Human Rights - Philosophy and Institutions

NB! The schedule has been changed! New schedule: Thursdays & Fridays 8.4., 9.4., 15.4., 16.4. 14-18 (U40 lr 10 (kok.), Monday 19.4. 14-18 (Main building, aud XVII).

Content

This course covers the philosophical, theoretical and cultural foundations of human rights as well as wider political and legal international perspectives and different generations of human rights. The lectures critically discuss the liberal theories of human rights and their critics both historically and in the present time. The course examines some of the philosophical foundations of modern notions of rights by looking specifically at the Natural Rights theorists of the seventeenth century. We will discuss various conceptions within this tradition, and examine in more detail what is understood by the notions “State of Nature”, “Natural Law” and “Natural Rights” and "the Social Contract" and their Utilitarian and Marxist critique. We will be assessing the validity of various philosophical and cultural justifications for and critique of human rights. We will also question how the philosophical, political and cultural disputes over the origins of human rights are related to the current issues of global justice. In relation to this Asian, African and Islamic critiques of and approaches to human rights will be explored as well as the rights of key groups of minorities, women and children. Main international human rights instruments will be also introduced and their prospects and problems discussed.

MODULE SUMMARY:

• Topic 1 Philosophical foundations of Human Rights
• Topic 2 Utilitarian critique of human rights
• Topic 3 Marxist critique of human rights
• Topic 4 Three generations of human rights thinking
• Topic 5 Cultural relativism and the Asian critique of human rights
• Topic 6 African foundations for human rights
• Topic 7 Islamic foundations for human rights
• Topic 8 The rights of minorities as human rights
• Topic 9 Women's rights
• Topic 10 Main human rights institutions

Completion

Participation in discussion during the lectures and essay (2500-4500 words).