Human Rights, Intercultural Diversity and Representation

Recommended Prerequisites

The same prerequisites for being accepted in the doctoral program, including English proficiency.

Teaching Methods

The seminar will be taught through lectures that introduce various perspectives on the subjects of the seminar, and raise core issues of theory and practice, facilitate participatory discussions and recommend bibliographic and web-based studies.

Workshops, debates and role-play exercises will be used to present and discuss practical human rights issues from different cultural settings and how they may be or are represented and addressed in those contexts.

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the study of this seminar will:

• have profound knowledge about the interrelationship between human rights and culture;

• be versed with the arguments for and against the cultural relativity and universality of human rights;

• understand how human rights are represented, influenced and disregarded in various cultural contexts;

• be able to identify the compatibility between human rights and cultural practices in different contexts and recommend necessary adjustments in cases of incompatibility;

• acquire the skills necessary for the contextualized application of values of human dignity in order to solve societal problems; and

• develop research and essay writing skills involving critical analyses of different points of view and presentation of new arguments.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

The seminar includes sessions on the following topics:

Human rights, cultural relativism and universality

Human rights and interculturality

Religion, secularism and human rights

Cultural imperialism and human rights

Human rights, the media and the construction of cultures

Human rights and movies/the cinema

Memory, representation and human rights

Human rights and cultural change

Head Lecturer(s)

Professor a Definir - Faculdade de Economia

Assessment Methods

Continuous
Regular attendance of sessions: 20.0%
Oral presentation: 40.0%
Paper submission: 40.0%

Bibliography

An-Na’im, AA (ed.) 2002. Cultural Transformation and Human Rights in Africa. London: Zed Books.

An-Na’im, A. 2003. ‘The Synergy and Interdependence of Human Rights, Religion and Secularism’ in Runzo, J et al (eds.), Human Rights and Responsibilities in the World Religions. Oxford: Oneworld.

Binder, G 1999. ‘Cultural Relativism and Cultural Imperialism in Human Rights Law’, Buffalo journal of international law, 5.

Donders, Y 2010. ‘Do Cultural Diversity and Human Rights make a Good Match?’ International Social Science Journal, 61.

Mamdani, M (ed.) 2000. Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk: Comparative Essays on the Politics of Rights and Culture. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Ramcharan, B 2000. ‘Human rights: universality and cultural diversity’ in Coomans, F et al (eds) Rendering Justice to the Vulnerable. The Hague: Kluwer Law International.

Wiater, P 2010. Intercultural dialogue in the framework of European human rights protection. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.