Women's Human Rights Course - UPLaw 131
Topic: Workshop No. 1
Group Activity (Structured Learning Exercise)
1. Five groups will tackle five different news peices about a "human rights" issue. Each group will be asked to identify the different types of human rights violations in each given case as well as discuss the concept of "accountability" for human rights violations.
News Clippings:
(1) Peru Forced Sterilization of Tribal Women
(2) Jonas Burgos Case
(3) Carol Jimenez case
(4) Taliban targets teachers; women
(5) Abu Gharib case
2. The point of the exercise is to level off on the basic concepts of Human Rights; get the students familiar with the language of "rights" in the Internatonal Human Rights Conventions and to provoke reflection on the difference between human rights law and the philosophical /moral basis of human rights.
3. Core Messages:
- Human Rights Law only pertains to the body of HR principles which have been adopted into law or treaty/conventions
- Human Rights necesarrily have a philosophical or moral basis but often in "law," also comes face to face with the positive/liberal law assumptions of neutrality, objectivity --- making it appear that "HR" can be invoked and applied equally between individuals and institutions; as if it is value-free; and often divorced from structures of power/relations
- Example (from class discussion) "Does the military (institution) have human rights? Can it claim their right to presumed innocent has been violated in the media handling of the Burgos case?"
Assigned Readings for Day 2 (Introduction to Women's Human Rights)
Charlseworth, Chapter 7, Human Rights
Merry Engel, S., The Global Law on VAW
CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination Against All Forms of Discrimination)
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