Mar 28, 2024  
2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2017-2018 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

PHL 3010 - Human Rights: Theory and Practice

Credits: 4
In this course, we will critically examine different theories of human rights, including non-Western approaches to human rights, and we will consider the development of international human rights law. We will examine the concept of human rights and the moral and political foundations of this idea. We will analyze the distinction between civil and political rights, socio-economic rights, and group rights, and we will consider challenges to socio-economic rights and group rights. We will also examine challenges to international human rights discourse, particularly the challenge of cultural relativism. Finally, we will focus on particular cases and issues, such as women’s rights, LGBT rights, racial non-discrimination, the rights of refugees, indigenous rights and the right to self-determination, subsistence rights (food, housing, health care), the prohibition of torture, humanitarian intervention, and environmental human rights. In addition to reading philosophical texts, we will read international human rights treaties and cases, and we will consider how the system of international human rights law operates in practice.
Fulfills: E in LS Core