joanne R. Bauer and Daniel A. Bell, eds., The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University, 25+ Human Rights Documents (NY: CSHR, 2001).
David P. Forsythe, Human Rights in International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Patrick Hayden, The Philosophy of Human Rights (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2001).
Priscilla Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity (New York: Routledge, 2001).
Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).
Julie Peters and Andrea Wolper, eds., Women's Rights Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives. (N.Y.: Routledge, 1995)
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms (Cambridge, Eng.: Polity Press, 2002).
Samantha Power and Graham Allison, eds., Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (NY: St Martin’s Press, 2000).
Risse, Stephen C. Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org
Columbia University, Center for the Study of Human Rights, “Human Rights Portal”: www.humanrights.columbia.edu
Department of State annual human rights reports: www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/index.html
Freedom House: www.freedomhouse.org
Human Rights Dialogue, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs: www.carnegiecouncil.org
Human Rights Working Papers: www.du.edu/humanrights/workingpapers
Human Rights Quarterly: www.press.jhu.edu/press/journals/hrq/
Human Rights Watch: www.hrw.org
Human Rights in China: www.hrichina.org
International Crisis Group: www.crisisweb.org
National Commission on International Religious Freedom: www.uscirf.gov
NGO Watch: http://www.ngowatch.org/
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: http://www.unhchr.ch/
Universal Declaration of Human Rights website compiled by Peter Danchin for the Columbia CSHR: http://www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/udhr/
UN: www.un.org
United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom:
www.uscirf.gov/index.php3
Women’s Human Rights Resource: www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana