PADM 5888. International Human Rights

2. What are human rights and where have they come from?

29, 31 January 2024

These session of the seminar discuss the origins of human rights, starting from religious agreements, through medieval agreements like the Magna Carta, the Rights of Man of the French Revolution, the United States Constitution, through labor conventions after World War I, to the 1948 United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. It will also look at them in terms of realist and functionalist theories of international relations to place them in the larger context of international order.

Questions covered	Where do human rights come from? What are some historical agreements that affect human rights? What do realists think about human rights? What do functionalists think about human rights?.
Lectures	What are human rights lecture?
Required readings	McFarland, Heroes of Human Rights, Chapters 1, 6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 25, 28 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948 Center for American Progress, 5 Questions About the Commission on Unalienable Rights
Recommended readings	Secretary-General of the United Nations, We the Peoples: the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century.
Discussion questions	What is the formal meaning of "human rights" How is the United States Constitution reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Why do we need human rights, anyway?
Recording	Recording of 29 and 31 January 2024 will be in the course Canvas.

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Revised: January 16, 2024 .