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.

Human rights are not only an important part of international and national law and a central paradigm of international politics, they also represent an important framework for social and political changes and challenges. For example, the effects of climate change can be defined as a human rights issue, the worsening of social inequalities pose challenges to traditional human rights approaches, and cross-border migration and flight are often used by populist groups to demand a restriction of human rights. The social sciences have long ignored human rights and left the analysis of human rights issues to lawyers. However, social science approaches could make a significant contribution to deepening our understanding of the problems and potential of human rights in the context of current global political and social challenges.

Therefore, an understanding of what human rights are, which human rights treaties and institutions exist, what the central points of criticism of human rights are and which current challenges put human rights under pressure or also offer new opportunities for them, is of central importance for the social sciences. The seminar would therefore like to address the topic of human rights in general. This means that it will provide a general introduction to basic approaches, concepts and theories of human rights and to international and regional human rights systems and instruments (e.g. UN human rights system, human rights institutions and instruments in the context of the AU, ASEAN, inter-American and European human rights systems).
On the other hand, the course will also deal with central points of criticism that are repeatedly addressed in the context of human rights and are important for the social sciences. From a social science perspective, the course will therefore discuss questions of universalism, Eurocentrism and androcentrism, ties to the nation state, etc., which are becoming increasingly virulent in the context of current global political and social challenges. The seminar will focus on three of these central current challenges: Climate change, deepening inequalities and migration/asylum.

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.