Pol. of Hum. Rights in Lat. Am

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This advanced seminar will focus on the politics of human rights and challenges to effective protection of human rights. In order to gain some depth in relation to the issues that could be addressed, the seminar will delve into only four themes or types of human rights violations: enforced disappearance; deprivation of liberty (and inhuman treatment and torture); executions (right to life); and violence against women. Selected Latin American countries will be used to explore these themes, including Argentina, Colombia and México. The primary regional focus of the course will be on Latin America; however, the seminar will use material arising out of other contexts, such as Indonesia and the United States of America. Cross-regional and comparative analysis is also encouraged in discussions and research. Course reading draws on relevant literatures in political science, social sciences and law, including textbooks, academic articles, legal decisions, and international treaties and other legal instruments. Legal training is not required. Readings also include in-depth reporting and exposés on major human rights events in Latin American countries. Complementarily, we will view films (fiction and documentary) that offer a vivid perspective of the problems being analyzed. Throughout the course we will consider the practical dimensions of human rights activism, and the legal and policy implications of the subjects studied. Debates will concentrate on dilemmas that arise out of human rights practice, focusing on the fissure between standard-setting exercises and national implementation, and the growing gap between rhetoric and practice. We will review the role of the state in relation to development of international human rights law and reflect on the way the state has managed to fade as the object of concern of this (once state-centered) branch of international law.