DWA 229 Introduction to Human Rights: Focus on the Americas

After a review of the historical, legal, and conceptual underpinnings of the international protection of human rights, students in this course will learn about human rights and mechanisms for their protection within the context of the United States and Latin America. Students will discuss key situations from the last half century involving challenges to human rights, including the phenomenon of disappearances common in Argentina and Chile in the 1970's, violations of human rights during leading up to and during civil conflicts in Central America, and the impact of neoliberal economic reforms on human rights in the region. Students will explore the application of the death penalty in the United States, United States foreign policy on human rights in the Americas during the Cold War, and the claims of human rights abuse by the United States during the War on Terror. They will also have a chance to examine the United States from a double perspective: on the one hand as a key country with a major interest and impact on human rights conditions in Latin America, and, on the other, as a country with its own policy areas of struggle and progress.