OADH 2095 - Promoting Human Rights : History, Law, Methods and Current Controversies

BIOGRAPHY :
Tawanda Mutasah is Executive Director of Regitam, an international advisory and consulting service on law, governance, and development, and Dean of theSxoll, a constitutional advocacy and training platform for young emerging leaders. He is formerly Senior Director, International Law and Policy at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, where he led the global movement's formulation of human rights policies, as well as its development, interpretation and application of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. He was also the organisation's Senior Leadership Team focal person for international advocacy, engaging the United Nations as well as regional and other intergovernmental organisations; for strategic litigation, in which the organisation uses courts and other adjudicative fora to advance and defend human rights; and for the human rights movement's work against discrimination on internationally prohibited grounds including gender, race and caste.
Previously, Mutasah was Global Director of Programs for the Open Society Foundations (OSF), based at the foundations' New York headquarters, where he oversaw international thematic programs.
Before that, Mutasah founded, led or served in a variety of legal, policy, advocacy, and democracy-building efforts, via a range of organisations and projects, including Oxfam Great Britain, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP), the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), the Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Impact Development Associates, and the National Constitutional Assembly. Mutasah currently serves as a board member for the Washington D.C.-based Centre for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC); as a board member for the Dakar-based Trust Africa; as an advisory board member for the Open Society Justice Initiative; and as an advisory board member for Rutgers University's Centre for Women's Global Leadership. He previously served on a World Council of Churches Unit Commission on Justice, Human Rights, Faith and Ecumenism, and he has also previously been a governor of the African Development Bank-supported Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA).
Dr. Tawanda Mutasah holds a Master of Management degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and law degrees from Harvard Law School, the University of Zimbabwe Law Faculty, and New York University Law School. He undertook his practical legal training at the High Court of Zimbabwe and at former Harare law firm DW Aitken & Partners. Dr. Mutasah is a recipient of the International Bar Association's Rule of Law award. He has previously taught this course at PSIA, and he has for over 25 years served as adjunct or guest lecturer in law and policy, and in management, in several universities in the United States, Africa, and Europe.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course examines the emergence of the international human rights movement, principally during the past six decades, as an important force in global affairs. In addition, it reviews the earlier developments that helped to provide a foundation for the emergence of the contemporary global movement. The course begins with an examination of the concept––including the philosophical and historical foundations––of rights, the corresponding principal concepts of international law, and the legal texts that have made it possible for the human rights movement to emerge and to become effective. It then reviews the emergence of a global human rights movement during the Cold War period, including the development of such leading organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. It explores the role, impact and contemporary relevance of such methods of promoting human rights as "naming and shaming," litigation, establishing international standards, intervention in international bodies, and the use of sanctions. It reviews current controversies over such questions as privacy in the digital age, hate speech, and protecting rights in an era of such scourges as Covid-19 and authoritarian populism. It also examines the concept and practice of accountability, including universal jurisdiction, and the possibilities and limits of the "responsibility to protect". The course concludes with an exploration of human rights in three major states – China, Russia and the United States of America – with a focus on what insights a study of the three states offers into the history, law, methods and current controversies of promoting human rights.

-> Learning Outcomes

The course gives students:
1. an understanding of human rights policy research and writing in relation to not only current controversies, such as the changing global role of China, the United States of America, and Russia in international human rights, and novel challenges such as the protection of human rights under Covid-19, but also traditional thematic controversies such as State regulation of bodily autonomy.
2. a magisterial overview of the philosophical, historical and legal complexities of promoting human rights.
3. in-depth exposure, under the guidance of a senior practitioner, to the actual aims, methods, mechanics and constraints of professional human rights work.
4. scholarly engagement with a relevant body of literature designed as a key to critical understanding of the field, and to a navigation of current and future human rights and humanitarian affairs.

-> Professional Skills

Through this course, students gain the following professional skills:
1. Advocacy: the opportunity to develop and simulate the skills of considering, framing, debating and articulating options and positions on behalf of victims and survivors of rights violations, and seeking and securing change and remedies on their behalf.
2. Leadership and management: the headspace and strategic skills that human rights leaders need to lead and influence in a variety of roles and sectors, including State departments, journalism, multilateral organizations, and NGOs.
3. Creative thinking: through a real-time, hand-on-the-pulse engagement with major issues that are current or recent, the confidence and skill to confront new or existing human rights problems or situations with originality and imagination.
4. Problem solving: through a close examination of the methods used in the field, a generic set of skills for systematic human rights problem solving.
5. Critical thinking: through research and class debate, the reflexes and habits of identifying the right questions that enable one to gain and generate independent and thoughtful ideas on human rights and human protection.

Tawanda MUTASAH,Eraldo SOUZA DOS SANTOS

Cours magistral seul

English

Students should have the appetite and ability to work through a significant amount of reading.

Autumn 2021-2022

Overall grading for this course is based on a combination of three assessments: 1) 65% of the final grade will be based on one major paper (about five-thousand words) on a topic derived from the course content, to be chosen by the student, and pre-approved by the professor. The paper is a formal piece of quality scholarship, and should be of sufficient rigor to be subsequently submittable and acceptable for academic journal publication and/or for public intellectual op-ed writing. This is referred to here and during the course as “the Major Paper”.

2) 25% of the final grade will be based on two very short (two pages each) policy briefs, being short papers of policy debate on assigned policy questions. These are referred to here and during the course as “the First Policy Brief” and “the Second Policy Brief” respectively.

3) 10% of the final grade will be based on effective class participation, which includes participation in group debates, contributions to in-class discussions, and responses to assigned readings. This component is referred to here and during the course as “Participation”.

The course is conducted through Lectures interspersed with: in-class Tutorials; in-class Debates based on group and individual preparations conducted before/outside class; Response to Assigned Readings; Simulated Preparations of Policy Briefs; and Research on and writing of a Major Paper of 5000 words.
There are twelve classes of two-hours each over the semester.
Assignments and the provision of feedback to students are based on the following plan:

1. By the date scheduled for the Third Session of the class, students will have chosen a topic for the major paper, and developed a short (max. one page) research outline, comprising (a) the problem they are investigating/resolving/grappling or engaging with/considering/exploring, and why it is an important problem; (b) indicative literatures they are going to engage; and (c) the research question and objective(s) of their proposed paper. The paper should be based on a topic derived from the syllabus and substance of the course. The professor confirms approval of eligible topics by the date of the Fifth Session. Research for and writing of the major paper is carried out intermittently throughout the semester, and the paper is due on 30 November.
2. The individual assignment for the first policy brief is given during the Fourth Session, is due to be submitted to the professor within seven days from the date of issuance, and individual feedback on it will be provided within seven days thereafter.
3. The individual assignment for the second policy brief is given during the Eighth Session, is due to be submitted to the professor within seven days from the date it is issued, and individual feedback on it will be provided within seven days thereafter.
4. Participation is assessed on a continuing basis. Complementing lectures by the professor, some interspersed debates will be held in class, and there will also be a simple field interview assignment to be given at the end of the First Session. The field interview assignment can be researched, conducted, and written up all within six hours, to be subsequently reported in class, with students taking turns to report throughout the semester.