Human Rights and International Relations

http://sociologyofhumanrights.blogspot.com/

Instructor: Tugrul Keskin           

Course Description and Objective:
Over the last few decades, some concepts have become very popularized as a consequence of increased technological advancement and global market conditions, and their implications for human society. These include democracy, human rights, freedom, free elections, minority and immigrant rights, freedom of expression, religious freedom, academic freedom, and other related concepts. However, each of these terms holds vague meaning to those who seek freedom, human rights, democracy, and so on. Most importantly, these terms have been commodified in the marketplace. State actors, organizations, academicians and activists have also politicized these terms, resulting in careers based on the political usage and interests of those wielding power to decide what constitutes human rights. Human Rights ideology represents a political opportunity structure for many political and social groups and plays a major role in world politics today, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this class, we will critically review and analyze the history of human rights in the broader context of globalization and power politics that determine how these concepts are understood and applied. This course provides an alternative overview of the definitions, history and development of Human Rights in the Western and Non-Western contexts.  

We will also explore the meanings, definitions, history, and development of Human Rights and its place in world politics from a sociological perspective. The sociological approach is different than political science and law because while each of these fields considers human rights as ascribed rights that come with birth, the field of Sociology takes into account the power relationships that are built into the understandings and the differential usage of the concept of Human Rights. Sociology also accounts for the cultural, societal and historical contexts in which the discussion of Human Rights arises.

Hence, this class will be taught from the perspective of society and culture, not through the lens of any particular set of laws and regulations. In this context, when we read the Human Rights violations reports published by HRW, AI or the US State Department Human Rights reports, we must critically approach and examine the highly politicized human rights issues in East Timor, Kashmir, Tibet, Xinjiang (Eastern Turkistan), Rwanda, Israel/Palestine and Europe. Because of the politicization and commodification of Human Rights, it is very difficult to create an objective and contextual approach to issues such as status of the Kurds, Palestinians, Uighurs, Mexican immigrants in the US, Turkish immigrants in Germany, Arabs in the US, among other examples. How can we improve women’s rights in Afghanistan? Who defines these rights? Why are there different approaches and definitions of Human Rights and from where do those differences arise?

The concept of Human Rights is embedded in the European and American framework of neo-colonialism and has therefore been commodified by the market conditions of capitalism. The colonial legacy of Europe created unintended consequences such as dictatorial regimes, cheap labor, and reactionary conservative and religious social and political movements in the former colonies. These conditions led to the human rights abuses that we see in those regions today. Europe and the US now exploit these weaknesses to the benefit of American and European economic interests. This dynamic became obvious after the Reagan Administration came to power in the US.     Because of this process, we have witnessed the emergence of the human rights industry in the West.

Learning Outcomes (Tugrul Keskin):

By the end of the course, you will have enhanced your:
    Critical thinking in relation to international studies and sociology
    Ability to question dogmas and taboos in today’s societies
    Consciousness of differing perspectives and diversity
    Understanding of world issues and trends
    Understanding of the impact of colonialism and imperialism in developing nations

You also will have increased your knowledge concerning:
    Resources in your potential discipline
    Resources specific to your region
    Traditional information sources
    Alternative information sources
    Knowledge of relevant methodologies

Learning Outcomes
Core Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of world cultures, politics, and economics, within the context of globalization, as well as developing the skills and attitudes to function as “global citizens.”

Specific Outcomes:
•    Demonstrate knowledge of global issues, processes, trends and systems (i.e. economic and political interdependency among nations; environmental-cultural interaction; global governance bodies).
•    Can articulate an understanding of her/his culture in global and comparative context; that is, recognizes that her/his culture is one of many diverse cultures and that alternate perceptions and behaviors may be based in cultural differences.
•    Demonstrates an understanding of the meaning and practice of political, military, economic, and cultural hegemony within states and within the global system.
•    Demonstrates an understanding of how her/his field is viewed and practiced in different international contexts.
•    Uses diverse cultural perspectives and frames of reference, including those of the media, to think critically and solve problems.
•    Uses information from other languages and other countries to extend their access to information and experiences.
•    Interprets issues and situations from more than one cultural perspective.
•    Can articulate differences among cultures; demonstrates tolerance for the diverse viewpoints that emerge from these differences.
•    Demonstrates a critical understanding of the historical origins of the nation-state, and its current role in the global system.
•    Can apply the key theoretical concepts in the field to interpret global issues.
•    Exhibits an ongoing willingness to seek out international or intercultural opportunities.

Required Books:
This course will use sections from the following books and articles:

1.    Paul Gordon Lauren. (2011). The Evolution of International Human Rights Visions Seen. University of Pennsylvania Press. http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14864.html
2.    Jean Bricmont.  2006. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War. Monthly Review Press. http://monthlyreview.org/press/books/pb1471/
3.    Judith Blau and Mark Frezzo, 2011. Sociology and Human Rights: A Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century http://www.sagepub.com/books/Book235439

Other readings will be posted on the D2L and you will find them under the course documents.

Recommended Additional Readings:
1.    RESOURCE BOOK: Hayden, Patrick. 1999. Philosophy of Human Rights: Readings in Context. Paragon House. http://www.paragonhouse.com/Philosophy-of-Human-Rights-Readings-in-Context.html
2.    Conor Foley. 2008. The Thin Blue Line: How Humanitarianism Went to War. Verso. http://www.versobooks.com/books/498-the-thin-blue-line
3.    Jack Donnelly. 2012. International Human Rights. Westview Press.
http://www.westviewpress.com/book.php?isbn=9780813345017  
4.    Ishay, Micheline (2008). The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era. University of California Press. http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520256415
5.    Ishay, Micheline (ed) 2008 The Human Rights Reader 2nd ed. Routledge Press.
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415951609/  
6.    Ignatieff, Michael (2003). Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton University Press. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7119.html   
7.    Goodale, Mark (2008). Human Rights: An Anthropological Reader. Wiley-Blackwell. http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405183357.html  
8.    Beitz, Charles R. (2009). The Idea of Human Rights. Oxford University Press.
9.    Moyn, Samuel (2012). The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Harvard University Press. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674048720  
10.    Griffin, James (2008). On Human Rights. Oxford University Press.
11.    Mayer, A.E. (1995) Islam and Human Rights: Traditions and Politics. 2 ed, Boulder: Westview.
12.    Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp, Kathryn Sikkink. (1999). The Power of Human Rights International Norms and Domestic Change. Cambridge University Press. http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/power-human-rights-international-norms-and-domestic-change
13.    Goodhart, Michael (2009). Human Rights: Politics and Practice. Oxford University Press.
14.    Freeman, Michael A. (2011). Human Rights: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Polity Press.
15.    Goodhart, Michael (2011). Human Rights in the 21st Century Continuity and Change since 9/11. Palgrave.
16.    Hunt, Lynn (2008). Inventing Human Rights: A History. W. W. Norton & Company, New York.  
17.    Perry, Michael J. (2000). The Idea of Human Rights Four Inquiries. Oxford UniversityPress. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Law/PublicInternationalLaw/InternationalHumanRights/?view=usa&ci=9780195138283  
18.    Donnelly, Jack (2003). Universal Human Right in Theory and Practice Cornell Press. http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100015050
19.    Turner, Brian (2006). Vulnerability and Human Rights. Penn State University Press. http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02923-4.html
20.    Wallerstein, Immanuel (2006). European Universalism: The Rhetoric of Power. The New Press. http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1365
21.    Steiner, Henry J. Philip Alston and Ryan Goodman (2007). International Human Rights in Context Law, Politics, Morals. Oxford University Press. http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/he/subject/PoliticalScience/PoliticalTheory/HumanRights/?view=usa&ci=9780199279425
22.    Somers, Margaret (2008). Genealogies of Citizenship.
23.    Mann, Michael (2004). The Dark Side of Democracy. Cambridge University Press.
24.    Falk, Richard (2009). Achieving Human Rights. Routledge.
25.    Beitz, Charles. “What Human Rights Mean.” Daedalus 132 (2003): 36-46.
26.    Waltz, Susan. “Reclaiming and Rebuilding the History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” Third World Quarterly 23 (No. 3 2002): 437-448.
27.    Carol Anderson, Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955 (2003), pp. 271-276.
28.    Clark, Ann Marie. Diplomacy of Conscience: Amnesty International and Changing Human Rights Norms Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001: 3-20; 130.
29.    Keck, Margaret E. and Sikkink, Kathryn. Activists Beyond Borders. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998: 1-29.
30.    Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui (2005) “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The
Paradox of Empty Promises” In American Journal of Sociology Vol. 110
(5): 1373-1411.
31.    Reus-Smit, Christian. Human Rights and the Social Construction of Sovereignty. Review of International Studies (2001), 27, 519–538.
32.    Bulaç, Ali 2000 "The Medina Document" In Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook Kurzman ed. Oxford University Press.
33.    Brysk, Alison. “From Above and Below: Social Movements, the International System, and Human Rights in Argentina.” Comparative Political Studies 26 (October 1993): 259-285.
34.    Etzioni, Amitai. The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident. Human Rights Quarterly 32 (2010) 187–197.    
35.    Sen, Amartya "More than 100 Million Women are Missing. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/dec/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/?pagination=false
36.    Farmer, Paul 2005 "On Suffering and Structural Violence: Social and Economic Rights in a Global Era" In Pathologies of Power (pgs. 29-50).
37.    Hernandez-Truyol, B.E. and Jane Larson (2002) “Both Work and Violence: Prostitution and Human Rights” In Moral Imperialism (pp. 183-211).
38.    Cortyndon, Anna ed. (2007) “Trading Away our Rights: Women Working in
39.    Global Supply Chains, OXFAM International.
40.    Economist (2010) “Gendercide” The Worldwide war on baby girls” Print Edition. March 4. http://www.economist.com/node/15636231
41.    "The Sex Market" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/09/world/the-sex-market-scourge-on-the-world-s-children.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm  
42.    "Women's Rights: Why Not?" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/opinion/women-s-rights-why-not.html  
43.    "US Blocks Money for Family Clinics Promoted by UN" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/23/world/us-blocks-money-for-family-clinics-promoted-by-un.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
44.    Cortelyou, Kenny 2009 “Disaster in the Amazon: Dodging Boomerang Suits in
Transnational Human Rights Litigation” In California Law Review 857.
45.    Mertus, Julie. “The Lingua Franca of Diplomacy: Human Rights and the Post-Cold War Presidencies,” excerpt from Bait and Switch: Human Rights and US Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2004): 39-74.
46.    Sikkink, Kathryn. "The Power of Principled Ideas: Human Rights Policies in the United States and Western Europe." In Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, edited by Judith Goldstein and Robert O. Keohane. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.  
47.    Okuizumi, Kaora. "Implementing the ODA Charter: Prospects for Linking Japanese Economic Assistance and Human Rights." NYU Journal of International Law and Politics 27 (Winter 1995): 367-408
48.    Japan Foreign Ministry, “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity: Japan's Expanding Diplomatic Horizons" http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/fm/aso/speech0611.html  (also see program for MOFA symposium, 2007, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policyillar/symposium0702.html)
49.    “China Issues Human Rights Record of the US” March 2007.  
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zgrq/t302225.htm

Resources:
•    US Department of State - Human Rights Country Reports: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/index.htm
•    Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation – Report on the Human Rights Situation in the United States of America
http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/ns-dgpch.nsf/8f29680344080938432569ea00361529/2ab49ff642baf0c244257aa000254663!OpenDocument  
•    Amnesty International Country Reports:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/page.do?id=1041024
•    Human Rights Watch: Daily Reports
http://www.hrw.org/en/publications/reports
•    United Nations Human Rights Regime:
o    UNDHR: http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
o    UN Human Rights Section: http://www.un.org/rights/index.html
o    UN HR High Commissioner: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx
o    UN HR Council: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/
o    UN HR Committee: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/hrc.htm
o    UN Convention Rights of Children: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
•    Mailing list: http://www.hrea.org/lists/index.html
•    White Papers of PRC
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/whitepaper/home.html
•    Human Rights Library – University of Minnesota
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/
•    Philosophy of Human Rights
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/
•    H-Human Rights
https://networks.h-net.org/node/6148/pages/6153/resources-h-human-rights

Documentaries and Movies:  
1.    Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0MPcN08Zc
2.    Life is Beautiful (1997) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ZoO7oiN0s
3.    Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v65R9WIUq4
4.    The Story of Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3BbLk5UIQ&feature=related  
5.    Ali G on Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zydq4S9c8Ys&feature=related
6.    The 30 Articles of Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36CUlaqmFi4&feature=related
7.    Harvest of Empire (2012)
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/25/harvest_of_empire_new_film_recounts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0lsAYnBNaM
8.    Forgotten Bird of Paradise (full version) - undercover West Papua documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CaGou3vB3A0  
9.    The War On Democracy (2011) by John Pilger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FXTnVsy32bE
10.    These Birds Walk (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLSrOvHo_Q

Course Philosophy:
The goal of this course is to enable students to write a theoretically guided and empirically rooted research paper.  I expect you to become familiar with the social, political and economic underpinnings of Human Rights.

The success of this course depends on your continued and sustained reading and participation. The course will be based on a four-dimensional method of learning. This includes inquiry and critical thinking; communication; the diversity of human experience; and ethics and social responsibility. First, I would like you to critically analyze what you learn in this class or have learned so far through the media and education, because in today’s world, truth is a relative concept. Throughout human history, critical thinking has been one of the most important factors contributing to human development.  In order to become active, self-motivated, empowered learners and future leaders, you will need to have the ability to think critically, and therefore your criticism, feedback and suggestions are necessary. Second, I would like you to enhance your writing and oral communication skills in this course. Therefore, it is important to clearly elaborate on your arguments in class discussion as well as in the written assignments.

Third, we are each part of the human mosaic, and all have different experiences based on our social, political and economic differences. We can all learn from and respect each other and benefit from our diversity. Please try to learn from and understand those with different perspectives than you. Lastly, we need to learn that we are all part of this intellectual community and larger society, and all have social and ethical responsibilities to our family, community, classmates, and humanity. We live in a globalized world and therefore we must be aware of events in our community, and in the world today. In order to enhance our knowledge, we must critically examine our social, political and economic environment in order to apply this knowledge to our experience.
 
Course Requirements
To prevent confusion later, please read the following information:

Weekly Reflection Papers: Weekly reflection paper will include an open book essay that will determine what you have learned in class each week. I will ask you two to four questions regarding the same week’s class subject and discussion. The weekly reflection paper should be at least 1600 words. Font size should be Times New Roman, 12 point.  The due date for an each paper is Sunday by 11:59 PM.
Criteria: If your paper is less than 1600 words, or late, you will loose 2 points.    

Newspaper Articles: During the semester, you can bring 5 newspaper articles related with our class subjects. You cannot bring more than one article in the same week. You will have to summarize these articles in class.

Weekly Presentations: Each week, three or four students will be assigned a weekly topic from the readings. These students will summarize the readings and will prepare questions for the class and lead the class discussion. Each student must read the course material before they attend class and I expect them to participate in class discussion.

Final Paper: You will choose a topic related to Human Rights, which you will analyze within a theoretical framework described in the class and course materials. I must approve your topic and plan ahead of time; therefore, the final paper proposals are due as MS Word attachments emailed to me by Monday. The final paper is a short empirical or theoretical paper of at least 4000 words (font should be Times New Roman, 12 point), doubled spaced, and on a focused topic that relates directly to this course. The last day to submit your final paper is Sunday.

CRITERIA:
•    If you submit your final paper proposal after ……………..you will loose 3 points!
•    If your final paper is late, you will loose another 4 points!
•    If your final paper is less then 4000 words, you will loose 5 points!   

Format: ASA citation and bibliography format will be followed for all course assignments. All work should adhere to the guidelines published by the American Sociological Association (ASA) at:
http://www.asanet.org/cs/root/topnav/sociology_depts/quick_style_guide.
This is not a definitive source, but is a Quick Guide provided by ASA.

Participation/Attendance: Each student must read the course materials before they attend class, and I expect them to participate in class discussion. Regular class attendance is one of the most important parameters to successful completion of the course requirements. If you find interesting articles, books, videos, or other sources that pertain to the class topics and discussion, please share them with me and with your classmates. This can count towards your class participation score.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! - Electronic Devices & Other Classroom Policies

Coming late to class and leaving early: Latecomers will not be accepted in the class, so be on time. If you are late for a class, please do not disturb your classmates and me and do not come at all. Please also do not send an email or call me regarding your class attendance. If there is a medical need, bring a letter from a doctor. Whatever the reason is, if you cannot come to class, this is your responsibility. If you miss more than 3 classes, you will not receive an attendance/participation grade. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE EARLY EITHER! This is a class, not a coffee shop!

Laptop and cell phone policy: No electronic devices (including but not limited to laptops, cell phones, blackberries, etc) are to be used in the classroom. This includes talking on the phone, texting, playing games, surfing the web, or any other inappropriate usage. Those caught using restricted devices will be asked to leave class. Lectures may not be recorded with audio or multi-media devices. Please turn your cell phone off before you come to class.

Responsibility: You and/or your parents pay tuition for this class; therefore, you have responsibility to yourself and/or your parents. Passing or failing the class is not the main objective, rather that you learn and improve your knowledge. Please read and try to understand the main concepts of this class. If you are having difficulty, please do not hesitate to see me and discuss your concerns!

Each year, almost half a million people graduate from Chinese public universities (see http://collegecompletion.chronicle.com/). As you will see from the statistics, the job market is very competitive; therefore, students need to improve their knowledge, skill, and experience in order to find a job they want. Learning is a lifelong process. An academic institution like Shanghai University will provide you with an educational discipline and methodology; everything else is up to you. You should study and improve your skills, in order to compete with the rest of the graduates. While you are in the program, you should apply for internships to obtain relevant experiences before you graduate. Therefore, if you need a letter of recommendation for an internship or job, please do not hesitate to ask me, if you receive at least an A, A- or B+ grade in my class. Please also remember that an undergraduate degree might not be enough to find the job you want; in that case, you might need to apply to graduate school. In order to apply to graduate school, you will also need to have a letter of recommendation. I am also happy to advise you on graduate school or provide a letter of recommendation if you receive an A, A- or B+ grade.  

Grades: Your grade for this course will be based on performance on the following components, shown with their dates and respective weights:

Item                    Date                Weight (%)

5 Weekly Reflection Paper                         60.0
Final Paper                                20.0
Weekly Presentation and Participation                10.0
Newspaper Articles                             5.0    
Attendance                                 5.0

The grading system in this class is as follows:
 
A        95-100      
A-         90-94     
B+          86-89     
B           85      
B-          80-84     
C+          76-79     
C           75     
C-          70-74     
D+          66-69     
D           65     
D-          60-64
F          (Failure)     
 

Course Timeline

First Week
    •    Introduction to Human Rights and Syllabus
•    The Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml

•    Beitz, Charles. “What Human Rights Mean.” Daedalus 132 (2003): 36-46. (D2L)

•    Falk, Richard. “ Human Rights.” Foreign Policy March-April 2004. (D2L)

•    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
1. My Brother's and Sister's Keeper: Visions and the Origins of Human Rights
Religious Visions
Philosophical Visions
Traditional Practices and Ideas of a Very Different Sort
Visions—and Reality

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 1. Introduction - Mark Frezzo
Chapter 2. Deepening Civil and Political Rights - Mark Frezzo

•    Video: The Story of Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh3BbLk5UIQ&feature=related  
•    Video: Ali G on Human Rights
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6Ywje9wZE
•    Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8

Second Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
2. To Protect Humanity and Defend Justice: Early International Efforts
To Free the Enslaved
To Assist the Exploited
To Care for the Wounded
To Protect the Persecuted

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 3. Ensuring Economic and Social Rights - Louis Edgar Esparza
Chapter 4. Promoting Cultural Rights - Laura Toussaint

•    Imperialist feminism redux By Saadia Toor - Dialect Anthropol (2012) 36:147–160. (Posted on D2L)
•    Russia - Report on the human rights situation in the United States of America (Posted on D2L)
•    China - Human Rights Record of the United States in 2013. (Posted on D2L)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-05/25/c_131611391.htm

•    Movie: Life is Beautiful (1997) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64ZoO7oiN0s

Sunday
    Reflection Paper – 1

Third Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
Entering the Twentieth Century: Visions, War, Revolutions, and Peacemaking
Modernization, Internationalization, and Visions of Rights
War, Revolutions, and Rights
Peacemaking and Human Rights
The Covenant: Rights Proclaimed and Rights Rejected

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 5. Globalizing the Human Rights Perspective - Bruce K. Friesen
Chapter 6. Cooperating Around Environmental Rights - Rebecca Clausen

•    Non-Western Human Rights Approach
Bulaç, Ali 2000 "The Medina Document" In Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook Kurzman ed. Oxford University Press.

•    Documentary: Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX0MPcN08Zc

Sunday
    Reflection Paper – 2

Fourth Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
4. Opportunities and Challenges: Visions and Rights Between the Wars
A Flourishing of Visions
Opportunities for New Departures
Persistent Problems and Challenges
The Gathering Storm

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 7. Comparing Constitutions - Judith Blau
Chapter 8. Arizona’s SB 1070: Setting Conditions for Violations of Human
Rights Here and Beyond - Rogelio Sáenz, Cecilia Menjívar, San Juanita Edilia

•    Documentary: The War On Democracy (2011) by John Pilger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FXTnVsy32bE

Fifth Week
    •    Etzioni, Amitai. The Normativity of Human Rights Is Self-Evident. Human Rights Quarterly 32 (2010) 187–197. (D2L)   

•    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
5. A "People's War": The Crusade of World War II
War, Genocide, and Self-Reflections
Crusaders, Visions, and Proposals
Human Rights Versus National Sovereignty in Postwar Planning
Opposition from the Great Powers

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 9. Beyond Two Identities: Turkish Immigrants in Germany - Tugrul Keskin
Chapter 10: The Rights of Age: On Human Vulnerability - Bryan S. Turner  

•    Documentary: Harvest of Empire (2012)
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/25/harvest_of_empire_new_film_recounts

Sunday
     Reflection Paper – 3

Sixth Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
6. A "People's Peace": Peace and a Charter with Human Rights
Insisting on a Peace with Rights
Politics and Diplomacy at the San Francisco Conference
The Charter of the United Nations
Differing Reactions and Assessments

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 11. Children’s Rights - Brian Gran and Rachel Bryant
Chapter 12. Growing and Learning Human Rights - Judith Blau

Newspaper Articles
•    Sen, Amartya "More than 100 Million Women are Missing. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/dec/20/more-than-100-million-women-are-missing/?pagination=false
•    Economist (2010) “Gendercide” The Worldwide war on baby girls” Print Edition. March 4. http://www.economist.com/node/15636231
•    "The Sex Market" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/09/world/the-sex-market-scourge-on-the-world-s-children.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm  
•    "Women's Rights: Why Not?" NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/opinion/women-s-rights-why-not.html  

Seventh Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
7. Proclaiming a Vision: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Revolution Begins
Challenging Questions of Philosophy
Difficult Problems of Politics
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

•    (Blau and Frezzo - Sociology and Human Rights)
Chapter 13. Going Forward - Judith Blau

•    World Report 2012: United States
http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-united-states

•    Documentary: Standard Operating Procedure (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v65R9WIUq4

Sunday
    Reflection Paper – 4

Eighth Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
8. Transforming Visions into Reality: The First Fifty Years of the Universal Declaration
Extending Rights and Setting Standards
Protecting Rights Through Implementation
Promoting Rights
Expanding Activities and Enhancing Rights

•    Bricmont, Jean. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.
Power and Ideology
The Third World and the West
Questions to Human Rights Defenders
•    Exploring the organizations: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, The Helsinki Commission, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, etc.

•    Documentary: Forgotten Bird of Paradise (full version) - undercover West Papua documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CaGou3vB3A0  

Ninth Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
9. The Continuing Evolution
International Law, the Responsibility to Protect, and Challenges to Sovereignty
Globalization, Development, Terrorism—and Torture
New Human Rights Institutions and Organizations
Technology and Political Will

•    Bricmont, Jean. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.
Weak and Strong Arguments against War
Illusions and Mystifications
•    Exploring the Human Rights Reports: AI, HRW, US State Department Human Rights Reports.
•    Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui (2005) “Human Rights in a Globalizing World: The
•    Paradox of Empty Promises” In American Journal of Sociology Vol. 110 (5): 1373-1411. (D2L).
•    Documentary: These Birds Walk (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLSrOvHo_Q

Sunday
    Reflection Paper – 5

Tenth Week
    •    (Paul Gordon Lauren - The Evolution of International Human Rights)
10. Toward the Future
The Nature and Power of Visions
People of Vision and Action
Forces and Events of Consequence
Process, Politics, and Perspective
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

•    Bricmont, Jean. Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.
The Guilt Weapon
Prospects, Dangers and Hopes
•    Case Studies - Countries and Human Rights: China (PRC), US, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Suudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.

Newspaper Articles:
•    “China Issues Human Rights Record of the US” March 2007.  
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zgrq/t302225.htm

•    FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS (DRAFT VERSION) WEDNESDAY
    
FINAL PAPER
Sunday
Midnight
By Email – tugrulkeskin@t.shu.edu.cn

A New Book: Human Rights on Trial A Genealogy of the Critique of Human Rights

Human Rights on Trial A Genealogy of the Critique of Human Rights

Justine Lacroix, Université Libre de Bruxelles , Jean-Yves Pranchère, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Cambridge - May 2018
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/human-rights-on-trial/B060533D35B0CE6B870791518F5CE20B#.WucmfqtyReU.twitter

The first systematic analysis of the arguments made against human rights from the French Revolution to the present day. Through the writings of Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, Auguste Comte, Louis de Bonald, Joseph de Maistre, Karl Marx, Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt, the authors explore the divergences and convergences between these 'classical' arguments against human rights and the contemporary critiques made both in Anglo-American and French political philosophy. Human Rights on Trial is unique in its marriage of history of ideas with normative theory, and its integration of British/North American and continental debates on human rights. It offers a powerful rebuttal of the dominant belief in a sharp division between human rights today and the rights of man proclaimed at the end of the eighteenth century. It also offers a strong framework for a democratic defence of human rights.

Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2016

http://english.gov.cn/news/top_news/2017/03/09/content_281475589762606.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2017-03/09/c_136115648.htm

2017-03-09

The report, titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2016,” was released by the Information Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet, in response to “the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016” issued by the US State Department on March 3 local time.
Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2016

The age of human rights imperialism

By Andrew Mwenda

NEW VISION - 4th June 2015 -

The timing was surprising because there have hardly been incidents of human rights abuse in Rwanda for a while. Instead the hearing took place against the backdrop of widespread demonstrations in the US against police brutality meted out against African American males. Why would the US congress be bothered by human rights in Rwanda, a country 15,000 miles away, when many of its own citizens are being killed by a run-amok police while others are being sent to jail in droves? In the mid-late 1990s and early 2000s, the government of Rwanda used to be highhanded. It relied on the systematic use of force to consolidate power to a significant degree. This was a period when RPF’s political base was narrow and the government was also fighting a ferocious insurgency inside the country. Since the end of insurgency in 2001 and the rapid growth in the organisational reach of the RPF, the government has progressively moved away from force to economic performance and delivery of public goods and services to citizens to consolidate power. There are still cases of human rights abuse. But they are isolated and occasional, not systemic. Human rights groups have remained oblivious of this progress in large part because acknowledging it takes away their relevance.

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Washington’s “human rights” imperialism exposed

Joseph Kishore

WORLD SOCIALIST WEB - 2 April 2015

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is resuming arms shipments to the military dictatorship in Egypt, beginning with the transfer of 12 F-16 fighter jets, missiles and the components required to build 125 tanks. In a personal call to Egypt’s ruler, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Obama also pledged to resume the annual transfer of $1.3 billion in military aid.  The White House made no effort to claim that Egypt had made “credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government”—the statutory condition for ending the suspension of military aid imposed in October 2013. Instead, it invoked an exemption passed by Congress late last year to override this requirement.  Resuming military aid to Egypt, the second largest recipient of such assistance from the US, after Israel, is “in the interest of US national security,” a White House statement declared. Obama told al-Sisi it was necessary for Egypt and the US to “refine our military assistance relationship so that it is better positioned to address the shared challenges to US and Egyptian interests…”

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Cultural Relativism and Cultural Imperialism in Human Rights Law

Guyora Binder

State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, SUNY Buffalo Law School 
1999  Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, Vol. 5, pp. 211-221, 1999 

Abstract:     
The "Universalism-Cultural Relativism" debate proceeds on the assumption that international human rights law requires the identification of fundamental principles of justice that transcend culture, society, and politics. Thus, the debate presumes that to assert the cultural relativity of justice is to deny the legitimacy of international human rights law. This comment challenges this presumed linkage between international human rights law and universally valid criteria of justice. Human rights standards are obviously culturally relative, and human rights law is obviously a Western institution. But so are the kind of states that human rights law sets out to restrain. The nation-state ideal is rarely fulfilled in the post-colonial world; the weak state sector is often just one cultural structure among many rather than the center from which a national culture radiates. The imperialism critique of human rights law hinges upon an ideal of national self-determination that may be unrealistic for much of the developing world. International governance of these societies is probably inevitable whether or not we acknowledge it. Rather than asking whether human rights standards are authentic to the national cultures of the developing world, we should ask whether and how human rights law marginally contributes to building societies capable of self-determination at some future point.

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Western Human Rights in a Diverse World: Cultural Suppression or Relativism?

Clancy Wright

E-INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Apr 25 2014

This content was written by a student and assessed as part of a university degree. E-IR publishes student essays & dissertations to allow our readers to broaden their understanding of what is possible when answering similar questions in their own studies.

The Western cultural construct of human rights provides inherent and inalienable rights to all, regardless of culture and tradition. Non-Western cultures do restrict the application of human rights, but only when these rights culturally and traditionally breach the rights of their members. These cultural traditions, such as Sharia law and female circumcision, challenge the cultural foundations of human rights by providing alternative means of understanding the individual and their role in the broader community. As such, cultural relativists who support each culture’s right to variation, even if it grossly abuses the rights of its members, are wrong to suggest human rights is a form of cultural imperialism. Human rights provide a means of enabling all of humanity with inalienable rights without regard to differences or cultural traditions, and as such international human rights law is almost universally supported by states.

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Human rights and humanitarian imperialism in Syria

A view from an African American human rights defender

Ajamu Baraka

Pambazuka - Sep 27, 2012

Syria is just the latest in a long line of international crimes perpetrated by Western powers. But what makes the crimes in Syria, as those in Libya, even more offensive, is the cynical use of human rights to advance the diabolical interests of Western imperialism.  As the corporate media beat the drums of war with Syria, led this time by CNN and the New York Times with support from the rear coming from the confused white left/liberal likes of Democracy Now, a now familiar line is conjured up to rationalize intervention – humanitarian intervention as a basis to exercise the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P). David Gergen, the ‘soft neocon’ advisor to both republican and democratic presidents, made the claim on CNN recently that human rights groups would love to see the US intervene in Syria. A claim that is probably accurate for the US-based white, middle-class human rights mainstream. But this position certainly does not represent the positions of the growing, but largely ignored, ‘new human rights movement’ of grassroots organizations of people of color, informed by an African American radical human rights tradition, [1] who are reclaiming and redefining human rights as an anti-oppression, anti-imperialist ‘people-centered’ movement. But before I touch on this new movement let me briefly explore how this new version of the white man’s burden emerged to become the main device for mobilizing public opinion in the US to support war in the guise of humanitarianism.

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Imperialism and Human Rights: Colonial Discourses of Rights and Liberties in African History Bonny Ibhawoh

SUNY series in Human Rights - 2008

The end of the Second World War marked the dawn of a new age  of  rights.  Since  the  adoption  of  the  United  Nations’ Universal  Declaration  of  Human  Rights  (UDHR)  soon after the war in 1948, the subject of rights has become a theme of great  popular  and  academic  interest.  Rights  have  become  the dominant language for public good around the globe 1 as well as the  language  of  choice  for  making  and  contesting  entitlement claims. The language of rights has attained such importance that today it underlies almost every facet of public and private dis- course, from claims within the family unit to national and global political debates. Indeed, the past five decades have spawned a global “rights revolution”—a revolution of norms and values that has redefined our understanding of ethics and justice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. The Subject of Rights and the Rights of Subjects  2. Right, Liberties, and the Imperial World Order  3. Stronger than the Maxim Gun: Law, Rights, and Justice  4. Confronting State Trusteeship: Land Rights Discourses  5. Negotiating Inclusion: Social Rights Discourses  6. Citizens of the World’s Republic: Political and Civil Rights Discourses  7. The Paradox of Rights Talk

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Intervention - imperialism or human rights? Ray Kiely

OPEN DEMOCRACY - 21 October 2014

The issue of intervention, and more specifically of altruistic, liberal intervention has regained its prominence in the post-Cold War era. Interventions—their forms and their justifications—have varied since the early 1990s, but they have usually involved some recourse to the argument that the human rights of individuals are more important than the sovereignty of states. Critics reject intervention irrespective of circumstances, on the grounds that state sovereignty is paramount, cosmopolitanism is instrumentalised by powerful actors in order to impose their will on weaker ones, and that the morality of intervention is undermined by double standards.  Many liberal interventionists contend that such arguments might have applied in the Cold War, but they are far less applicable now. In the past, Western interventions were often carried out to protect authoritarian regimes on the grounds that this was unavoidable in the context of Cold War power politics, but now intervention is said to be less self-interested and targeted at undemocratic regimes with poor human rights records. Sometimes the argument is made that these interventions remain self-interested and ethical justifications are simply ideological covers for Western interests. However, too often what it is not made clear is what these interests are: for instance, the claim that the war in Iraq was really a war for oil is hardly convincing as the US easily meets its oil requirements irrespective of Iraqi oil, and in any case it is less dependent on Middle East oil than other nations. The argument that interventions are hypocritical because they involve double standards might be true but for interventionists it is beside the point, as it is impossible to intervene in all places at all times. Moreover, the exercise of double standards is a lesser evil than simply allowing dictatorial regimes to continue. In effect cases against intervention made by so-called anti-imperialists all too easily become apologies for dictatorships.

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Are Human Rights dominated by Imperialism?

December 12th, 2013 | by Bilawal Atwal

Most people are aware of human rights and know the importance of maintaining them. However people remain ignorant regarding the debates surrounding the implementation of human rights for imperialism. Since the end of the cold war, the realm of human rights has expanded towards a global issue that has manifested into one of the key cornerstones of foreign-policy between international actors. Imperialism is a policy of extending control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and/or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial conquest or through indirect methods of exerting control on the politics and/or economy of other countries.[1] Human rights imperialism is attempting to maintain or extend control or authority under the banner of human rights. The terminology of human rights has given the concept normative weight, from both the mainstream and throughout international relations. The argument for this form of imperialism is that the states that promote it, or have the greatest spheres of influences, can use this normative weight to accomplish national interests under the banner of human rights. It is a potential risk within the realm of human rights.

It’s imperative to assess the conceptual framework associated with human rights imperialism and the potential consequential risks arising from enforcing this unjust practice of human rights. To grasp a better understanding of the concept of Imperialism within Human Rights, I will bring in Realism to this debate. Please note: while I am not a realist they have some sound arguments regarding this debate. A student from the Realist international relations school of thought would agree that human rights imperialism is a serious risk in the promotion of successful human rights and could even agree with the argument that the heavyweights of the international arena merely use the name of human rights to achieve ultimate national interest goals. Realists consider interests to dominate political action; politics to be merely a struggle for power to enforce these interests; and there being no right or wrong, but only opinion backed by force.[2] Ultimately the realist world becomes one where the key actors on the international stage break the rules and only agreements are made if they are beneficial for their national interests; it becomes one inhospitable for the practice of human rights.
One of the key criticisms of human rights imperialism is how influential and key states are enforcing foreign-policy with nationalistic agendas under the banner of human rights. The diplomacy for human rights is merely discussion and has emerged as a key part of the vocabulary of modern foreign-policy interactions between international agents.[3] This is one of the key arguments that constitute and help enforce human rights imperialism; the reason for these states to so assiduously pursue human rights, is due to the term becoming mere international relations language between states to gain legitimacy across the realm of international relations and the mainstream. Human rights laws are dominated by national policy goals[4] and hence this anchors the hypocrisy that arises from this imperialism.
Another key argument to consider is the fact that there is no single state to impose just peace leading to an anarchic system of international relations. The lack of a single world government or an institutional body with true political might that can oversee and protect the relations between states, leads to this anarchy because state relations that aren’t truly or justifiably regulated. This means that states with a huge of expansive sphere of influence can interact in whatever way they need to in pursuing national interests, no matter how detrimental it could be to the livelihood of others. This sovereignty is argued to be affecting human rights. Realist thought towards the paradigm of human rights imperialism also consider that it’s an ethical objection. It’s an ethical objection to the assumption of a universal morality that human rights formed out.[5] The key, influential institutions and states are the ones who ultimately determine what would constitute to one’s human rights becoming infringed. These states not only determine the definition of human rights but can potentially enforce it as a ruse to pursue national interests.
Human Rights were formed from Liberalism. This school of thought arose from the general consensus from human rights advocates, that individuals obtaining rights should be respected. All individuals have equal and moral worth and human rights helps promote this. Unlike realist thought that considers human rights imperialism to be a significant factor in inhibiting the true access of human rights. The world view is that western states are enshrining the rights of citizens through various means; and ultimately is significant to the development of human rights and even abolishing slavery.[6] Liberal arguments claim the western world has been the catalyst for this human rights revolution, and also need to be present during the evolving dynamic of human rights practices. These states that dominate international relations are the ones who not only promote them efficiently but also have the practical means to ensuring the protection of each person’s human rights.
Liberal thought does give key arguments for the importance of human rights and why it is the western world that needs to pursue human rights. However it also fails to address the fundamental inconsistencies from the western world that have audaciously promoted human rights and the conceptual flaws that can allow these states to use the name of human rights, which exerts great normative legitimacy even from the mainstream, for their own national interests while at the same time paradoxically abusing the human rights of others.

One of the key risks that could arise from the implementation of human rights via the campaigns of influential states is that these states define what would conclude a human rights abuse. It’s also significant to consider how most major superpowers that have ever existed have had this universal claim to know what’s right and ultimately enforce their moral compass, no matter how distorted, onto external states and communities. Carr (1946) found that the link between national interests and universal morality is evident in the justifications of colonial possessions by European imperial powers within the 19th century.[7] This could also be determined from how the US promotes democracy under sometimes frightening methods. This argument of how these empires claim to hold moral superiority and right is one that will be used to criticise the risks of human security imperialism. Some of the most oppressive regimes would use propaganda to claim moral superiority, but still enacted through tyrannical methods. This ties in with the article title, as the assumed universal principle of morality is still perception. A powerful institute or state could infringe on one’s human rights while still upholding this notion of moral superiority. The tyrannical possibilities from these empires and powerful institutions, under the name of human rights, are potential. Already the US, one of the biggest contributors towards the field of human rights, has caused human rights violation under this morale mediator label.

Another debate to consider is how economic forces and structures are preventing the active and legitimate practice of human rights.[8] This is the argument that the legal field of human rights is subordinated through exploitive capitalism that aim to achieve their means of productions over the standard of living for people.[9] These arguments can be coherently compared with the potential risks of human rights imperialism as it would be the most powerful institutions that also place importance towards the economic outcomes of diplomacy over any human right outcome. Yet, to achieve some of these economic outcomes would require these powerful states to operate illegitimately; one which can be expressed through human rights.

David Kennedy argues that while the human rights movement has done a great deal of good, it was also part of the problem. They do not consider the full range of potential down-sides or negative consequences due to the normative foundations that arise from the debate of human rights.[10] He echoes the arguments that powerful institutions can use the language of human rights for legitimacy due to no concrete definition of what infringes one’s human rights.[11] This can allow states to mitigate the definition to give a context, or a policy, some normative weight which ultimately anchors the importance of human rights. It’s this normative weight that helps advocates exert this profound notion of promoting human rights, without considering the imperialism that could consequently spawn through this. But this should not be ignored, as it could be detrimental and of a great cost, because it could be costly not through the actions but lack of actions. Actual human rights violations and those pursued by these states should be compared to reveal the incoherencies or coherencies. This could eventually lead to this imperial viewpoint towards implementing human rights. Kennedy makes another contributing factor in considering these risks; rights are socially constructed. The more powerful a right is enacted or perceived to be then the more power and influence to the society that had constructed them.[12]

The United States have been one of the key contributors towards human rights since the twentieth century. However it is through their human rights violations that they have committed, that anchor these potential risks. This ties in both with the expansive policies the US enforces, sometimes in the name of human rights, and the risks of the private and external threats of human rights that can at the same time ignite human rights imperialism.

This would be through transnational corporations that abuse human rights, to achieve their ultimate economic goals, without having to the legitimate aspects of this.[13] Private corporations are argued to be disrupting human rights and are freely non-punished.[14] The states that these private corporations fall under could use these corporations to achieve national interest goals while also undermining human rights. Is this the case with the US?

One of the biggest advocates for human rights in the US violated these same rights they so assiduously promoted throughout the international spectrum. The UN are claimed to be too reliant on sovereign US, and this is anchored through the controversial military action by the US using NATO to “save” Kosovo.[15] This was done in the name of human rights, but also undermined the human rights of innocent Serbians under an oppressive regime.[16] This controversial military action argued by critics is reflected through the War on Terror campaign that shifted the focus on human rights practices towards one of the western states that advocated it. The methods practiced through this war on terror campaign violated human rights of people not determined yet to be criminals, only the potentiality. This is a frightening fact that the biggest promoters in human rights, so easily violated it without a one-hundred percent assurance. These violations were enacted through; extraordinary renditions, coercive interrogations and illegitimate humanitarian interventions.[17]

These illegal and unjust methods are extreme violations of human rights and do expose the risk of human rights imperialism, as the people or the US who enforced these drastic measures have not been legally trialled or received adequate justice. The Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay atrocities also help develop this. The ethical failures of the US in torturing inmates, in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Graib, exacerbate human rights violations exerted from the US’ military intelligence. These inmates are imprisoned for the ultimate goal of preventing human rights by violating human rights, and thus this anchors the risk of human rights imperialism through this subjective moral hypocrisy.

The risks of human rights imperialism are detrimental to the human rights of those who will consequently suffer. Human rights are and have been crucial to the globalisation of morality in society. Human rights is an important right, people don’t choose where they are born. It’s not justice nor is it fair for someone who’s born in a developing country to be in a worst position than someone who was born in our country for example; it’s all dirt that we have perceived to have borders. Human beings are all of equal worth, and human rights are imperative to ensuring this.

 The power and biased influence that these influential institutional bodies spread can be ultimately strengthened by labelling it under their human rights regime. These states are also the ones whose definition of human rights is the one that will dominate, as these states are the ones promoting it. In conclusion, human rights are in risk of imperialism. There is no regulatory body that can exert regulation of state interactions; as theses states could promote human rights under false pretences to gain these overall nationalist goals. Through how the US has been enforcing human rights, while at the same time violating these human rights in attempting to protect human rights provides evidence to conclude that it is a risk. A risk that will continue to prevail until the practice of human rights is institutionalised at the minimum, or regulated through an unbiased international institution with political might and not under the influence of any state.

---

[1] U. J. Heuer and G. Schirmer, Human Rights Imperialism, Monthly Review 49:10 (1998), p. VII.

[2] R. J. Vincent, Human Rights and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 121.

[3] Heuer and Schirmer (1998), p. VII.

[4] S, Chesterman, Human Rights as subjectivitiy: Age of Rights and the Politics of Culture, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 27 (1998), p. 98.

[5] C. Tomuschat, Human rights: between idealism and realism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 260.

[6] M, Goodhart, Human Rights: Politics and Practice (Oxford: OUP, 2009), p. 63.

[7] Goodhart (2009), p. 63.

[8] L. Kolakowski, Daedalus: Human Rights 112: 4 (1983), p. 83.

[9] Ibid, p. 84

[10] R. Dickinson, E. Katswell and C. Murray, Examining critical perspectives on human rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 20.

[11] Ibid, 23.

[12] Ibid, 28.

[13] A. Clapham, “Human Rights obligations of non-state actors in conflict situations”, International Review of the Red Cross 88: 863 (2006), p. 492.

[14] Ibid, p. 514.

[15] D. Kostovicova, M. Martin and V. Bojicic-Dzelilovic, ‘The missing link in human security research: Dialogue and insecurity in Kosovo’, Security Dialogue 43: 569 (2012), p. 570.

[16] Ibid.
[17] R. Crelinsten, Counterterrorism (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009), pp 76 – 77.

The Last Utopia Human Rights in History - Samuel Moyn

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS - 2012

Human rights offer a vision of international justice that today’s idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. In this pioneering book, Samuel Moyn elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage and asks what it reveals about the ideal’s troubled present and uncertain future.

For some, human rights stretch back to the dawn of Western civilization, the age of the American and French Revolutions, or the post–World War II moment when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed. Revisiting these episodes in a dramatic tour of humanity’s moral history, The Last Utopia shows that it was in the decade after 1968 that human rights began to make sense to broad communities of people as the proper cause of justice. Across eastern and western Europe, as well as throughout the United States and Latin America, human rights crystallized in a few short years as social activism and political rhetoric moved it from the hallways of the United Nations to the global forefront.
It was on the ruins of earlier political utopias, Moyn argues, that human rights achieved contemporary prominence. The morality of individual rights substituted for the soiled political dreams of revolutionary communism and nationalism as international law became an alternative to popular struggle and bloody violence. But as the ideal of human rights enters into rival political agendas, it requires more vigilance and scrutiny than when it became the watchword of our hopes.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Humanity before Human Rights 2. Death from Birth 3. Why Anticolonialism Wasn’t a Human Rights Movement 4. The Purity of This Struggle 5. International Law and Human Rights Epilogue: The Burden of Morality

Imperialists for “Human Rights”

The language of “human rights” has become the language of Western aggression.

by Bécquer Seguín

JACOBIN - 12/19/14

Historical writing comes in different shapes and sizes. Seed-like microhistories — the kind Jill Lepore has popularized in recent years in the pages of the New Yorker — start small before blossoming out into the air of the present and digging their roots into the soil of age-old questions. Inflated global histories, by contrast, swiftly bounce like a beach ball from one event, country, or time period to another, covering in a handful of pages what other scholars might in a lifetime.  Acute in its attention to epochal shifts, the style of legal historian Samuel Moyn’s 2012 book, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, might best resemble a scalpel. His is a reconstructive history whose procedures include trimming down sweeping claims and excising carcinogenic histories absorbed in a singular moment (i.e. the French Revolution).

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End human rights imperialism now - Stephen Kinzer

THE GUARDIAN - 31 DECEMBER 2010

Tthose of us who used to consider ourselves part of the human rights movement but have lost the faith, the most intriguing piece of news in 2010 was the appointment of an eminent foreign policy mandarin, James Hoge, as board chairman of Human Rights Watch.
Hoge has a huge task, and not simply because human rights violations around the world are so pervasive and egregious. Just as great a challenge is remaking the human rights movement itself. Founded by idealists who wanted to make the world a better place, it has in recent years become the vanguard of a new form of imperialism.
Want to depose the government of a poor country with resources? Want to bash Muslims? Want to build support for American military interventions around the world? Want to undermine governments that are raising their people up from poverty because they don't conform to the tastes of upper west side intellectuals? Use human rights as your excuse!
This has become the unspoken mantra of a movement that has lost its way.
Human Rights Watch is hardly the only offender. There are a host of others, ranging from Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders to the Carr Centre for Human Rights at Harvard and the pitifully misled "anti-genocide" movement. All promote an absolutist view of human rights permeated by modern western ideas that westerners mistakenly call "universal". In some cases, their work, far from saving lives, actually causes more death, more repression, more brutality and an absolute weakening of human rights.

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The human rights record of the 'human rights defender'

CCTV.com - 03-13-2016 

BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The state-run China Central Television on Sunday aired a documentary that reveals the United States' double standards on human rights-related issues, whereby the U.S. pokes its nose into other countries' internal affairs while leaving many of its own problems unsolved.  Based on extensive media reports both inside and outside the U.S., and interviews of many human rights experts from China, the U.S., France, Canada, Russia and Switzerland, the 45-minute TV program revealed the U.S. trampling on American people's human rights in all walks of life.  In 2015, more than 560,000 people across the United States were homeless, 25 percent of whom were under age; the country's primary women's prison Lowell Correctional Institution, where 2,696 convicts are held, is rampant with corruption, torture of prisoners, and sexual abuse; women are subject to sexual harassment and sexual assaults of different forms, and career women subject to discrimination at work, the documentary showed, citing media reports.  Of teenagers aged 15 and above who succumb to injuries in the States, one quarter die in shooting incidents; the Federal Bureau of Investigation forces Internet companies to provide clients' information without a court approval, according to the documentary.  The United States has been using double standards on practically every human rights-related issue, which is showcased both by its invasion of citizens' privacy through online surveillance and civilian deaths caused by its drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other countries, it showed.  For a very long time, the United States has been quite condescending, with the belief that it has the best system and human rights record, and as a result, it tends to find fault with other countries, Ji Hong, researcher with the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in the program.

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Humanitarian Imperialism: Sow Chaos, Then Force People to Reap Consequences

SPUTNIK 28.02.2016

Jean Bricmont, the author of 'Humanitarian Imperialism', a study of how the idea of human rights has been used to justify Western imperialism, finds it troubling that the Western powers engaged in 'humanitarian interventions' abroad have the gall to tell their own populations to 'welcome the refugees' when things go awry. 
Recently interviewed by independent journalist Maidhc O Cathail for CounterPunch Magazine, Bricmont explained that Europeans have every right to be angry about the influx of refugees from countries embroiled in war and unrest, but that it's worth recalling the roots of the present crisis. 
"The same people who encouraged 'humanitarian' interventions and 'support' for armed insurrections abroad, that have led to perpetual wars, generating a constant flow of refugees, are now demanding that the population of our countries 'welcome the refugees'. They first generate chaos there, then they applaud chaos here. It cannot last forever," Bricmont noted. 

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The Power of the Human-Rights Movement

Aryeh Neier, President Emeritus of the Open Society Foundations and a founder of Human Rights Watch, is the author of The International Human Rights Movement: A History.

PROJECT SYNDICATE  -JAN 27, 2016

 NEW YORK – Most of those who devote themselves to safeguarding human rights worldwide would agree that this is a very bad time for our movement. The evidence is all around us.  Today, the number of people who have been forcibly displaced by war and severe repression is higher than at any time since World War II. Yet resistance to the resettlement of refugees is rising sharply, owing largely to fears stirred by terrorist attacks in many countries. Indeed, now, in the name of enhancing security, many governments are violating fundamental human rights. Support Project Syndicate’s mission  Project Syndicate needs your help to provide readers everywhere equal access to the ideas and debates shaping their lives. Learn more  Governments in China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Israel, and Russia are taking – or seriously considering – steps that will hobble civil society by restricting the funding available to nongovernmental organizations. China has been cracking down on human-rights lawyers. In Eastern Europe, from Hungary to Poland, illiberal nationalism is on the rise. Even the mature democracies of Western Europe and the United States have seen a surge in public support for political figures espousing nationalist and xenophobic doctrines.  Has the trend toward greater international protection of human rights, which began four decades ago, come to an end? 
 
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2015 Human Freedom Index: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom - Cato Institute

Human Freedom Index

A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom

By Ian Vásquez and Tanja Porčnik

Cato Institute 2015
The Human Freedom Index presents the state of human freedom in the world based on a broad measure that encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom. Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of individuals and is defined here as negative liberty or the absence of coercive constraint. Because freedom is inherently valuable and plays a role in human progress, it is worth measuring carefully. The Human Freedom Index is a resource that can help to more objectively observe relationships between freedom and other social and economic phenomena, as well as the ways in which the various dimensions of freedom interact with one another.

The report is co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

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A Bangladeshi Town in Human Trafficking’s Grip

Fishermen, shopkeepers and policemen were all drawn in, as participants or observers, to a multimillion-dollar people smuggling business. 

Written by ELLEN BARRY

The New York Times - JULY 23, 2015

SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh — From his shop overlooking a pier on this island near the border with Myanmar, Mohammad Hossain watched the human smuggling business swell.  Over the years, the trickle gradually grew into an unending stream. The late-night flashes of light on the water, signaling that the coast was clear to launch boats, multiplied until they looked like summer lightning. That the boats were not carrying fish was an open secret here: One day, when a trawler sank on its way out, the water was littered with human bodies.  The people of Shah Porir Dwip — fishermen, shopkeepers, police officers and shadowy bosses — were all drawn in, as participants or concerned observers, to a multimillion-dollar people smuggling business that sent roots deep into this impoverished corner of Bangladesh. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage      Jubair, 13, was left behind when his mother and siblings fled Myanmar for Malaysia. “I didn’t know about it,” he said. “She could not find me. She could not tell me.”     A Migrant Mother’s Anguished ChoiceJULY 5, 2015     Oma Salema, 12, holding her undernourished brother, Ayub Khan, 1, in Sittwe Camp.     Myanmar to Bar Rohingya From Fleeing, but Won’t Address Their PlightJUNE 12, 2015     Malaysia offers at least some modicum of opportunity for Rohingya migrants. Rohingya gathered at an apartment block in Kuala Lumpur that is home to several families.     Even in Safety of Malaysia, Rohingya Migrants Face Bleak ProspectsJUNE 3, 2015     Rohingya migrants with airdropped food. A boat carrying them and scores of others, including young children, was found floating in Thai waters; passengers said several people had died.     Rohingya Migrants From Myanmar, Shunned by Malaysia, Are Spotted Adrift in Andaman SeaMAY 14, 2015  The outside world came to know of the smuggling this spring, through a series of awful revelations. Shallow graves were discovered in makeshift camps in Thailand, near the Malaysian border, where smugglers abused and starved their captives, demanding as much as $3,000 from their families for their release. Boats were abandoned in the middle of the ocean, packed with people on the edge of starvation.

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A New Book: Extrastatecraft: The Power of Infrastructure Space

by Keller Easterling

VERSO - 2014

Extrastatecraft controls everyday life in the city: it’s the key to power – and resistance – in the twenty-first century.
Infrastructure is not only the underground pipes and cables controlling our cities. It also determines the hidden rules that structure the spaces all around us – free trade zones, smart cities, suburbs, and shopping malls. Extrastatecraft charts the emergent new powers controlling this space and shows how they extend beyond the reach of government.
Keller Easterling explores areas of infrastructure with the greatest impact on our world – examining everything from standards for the thinness of credit cards to the urbanism of mobile telephony, the world’s largest shared platform, to the “free zone,” the most virulent new world city paradigm. In conclusion, she proposes some unexpected techniques for resisting power in the modern world.
Extrastatecraft will change the way we think about urban spaces – and how we live in them.

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