Syllabus
1. Introduction in the course. History of the concept of human rights.
2. Human rights and natural rights.
3. Moral vs. legal rights. Legal positivism. Moral relativism and human rights.
4. Generations of human rights.
5. Human rights in non-European traditions.
6. Human rights implementation and post-colonial critique.
7. Human rights in the United Nations. Declaration of human rights.
8. Human rights in international law.
9. Human rights legislation in regional and continental context.
10. The concept of citizenship and human rights.
11. Human rights treaties by issues: race, gender, age.
12. Role of non-governmental organization in promotion of human rights.
13. Concluding remarks and preparation for test. Requirement for the course is taking a written test and 80% attendence. Required reading: Donnelly, Jack.
2003. Universal Human Rights. New York: Cornell University Press. Available from the e-library in Moodle. Etzioni, Amitai. The Normativity of Human Rights is Sel-Evident. In Human Rights Quarterly. Available at: http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/etzioni/documents/The%20Normativity%20of%20Human%20Rights%20Is%20Self%20Evident.pdf Valeš, František, Muhič Dizdarevič, Selma
2011. Racism and Related Discriminatory Pracitces in the Czech Republic. Available at: http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/publications/shadow%20report%202010-11/5.%20Czech%20Rep.pdf
Annotation
The goal of the course is to introduce students to the following topics: current definitions of human rights, controversy over different generations of human rights, history of human rights from ancient Greece up to contemporary philosophical and political science definitions, differences between natural and human rights, disputes with moral relativism, moral vs. legal rights, claim rights and liberty rights, scope and justification of human rights, HR as the dominant geopolitical doctrine of modern times, HR in international law and HR within the UN. Special attention will be paid to theories of international relations and place of the HR agenda in it.
Students will be encouraged to discuss current HR issues and illustrate the theories with political events.
The creation of this course was funded by the Operational Programme Prague - Adaptability, cofinanced by the
European Social Fund.