Objectives
1. Introduce students to a wide range of current human rights issues across the globe.
2. Break down traditional paradigms of good versus evil in human rights violations by delving into subjectivity, morally complex situations, and the ethics of (in)action.
3. Help students think critically about the role of culture within human rights discourses.
Assignment Overview
You have been tasked with completing a fact-finding mission for the United Nations Human Rights Council. In several weeks you will travel to the site of the human rights violations you are investigating. Before you leave, though, you need to have a somewhat comprehensive understanding of what has happened so far. You will write a report on the human rights abuses taking place in your assigned area. Be sure to describe the situation’s historical context as well as any relative first and second-order effects, such as shortage of resources, economic collapse, displacement, and disease. Papers should be around 1200-1400 hundred words in length excluding the resources or works cited page (word count can deviate by fifty words in either direction without penalty). Papers must reference at least five sources, including at least one peer-reviewed journal article, and follow APA or MLA formatting guidelines, and include your name and a creative, relevant title. Papers should also incorporate two to three relevant images and cite them correctly in the references or works cited section. Aside from scholarly articles, your paper may also include news articles, human rights reports, and videos (of course, you need to choose with care). It might be advantageous to begin your research by consulting past investigations conducted by the UNHRC, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.
Structure
In terms of structure, your paper should include the following elements:
1. Introduction: provide a concise overview of your topic.
2. Historical context: briefly tell the story of what happened leading up to the situation. You may have to define what constitutes the ‘past’ and the ‘present’ of a given issue or conflict.
3. Responses & engagements: explain what the international community has done, or failed to do. More specifically, assess responses & engagement at the intergovernmental, bilateral, and cultural levels, as per our work on human rights. This breakdown provides a useful structuring tool for your analysis.
4. Making sense of globalization: Beyond just the ‘functional’ responses (e.g., the UN General Assembly did X)
5. Next steps: outline a few starting points for your on-site investigation (where you will go, who you will talk to, what you will look for, etc.). Identify at least three sites and at least three people with whom to talk, including people ‘in the field’, as appropriate. Include their (public) contact information (postal, email, Twitter, etc.).
In terms of people with whom you would talk: scholars, journalists, people working for NGOs, etc. would all be good choices. The important thing is to give some thought to whom would be best able to help you, and whether they are fairly accessible. For example, you aren’t likely to gain much, or have much luck, in talking to Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights WatchLinks to an external site.. The staff of a DC lobby group, or a small NGO ‘in the field’? Much more likely.
Formatting for “next steps” can be as follows:
Santiago Smith, [email/website/contract information]. Dr. Smith is an expert is [appropriate fields], and has carried out research in [country, region], writing on [human rights issue of relevance to you]. [In total, 2-3 sentences describing what he/she has worked on].
Egypt Taylor, [email/website/contract information]. Egypt Taylor is a journalist in [country, region] and has reported extensively on [human rights issue]…[In total, 2-3 sentences describing what he/she has worked on].
Charles Dance, … [well, you get the idea].
Helpful Hints
Many cases of human rights violations are shocking to the mind and conscience. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are having difficulties as a result.When researching these cases, it may become tempting to attribute full responsibility for the violence to a single party, claiming that all the problems would go away if this person or group was removed from power. Even in asymmetrical conflicts, though, this is very rarely the case. Be sure to keep in mind the context of your case and look for violent acts committed by multiple parties involved.Some cases of human rights violations covered by this assignment have received more press coverage than others. However, this does not necessarily mean that groups with more infamous cases will have an easier time conducting research. It is important for all groups to consider the role of biases and interests. For example, male reporters who lack experience in writing about women’s rights may feel uncomfortable or unsure of how to describe female genital mutilation and endemic sexual violence. Although no source can be truly unbiased, an awareness of possible sources of bias leads to a more comprehensive understanding of events and should be present in your paper.Make sure to use concise, specific language. Avoid rambling to meet the word count.Most paragraphs should communicate specific, cited information. If you write several paragraphs with no citations, you are almost surely doing something wrong. Proofread your paper exhaustively.Avoid generalizations. For example, if you say “these people have hated each other for thousands of years,” I’m going to expect you to marshal some pretty compelling evidence in support. Likewise, essays that allege “all good men want peace” will be returned, ungraded, since in that case you won’t have been writing about human rights at all.Finally, your paper should: (a) provide an extensive, fact-based description of violence taking place; (b) provide a few tentative recommendations for future investigation; and, (c) discuss the (non)existence of a functioning global society with regards to human rights issues.
Paper topics
North America
a) United States – mass incarceration. b) Canada – indigenous rights and residential schools; abuse of indigenous women and girls.
Central and South America.
a) Indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations in Colombia since the 2016 peace accord.
b) Mass exodus of immigrants and refugees from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
Africa.
a) Female genital cutting in W. Africa & global efforts at battling FGC.
b) Forced displacement in Tigray region of Ethiopia.
Middle East and North Africa.
a) Anti-regime protests and treatment of civil society activists in Iran.
b) Kurdish minorities in Turkey and Iraq.
c) Water rights in Israel and Palestine in the context of global environmental pressures.
Europe and Central Asia.
a) Treatment of refugees and migrants in Libya (and role of EU countries such as Italy).
b) Forced displacement & risk of human trafficking of Ukrainian refugees.
c) Displacement and cultural damage at the Ilisu Dam, Turkey. South Asia.
d) India – attacks on Muslims and on cultural property (esp. Mosques) since the 1990s, and concurrent growth of Hindutva.
e) Sri Lanka – persecution of religious minorities by Buddhist nationalists.
East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.
a) China – compulsory biometric data collection & DNA database creation in Tibet and Xinjiang.
b) Philippines – government violence justified by ‘war on drugs’. Myanmar – forced displacement and regional complicity in Rohingya crisis.
For your final bibliography, you should have: A) Campbell et al’s chapter on Human RightsLinks to an external site., found here (a good backgrounder to help you get comfortable with the issues). B) At least one peer-reviewed journal article. I will provide guidance on how to find peer reviewed journal articles. C) 2-4 news sources on “your” country of interest, from credible news sources (e.g., NYT, WSJ, The Economist, Brookings Institute papers…).
