Human Rights

HRTS V3001x Introduction To Human Rights 3 pts. International human rights is a powerful idea in our time, but also the focus of numerous controversies: it not only embodies a set of ideals but also functions as a political tool, which different forces try to bend to their own ends. The result of this struggle is a process of norm contestation and norm change that the course seeks to understand. The course looks at the laws and institutions that define human rights as an international regime, in the context of key intellectual controversies and political puzzles surrounding human rights theory and practice. It discusses how human rights norms change, and it analyzes some of the challenges of contemporary human rights advocacy.

HRTS V3190y International Human Rights Law 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Please email humanrightsed@columbia.edu. Priority given to human rights majors & concentrators. This course will introduce students to the international law of human rights, and give a basic orientation to fundamental issues and controversies. The course has two principal focal points: first, the "nuts and bolts" of how international law functions in the field of human rights, and second, the value and limitations of legal approaches to a variety of human rights issues. Throughout the course, both theoretical and practical questions will be addressed, including who bears legal duties and who can assert legal claims, how these duties might be enforced, and accountability and remedy for violations. Attention will be given to how international law is made, what sorts of assumptions underlie various legal mechanisms, and how the law works in a variety of contexts.

HRTS W3930y International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights 4 pts. Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Please email the instructor at bc14@columbia.edu. This seminar will cover various issues, debates, and concepts in the international law of armed conflict (known as international humanitarian law), particularly as it relates to the protection of non-combatants and civilians. In doing so, we will examine how international humanitarian law and human rights law intersect. Both sets of legal norms are designed to protect the lives, well-being, and dignity of individuals. However, the condition of armed conflict provides a much wider set of options for governments and individuals to engage in violent, deadly action against others, including killing, forcibly detaining, and destroying the property of those designated as combatants. At the same time, the means of waging war are not unlimited, but rather are tightly regulated by both treaty and customary law. This course will examine how these regulations operate in theory and practice, focusing on the principles of distinction, proportionality, and military necessity.

HRTS W3950x Human Rights and Human Wrongs 4 pts. Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. Please email the instructor at bc14@columbia.edu. This course will examine the tension between two contradictory trends in world politics. On the one hand, we have emerged from a century that has seen some of the most brutal practices ever perpetrated by states against their populations in the form of genocide, systematic torture, mass murder and ethnic cleansing. Many of these abuses occurred after the Holocaust, even though the mantra "never again" was viewed by many as a pledge never to allow a repeat of these practices. Events in the new century suggest that these trends will not end anytime soon. At the same time, since the middle of the twentieth century, for the first time in human history there has been a growing global consensus that all individuals are entitled to at least some level of protection from abuse by their governments. This concept of human rights has been institutionalized through international law, diplomacy, international discourse, transnational activism, and the foreign policies of many states. Over the past two decades, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international tribunals have gone further than any institutions in human history to try to stem state abuses. This seminar will try to make sense of these contradictions.

HRTS W3995x Human Rights Senior Seminar 4 pts. Prerequisites: Priority given to human rights majors. The senior seminar is a capstone course required for the human rights major. The seminar provides students the opportunity to discuss human rights from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and to explore various theoretical approaches and research methodologies. Students undertake individual research projects while collectively examining human rights through directed readings and discussion.

HRTS W3996y Human Rights Thesis Seminar 3 pts. Prerequisites: HRTS W3995 Human Rights Senior Seminar. Application information and deadlines online: http://hrcolumbia.org/undergraduate/seniors This course is designed for human rights students who wish to write a honors-eligible thesis. The course will consist of group sessions, during which time students will present their work and participate in discussions, and individual meetings with the thesis supervisor. The course instructor is the thesis supervisor for each student.

HRTS S4180 Human Rights and Business 3 pts. In recent years, there has been an intense global debate about the human rights responsibilities of corporations. Business has helped lift people around the world out of poverty; but at the same time companies in all industries have contributed to human rights abuses, such as exploitative working conditions in factories, social and environmental destruction around oil and mining projects, and censorship and surveillance by internet service providers. This course is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between business and human rights: from a theoretical perspective, as we discuss the evolution of the debate about corporate social responsibility, and from an applied perspective as we focus on particular cases, industries, and issues. Students will gain a solid grounding in the background and current issues related to business and human rights; understand the perspectives of different stakeholder groups; and critically evaluate the actions of key actors in situations where corporate-related human rights abuses have occurred.

HRTS S4190 Human Rights and Visual Culture 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.

HRTS G4210y Equality, Identity & Rights 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Email humanrightsed@columbia.edu. Priority given to HRSMA students. This course examines one of the main dilemmas in human rights theory and practice: the balance between equality and identity. Such balance is studied in three different stages: the foundation for human rights, the content of human rights, and the goals sought in drafting a body of human rights' norms. In order to debate different concepts of equality and their connection to identity and difference, some core questions are explored: What type of equality are we looking for: complete equality of results, complete equality of opportunities, equal treatment, equality of respect, equal consideration of preferences, equality of resources, equality based on needs, equality of agency, equality of freedom? Is it equality for whom? Finally, the course discusses the rights of differently situated groups: national minorities, indigenous peoples, racial minorities, women, LGBT, persons with disabilities, children, and religious groups.

HRTS S4220 International Human Rights Law 3 pts. This course introduces the fundamental concepts and problems of public international law. What are the origins of international law? Is international law really law? Who is governed by it? How are treaties interpreted? What is the relationship between international law and domestic law? We examine the interplay between law and international politics, in particular with reference to international human rights, humanitarian law, the use of force, and international criminal prosecutions. No prior knowledge of international law is required. While the topics are necessarily law-related, the course will assume no prior exposure to legal studies.

HRTS G4300x Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Policy and Practice 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Email humanrightsed@columbia.edu. Priority given to HRSMA students. This course will address economic and social human rights through the lens of what is happening now in the early 21st century, in light of the enormous shifts that have taken place since the modern human rights movement first emerged in the aftermath of WWII. The course will address many of the central debates about economic and social rights and then examine how those debates apply to specific rights and topics including development, health, housing, work, food and education. Throughout, the course will examine how activists and policymakers have responded to all these changes, and ask what might lie ahead for the human rights movement in addressing economic and social rights in a multilateral, globalized world.

HRTS G4320x Human Rights and Foreign Policy 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Email humanrightsed@columbia.edu. Human rights play a distinctive role as "the political utopia" in contemporary international life. Still, human rights violations remain widespread and human rights norms are still the focus of numerous controversies, from their definition to their protection and promotion by various international actors with different moral and strategic agendas. This course will examine the place of human rights in the foreign policies of the US and a number of other countries around the globe. The course explores the social construction of human rights and national interests as well as the context, instruments, and tradeoffs in the formulation and implementation human rights foreign policies. Some of the questions this class will consider include: What are human rights and how is their protection best assessed? How have different states promoted and contributed to the violation of human rights abroad? How does human rights promotion strengthen and undermine other foreign policy goals? What's the role of non-state actors in the promotion and violation of human rights across the globe? When has the impact of the human rights norms and regimes been the greatest and when have the efforts of state and non-state actors to promote human rights at home and abroad made the most difference?

HRTS S4320 Human Rights and Foreign Policy 3 pts. Human rights play a distinctive role as "the political utopia" in contemporary international life. Still, human rights violations remain widespread and human rights norms are still the focus of numerous controversies, from their definition to their protection and promotion by various international actors with different moral and strategic agendas. This course will examine the place of human rights in the foreign policies of the US and a number of other countries around the globe. The course explores the social construction of human rights and national interests as well as the context, instruments, and tradeoffs in the formulation and implementation human rights foreign policies. Some of the questions this class will consider include: What are human rights and how is their protection best assessed? How have different states promoted and contributed to the violation of human rights abroad? How does human rights promotion strengthen and undermine other foreign policy goals? What's the role of non-state actors in the promotion and violation of human rights across the globe? When has the impact of the human rights norms and regimes been the greatest and when have the efforts of state and non-state actors to promote human rights at home and abroad made the most difference?

HRTS G4410y Children's Rights: Selected Issues 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Email humanrightsed@columbia.edu 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.

HRTS G4810y Religion and Human Rights 3 pts. Prerequisites: the department's permission. Email humanrightsed@columbia.edu. The resurgence of religion over the past three decades has had a transformative influence globally and within nations. Religious nationalism, fundamentalism, and communalism have arisen to forcefully compete with secular democracy. With the fall of the Soviet bloc and the bilateralism of the Cold War, ethnic particularism, often of a religious character, has emerged as the locus of identity for people on all continents. These rapid changes engendered by a new, often commanding, role for religion challenge the very concept of individual and universal human rights. They raise difficult theoretical and painfully practical questions as to the preservation of individual human rights, and the relationship of democracy to religion. At the same time, recent currents such as economic globalization, the triumph of the free market, and the communications revolution promote individual autonomy, a cornerstone of human rights. There can be no doubt that religion will occupy an increasingly salient role in the social and political life of nations during the course of the 21st century. The relevance of religion to human rights in our time cannot be undervalued. The course examines the relationship of religion to human rights from several standpoints, including religion's role in abetting intolerance, religious minorities as victims of human rights violations, and religion as a framer of human rights ideals which inspire action.