Human Rights Syllabi: Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Amnesty International USA Resource Notebook: Syllabi for the College Classroom

 

Donetsk National University, Ukraine

Faculty of Law and Economics


Fundamentals of International Health and Human Rights Law

Winter Semester 2001
Course meetings: Twice a week for one and half hours

Professor Vanessa von Struensee JD, MPH
Fulbright Professor of Law
Office Rm. 104 New Building
Office Hours By Appointment
Vanessavon@epfnt.donetsk.ua

Human Rights:

...rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. They refer to a wide continuum of values that are universal in character and in some sense equally claimed for all human beings. It is a common observation that human beings everywhere demand the realization of diverse values to ensure their individual and collective well-being. It also is a common observation that these demands are often painfully frustrated by social as well as natural forces, resulting in exploitation, oppression, persecution, and other forms of deprivation. Deeply rooted in these twin observations are the beginnings of what today are called "human rights" and the legal processes, national and international, associated with them.

www.brittanica.com

Course Purpose and Structure

This course focuses on the relationship between health and human rights. How does one define and understand international human rights? How can health professionals, economists, lawyers, social scientists, and others concerned with human rights improve individual and community health and well-being by protecting and promoting human rights?

The course provides an overview of human rights violations in the world and an analysis of the psychology of abuse. The course considers specific human rights concerns of women and children, identifying the impact of health policy on human rights, it examines the relationship between bioethics and human rights and the relationship between human rights, the environment and multinational corporations. Also, the contemporary human rights issues of universality and accountability are addressed.

The course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of human rights issues relevant to professionals. Lectures and in-class discussions will enable students to acquire knowledge and skills necessary for preventing and alleviating the human suffering caused by human rights abuses. In addition, research assignments will provide students with opportunities to raise meaningful questions by pursuing the study of original ideas, and their particular human rights issues of interest. Students' conceptual understandings and knowledge will be assessed through their participation in class. Their abilities to develop original ideas and engage in critical thinking on human rights will be reflected in their research assignment selection, presentation and writing.

Assignment

Students are to choose a topic related to some aspect of human rights as covered in the course. Each student will be expected to write a paper on his or her subject Students will present their research topics in class

Grading

40% In-class presentations and contributions to discussion
60% research paper

Required Readings

There will be handouts as well as selected readings from

Participation and Attendance

Your preparation for class, consistent attendance and active participation during class are essential both to your individual understanding of the materials and to the collective learning which is hoped to be accomplished in class. Prior preparation of the assigned reading materials will therefore be presumed in the class discussion and lectures.

Academic Honesty

Since the class meets only twice a week regular attendance is strongly advised. Absences due to illness or other legitimate reasons should be discussed with the instructor if possible before they take place. Students in this course are expected to adhere to the highest standards of academic honesty. Normal institutional policies regarding plagiarism, unauthorized multiple submissions or other forms of academic dishonesty are in effect in this course. If you unfamiliar with these policies, take the time to review academic integrity policies with me. Students submit their own assignments and take their own tests, working together is not permitted without permission from the professor.

Student Conduct

Students are expected to be courteous and polite to the instructor and to their fellow classmates. Students are expected not to interrupt the class by (among other things) entering the classroom late, leaving the classroom early, by visiting with other students during the course of a lecture, by sleeping during the class, by listening to cell phones, personal radios, etc. Students are expected to pay attention and to answer when called upon. All students are encouraged to ask questions (but not to be disruptive in doing so). Students who are disruptive will be asked to leave the class and may be dropped from the course by the instructor.

Human Rights and Health Law Course Syllabus

Week 1

Overview: What are Human Rights?

How do our understanding of human rights and our definitions of human rights abuses compare to the way these are understood internationally? What are the historical and philosophical origins of human rights and how have human rights and humanitarian law developed? What are the critical international documents that provide the world's framework for monitoring human rights abuses? What are non-derogable rights and what is meant by the interdependence and indivisibility of human rights? How can respect for human rights be enforced? Course introduction: individual introductions, outline of subjects to be covered, course objectives, student responsibilities, grading, office hours, reading material and explanation of assignments.

Reading

Weeks 2 -5

Fundamentals of Human Rights Law

Reading

See the outline of this material

Week 6

Origins of Health Concerns

How has ideology shaped our understandings of sickness, health and healing? Are human rights valid health concerns? How are the interests of individuals and society represented in medical encounters and health policy What is the legal foundation for a right to health and how is it applied internationally?

Readings

Week 7

Limiting Human Rights on Public Health Grounds: Case Study of Immunization

To enable students to recognize human rights issues in a typical public health measure, and to familiarize them with the application of human rights by demonstrating how advantages of immunization outweigh human rights argumentation against compulsory immunization.

Recommended Readings

International Instruments

Week 8

Protection of Human Rights of Mentally Ill People

To discuss the application of human rights protection to a category particulary susceptible to abuses, the mentally ill.

Recommended Readings

International Instruments

Week 9

Case Study of Gender Discrimination in Health

To discuss the nature, concepts and application of the core human rights principle, non-discrimination, by discussing gender discrimination in health and ways and means of its eradication.

Readings

Recommended Readings

Supplementary Reading

International Instruments

Week 10

Discussion

What is the relationship between social ideals and claims to universal human rights? Do human rights apply to all peopleand for all time? Does the "human rights idea" represent merely a "western" model? How does the practice of female genital cutting or lack of education for girls in Afghanistan or the former practice of foot binding in China exemplify the discourse on universality and cultural relativity? Consider other examples of this discourse.

Week 11

Unrealized Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Overview of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

What are the health consequences of development and global monetary policies? What is the extent of poverty, hunger, and overpopulation in the world today? What are the health consequences of militarism? How are these problems interrelated and how do they affect the environment? What is the role of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. What are the effects of structural adjustment policies on poverty and health?

What other models exist for developing countries? What is the relation between freedoms and unrealized human needs?

Readings - Handouts:

Week 12

Bioethics and Human Rights

What is the relationship between bioethics and human rights? How have people become unwitting participants in human experimentation? How have governments, scientists, and health professionals colluded in the misuse of their own citizenry? How have public health officials participated in human experimentation? Historical examples of this include the eugenics movement, Nazi medicine and the concentration camp experiments, human radiation, mind control, and chemical and biological warfare. What is known about the role of health professionals in experiments and torture?

Readings

Week 13

Human Rights Violations in the World Today

Overview ofthe current scope and patterns of human rights violations in the world. Overview of the problems of war, political violence, and violations of human rights and humanitarian law.

Health Consequences of Armed Conflicts and Human Rights Violations: What are the immediate and long-term effects of death and disability, destruction of infrastructure, supplies of food, water, housing, health services during times of war and civil conflicts. How do the laws of war aim to protect people in times of war? What constitutes medical neutrality?

Health Status of Refugees and Displaced Persons: What are the immediate and long-term health needs triggered by mass migrations of people during armed conflicts? What constitutes appropriate health services for humanitarian assistance?

Readings

Week 14

Torture

How is torture defined? What is the scope of its practice and its prevalence among refugees and asylum seekers? What are the physical, psychological, and social health consequences of torture? How can survivors be helped? What are the possible conceptual and clinical limitations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a diagnosis? How do literary accounts by survivors inform health professionals' efforts to prevent and alleviate suffering?

The Psychology of Abuse: What are the origins of abuse? How do processes of moral disengagement and dissociation promote abuse? What is the unconscious structure of torture? Why does causing death and injury seem to confer power to the victimizer?

Resettlement and Asylum: What health issues arise in countries of asylum? What factors determine the asylum process and how do refugees integrate into new cultures?

Readings

Week 15

Health and Women's Human Rights

What are women's human rights? How has feminism contributed to human rights discourse? How does gender discrimination manifest as abuses of women's human rights? What are reproductive rights and how have they been challenged ?

Readings

Week 16

Health and Human Rights of Children

What are the rights of children? How are they violated. What are the immediate and long-term health consequences of such violations? What is the impact of psychological trauma on development and family dynamics? How does the conceptualization of childhood influence treatment approaches? What are the causes of child labor, hunger, and malnutrition and what remedies can be identified?

Readings

Week 17

Environment, Multinational Corporations, Health and Human Rights

Note: Research Paper Proposals and Presentations Topics due

What are the effects of industry practice, pollution, and dumping on the health rights of populations? Are human rights and a free market compatible? What is the role of government policy in making trade-offs between growth and health? How can multinational corporations be held accountable for human rights abuses? Access to Information in Environmental Health: Case Study of Chernobyl.

To enable students to use the human rights norm on access to information to reinforce public health policies and measures against environmental hazard, particularly in nuclear safety.

Recommended Readings

Week 14

(If time permits): Human Rights Violations/Reports From the Field

Overview of efforts to document violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including the problems of genocide, extra-judicial executions, torture, rape, excessive use of force, prison condition, landmines, and chemical weapons. Methods of Documenting Human Rights Violations: What are the general conditions for a human rights investigation? How can epidemiology and other research methods be applied to the documentation of human rights violence? What forms of evidence should be collected?

Readings

Weeks 14/15-20

(Student Presentations)

Suggested Paper Topics

Human rights in the post-cold war period: The challenges of fractured societies

References:

The Human Rights Situation in Post-Soviet States

Reference:

Human Rights in Post-Soviet States. Strategies of human rights promotion: the role of human rights education

References:

Protection of Human Rights in Research on Human Beings: Vaccine Testing -- the human rights prohibition of involuntary and harmful experimentation, and to enable them to complement principles of research ethics with human rights norms in discussing research on human beings

References:

International Instruments

Freedom to Impart Information for Health Protection: Educational Curricula-the use of human rights argumentation to reinforce the public health necessity of e.g., AIDS prevention education.

References:

POLICY AND HEALTH: how human rights could influence decision-making in public health by analyzing the human right to health in general, and specifically the implications of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in public health

References:

International Instruments

Human Rights Organizations and Activities: How Does One Begin?

Specific examples of the work of the existing human rights organizations with the aim of assisting students in getting oriented how to obtain the information they may need, and how to develop some form of collaboration with the vast human rights network if the so wish.

References:

Other selected human rights problems for presentation

Human Rights Sources

Moreover, certain documents listed below can be accessed via internet. You must become familiar (if you are not already) with the World Health Organizations' web site (http://www.who.org) and the United Nations' web site (http://www.un.org). The World Bank is also an excellent resource http://www.worldbank.org. The following documents are available at http://www.un.org/Docs/SG/:

  1. Secretary-General's Report to the UN Security Council on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa
  2. Agenda for Development
  3. An Agenda for Peace (A/47/277-S/24111) 17 June 1992
  4. An Agenda for Peace, Supplement (A/50/60-S/1995/1) 3 January 1995.

Finally, you should visit: (1) the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights web site (http://www.unhchr.ch/); it includes a wealth of information and reports on human rights issues, and (2) the Consortium for Health and Human Rights web site (http://www.healthandhumanrights.org/)


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