HumanRightsinWorldCivilizations

Winter2017
Professor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Email:

Ben Laurence
Rosenwald 218-B
Wednesday 3-4 Thursday 3-4
benlaurence@uchicago.edu

Writing Intern:
Email:

Jenna Henderson
jmhenderson@uchicago.edu

Thistwoquartersequenceexploreshowhumanrightshavebeenconstructedacross
transnational,imperial,national,andlocalspacesinavarietyofcivilizationalvernaculars
whileexposingstudentstotheircontestedgenealogies,limits,andsilences.Weexplore
thehistory,philosophy,andrhetoricofhumanrightsthroughavarietyofdisciplinary
lenses.Thesequenceisprimarysourcedrivenanddiscussionbased,withreadingsdrawn
fromarangeoftextsfromthepoliticalandthelegaltotheliterary,aural,andvisual.
Course Website:Thiscoursehasachalk.Youshouldgetinthehabitofchecking
thewebsiteatleastonceaweek.Toaccessthechalkgotowww.uchicago.eduandclick
onstudent.Chalkshouldappearasabuttononthelefthandside.Clickingonthat
shouldtakeyoutoalistofchalksforthecoursesinwhichyouareenrolled.Allreadings
canbefoundonthechalkforthiscourseundertheassignmentsbutton,groupedin
foldersbyweek.Youwillalsobeabletofindthissyllabus,andcontactinformationfor
yourCAandme.Coursematerial(paperassignments,handouts,studyguides,etc.)will
regularlybemadeavailableonthesite.
Grading:

Paper One:
Paper Two:
Group Project:
Participation:

30%
30%
30%
10%

Forduedates,consultthesyllabusbelow.Paperswillbepenalizedat1/3ofalettergrade
foreachdaytheyarelateuptoamaximumofafulllettergrade.Papersthatcontainany
plagiarismwillreceiveanautomaticFgrade.Participationcreditaccruestothosewho
attendsection,andwhoparticipateactivelyindiscussionsthere.Creditisalsogivenfor
evidenteffortandimprovement.

Syllabus of Readings
Conscience
1/3

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (1849)

1/5

Letter from Gandhi to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, 2 March 1930

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/asia/india/indianindependence/in
diannat/source3/
Peter Berenson, Appeal for Amnesty 1961
We All We Got (Carlos Javier Ortiz, dir., 2014) Available here, small fee required:
http://www.carlosjavierortiz.com/films/

Migration,Minorities,andRefugees
1/10

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Report of the International

Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars (Washington,
DC, 1914; rpt. 1993): introduction.
Rights of Minorities in Upper Silesia, Decision of the International Court of
Justice, 26 April 1928.
Petition from the Executive Committee of the Palestine Arab Congress to the
League of Nations Permanent Mandate Commission, 8 June 1926.

1/12

Kathryn Hulme, The Wild Place (Boston, Little Brown, 1953): 3-71, 224-44.
Anna Kovitzka: I Am Alone in David P. Boder, I Did Not Interview the Dead
(Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1949): 1-25.
Interview of Otto Feuer from the Boder Voices of the Holocaust Project
http://voices.iit.edu/commentary?doc=feuerO&name=Otto+Feuer+
Diana Allan, Mythologizing Al-Nakba: Narratives, Collective Identity, and Cultural
Practice among Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, Oral History (Spring 2005), 1-10.

1/17

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) http://www.unhcr.org/enus/3b66c2aa10

UNHCR Report, Children on the Run (2016): 1-13.
Witness, Human Rights Channel, Footage from the Melilla Border

http://hrc.witness.org/footage-from-the-melilla-border-shines-a-spotlight-onspains-treatment-of-migrants/
1/19

Emma Goldman, The Traffic in Women, in Anarchism and Other Essays, 2nd rev.
ed. (New York & London: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1911): 183-200.
U.S. Department of State, Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of
2000: Trafficking in Persons Report (2001).
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/usdocs/traffickingreport-2001.html

HumanRightsInthe1970s
1/24

Julius Nyerere, Memorial Lecture delivered in Rome at the 12th Session of the
Conference of the FAO on November 18, 1963, in Nyerere, Freedom and Unity: A
Selection From Writings and Speeches, 195265 (Dar es Salaam: Oxford University
Press, 1966), 23151.
UN General Assembly, Declaration of the Establishment of a New Economic
Order (1974)
Mohammed Bedjaoui, Towards a New International Economic Order (1979): 65-115.

1/26

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Gulag Archipelago (1973): selections.

Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Lecture: Peace, Progress and Human Rights (1975)
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1975/sakharovlecture.html
Chile: An Amnesty International Report (1974): 5-30, 57-63, 70-78

1/31

Vaclav Havel, The Power and the Powerless:sectionsI,IIIIV,VIX,XVIXVIII.

Charter 77
Vaculik Ludvik, Cup of Coffee with My Interrogator

2/2

Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, dir., 2012).

Leon Golub, Interrogation I, 1981, acrylic on linen, 305 x 447 cm. Eli Broad Family
Foundation. Los Angles.
Golub, Interrogation II, 1981, acrylic on linen, 305 x 426 cm. Art Institute of
Chicago. Art Leon Golub/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Courtesy
Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.

Paper 1 due by 2/4 at 5pm. Please email your paper to Jenna and Ben.
GlobalJustice
2/7

Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Larissa Macfarquhar, Strangers Drowning, 1-12 & 61-102

2/9

Thomas Pogge, Symposium: World Poverty and Human Rights in Ethics &
International Affairs 19, no.1 (2005)
Leif Wenar, Blood Oil, Excerpts

2/14

Matthias Risse, The Human Right to Water and The Common Ownership of The
Earth
Jason Stanley, The Emergency Manager, Strategic Racism, Technocracy, and the
Poisoning of Flints Children

IndigenousRights
2/16

International Labor Organization (ILO), Convention No. 107- Convention

Concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and
Semi-Tribal Populations in Independent Countries, 1957 (excerpts).
ILO, Convention No. 169 Convention Concerning Tribal Peoples in Independent
Countries, 1989: excerpts.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007).
Jos Martnez Cobo (Special Rapporteur), Study of the Problem of Discrimination
Against Indigenous Populations: Special Report, 1981. (Excerpts)

2/21

League of Nations, Aland Islands case, LNQJ Supp. No. 3 (1920) 141, 1823 UN
Human Rights Committee, Sandra Lovelace v. Canada, Communication No.
R.6/24, U.N. Doc. Supp. No. 40 (A/36/40) at 166 (1981).
African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, Centre for Minority Rights
Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International (on behalf of
Endorois Welfare Council) v. Kenya, communication No. 276/03 (2009).
S. James Anaya (Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), The
Situation of Indigenous Peoples in the United States of America (2012): excerpts.
Standing Rock reading: TBA.

SexualRights
2/23

Yogyakarta Principles: The Application of Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual

Orientation and Gender Identity (2006) http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org
ECHR, Schalk and Kopf v. Austria (2010)
U.S. Supreme Court, Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

2/28

View slide show of Zanele Muholis work in Alexis Okeowo, Photographing a

Difficult Love in South Africa, New York Times, 9 June 2014
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/photographing-a-difficult-love-insouth-africa/?_r=0

Human Rights Watch, Well Show You Youre a Woman: Violence and
Discrimination against Black Lesbians and Transgender Men in South Africa (2011):
9-45
Human Rights in the Twenty First Century: Student Curations
3/2

Day 1 of student presentations

3/7

Day 2 of student presentations

3/10

Groups Email Prose Reflections to Jenna and Ben

3/13

Final Paper due. Please email to Hilary and ben by 5pm.