Geopolitics and Human Rights

Code Cours
1920-FDL-LAW-EN-5025
Langue d'enseignement
Français, Anglais
Ce cours apparaît dans les formation(s) suivante(s)
Responsable(s)
Kalliopi Kyriakopoulou
Période

Présentation

Prérequis

The course requires the students to use their knowledge and expertise from their Law courses and apply it when examining human rights violations. There are no specific requirements prior to the course as some students might have not taken a course in Geopolitics before. However, familiarity with content analysis, literature review, and comparative analysis will assist the students in both the seminars and their assignments. Students are encouraged to follow national and international news and developments, keep up-to-date with current affairs and follow the assigned bibliography.

Objectifs

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:



- Discuss and explain various debates and theories on Geopolitics


- Debate the relation between Geopolitics and Human Rights


- Examine how geopolitical shifts and security concerns can have a significant impact upon Human Rights practices


- Have acquired a knowledge of the origins and complexity of contemporary security threats


- Have gained an understanding of how different states, regions and political systems promote human rights practices and why


- Identify the relation between various foreign policy agendas and human rights practices


- Assess critically the role of popular Geopolitics on human rights debates


- Have gained the ability to discuss, theorise and comment upon news regarding human rights violations across the world


- Gather information and apply theoretical perspectives on case studies related to different human rights politics and practices


Présentation

This course explores, examines, and critically evaluates the complexity of Human Rights in relation to International Politics, as well as their significance both domestically and internationally. Because this course aims at understanding how Human Rights are addressed and practiced in different parts of the world, it uses geopolitical theories and debates as conceptual tools. An examination of several cases of Human Rights violations provides the foundation for comparative analysis and cross-examination. Using a lecture-seminar approach the course provides a forum for promoting dialogue among the students by exploring geopolitical challenges and by addressing universal questions relating to Human Rights, the challenges and the future.


The course starts with questioning the notion of Human Rights, its historic and philosophical origins; It considers then past and contemporary geopolitical divisions and makes an attempt to understand how these divisions have constructed an understanding about varieties between rights across different regions and communities; It examines, first, the role of the state in protecting the rights its citizens, and second, the role of the international community to secure the rights of the citizens of the world; It then embarks on an evaluation of the universality debate. What is the relation between political systems and Human Rights? What is the role of foreign policy and how it can affect human rights practices? How can violations of Human Rights be explained and why do they occur? Finally, the course addresses contemporary security threats and challenges that are able to either promote human rights violations in the future and/or reengine the human rights debate. These topics and questions will be examined by assessing particular regimes and communities as case studies.



Topics to be covered:


- The significance of Geopolitics in understanding and explaining Human Rights practices


- The significance of Human Rights both domestically and internationally


- From natural rights to the rights of person and rights of the communities


- Shifts in International Politics: Human Rights from a political perspective


- The role of Identity in Human Rights debates: Clash of Civilisations and Orientalism


- From a world of states to globalisation: The universality debate


- Communitarian vs. Cosmopolitan perspectives


- Contemporary challenges and Cyberspace


- The rise of Nationalism and the crisis of liberal democracy




Modalités

Modalités d'enseignement

This course assessment has three components:

  1. Attendance and Participation: Students should attend classes well prepared with questions, comments, and observations based on the assigned reading material.
  2. Presentation: Students will be asked to present a case study of their choice at the end of the course. Presentations will be assessed on the basis of preparation and organisation, quality of delivery, quality of analysis and ability to synthesise different theories and to trigger discussion around the selected topic.
  3. Essay: Students will be asked to submit an essay in which they should demonstrate their synthetic and analytical skills, their familiarity with the relevant literature, clarity of expression as well as their ability to address and evaluate various positions, to debate, and to develop argumentation.

N.B. Recommended presentations and essays titles will be discussed with the students in the first class/meeting.

Effective presence: 24h

self-learning:20h

Personal work: 20h

Évaluation
Examen : coeff. 1

Ressources

Bibliographie

<b>Advised</b><b> books:</b>|||| Alison Brysk. <i>The Future of Human Rights</i>. London: Polity, 2018.|| C. Carey, Mark Gibney, Steven C. Poe. <i>The Politics of Human Rights</i>. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010.|| Patrick J. Deneen. <i>Why Liberalism Failed</i>. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018.|| Michael Freeman. <i>Human Rights</i> (2nd edition). London: Polity, 2011.|| Michael Goodhart. <i>Human Rights. Politics and Practice</i>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.|| Michael Goodhard and Anja Mihr. <i>Human Rights in the 21st Century</i>. London: Palgrave, 2011.|| Adam Jones. <i>Origins of Genocide: A comprehensive introduction</i> (3rd edition). London and New York: Routledge 2017.|| Steven Levitsky &amp; Daniel Ziblatt. <i>How Democracies Die</i>. London: Penguin, 2018.|| Yascha Mounk. <i>The People Vs. Democracy</i>. Cambridge MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2018.|| Derrick M. Nault and Swaun L. England. <i>Globalisation and Human Rights in the Developing World</i>. London: Palgrave, 2011.|| Daniel E. Lee and Elizabeth J. Lee. <i>Human Rights and the Ethics of Globalisation</i>. London: Cambridge University Press, 2010.|| David Runciman. <i>How Democracy Ends</i>. London: Profile Books, 2018||