Human Rights in the World Community

Professor Adrien K. Wing
Fall 2000

This course will introduce the student to the established and developing legal rules, procedures, and enforcement mechanisms governing the protection of international human rights. It will address both liberal western and developing world notions of human rights as well as highlight recent examples of human rights controversies including Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo. Special emphasis will be placed on the international human rights of women, including examples from a new addition to human rights discourse known as Global Critical Race Feminism.

READINGS

The readings include selections from: Richard Pierre Claude and Burns Weston, Human Rights and the World Community: Issues and Action (U Penn. Press 2d ed. 1992)[hereinafter Weston]
2. Global Critical Race Feminism: An International Reader (Adrien K. Wing ed., NYU Press, 2000) [hereinafter GCRF]
3. Handouts

COURSE EVALUATION

Law students will be evaluated on the normal 60-90 scale. Non-law students will be evaluated separately on the A-F scale.

1. There will be a take home open book final exam distributed at the end of the course. The number of days will be mutually agreed upon by the class. The exam will contain 1-3 essay questions for a total of 12 doublespaced typed pages. The exam will count 50% of the final grade.
2. Each student will do one class presentation which will count 10% of the final grade. The presentation will include an oral portion in which the student will be responsible for leading class discussion on an article. Each student will submit a written portion which will contain: a summary of the article's major points; the student's opinion of the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments; a comparison of the article to other articles and outside knowledge if applicable; questions raised by the article; issues for further study, etc. Each student should xerox sufficient single spaced copies for each class member. If this presents a financial problem, please let me know.
3. Class participation will count 10% of the final grade as well. It includes regular class attendance and preparation as well as active contribution to class discussion. Comments should evidence a mastery of the readings. Anyone who will be absent must call my secretary at 335-9088 and leave a message. There will be one class (pot luck dinner) held at my home - 819 Southlawn Drive Iowa City phone 354-2849.
4. At the end of the course, each student will participate in a simulation about a current human rights problem. The simulation will count 30% of the final grade. Students will do a ten minute oral presentation followed by five minutes of questions. Each student will hand in a written presentation as well. Specific details will be distributed later in the course.
5. Those desiring to do a research paper should be sure to discuss the proposed paper with me early in the semester. The papers can be for 1-3 units of writing credit.
6. Any student needing exam or other accommodations to comply with the requirements for this course should contact Dean McGuire at the start of the semester.

My office is room 410. Phone 335-9129. Messages can also be left with my secretary who will know my daily schedule. The best time to reach me is right after class. Please do not come to see me in the hour before class.

READINGS ---- all dates approximate

Week One
Tues. August 22 INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
Introduce Ourselves
Human Rights: An Overview
Weston pp. 2-31
Wed. Aug. 23
Weston pp. 413-47

Week Two
Mon. August 28
Handout 1 The Women's Convention (CEDAW) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
Tues. Aug. 29
Weston pp. 31-42
Handout 2 Jack Donelly, Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights......
Wed. Aug. 30
Handout 3 Makau wa Mutua, The Ideology of Human Rights

Week Three
Mon. Sept. 4 Labor Day No class
Tues. Sept. 5
First Generation Rights
Weston pp. 58-79
Wed. Sept. 6
Handout 4 Eric Rosand, The Right to Return Under International Law Following Mass Dislocation: The Bosnia Precedent?

Week Four
Mon. Sept. 11
Weston pp. 79-101
Tues. Sept. 12
Second and Third generation rights
Weston pp. 138-58
Wed. Sept. 13
Weston pp. 175-98

Week Five
Mon. Sept. 18
Handout 5 Debra Delaet, Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Where is the Protection Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination in International Human Rights Law
Tues. Sept. 19
International and Regional Implementation
Weston pp. 216-44
Wed. Sept. 20
Handout 6 Makau Mutua, Never Again: Questioning the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals

Week Six
Mon. Sept. 25
Handout 7 Makau wa Mutua, The African Human Rights Court: A Two Legged Stool
Tues. Sept. 26
National Implementation
Weston pp. 328-339, 360-72
Wed. Sept. 27
United States
Handout 8 HRW and ACLU, Human Rights Violations in the United States

Week Seven
Mon. Oct. 2
Handout 9 Jim Anaya, The Native Hawaiian People and International Human Rights Law: Toward A Remedy for Past and Continuing Wrongs
Tues. Oct. 3
Mary Dudziak, Josephine Baker, Racial Protest, and the Cold War in GCRF pp. 179-91
J. Clay Smith, United States Foreign Policy and Goler Teal Butcher in GCRF pp. 192-203
Wed. Oct. 4
Hope Lewis, Women (Under)Development: Poor Women of Color in the United States and the Right to Development in GCRF pp. 95-114

Week Eight
Mon. Oct. 9
Lisa Crooms, Families, Fatherlessness, and Human Rights in GCRF pp.285-302
Laura Ho, Catherine Powell, and Leti Volpp, (Dis)Assembling Rights of Women Workers along the Global Assembly Line: Human Rights and the Garment Industry in GCRF pp. 377-391
Tues. Oct. 10
Latin America and the Inter-American Human Rights System
Handout 10 Jennifer Bol, Using International Law to Fight Child Labor: A Case Study of Guatemala and the Inter-American System
Wed. Oct. 11
continued
Gaby Oré-Aguilar, Sexual Harassment and Human Rights in Latin America in GCRF pp.362-376

Week Nine
Mon. Oct. 16
Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol, Féminismes sans Frontičres? The Cuban Challenge– Women, Equality, and Culture in GCRF pp. 81-95
Martha Morgan with Mónica Alzate Buitrago, Founding Mothers and Contemporary Latin American Constitutions: Colombian Women, Constitution Making, and the New Constitutional Court in GCRF pp. 204-220
Tues. Oct. 17
Jenny Rivera, Puerto Rico's Domestic Violence Prevention and Intervention Law: The Limitations of Legislative Responses in GCRF pp. 347-361
Wed. Oct. 18
Europe
Handout 11 The European System for the Protection of Human Rights

Week Ten
Mon. Oct. 23
Judy Scales-Trent, African Women in France: Immigration, Family and Work in GCRF pp. 141-59
Devon Carbado, Motherhood and Work in Cultural Context: One Woman's Patriarchal Bargain in GCRF pp. 115-28
Tues. Oct. 24
Zorica Mrsevic, Filthy, Old and Ugly: Gypsy Women from Serbia in GCRF pp. 160-78
Africa
Handout 12 Makau Mutua, The Banjul Charter and the African Cultural Fingerprint: An Evaluation of the Language of Duties
Wed. Oct. 25
Handout 13 Makau Mutua, Limitations on Religious Rights: Problematizing Religious Freedom in the African Context
Leslye Obiora, Bridges and Barricades: Rethinking Polemics and Intransigence in the Campaign against Female Circumcision in GCRF pp. 260-74
Isabelle Gunning, Uneasy Alliances and Solid Sisterhood: A Response to Professor Obiora in GCRF pp. 275-284

Week Eleven
Mon. Oct. 30
South Africa
Handout 14 Human Rights Provisions of the SA Constitution
Curriculum Vita of some South African Constitutional Court judges
President v. Hugo
Soobramoney v. Minister of Health
National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v. Minister of Justice (1998)
National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v. Minister of Home Affairs (1999
Tues. Oct. 31
Handout 15 Makau wa Mutua, Hope and Despair for a New South Africa: Limits of Rights Discourse
Adrien Katherine Wing, A Critical Race Feminist Conceptualization of Violence: South African and Palestinian Women in GCRF pp. 332-46
Wed. Nov. 1
Middle East
Handout 16 Adrien Wing, From Liberation to State Building in South Africa: Some Constitutional Considerations for Palestine Azizah al-Hibri, Deconstructing Patriarchal Jurisprudence in Islamic Law in GCRF pp. 221-33

Week Twelve
Mon. Nov. 6
Asia
Handout 17 Gun Luoji, A Human Rights Critique of the Chinese Legal System
Anna Han, Holding Up More than Half the Sky in GCRF pp. 392-408
Tues. Nov. 7
Film: Heart of the Dragon: Mediating
Wed. Nov. 8
discuss film and Sharon Hom, Female Infanticide in China: The Rights Specter and Thoughts Toward (An)other Vision in GCRF pp. 251-59

Week Thirteen
Mon. Nov. 13
Taimie Bryant, For the Sake of the Country, for the Sake of the Family: the Oppressive Impact of Family Registration in Japan in GCRF pp.234-250
Kiyoko Knapp, Still Office Flowers: Japanese Women in GCRF pp 409-24.
Tues. Nov. 14
Mai Chen, Discrimination in New Zealand in GCRF pp. 129-40
Violence Against Aboriginal Women in GCRF pp. 303-16
Wed. Nov. 15-Nov. 29 SIMULATION (ONE CLASS AT MY HOUSE)