Human Rights History Across Cultures and Religions

• • Introduction - thinking about human rights, cultures and religions
  • Universalism and cultural relativism
  • Dialogue as a means of overcoming barriers to human rights across cultures/religions
  • Constructing human rights beyond the limits of the modern western view
  • Human rights and Christianity
  • Human rights - an African perspective
  • Human rights and Islam
  • Human rights and Indigenous peoples
  • Human rights and Buddhism
  • Rights to cultural identity

No eligibility requirements

Additional requirements

• Equipment requirements - Audio/Visual equipment

This subject provides an overview of the development of the idea of human rights and related concepts in a range of cultures and religions. The subject begins with an exploration of the development of human rights in the Enlightenment tradition and then explores debates about the foundations of human rights. Other topics include cultural relativist critiques of human rights; non-western cultural traditions of human rights; the role and practice of dialogue; ideas of human rights in different religious traditions; colonialism and human rights; and Indigenous understandings of human rights and perspectives on rights protection, practice and education.

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• Readings report (30%)
• Presentation/engagement (30%)
• Final Essay (40%)

Current study term: 16 Jul 23 to 22 Oct 23