1. Human Rights 3 rd Year Advanced Option 1

2. Human Rights Course Overview With the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, every human was declared to have a set of innate and inalienable human rights (i.e. they cannot be given away or taken away). In the following years a complex system of human rights conventions has established a global system for implementing human rights which, assisted by NGOS, has turned human rights into a global discourse, but one which is transformed as it is applied to particular circumstances. This course explores the relationship between the universal aspirations of human rights and the 'friction' (Tsing 2004) that occurs when these aspirations are applied to particular locations and to particular categories of persons (women, children); asks whether human rights are antagonistic to other cultures (cultural relativism), but also how human rights may generate and protect (essentialist) cultures (indigenous peoples, 'difference' multiculturalism; minorities); and, how rights are always enabling, but are also restrictive (asylum and refugees). Finally, the course considers the strengths and weaknesses of the two main responses to the massive violation of human rights (truth commissions; international tribunals). 2

3. 3 Human Rights Week 1 – The Historical Emergence of ‘Natural Rights Week 2 – The United Nations Human Rights System Week 3 – Cultural Relativism vs. Universal Rights Week 4 – Are there ‘Group rights’ (indigenous groups; multiculturalism)? Week 5 – Gender and Rights Week 6 – Child Rights Week 7 – Social and Economic Rights Week 8 – The Right to Refuge and Asylum Week 9 – Truth Commissions Week 10 – International Criminal Tribunals Week 11 – One-to-one Tutorials Week 12 – Essay workshop

4. 4 Recent Titles (Major: 7,000 words; Minor: 3,500) Child Soldiers: Choice and Human Rights. How is the Right to Food Affected by Transnationals Operating in the Food Industry? A Time for Truth: Would Northern Ireland Benefit from a Truth Commission? How can the use of the Term ‘Moral Panic’ Inform Anthropological Understanding of the UK Response to Asylum Seekers? An Analysis of Indefinite House Arrest in the UK and Whether this Constitutes Torture in the Light of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib? To What Extent can the Cultural Relativist Argument Depicting ‘Chinese Values’ be a Vindication for China’s Reservations over Full Participation in the International Human Rights System? A Critical Assessment of Universal Rights in Dealing with the Issue of FGM. Lights, Camera, Action! The Visual Culture of Human Rights Advocacy. Applying Economic and Social Rights in Palestine. The Challenge of Collective Rights as Human Rights in Kenya. Darfur and the Potential Role of Anthropology in Human Rights Advocacy.

5. Human Rights 5 Course Tutor Nigel Eltringham (Dept. of Anthropology) n.p.eltringham@sussex.ac.uk http://www.sussex.ac.uk/anthropology/people/pe oplelists/person/158813