Human Rights Syllabi: Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Spring Quarter 1999
History 295/395
Committee on International Relations 579
Th, 3:00-5:00
This course will examine the main features of the contemporary human rights system, both in respect of international, regional and national legal conventions, and in relation to current human rights problems. It will examine the origins of the current system, the uses and limitations of the international treaty system, and the relationship between international obligations and domestic implementation. Problems of rights implementation will be related to issues of evidence, professional ethics and political feasibility. Legal and medical concepts will be applied to topics such as torture, political repression, war crimes and genocide, refugees, women's rights, children's rights, violations of human rights within the US and medical ethics.
The course will consist of a two hour combined lecture and discussion session each week. Each session will be co-taught, one hour by each of the faculty organizers. Guest lecturers will be invited for weeks 4 and 10.
Students will be expected to submit a mid-term paper (5-6 pages) due on April 29, 1999, and a final paper (10-15 pages) due on June 10, 1999. Graduating students can make arrangements with the course organizers to submit their work earlier. Topics for the mid-term will be handed out before the lecture on April 15. Suggested topics for the final paper will be handed out on April 29, but students are encouraged to select their own topics and get approval from one of the course organizers. Students' conceptual understandings and knowledge will be assessed through their participation in class and their mid-term paper. Their abilities to develop original ideas and engage in critical thinking on human rights will be reflected in their final paper. The course grade will reflect all three components.
The Ignacio Martin-Baro Human Rights Essay Prize Students are also encouraged to submit papers to this essay prize, details of which will be distributed in class.
There is a Human Rights Film Series co-sponsored by the Humanities Division and Doc films that should be of interest to students enrolled in the course. Films to be shown include. A detailed listing of the films, the dates and times of their showings, will be distributed in class.
Students are responsible for all course readings except those marked 'optional'. Students are required to buy the 'core texts' (available at the Seminary Coop Bookstore) and the pack of xeroxed materials available for sale in the Law School's duplication room. Books on reserve can be consulted in the Center for International Studies (Pick 103).
Historical and philosophical origins of human rights; the emergence of the modern state, the place of the individual therein and the role of international law in delineating that relationship. The International Bill of Rights; ratification and implementation of treaties; 'generations' and the creation on new human rights. The difference between civil rights and human rights.
Reading:
Are human rights a western concept or universal? What is the relationship between domestic constitutional law and international human rights law? What mechanisms exist nationally and internationally for enforcing human rights? How effective are they? The Soering and El Mozote cases.
Reading:
The definition of torture under international law; the difference between torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punoishment. Physician involvement in torture.
Reading:
Midterm topics handed out.
State repression in the Soviet Gulag: Documentation, extent, ethnic and political criteria, psychiatric repression.
Reading:
The Nuremberg legacy; legal definitions;
War crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity: medical/forensic, legal, psychological and sociologic factors. Rape as a war crime.
Reading:
Turn in Midterms.
Hand out final paper suggested topics.
Refugee and asylum law; what does international law mandate, what does domestic law offer refugees? Consideration of genesis of international refugee law and comparison with current situation. The role of non-state actors as persecutors; domestic violence and female genital mutilation as the basis for asylum.
Reading:
Reading:
Reading:
Death penalty; prison conditions; detention of alien minors including children asylum seekers.
Reading:
Medical ethics and research; human radiation experiments in the US; HIV trials in other countries.
Reading:
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