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Human Rights: An Introduction

Human Rights: An Introduction. Human Rights: What Do We Mean?. Do human beings have obligations and responsibilities to one another by virtue of their common humanity? What would these obligations and responsibilities include? Is it appropriate to characterize

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Human Rights: An Introduction

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  1. Human Rights: An Introduction

  2. Human Rights: What Do We Mean? Do human beings have obligations and responsibilities to one another by virtue of their common humanity? What would these obligations and responsibilities include? Is it appropriate to characterize those obligations and responsibilities as “rights?”

  3. Human Rights Issues Continued What international agencies, organizations, governments and political entities are in the best positions to defend, protect, or promote those obligations, responsibilities, or “rights.” How well do those involved in human rights matters do their job?

  4. History of the Human Rights Movement: Universality and Empathy

  5. Pre-French Revolution Romanticism: Taken from Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights Basic Books, 2007 • The Increasing Popularity of Portraiture

  6. The Growing Popularity of the Epistolary Novel Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1747-1748) Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Julie or the New Heloise (1761). Ability to identify across class and gender lines Movement to Abolish Torture

  7. Universality • The Logic of Equality Creates • Anti-Torture Sentiments • Anti-Slavery Movement • Recognition of the importance of Women’s Rights • Reversing Anti-Semitism • Leads to Formal Declarations of Rights

  8. Nationalism and the State as Human Rights Protector Reaction to Radical Implications of the French Revolution and the Ensuing Napoleonic Wars

  9. The 20th Century and Evolving Understandings • Customary Law: Jus cogens (Compelling law) vs. Natural Law • Gradual Understanding of importance of international legal norms • Nuremberg Trials

  10. Nuremberg Trials (Continued) Crimes Against Peace War Crimes Crimes Against Humanity

  11. Nuremberg Issues • How does one document “crimes against peace?” • Was the prosecution against “war crimes” selective? • Should an international body composed of the victors of war determine the guilt of those charged with “crimes against humanity?” • Is the “simply following orders” defense acceptable?

  12. Post-World War II Efforts • U.N. Charter Little reference to human rights per se Emphasis upon U.N. members’ obligation to maintain peace • Universal Declaration of Human Rights Did not have the force of a treaties but served as a springboard for the ICCP (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights) Approved (1966, ratified, 1976)

  13. Other Important International Agreements • Geneva Conventions (1950) • Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide (1951) • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1981) • Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) • Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2006)

  14. Do These Instruments Do Any Good? • State Sovereignty vs. U.N. Authority • U.N. Enforcement Mechanisms Can Be Lax • Rise of Regional Organizations and NGOs to take up the slack. • Argument in favor of Overlapping Consensus, Relative Universality (Jack Donnelly, Human Rights Quarterly 29.2 (2007) 281-306

  15. Group vs. Individual Rights • Religious Freedom • Indigenous Peoples Rights • Women’s Rights • Children’s Rights • Disability Rights

  16. Development Rights • Shelter • Food • Health • Education • Environmental Sustainability

  17. Development Rights Challenges • Measurement • What does a right to an education mean? For how long? Under what terms? • Invisibility of structural violence (particularly regarding poverty) • How does one reconcile the rights of current citizens with those of future generations (Environmental Sustainability)?

  18. Late 20th and 21st Century Challenges • Repeated Mass Atrocity and Global Inaction Chechyna Rwanda Bosnia Darfur Congo Uganda Syria • Globalization Effects • Sex Trafficking • Child Soldiering • Child Labor • Global Slavery • Terrorism

  19. Challenges • To Make Our Students Aware of Fundamental Issues Involving Human Dignity, Personal and Social Responsibility at all Grade levels in ways that are age appropriate • To Give Voice to Students, Encouraging Their Comments Upon Issues that are of intrinsic importance to Them • To Embrace Constructive Ambiguity When Evaluating the Efforts of Organizations and Individuals to Better Protect and Defend Human Rights • To Use the Wealth of Information and Modes of Communication Available for Classroom Use in Communicating These Goals to Our Students

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