- Propose a specific reform to the international human rights system and present both arguments and responses to counterarguments for your proposal. Incorporate a discussion of the feasibility of the proposal. Explain the relevance of your proposal to a current human rights issue.
- Examine the role that a specific accountability approach (for example: universal jurisdiction claims, a truth commission, an international court, a reparations process) played in two or three different contexts involving mass human rights violations. Discuss what worked and what did not work. Offer lessons that you think future practitioners should draw from these examples.
- Choose a specific human rights issue in any country (including, but not limited to, the United States). Discuss and analyze whether the international human rights system and foreign actors should or should not be involved in seeking to address this issue. Explain why or why not, to what extent, and how this relates to your view of universalism and cultural relativism.
- Choose a human rights movement (past or present) and discuss what theories of rights you think informed and shaped this movement. How did this influence the human rights interventions and human rights institutions the movement prioritized?
- Pick five authors we read this semester and one real-world human rights issue. Put the authors in conversation with one another and analyze the merits and shortcomings of their views on human rights in relation to that real-world human rights issue.
- The current human rights regime is sometimes critiqued as neo-colonial. Discuss a specific aspect of this critique and offer proposals for reform or more radical change.
- What are the relative costs and benefits of reparations versus forward-looking attempts at justice? How would you propose human rights practitioners better balance these two goals in their approaches moving forward?
- Compare the ways in which the different regional human rights systems addressed a specific human rights issue. Evaluate their approaches and take a position about which approach was best. Explain why.
- Argue for a specific public policy or advocacy effort that could increase equality, informed by human rights theory and practice. Discuss the specific type of inequality the policy or effort is meant to address, what equality means in this context (including the ways in which you are defining the boundaries of the community in which inequality exists –for example: in a country, in a community, globally?, and the benefits and limitations of the human rights framework in addressing the existing inequality.
- Identify a currently discriminatory public policy, explain why it is discriminatory, and propose a reform informed by human rights theory and practice. Discuss the benefits and limitations of the human rights framework in addressing the existing discrimination.
- Choose an example of a human rights issue around the world; discuss any cultural relativism-related challenges and what you think these challenges mean for future practitioners.
- Use the capabilities and human rights approach to evaluate a specific public policy related to human rights, take a position on the strengths and weaknesses of the public policy, and propose any changes you would make.
- Delve into the different views of the authors we read on whether transnational human rights advocacy is solidarity or moral imperialism, examine a current human rights issue, including the role of actors that inhabit different moral communities (for example: national communities, global communities, religious communities, etc.) in addressing that issue, and develop a position. Consider what your position means for the practice of human rights activism.
- State a critique of the International Criminal Court and propose ways this critique could be addressed.
Requirements: 12-15 pages |
I chose
Choose a human rights movement (past or present) and discuss what theories of rights you think informed and shaped this movement. How did this influence the human rights interventions and human rights institutions the movement prioritized?
Answer preview
Numerous politicians and public officials love quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous line about the long arc of the moral universe slowly bending towards Justice. Social justice movements have long been characterized by the presence of activists and radicals who attempted to force this arc to turn much faster (Ongiri, 2009). One of these movements was the Black Power Movement. Scholars and historians perceive the movement as an outgrowth of the more prominent Civil Rights Movement (Ongiri, 2009). The movement came into existence in the 1960s and rejected calls for slowed integration while also advocating for the self-determination of African Americans. This movement advocated for African Americans to develop their cultural institutions, be prideful about their heritage, and attain economic independence (Ongiri, 2009). The legacy of this movement can still be felt in contemporary American society via the Black Lives Matter movement.
A march catapulted the movement. James Meredith was the first African American
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