*Human Rights in International Politics*

Dozentin: Dr. Brigitte Weiffen

Zeit: Montag, 10-12Uhr Raum D 430

This course will present a broad assessment of the impact of human rights on the international stage at the turn of the twenty-first century and will familiarize students with a mixture of theoretical approaches with a study of cases and global issues. It will look at both the establishment and the challenges of implementation of human rights standards.

We begin with some foundational discussions of human rights and examine the policy-making process that establishes and tries to apply human rights norms through the United Nations, regional organizations, state foreign policy, and human rights groups. Topics to be dealt with include the global application of human rights norms, transitional justice and the creation of the ICC, humanitarian intervention and the “Responsibility to protect”, and the determinants of individual states’ human rights behaviour.

Throughout the course, we will assess the explanatory power of competing theories of international relations for international human rights cooperation and will also reflect on how to measure human rights guarantees and practice by getting to know various datasets.

Literatur:

Forsythe, David 2000: Human Rights in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Fritzsche, K. Peter 2009: Menschenrechte. Eine Einführung mit Dokumenten. 2. Auflage, Paderborn: Schöningh (UTB).

Haas, Michael 2008: International Human Rights. A Comprehensive Introduction. London: Routledge.

Landman, Todd & Carvalho, Edzia 2010: Measuring Human Rights. London: Routledge.

Sriram, Chandra Lekha, Martin-Ortega, Olga & Herman, Johanna 2008: War, Conflict and Human Rights. Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Leistungsnachweis:

Presentation, two short (2-3 pages) review essays, term paper (12-15 pages), participation in class discussion