Conceptual Background Readings
The Declaration of the Rights of Man (adopted by the National Assembly of France, 1789)
The Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States of America (adopted, 1791)
"THE INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS" (1945-1966)
--The United Nations Charter
(1945)
--The Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (1948)
--The International
Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (1966)
--The International
Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (1966)
Karl Marx, "On the Jewish Question"
Part I (1843)
Hannah Arendt, THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM (1951), 269-312 [Last chapter of "Imperialism"].
Amartya Sen, "Elements of a Theory of Human Rights" (2004),
Sessions, Meetings, Readings
Readings have been recommended by the presenter. They are available from our website, books on Reserve at the Mina Rees Library, or electronically via Eres, unless otherwise noted. (*) indicates background reading.
WEEK 1 -- HISTORY, THEORY, PRACTICE
June 26 (Monday) -- "Human Rights as a Contestable Discourse:
Thematic Notes”
Professor John R. Wallach, Director
(Political Science, Hunter College and The Graduate Center–CUNY)
Wallach, John R. (2005). "Human Rights as an Ethics of Power." In Richard A. Wilson, (Ed.) Human Rights in the ‘War on Terror’ (pp. 108-135). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5-7 p.m. – RECEPTION: Members, Institute Principals, Friends
& Family
The Skylight Room, Room 9100–The Graduate Center
June 27 (Tuesday) -- "Roots and Branches: The Setting of
Human Rights in Conflict"
Professor Paul Gordon Lauren
(History, University of Montana)
Lauren, Paul Gordon. (2004). Chapters 8-10. The Evolution of Human Rights- Visions Seen ( 2nd ed.) University of Pennsylvania Press.
June 28 (Wednesday) -- "Historical Conflicts and Human Rights"
Professor Micheline Ishay
(Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver)
Ishay, Micheline. (2004). Introduction, Chapters 2-5. The History of Human Rights: from Ancient Times to the Era of Globalization. CA: University of California Press.
(*) Ishay, Micheline. (Ed.). (1997). The Human Rights Reader, Speeches, Documents, from the Bible to the Era of Globalization. NY, London: Routledge Press.
(*) Marshall, T. H. (1965). “Citizenship and Social Class.” From Class, Citizenship, and Social Development (pp. 71-134). New York: Doubleday.
June 29 (Thursday) -- "Rights as Tools of Change: A Relational
Approach to their Potential and Limitations”
Professor Jennifer Nedelsky
(Law and Political Science, University of Toronto)
Nedelsky, Jennifer. (2000)."Communities of Judgment and Human Rights." Theoretical Inquiries in Law (Online Edition) Vol. 1: No. 2, Article 1.
Nedelsky, Jennifer. (1993). “Reconceiving Rights as Relationship.” Review of Constitutional Studies. Vol 1. No 1. Pp. 1-26.
Nedelsky, Jennifer. 1989. "Reconceiving Autonomy: Sources, Thoughts, and Possibilities." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 1:1 (Spring): 7-16.
Nedelsky, Jennifer. 1990 'Law, boundaries and the bounded self' Representations 30, 162–189.
June 30 (Friday) -- "The UN and Human Rights: Conference Room
Diplomacy and Beyond"
Ms. Felice Gaer
(Director, Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights--
American Jewish Committee)
Gaer, Felice and Tom J. Farer. (1993) The UN and Human Rights: At the End of the Beginning. In Adam Roberts and Benedict Kingsbury (Eds.). United Nations, Divided World: The UN's Roles in International Relations (pp. 240-296). Oxford University Press.
Anonymous; Reply (1996). “Human Rights in Peace Negotiations." Human Rights Quarterly. 18:2.
Wechsler, Joanna. (2004). "Human Rights." In David M. Malone, The UN Security Council: From the Cold War to the 21st Century (p. 55-68). Lynne Rienner Publishers.
(*) Gaer, Felice D. (1998). "And Never the Twain Shall Meet.” In Carol Elizabeth Lockwood, Daniel Barstow Magraw, Margaret Faith Spring, and S.I. Strong (Eds.)The International Human Rights of Women: Instruments of Change. American Bar Association, Section of International Law and Practice.
WEEK II -- LEGAL AND NORMATIVE DIMENSIONS
July 3 (Monday) -- "Judging History: Evaluating the Historical
Accounts
of Human Violations Produced by Tribunals and Commissions"
Professor Richard A. Wilson
(Director, Human Rights Institute–University of Connecticut, Storrs)
Wilson, Richard A. “Is the legalization of human rights really the problem? Genocide in the Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission”
Robertson, Geoffrey. (2000). The International Criminal Court. In David P. Forsythe (Ed.). Human rights in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
July 5 (Wednesday) -- "Why the Toughest Counter-Terrorists
Don’t Torture”
Mr. Kenneth Roth
(Executive Director, Human Rights Watch)
“Introduction,” Human Rights Watch World Report (2006)
July 6 (Thursday) -- "Human Rights and the Rights of Others"
Professor Seyla Benhabib
(Philosophy and Political Science, Yale University)
Benhabib, Seyla. (2004). The Rights of Others. Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press.
1) Introduction
2) Chapters 1-2,
3) Chapter 5
July 7 (Friday) -- "Sovereignty, Human Rights, and Liberal Legal Culture"
Professor Paul W. Kahn
(Yale Law School)
Kahn, Paul W. (2006). “Sovereignty and Human Rights: A Lecture …”
Kahn Paul W. (2004). “The Question of Sovereignty,” 40 Stan. J Int'l L. 259-282.
Kahn, Paul W. (2005). “Ch. 6: The Autonomy of the Political in the Modern Nation-state.” In Putting Liberalism in Its Place. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.
WEEK III -- CULTURAL CONFLICT AND HUMAN RIGHTS
July 10 (Monday) -- "Human Rights and Democracy: Tensions
and Illusions" (with special reference to the Global South)
Professor Makau Mutua
(Buffalo Law School)
Makau, Mutua. “Savages, Victims and Saviors: the Metaphor of Human Rights,” Harvard International Law Journal 42 (2001): 201-245.
Makau Mutua, “The Ideology of Human Rights,” Virginia Journal of International Law. 36/3: 589-657, 1996.
July 12 (Wednesday) -- "Asian Perspectives of Human Rights:
Translation or Expression?"
Joanne Bauer
Author, Consultant
(formerly of Carnegie Endowment of Ethics and International Affairs)
Bauer, Joanne R. and Daniel A. Bell. (Eds.) . (1999). The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights (Chapters 1, 7, 9). New York: Cambridge University Press,.
Bauer, Joanne. (2003). The Challenge to International Human Rights. In Mahmood Monshipouri, Neil Englehart, Andrew J. Nathan and Kavita Philips, (Eds.). Constructing Human Rights in the Age of Globalization. Armonk, New York: ME Sharpe. Available here.
Angle, Stephen C. and Marina Svensson. (General Introduction. In Stephen C. Angle and Marina Svensson (Eds.).The Chinese human rights reader : documents and commentary, 1900-2000 (pp xii-xxx)
Mushakoji, Kinhide (1997) "Japan and Cultural Development in East Asia - Possibilities of a New Human Rights Culture"
Svensson, Marina (2002) Debating Human Rights in China: A Conceptual and Political History, New York: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield. Chapter 11, pp 261-296.
July 13 (Thursday) -- "Current Trends in Human Rights and Basic
Needs in the Americas"
Professor Margaret Crahan
(History, Hunter College and The Graduate Center–CUNY)
Crahan, Margaret E. (1982). Human Rights and Basic Needs in the Americas.
Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
2) Chapter 2
3) Chapter 3
Timerman, Jacobo. (1981). Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number. New York: Knopf.
Partnoy, Alicia. (1986). The Little School. Pittsburgh, PA : Cleis Press
July 14 (Friday) -- Human Rights and the Media [unconfirmed]
Professor Thomas Keenan
(Comparative Literature/Human Rights, Bard College)
Ms. Elizabeth Rubin [unconfirmed]
(Contributing Writer, The New York Times Magazine)
WEEKS IV-V – HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE POLITICAL
WEEK IV -- HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL POWER
July 17 (Monday) -- "Human Rights, Democracy, and Freedom:
Three Very Different Projects" Professor Jack Donnelly
(Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver)
Donnelly, Jack. (2003). “Ch4.: Markets, States and “The West”.” In Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (2nd Ed) (p.57-70). Ithaca : Cornell University Press.
Goodhart, Michael. (2003). Origins and Universality in the Human Rights Debates: Cultural Essentialism and the Challenge of Globalization. Human Rights Quarterly, 25:4, 935-964.
Langlois, Anthony. (2003). Human Rights without Democracy?: A Critique of the Separationist Thesis. Human Rights Quarterly, 25:4, 990-1019.
The National Security Strategy of the United States, 2002 & 2006 – George W. Bush, et. al.
July 18 (Tuesday) -- "Democratization and Human Rights”
(w/ special reference to eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union)
Professor Margot Light
(International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science)
Marks, Susan. (2000). The Riddle of All Constitutions: International Law, Democracy and the Critique of Ideology. New York: Oxford University Press.
(*) Beetham, David. (1999). Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
M. Donald Hancock and John Louge (Eds.) (2000). Transitions to Capitalism and Democracy in Russia and Central Europe: achievements, problems, prospects. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Michael McFaul, Nikolai Petrov, and Andrei Ryabov, ; with Michael Krasnov. (Eds.). (2004) Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Post-Communist Political Reform, Wahington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Light, Margot. (2001) The export of democracy. In Karen Smith and Margot Light (eds), Ethics and Foreign Policy (pp 75-92). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
July 19 (Wednesday) -- "Beyond Humanitarian Intervention:
Human Rights and Global Society"
Professor Michael Walzer
(School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study–Princeton)
Walzer, Michael. (2002). The Argument About Humanitarian Intervention. Dissent, Winter, 2002.
Young, Iris. (2003). From Guilt to Solidarity. Dissent, Spring 2003.
July 20 (Thursday) – Presentations I
July 21 (Friday) – Presentations II
WEEK V -- HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL RECONCILIATION
July 24 (Monday) -- Narratives of Human Rights and Wrongs
morning -- "Lingering Memories of Genocide:
Truth and Human Rights in 21st Century Guatemala"
Professor Victoria Sanford
(Anthropology, Lehman College-CUNY)
Sanford, Victoria. On the Frontlines: Forensic Anthropology in Latin America. forthcoming in Deborah Poole (Ed.). Companion to Latin American Anthropology. Oxford Blackwell.
* * *
afternoon -- "Writing Towards Hope: The Literature of Human
Rights in Latin America"
Professor Marjorie Agosin
(Spanish, Wellesley College)
Agosin, Marjorie, ed. (1999. Map of Hope: Women’s Writings on Human
Rights–An International Literary Anthology. New Brunswick: Rutgers
University Press.
July 25 (Tuesday) -- "Human Rights and Humanitarianism:
A Politics of Justice vs. A Politics of Compassion"
Professor Miriam Ticktin
(Anthropology/Women's Studies, University of Michigan)
Malkki, Lisa. (1996). Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism and Dehistoricization. Cultural Anthropology, 11:3, 385.
Ticktin, Miriam (2006). “Where ethics and politics meet: The violence of humanitarianism in France” (2006)
July 26 (Wednesday) -- "Human Rights: Making History or Making
Peace?
When Should Prosecution Give Way to Favor Peace"
Professor Martha Minow
(Harvard Law School)
Brahm, Eric. “Book Summary of Confronting Past human Rights Violations: Justice vs. Peace in Times of Transition by Chandra Lekha Sriram”
Minow, Martha. (2006) Breaking the Cycles of Hatred: Memory, Law, and Repair (Ch.1) Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Minow, Martha. “Human Rights: Making History or Making Peace? When should prosecutions give way to favor peace?”
July 27 (Thursday) – Presentations III
July 28 (Friday) – Presentations IV
* * * * *
5-7 p.m. – CLOSING PARTY – Martin E. Segal Theatre,
The Graduate Center
