Introductory description

In global histories of human rights Latin American nations and Latin Americans often appear as victims rather than possessors of a unique tradition of rights. A unique tradition of human rights took shape in Latin America from the 1940s. Latin American governments and diplomats were central to the processes which established the international human rights system in the 1940s. The ideas about social and economic rights that Latin Americans brought, and continue to bring, to the debating table were the result of a tradition developed through processes of revolution and reform since independence in the early nineteenth century. Some studies trace the tradition of rights in Latin America back to the colonial period and developments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Term 1

1. Introduction: Human rights today and human rights in history.
2. Religion and Rights 1: Scholasticism, evangelization and the Catholic Church.
3. Religion and Rights 2: Secularisation, Social Catholicism, Liberation Theology.
4. The Evolution of Rights 1: Nation, sovereignty and civil and political rights.
5. The Evolution of Rights 2: Economic, social and cultural rights. MRC Workshop (4-5pm).
6. Reading Week - no seminars
7. The Evolution of Rights 3: Communal rights and indigenous rights.
8. Citizenship and Identity: Collective and individual rights. Race, gender and class.
9. Political Legitimacy and Governance: Liberalism, socialism and democracy.
10. Gender, Sexuality and Rights: Rights and responsibilities.

Term 2

1. Consequences of Conquest: Colonialism and rights.
2. Independence and Rights in Revolution: state building, revolution, constitution-making and rights.
3. Rights in Reform: Liberalism, Popular Liberalism, Social Catholicism.
4. Liberalism in crisis: The Social Question and socio-economic rights.
5. Social Rights from above and below: Socialism, nationalism, populism, revolution.
6. Reading Week - no seminars
7. International Human Rights: Latin American delegations and social rights
8. Latin America and the Global Politics of Human Rights: The Cold War, authoritarianism, insurgency and counter-insurgency, revolution.
9. Globalization, Neoliberalism and Indigenous Rights: autonomy and self-determination.
10. Transitional Justice and Memory

Term 3

1. Democratisation and Rights: Rights-based development. Migrant rights and rights to security
2. Human Rights and Environmental Rights

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge and understanding of the development of human rights in Latin America
• Critically analyse and evaluate a broad range of primary sources relating to the history of human rights in Latin America
• Effectively communicate ideas, and make informed, coherent and persuasive arguments, relating to the history of human rights in Latin America
• Take responsibility to identify, design, and produce a coherent project on human rights in Latin America by creating content for a non-academic audience
• Critically review and consolidate theoretical, methodological, and historiographical ideas relating to the developments in research on the Global History of Human Rights

Indicative reading list

General Texts on Lain American History

• John Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America (any edition)
• Andrew Dawson, Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources, 2011.
• Will Fowler, Latin America since 1780 (any edition)
• Patrick William Kelly. Sovereign Emergencies: Latin America and the Making of Global Human Rights Politics. Cambridge University Press: 2018.
• Shawn William Miller, An Environmental History of Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007
• Jose Moya (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, 2012.
• Salomon, Frank and Stuart Schwartz (eds). The Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Edwin Williamson, Penguin History of Latin America (any edition)

General Texts on Human Rights and the History of Human Rights and Human Rights in Latin America

• Agosín, Marjorie, ed. Writing Toward Hope: The Literature of Human Rights in Latin America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
• Cardenas, Sonia. Human Rights in Latin America. A Politics of Terror and Hope. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
• Jack Donnelly, International Human Rights. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2012.
• Jack Donnelly, Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.
• Edward L. Cleary. The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America. Westport, CT: Praeger 1997.
• Edward L. Cleary. Mobilizing for Human Rights in Latin America. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian, 2007.
• Mark Goodale. Surrendering to Utopia: An Anthropology of Human Rights. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2009.
• Margaret E. Keck, and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Cornell University Press, 1998.
• Lynn Hunt. Inventing Human Rights. W. W. Norton, 2008.
• Michael Ignatieff, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry. Princeton: 2003.
• Micheline R. Ishay, The History of Human Rights: From Ancient Times to the Globalization Era. Berkeley, UC Press, 2008, 2nd edition.
• Sandel, Michael J. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Samuel Moyn. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Belknap Press, 2012.
• Samuel Moyn. Christian Human Rights. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.
• Samuel Moyn. Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Harvard University Press, 2018.
• Kathryn Sikkink. Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America. (Cornell University Press, 2011)
• Sikkink, Kathryn. 2014. “Latin American Countries as Norm Protagonists of the Idea of International Human Rights.” Global Governance 20(3): 389-404.
• Sikkink, Kathryn. 2018. Evidence for Hope Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
• Daniel J. Whelan, Indivisible Human Rights – A History. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2010.
• Alexander Wilde. Religious Responses to Violence: Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present. University of Notre Dame Press: 2015.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

See learning outcomes.

Transferable skills

See learning outcomes.