Human Rights
Courses in human rights are offered in conjunction with the Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR) at Columbia University. Courses include active engagement with the world of human rights practitioners, and emphasize the connection between the study and practice of human rights.
Course information and details will be updated as they become available. Visit the department listings to see more info.
Introduction to Human Rights
The class will examine the philosophical origins of human rights, their explication in the evolving series of international documents, as well as questions of enforcement through international law and treaty arrangements. Examines contemporary topics that are in the forefront of concern, among them - the status of women, refugees, children, the use of torture and the horrors of genocide. Though the course emphasizes political rights, it also recognizes the evolution of the human rights culture, the growing importance of economic rights and tensions related to globalization and multiculturalism. The broad range of subjects covered in the course is intended to assist students in honing their interests and making future course selections in the human rights field.
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Human Rights and Business
This course is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between business and human rights: from a historical perspective, as we discuss the evolution of the debate about corporate social responsibility and business's responsibilities with respect to human rights, then from an applied perspective as we focus on particular cases, industries, and issues. By the end of the course, students should have a solid grounding in the background and current issues related to business and human rights; understand the positions of different stakeholder groups; and be able to critically evaluate the responsibilities and actions of key actors in situations where corporate-related human rights abuses have occurred, including what prevention and/or mitigation steps could be effective.
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Human Rights and the Image
This course examines the relationship between visual culture and human rights. It considers a wide range of visual media (photography, painting, sculpture), as well as aspects of visuality (surveillance, profiling). We will use case studies ranging in time from the early modern period (practices in which the body was marked to measure criminality, for example), to the present day. Within this framework, we will study how aspects of visual culture have been used to advocate for human rights, as well as how images and visual regimes have been used to suppress human rights. An important part of the course will be to consider the role played by reception in shaping a discourse around human rights, visuality, and images. Subjects to be addressed include: the nature of evidence; documentation and witness; censorship; iconoclasm; surveillance; profiling; advocacy images; signs on the body; visibility and invisibility.
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International Human Rights Law
We will cover the major international human rights documents and treaties, the substance of the laws they create, and the international procedures and mechanisms for implementing them. We will consider some of today's most significant human rights issues and controversies, such as the prohibition of hate speech, the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, the use of torture, and the legality of humanitarian intervention to prevent genocide. This course will enable you to: explain the bases and significance of international human rights law; analyze the content of international human rights documents and cases; understand international enforcement mechanisms for human rights; debate opposing sides of important human rights issues; write advocacy essays; and engage in substantive research on human rights issues.
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Human Rights of Women
The course will examine the integration of women's human rights into the UN international human rights system through study of several relevant UN bodies, treaties and declarations, human rights reports, and NGO activities. The course will consider successes, contestations and defenses of applications of human rights to women's issues. It will examine dialogues among activists, scholars and UN experts on how women's human rights are implemented. Readings will be from international affairs, anthropology, sociology, law, news articles and NGO websites.
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Children's Rights: Selected Issues
This course will focus on both the theories surrounding, and practices of, children's rights. It will start from the foundational question of whether children should be treated as rights-holders and whether this approach is more effective than alternatives for promoting children's well-being. Consideration will be given to the major conceptual and developmental issues embedded within the framework of rights in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The course will cover issues in both the domestic and international arenas, including but not limited to: children's rights in the criminal justice; children's rights to housing and health care; inequities in education systems; child labor; children and armed conflict; street children; the rights of migrant, refugee, homeless, and minority children; and the commodification of children. Case studies will be used to ensure that students have a solid understanding of current conditions. The course will also explore the US ratification of the CRC and offer critical perspectives on the advocacy and education-based work of international children's rights organizations.
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Transitional Justice
This course focuses on the field of transitional justice, a set of policy prescriptions that include prosecuting past offenders (in various venues or at various levels, including international, domestic, and hybrid courts); truth commissions (sometimes called "truth and reconciliation commissions"); the thorny question of amnesty; memory work, such as creating museums, sites of memory, and new-paradigm war memorials; and reparation. Throughout the course, we will also examine reconciliation, gender, and the idea of guarantees of non-repetition (i.e. "never again"). Cases examined will include Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Ghana, Iraq, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Timor-Leste.
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