INST 3670 - Human Rights: History & Praxis

5 credit hours
What are human rights? “Human rights” entered the English language in the 1940s, but the roots of the modern human rights system stretch back to the Enlightenment Revolutions in the Atlantic World (1776-1804). With an eye to the United Nations and other international governing bodies, this course examines the changing parameters of the international human rights system in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. As we chart the evolution and expansion of the international human rights system, we will also examine its issues and challenges, including lingering colonial influence, rights fragmentation, backlash, mobilization, enforcement, and pessimism about the efficacy of the system given the persistence of human rights abuses even with an expanding international human rights framework. Cannot receive credit for both HONR 2250 and INST 3670.