What are human rights II

Introduction to the concept of human rights

Monday January 10 2011

Lecture 2: What are human rights II

PS 2B03/LS 2W03/WS 2A03: Human Rights and Social Justice

Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

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 Outline

• Explore specific sections of the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights
• Health care debates
• Torture

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Reports have emerged... That the frequency and
intensity [of techniques including waterboarding, and
the, application] to high value detainees constitutes
torture, even if their use in isolation falls short of that
designation.
Reeta Tremblay et al (2008)

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...in December 2005, the UN High Commissioner on
Human Rights declared that U.S. Conduct in the war on
terror was eroding both the United States and
international legal prohibitions on torture.
Reeta Tremblay et al (2008)

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 Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate

for the health and well-being of himself and of his
family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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 The U.S.A.

• 59 million people medically uninsured

• 132 million people without dental insurance
• 60 million people without paid sick leave

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 Ideological paradigms

Mike Huckabee

Democracy Now
January 5, 2011

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/5/dr_atul_gawande_solitary_confinement_is

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 Article 5

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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 For Wednesday

• What factors do you think have shaped

contemporary discourse around human rights in the
west? Identify any shifts and reflect o their
implications for today and the near future.
• What might an anti-colonial human rights
framework look like/consist of?

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 Citations & further reading
Lila Abu-Lughod (2002) Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others, American Anthropologist, Vol. 104,
No. 3: pp. 783-790.

Reeta Tremblay, James Kelly, Michael Lipson and Jean Francois Mayer (2008)
Understanding Human Rights: Origins, Currents and Critiques, Nelson: Toronto. pp. 21-56
(Chapter 2. Human Rights in World Politics).

World Health Organization (2000) The World Health Report — Health Systems:
Improving , Switzerland. Available online
http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/whr00_en.pdf

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 Image sources
Mike Konopacki. 2000. ‘If there was justice in the world‘, 2000 — http://www.veggies.org.uk/calendar/2000.htm

‘Human Rights Champions’, 2001 — http://invisiblecollege.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/2007/03/11/who-wants-to-be-the-

new-human-rights-cha

‘Which do you pet, which do you eat?‘ — http://www.meatout.org/action/outreach.htm

Shane T. McCoy, ‘Detainees at Camp X-Ray’, 11 January 2002. Image in the domain image — http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Camp_x-ray_detainees.jpg

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