Human Rights and Responsibilities

Catalog description

Why is our world continuously on fire? What factors contribute to the intra- and intergroup conflicts? To address these questions, this course takes a historical and a cross cultural approach to the study of the socio-political and economic factors that shape violence, aggression and trauma. The first part of the course introduces students to the emergence of human rights in the 20th century. Next, selected examples of economic, social and cultural victimization, wars, genocidal and terrorist actions are explored to understand how violence varies across contexts. The resulting health challenges, such as malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, trafficking of humans and human organs are also addressed. Finally, issues of nonviolent social change, peaceful conflict resolution, and possibilities for a "new world order" are also explored.