CCC Human Rights

Human Rights

50-2311 Section 05/Credit Hours 3

W 12:30pm- 3:20pm

Last Date to Drop Classes:

Last Date to Withdraw from Classes:  

Instructional Resources Fees: None

This syllabus is subject to change.  Students will be notified of any alterations.

Instructor: June C. Terpstra, Ph.D.      

Office Phone: 312-344-7295 Humanity, History and the Social Sciences, Tenth Floor 624 Michigan Avenue

Course Description

The term 'human rights' tends to be employed as if we all agree on its meaning; it is a concept often wielded but rarely defined. Because of its uses and abuses (historic and current), it is a term that is ripe for manipulation. Using examples from contemporary global events, the course provides students with a thorough background for understanding how the term ‘human rights' can both support particular political agendas and also frames objective legal investigations.

Course Objectives

• Define political, philosophical, historical, economic, and legal history of global human rights concepts, including ideological and cultural origins;
• Understand the sources of rights and rights violations;
• Examine the impact of the nation-state system, governments and other institutions (such as corporations, churches and universities), and US domestic and foreign policies;
• Identify human rights activists, human rights groups, and human rights movements, and analyze whether they've made inroads to curbing oppression and repression.
• Identify your own social and individual responsibilities and relationships to oppressive behaviors wherever it occurs.
• Develop critical thinking skills for challenging the conventional propaganda about society and the world.
• Promote rigorous and challenging academic experiences, with room for both intellectual growth and practical insights that can be extended to others.

Course Requirements

1.  Class attendance and participation=250 points

2.  Weekly written reaction papers on the readings = 250 points

2.  A 10-15 page mid-term book report on your chosen topic for the final.  = 250 pts

3.  A final research presentation on a present human rights case including one group, organization or individual who is working on the problem and a critical analysis of what is being done and who benefits by that group's work.   250 pts

Attendance Policy:

Attendance at all classes and sections', including all films and guest lectures, is mandatory.  Students are expected to attend all classes and read the assignments so as to be prepared for class discussion.  Experience shows that there is a direct relation between attendance and performance in the course.  If you have more than three absences, excused or unexcused, your grade will be severely affected. An excused absence means you contact the instructor, me, prior to your absence (barring an emergency and then you contact me as soon as possible) and I confirm your absence. You can reach me via email or phone. You are responsible for any class work or homework we go over/is due during your absence. 

TENTATIVE SYLLABUS

Week 1 Conceptions of Human Rights Across Cultures

Read and Respond

1.  Five Hundred Years of Injustice at http://ili.nativeweb.org/sdrm_art.html

2.  Crazy Horse http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/crazyhorse.htm

3.  Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom by Frantz Fanon at http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/fanon/national-culture.htm

4.  Universal Declaration of Human Rights  http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Week 2 Religious Theories of Justice

Read and Respond

1.  Deuteronomy 20 http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Bible/Deuter20.html

2.  Fundamental Principles of Islam at  http://www.scribd.com/doc/2969425/5-Fundamental-Principles-of-Islam

3.  Philosophical Ideas of Confucius and Restorative Justice  http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:iNazZ5TPtNwJ:www.restorativejustice.org/10fulltext/liujianhong/at_download/file+Confucian+concepts+of+justice&hl=en&gl=us

4.  Selflessness: Toward a Buddhist Vision of Social Justice By Sungtaek Cho at http://www.buddhistethics.org/7/cho001.html

5. Shared belief in the "Golden Rule"   http://www.religioustolerance.org/reciproc.htm

Week 3 Early Euro-American Philosophical Visions of Human Rights

Read and Respond:

1.  The English Bill of Rights http://www.constitution.org/eng/eng_bor.htm

2.  The Bill of Rights of the United States of America 4.  http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/bill/text.html

3.  French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen http://www.hrcr.org/docs/frenchdec.html

4.  Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791 Written by Olympe De Gouges, 1791 http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/decwom2.html

Week 4 War Colonialism and Racism

Read and Respond:

1. USA History: A Quick Study for Students http://juneterpstra.com/whats_new.html

2. Roots of Oppression http://www.american-pictures.com/roots/index.htm

3.  Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Theology by Arundhati Roy at http://www.serendipity.li/iraqwar/arundhati_roy_peace_prize_lecture.htm

4.  Constant Conflict US Army War College Quarterly http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/97summer/peters.htm

Week 5 Cross Cultural Critiques

Read and Respond

1.  Human Rights and Moral Imperialism  http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ANTH/deptpubs/nader.2006.47.9.pdf

2.  Culture clash: Asian political values and human rights by Christine Loh http://www.counterpoint-online.org/download/390/Do-human-rights-travel.pdf

P 58-72

3.  HUMAN RIGHTS: CHIMERAS IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING?  ©Andrew Heard, 1997 http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/intro.html

4.  The Uncensored Anger Manifesto-Part I  by Layla Anwar   http://arabwomanblues.blogspot.com/2006/11/uncensored-anger-manifesto-part-i.html

Week 6 Global Economics

Read and Respond

1.  How the Federal Reserve Runs the US by Stephen Lendman  

http://www.populistamerica.com/federal_reserve#2

2.  For the Love of Money by David C. Korton

 http://www.davidkorten.org/loveofmoney

3. "The Secret History of the American Empire" in
Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption
Interview with John Perkinshttp://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2007/06/secret-history-of-american-empire.html

Week 7 Midterm

Week 8 State Terrorism

Read and Respond

1. The Politics of Terror by David Hoffman Http://Www.Constitution.Org/Ocbpt/Ocbpt_13.Htm

2. Confessions of an Economic Hitman http://www.wanttoknow.info/johnperkinseconomichitman

3. United States: War Profiteering and Corporate Capitalism 21 January 2004 by Doug Lorimer http://www.greenleft.org.au/2004/567/33149

4.  Guantánamo And The Courts (Part Three): Obama's Continuing Shame Andy Worthington http://uruknet.info/?p=m57089&hd=&size=1&l=e

Week 9 Palestine

Read and Respond:

1.  Palestine Timeline http://qumsiyeh.org/palestinetimeline/

2.  Life in the Bubble: At Home in the Israeli Settler State By Ed Kinane http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102660627975&s=28136&e=001YYUApb3JYEuoRlHE1O1pJZqUjzG-mV1yuDj0M_9fgqPgIkMRhZwiQqvRJ5Gz9bukl4yaGIhPSCKCObmtYH7pTlRTFACUoTGUXD0Ppzg_H185_7OmUpAS8Yk4d_Tu0EiCUlMZiRpZ4_rTqX55alsVW-oWb9Bg5e4S

3. Gaza Aggression Timeline by Stephen Lendman http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11893

4.  Viva Palestine http://www.vivapalestina-us.org/

Week 10 Women and children

Read and Respond

1. Violence Against Women in the USA http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html

2. Facts & Figures on Violence Against Women

http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/vaw/facts_figures.php 

3.  Sexual Violence Against   Women and Girls in War

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:Y0WBRPUadHsJ:www.unfpa.org/emergencies/symposium06/docs/finalbrusselsbriefingpaper.pdf+Crimes+against+women&hl=en&gl=us

4. End Violence Against Women International  http://www.evawintl.org/

Week 11 Human Rights Abuses of the USA

1. Human Rights Record of the US in 2007 at http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/zgrq/t414611.htm

2. USA Invasions at http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_whyusa02.html

3. Human Rights, Violence and the Oil Complex by Michael Watts at http://geography.berkeley.edu/ProjectsResources/ND%20Website/NigerDelta/WP/2-Watts.pdf

4.  US Human Rights Network http://www.ushrnetwork.org/

Week 12 Social Justice and Reform, Resistance and Revolution

Problems and Solutions

Week s 13-14 Final Presentation

Week 15 Final Exams