Human Rights & Global Affairs (PSC 354.001)

1. Human Rights & Global Affairs (PSC 354.001) January 21, 2009 (W)

2. Today • Housekeeping • Digital pictures • Review of last week • Course website • Introducing the three core readings (books) • Today’s readings: O’Byrne and Donnelly • What are human rights? • Theory and human rights • Justifying human rights

3. Human Rights & Global Affairs (PSC 354.001) • Are you registered for this class? • Attendance • Additions: social and economic rights/religious freedom • The quiz • Digital pictures • Expectations

4. What are “human rights”? • ‘Human rights’ are rights held simply because one is a human being. • Human rights describe a life in human dignity framed in a language of rights. • Rights are “trumps”, superceding other considerations (utility, interests, political concerns, etc.) • Human possibility • Human rights cover more than basic needs. They aim to promote human possibilities in a particular, morally defensible way.

5. Universal, Inalienable, Indivisible • Inalienable/incontrovertible • Rights can not be forfeit, suspended, or given up. • Indivisible • All rights are equal and depend upon each other. • Universal • Every human being enjoys the same rights. • Rights create duties and obligations for others • Human rights create obligations and go beyond the moral claim of something being right; they create entitlements (having a right).

6. O’Byrne, introduction, 1-25 • Human rights as “a discipline in its own right,” 2 • Human rights research should improve the human condition, 3 (is there a conflict with the academic ethos of unbiased research?) • Book focuses primarily on civil and political rights, 11

7. O’Byrne, introduction, 1-25 • Human rights abuses today (p. 5-8) • Ranking countries with regard to human rights abuses • What does human rights research look like (p. 8-17)? • What should be included in human rights research? What qualifies as a human rights abuse? • Focus on the key role of the state

8. O’Byrne, introduction, 1-25 • Theory and Human rights, 17 • Theories of human nature: because violations are committed by individuals (next week) • Theories of society: because violations occur in specific social contexts. • Theories of ethics: because we need to understand why violations are wrong. • Theories of politics: because the state plays a central role in acts of commission or omission. • Theories of modernization: because we face a world of simultaneous human rights progress and atrocities.

9. Donnelly, introduction and ch. 1 • Human rights: “the rights that one has because one is human,” 7 • Human rights are NOT granted by the state. • Human rights are • Inalienable • Equal • Universal • Indivisible

10. Donnelly, introduction and ch. 1 • Human rights are not the same as abstract values, 11 • “To have the right” significantly changes the relationship between rulers and ruled. • Human rights are not simply legal rights. • Example: LGBT community frequently appeals to human, not legal rights, 12 • Legal rights are based on positive law.

11. Donnelly, introduction and ch. 1 • How do rights ‘work’? • A right is an entitlement. It is not simply a benefit or a desirable outcome. • Assertive exercise: to claim a right • Active respect: to consider a right • Objective enjoyment. • Human rights violations constitute a special class of injustice.

12. Donnelly, introduction and ch. 1 Human rights and human nature • How can we defend human rights? • How can we justify human rights? • Why do those defenses (based on ethics or religion) of human rights sometimes fail? • How does being ‘human’ create rights? (Donnelly, p. 13). • Possible answers: • Human needs (rejected by Donnelly, p. 14) • Life in dignity: Man’s moral nature; prescriptive account of human possibility

13. What is essential human nature? • Physical needs • Derives a definition of human rights from the scientific study of what humans require for survival. • Weakness: neglects dignity and possibility. • Mental and moral needs • Shifts attention away from what we are now to what we could be in the future. • Weakness: No agreement on human nature and possibilities. • Capacity to suffer and feel compassion • Shifts attention away from being human to issues of suffering and compassion. • Weakness: Focus on pain, rather than human possibility.

14. Human possibility • Donnelly: “Human nature is a social project and more than a presocial given.” • “Treat a person like a human being and you will get a human being” (Donnelly, p. 15). • Rights constitute individuals (not communities). • Rights construct free and equal citizens.

15. From human nature to specific rights • What is the content and essence of human nature? (Donnelly, p. 16/17) • Ultimately, these philosophical theories will always be contentious (because they are based on assumptions). • However, we have a remarkable normative consensus on the content of rights (expressed in the UDHR). • A lack of foundations is not necessarily damaging to the idea of human rights.

16. The Universal Declaration Model • A Global Consensus? • 30 min video on the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 • Donnelly, chapter 2: Rights are • Universal and Individual (p. 23-27) • Indivisible (p. 27-33) • States have the exclusive responsibility to implement human rights at home (p. 33-37).

17. What you should know • What are human rights? • Where do human rights come from (normative and empirical)? • What are some justifications for upholding human rights? • What are contemporary challenges to the global human rights movement? • What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?