After the Second World War, the notion of human rights acquired virtually universal validity around the globe. Nevertheless, concrete issues related to the promotion and protection of human rights continue to be highly controversial. Based on an historical overview of the institutionalization of human rights, this lecture presents key points of contention and dilemmas surrounding the question: Whose rights should be protected, and by whom? We will examine the ambivalent role of the state as the main reference point for human rights protection both within its own boundaries and abroad, and discuss potential ways of navigating this and other issues connected to global rights discourses and practices.

Our discussion will be partly based on excerpts of the novel In the Light of what we Know by Zia Haider Rahman (2 pages). Please make sure to read them ahead of the lecture.

Teacher: Kilian Spandler

Obligatory Reading:

Inayatullah, Naeem. 2019. ‘Why do some people think that they know what is good for others?’ (Chapter 21), in Global Politics: A New Introduction, edited by Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfus. New York: Routledge, pp. 430-453.

Shani, Georgio. 2019. ‘Who has rights?’ (Chapter 25), in Global Politics: A New Introduction, edited by Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfus. New York: Routledge, pp. 524-544.

Zia Haider Rahman (2014): In the Light of what we Know. Novel. Picador, pp. 221–223, 387–388.

Suggested extra-reading:

Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Translated by Daniel Heller-Roazen. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Inayatullah, Naeem & Blaney, David. 2004. International Relations and the Problem of Difference. New York: Routledge.

Zizek, Slavoj. 2005. ‘Against Human Rights’, New Left Review 34:July–August, pp. 115–33.

Relevant novels, short stories, feature films, documentaries etc.

Hugo Blick (writer and director, 2018): Black Earth Rising. TV Series. BBC Two and Netflix.

See this clip for a scene from the series:

Ava DuVernay (writer and director, 2016): 13^th. Documentary. Netflix.

Viet Dinh (2016): After Disasters. Novel. Little A.

Zia Haider Rahman (2014): In the Light of what we Know. Novel. Picador.

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (2006): Wizard of the Crow. Novel. Random House.