DDRO 27A52 - Human Rights Campaigning: Between Practice and Critique
In the past few decades, human rights have become a rallying tool for citizens and non-governmental organizations around the world. As the “last utopia” (Samuel Moyn), they serve as a powerful vehicle for a wide variety of aspirations. They provide a specific language to translate moral values and political agendas into legal claims.
Although they have undeniably yielded significant results, it is equally important to acknowledge that they are not without limitations. It is thus essential to submit them to a critical assessment by evaluating the costs and benefits of using a human rights framework and associated legal concepts when mobilizing in favor of a given cause. Is law the best tool to assert claims within political communities? Can it demobilize non-experts? Does it limit our political imagination? Does public interest litigation actually work? Does it give too much power to non-elected actors whose democratic legitimacy is weaker (ie. courts)?
After following a few theoretical sessions on human rights law, groups of students will be asked to build their own human rights campaign in favor of a cause of their own choosing, while reflecting on the tools they mobilize and their political effects. They will identify and document the issues at stake, formulate some recommendations or demands based on human rights law, and plan a campaign strategy aimed at achieving the desired outcome. Through the prism of this exercise, students will be encouraged to think critically about their practice and to share their reflections and doubts with the rest of the group.