LFU:online

Students will have acquired sound knowledge about social science approaches to human rights issues. They have acquired knowledge of both institutional human rights mechanisms and central human rights instruments and have gained an overview of critical approaches and current human rights challenges.

The course aims to examine and analyse the multi-layered and complex dynamics and relationships of climate change and (human) rights and  from a gender perspective. The concept of intersectionality is used as a central analytical approach during the course. An intersectional perspective enables to grasp the multi-layered, interacting dimensions of gender-relevant exclusions and inclusions that are relevant to understand the transformations associated with climate change and the role of rights in this context. A focus will also be put on the topic of gender and climate change-related (im)mobilities.

Introduction and input by the course instructor, preparatory literature study, group work, exercises and discussions, in-depth research by students on a given topic with a short presentation and written paper.

• Reading of mandatory literature and timely submission of assignments related to the mandatory literature (25%)
• Active participation in the course sessions (25%)
• In-depth work on a topic chosen by the student and presentation (25%)
• Written seminar paper on the chosen topic (25%)

Selection of literature:

•     Arendt, Hannah (1998): Der Niedergang des Nationalstaates und das Ende der Menschenrechte. In: Dies.: Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft. Antisemitismus, Imperialismus, totale Herrschaft. München/Zürich: Piper. 559-625 (9. Kapitel).
•     Atapattu, Sumudu (2016) Human rights approaches to climate change: challenges and opportunities. Rougledge.
•     Freeman, Michael (2002) Human Rights.  An Interdisciplinary Approach. Cambridge/Malden: polity.
•     Goodhart, Michael (Hrsg.): Human Rights. Politics & Practice. Oxford: University Press.
•     Kapur, Ratna (2006): Human Rights in the 21st century. Take a Walk on the Dark Side. Sidney Law Review, Vol. 28. 665-687. http://rp-www.law.usyd.edu.au/slr/slr28_4/Kapur.pdf
•     Kapur, Ratna (2002) The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the “Native” Subject in International/Post-Colonial Feminist Legal Politics, in: Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 15., No. 1.
•     Mitsilegas, Valsamis; Moreno Lax, Violeta and Vavoula, Niovi (2020) Securitising asylum flows: deflection, criminalisation and challenges for human rights. Brill Nijoff.
•     Mayrhofer, Monika (2019) ‘Climate Change, Minorities and Mobility’, in: Grant, Peter/minority rights group international (ed.) Minority and Indigenous Trends 2019. Focus on climate justice, London, pp. 53-67.
•     Mayrhofer, Monika (2020) ‘Victims, security threats or agents? - Framing climate change-related mobility in international human rights documents’, International Journal of Law, Language & Discourse, Vol. 8, No. 2.
•     Moeckli, Daniel; Shah, Sangeeta and Sivakumaran, Sandesh (eds.) (2022) International Human Rights Law. OUP.
•     Moyn, Samuel (2018) Not enough: human rights in an unequal world. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
•     Mutua, Makau (2008): Savages, victims, and saviours: the metaphor of human rights. In: Falk, Richard/Ever, Hilal/Hajjar, Lisa (eds.): Human Rights. Critical Concepts in Political Science I. London/New York: Routledge. 204-254.
•     Otto, Diane (2022) Women’s Rights. In: Moeckli, Daniel; Shah, Sangeeta and Sivakumaran, Sandesh (eds.) (2022) International Human Rights Law. OUP. 321.
•     Smith, Rhona K. M. (2012) Textbook on International Human Rights. OUP.
•     Thoreson, R. R. (2009) ‘Queering Human Rights. The Yogyakarta Principles and the Norm That Dare Not Speak Its Name’, Journal of Human Rights, 8 (4), 323-339.