Politics and Ideology of International Protection of Human Rights

Basic topics to be discussed: The responsibility to protect and moral basis of humanitarian interventions; The doctrinal roots of humanitarian interventions; The legal status of humanitarian interventions; The agents of humanitarian interventions; Motives and mechanisms of humanitarian interventions; Humanitarian interventions in state practice (selected cases); The future of humanitarian interventions.

Topics:

Seminar 1 – Rights

Reading: Andrew Vincent, The Politics of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010, Chapter 1 - Rights

Seminar 2 – Natural Rights and Natural Law

Readings:

- Hugo Grotius, On the Law of War and Peace, in: Human Rights: An Anthology of Texts, The Office of the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection, Warsaw 2008;

- John Locke, Two Treatises of Government,

- Thomas Paine, Common Sense,

- Tomas Hobbes, Leviathan,

- Bartolome de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies,

- Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

Seminar 3 – Human Rights Concept

Readings:

- Declaration of Rights of Virginia,

- US Declaration of Independence,

- Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen,

- the Charter of the United Nations

Seminar 4 – Regional systems of human rights (student’s presentations);

Seminar 5 – Toward Modern Human Rights;

Readings:

- Universal Declaration of Human Rights

- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR 1966)

- International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR 1966)

- International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR 1966)

- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Seminar 6 – Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Readings:

- The Rome Statute;

- Hyeran Jo and Beth A. Simmons, Can the International Criminal Court Deter Atrocity? In: International Organization, vol. 70, no. 3, 2016;

Seminar 7 – The Truth Commissions

Readings:

- Joanna R. Quinn and Mark Freeman, Lessons Learned: Practical Lessons Gleaned from inside the Truth Commissions of Guatemala and South Africa; Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 4, 2003.

Seminar 8 – Women Rights

Readings:

- UN Declaration on the ‘Elimination of Discrimination against Women’(1967)

- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women – CEDAW

- Belem do Para Convention;

Seminar 8 – Migrations and Human Rights

Readings:

- Tally Kritzman-Amir, Thomas Spijkerboer, On the Morality and Legality of Borders: Border Policies and Asylum Seekers, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 26.

- Forrest D. Colburn, Cruz S. Arturo, Latin America’s New Turbulence: Troubles in the Northern Triangle, Journal of Democracy, vol. 27, No. 2, 2016

Seminar 9 – Undocumented Children

Readings:

- Jose Alejandro Quijada, Jose David Sierra, Understanding Undocumented Migration from Honduras, in: International migrations, vol. 57, No. 4, 2019.

Final exam: 15/06/2020

Retake exam: 1/09/2020

J. Pattison, Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsi-bility To Protect: Who Should Intervene?, Oxford University Press 2012.

N. Frei, D. Stahl, A. Weinke, Human Rights and Huma-nitarian Intervention: Legitimizing the Use of Force since the 1970s, Wallstein 2017; S. Chesterman, Just War or Just Peace?: Humanitarian Intervention and International Law, Oxford University Press 2003; A. Herir, Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan 2010.