POL SCI 123S Final: PS123S Final Lectures Review
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LECTURE 1 (1.16) Introduction
Customary law, statutory law
- What are HR violations
- Lack of human dignity: women treated as appendages to men (acquisitions, commodities)
- Ex. Kenya:
- Customary law
-Based on custom, unwritten, replace or operate formally alongside statutory law
- If do not obey, elder men can level sanctions
- Elevates custom to law, so that law’s purpose becomes subordinating woman
- Relationship between tradition and double standard
- Traditions are double standards OR double standards are given legitimacy using the term “tradition”
- Women realize DS because she as victim sees the contradictions in a dominant paradigm
- Need to look at the spokesman of the culture!
- Why women don’t speak up
- Don’t know their rights (only educated, well off women have access to resources or lawyers)
- Primary concern is survival/ threat of violence and well-being of children (over changing status quo)
- Inadequacy of government/ judiciary system
- Social stigma
- Need to empower women!
LECTURE 2 Rights Paradigm
Rights paradigm, legal rights, (accepted/ justified) moral rights
Entitlement approach, entitlement plus approach, legally implemented entitlement approach
-Rights Paradigm: framework and model for conceptualizing a right and its important components
- (1) rights holder: equal individuals
- (2) high priority goal: important societal goals
- (3) addressee: responsible for providing the HPG
- Primarily the government, backup addressees are international community, organizations (UN),
and individuals
- If stateless, international community is addressee
- (4) addressee’s duty: mandatory duty to ensure RH gets HPG
- (5) remedy: addressee must provide remedy for a violation of right
-Human rights are
- Universal
- inalienable/ intrinsic
- Non-derogable: gov cannot take them away/ suspend
- Insulated from democratic processes
- NOT GOALS: discretionary (decide how much or little to provide or spend on, can consider other factors)
- 2 types of human rights
-(1) Legal/ positive rights: moral principles about human dignity that have be given legal form
(Constitution, law, judicial law), enforceable in court
-(2) Moral/ natural rights: moral principles about human dignity (religion, ethical systems, Universal
declaration of HR 1948), non enforceable in court or defined in law
- How to generate universal moral principles in a diverse world with many moral systems?
-Accepted MR: moral principles that are universally accepted across all moral systems, very
small pool
-Justified MR: moral principles that we would be justified in treating as universal (ex. Right to
reproductive health care because of the detrimental consequences of not providing it)/ all rights
that ensure dignity
- Debate about real human rights: Nickels 3 approaches
-Entitlement approach: all justified moral rights
- GOOD: High standard for gov, ensure dignity
- BAD: not feasible for gov to implement valuable things for all, dilutes most essential HR
-Entitlement plus: Nickel’s choice all feasible justified moral rights
- GOOD: considers legit concern of feasibility )esp financial burden)
- HR should set a floor not a ceiling
- BAD: too restrictive
-Legally implemented entitlement approach: Bentham’s choice, only legal rights
- GOOD: focused approach, HR have special status, short list
- BAD: only mirrors existing gov commitment and not enough to ensure dignity (too restrictive)
LECTURE 3 (1.23) Which Rights are Human Rights?
Speciesism, Singer&HR, Citizenship rights, 6 step framework
- Alternatives to rights paradigm and empowering nature of rights
- Alternatives: religion, communism
- Rights distinct because duty is owed to us, not god or the government
- Empowering: gives humans tools to claim rights and hold gov accountability, more likely to
challenge inequality and seek remedy
- Why rights language is spreading worldwide
- Singer’s critique
- Not all humans have the capacities we associate with human (sociopaths not have empathy)
- Arbitrary to use humanness to grant rights; rights start from the capacity to suffering
- Speciesism is analogized to racism, sexism, homophobia
- Singer and human rights
- (1) category of human being is not biologically, but socially constructed
- (2) goal and right
/ discretionary and mandatory distinction
- Animals need rights; much less suffering if granted rights
- (3) humanness/ human agency is central to rights paradigm - allow for claiming
- Animals cannot claim rights unless humans step in
- Citizenship rights: rights given to citizens by their government (vs. human rights)
- 6 step framework
- Substantial and recurring threat?
- Importance of what is protected?
- Can it be universal?
- Is there a weaker as effective norm?
- Burdens justifiable?
- Feasible for a majority of countries?
- Important because (1) HR is mandatory, so if not feasible for most, this idea is undermined (2)
need to be aware of the costs of rights
LECTURE 4 (1.25) Critical Perspectives on HR
Genetic fallacy, Mutua’s critiques, Khadija
- Mutua’s criticisms
- HR movement racist/ blind to racial dynamics
- HR movement ignores Western violations
- HR movement is Eurocentric attack on non-Western cultures; its real goal is to transform all society into
Western versions
- Mutua’s example: CEDAW Article 2f requires modification of law, customs etc to remove gender
discrimination - altering local culture!
- Why does local culture outweigh women’s dignity? Because local culture is a neutral
disguise for the male perspective
- Update of a colonialism/ civilization project - use Western culture to improve lives in non W
- A focus on civil/ political rights and exclusion of social/ economic rights - now s/e rights more
central to agenda
- HR originated in West and are unsuitable for non-West
-Genetic fallacy: reasoning flaw based on proposition that an idea/ practice is properly rejected
solely because of its origin (conflate origin and merit)
- Mutua thinks local collaborators are elites that have financial ties with Western hegemony and
capitalism
- Assumes subordinated can be brainwashed
- Disregards how subordinated people in non Western countries have embraced HR to
challenge local cultures on their own - act of human agency!; since they are more likely
to see through ideology and understand their own interests!
- HR obscure central problem: structural economic inequalities between global north and south
-Khadija: consequences because of global economic forces (tourism industry), which the rights paradigm cannot
reach
- Abu’s point: rights alone cannot restructure global capitalism
- Problem: K not in position to claim her rights - how to empower her??
LECTURE 5 WHAT IS GENDER ANALYSIS
Sex, gender, gender norms, gender analysis, convention against torture 1984, Immigration and Nationality Act
- Sex: physical, anatomical difference between men and women
- Gender: social, behavioral, cultural attributes associated with being a man or woman
- Gender norms: societal ideas about what is appropriate for men and women
- Norms are socially constructed and varies according to culture
- Poorer a country, more different the lives of men and women
- Gender analysis: analytical framework that allows us to reveal gender based assumptions embedded in gender
neutral law and policy
- Neutrality of law is source of its legitimacy, as it indicates fairness and equal treatment
- But need to look for telltale signs of gender norms
- Alternate, inferior critiques of neutrality in (1) unequal application to different people - driving while black
(problem with this critique is it still assumes law to be neutral) (2) only provide formal equality (again, still
assumes neutrality)
- Important because need rights to be reflected in laws to claim those rights; if law themselves are gender
biased, then cannot claim
- Convention against torture 1984
- Failure to help women victims: most likely tortured at hands of family, in home
- Term domestic violence distracts from/ minimizes the torturous nature - private matter
- Good for men who are most likely to suffer torture as prisoners of war of authoritarian state officials/
regimes
- Harm by state not more durable or harmful than harm by family
- Torture by state not necessarily more prevalent (empirically false according to the CDC)
- DV is not a private family matter into which states should not intervene
- 1990 women right’s movement showed the biases of the treaty and proposed a different way to interpret
it
- Achieved general comment iI - recognized certain DV as torture
- ???? Should we call DV torture
- Y: take away stigma associated with sex
- N: not all DV is torture
- N: reserve torture for the most severe DV instances
Document Summary
Lack of h man digni y: women rea ed as appendages o men (acq isi ions, commodi ies) Based on c s om, nwri en, replace or opera e formally alongside statutory law. If do no obey, elder men can level sanc ions. Eleva es c s om o law, so ha law"s p rpose becomes s bordina ing woman. Tradi ions are do ble s andards or do ble s andards are given legi imacy sing he erm (cid:343) radi ion(cid:344) Women realize ds beca se she as vic im sees he con radic ions in a dominan paradigm. Need o look a he spokesman of he c l re! Don" know heir righ s (only ed ca ed, well off women have access o reso rces or lawyers) Primary concern is s rvival/ hrea of violence and well-being of children (over changing s a s q o) Rights paradigm, legal rights, (accepted/ justified) moral rights.
