4508976: CF_Human Rights (Lecture)

Description

Human rights play a central role in world affairs. As moral, legal, and political norms and standards, human rights are meant to protect individuals' and groups' fundamental rights and freedoms. Composed of three generations of rights: 1) civil and political rights, 2) economic, social, and cultural rights, and 3) solidarity rights, human rights are generally accepted by the international community. However, despite this international acceptance, human rights are constantly being violated and their worldwide implementation still encounters real obstacles.
This introductory lecture, on the one hand, provides a comprehensive understanding of human rights by looking into their history, nature, mechanisms and instruments of protection. On the other hand, the importance and relevance of human rights will be shown against the background of some hotly debated issues related to culture, business, technology, and terrorism.

NB:
By investigating human rights, this course is meant to establish a dialogue between philosophy, law, and politics. As human rights are at the crossroads of these three disciplines, we'll emphasize the specificity of the approaches from each of these disciplines, and point at instances in which they complement each other. This will give to students a comprehensive and interdisciplinary grasp of human rights

Learning Outcomes

Participants will be able to:

• Describe and familiarize with important theoretical (philosophical) and practical (legal and political) aspects of human rights
• Understand the differences and the complementarity between the perspectives on human rights
• Relate the theoretical and practical conceptions of human rights to relevant contemporary debates
• Formulate their personal opinions about human rights.
• Develop critical thinking.

Lectures Method

Lectures; one written exam

Literature

- Rowan Cruft, et alii, eds., Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.)
- James Griffin, On Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.)
- Charles Beitz, The Idea of Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.)
- Christian Tomuschat, Human Rights. Between Idealism and Realism, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.)
- Alison Renteln, The Cultural Defense (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.)

Comments

Cross-faculty elective subject:
Notice the special Multi-stage allocation process.