The Politics of International Human Rights

• • • Are human rights universal or culturally relative?
  • • The 'rights of man' and the revolutionary era.
  • • Rivals to human rights: socialism and nationalism.
  • • The intersection of antislavery and women's rights.
  • • The Universal Declaration, the Cold War and decolonisation.
  • • The post-Cold War human rights order.
  • • Authoritarian challenges to human rights.

Others

Pre-requisites: Students must have completed 30 credit points of Level one subjects.

Additional requirements

No additional requirements

This subject poses questions about the origins, the evolution, and the nature of the emerging global human rights order. Are human rights the product of a peculiarly European heritage? What was the relationship between French revolutionary declarations of rights and the ensuing terror? How has the language of rights been used by socialists, feminists, imperialists, anti-slavery campaigners and national liberation movements? How have notions of human rights been influenced by the legacy of the holocaust, the Cold War, decolonisation, the sexual revolution, the war on terror, and the rise of authoritarian great powers? Within a historical framework, the subject examines the interplay of ideas, civic activism, politics, and diplomacy. In the process, you will have an opportunity to evaluate the ideas of proponents and critics of universal rights, the different ways that states have responded to human rights, and the new pessimism that surrounds the prospects of human rights.

• Short written tutorial comments and questions (equivalent to 500 words). (15%)
• One 1500 word take-home exam In format this will resemble the structure of the argumentative research essay, and students will have the opportunity to employ recommendations given by the examiner for the earlier exercise. (35%)
• One 2000 word argumentative research essay. (50%)

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