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This program satisfies Experiential Education (EE) for those in the Making Connections curriculum and HI-ABROAD for those in IDEAs in Action.

GLBL 491H: Major Controversies in Human Rights (3 credits)

Dr. Jonathan Weiler

This program includes the three-hour course, Major Controversies in Human Rights. This version of the course will focus on the emergence of a global human rights system after World War II specifically in response to the Holocaust, and the push to create institutions that would hold accountable future perpetrators of war crimes, genocide, and other major crimes. The course will draw on academic debates, especially in political science and related fields, as well as our various meetings and trips to meet with practitioners attempting to realize the promise of these institutions. Our in-class and out-of-class meetings will prompt us to consider whether it is possible to construct a coherent, workable, universally-accepted system for articulating and enforcing human rights norms.

Students will write weekly reflection papers based on class discussions and relevant trips and meetings. Students will also write a final paper focusing on one of the institutions we will have visited to evaluate that institution’s capacity to fulfill its stated mission.