HUMAN RIGHTS AND AMERICAN CULTURES

This research topic concerns current international systems, laws, and norms for the promotion and protection of human rights with respect to those of Native Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans in the United States.

Approaches by each of those groups to claims for rights under the international human rights system vary widely. In the United States, citizens more usually refer to the Constitution and national legal systems when addressing questions concerning rights. You should the examine political, legal, ideological, and economic factors within the context of the international human rights system in relation to those three panethnic groups. Consider each group's philosophical and cultural concerns within that international framework and try to develop an understanding of the overarching human rights system operative in the world today and how it applies to U.S. residents in general, and to each of the three panethnic groups:

To which international human rights treaties is the U.S. party?
What legal obligations are thus incurred?
Which treaty obligations appear to be relevant to the rights of the three groups underconsideration?
How do questions of race and ethnicity under international human rights law influence human rights issues such as the death penalty, discrimination, and affirmative action?
What is the role of the U.S. in the Organization of American States?
How does the OAS regional system correlate with the UN international system?
How does the American Convention on Human Rights, under the OAS, consider questions of race? ethnicity?

Some Suggested General Sources on Human Rights:

• Brownlie, Ian. Basic Documents on Human Rights, Third Edition. Clarendon Pressi, Oxford, 1993.
• Brownlie, Ian. "The Rights of Peoples in Modern International Law," The Rights of Peoples 17, J. Crawford (Editor) 1988.
• Claude, Richard Pierre & Burns Weston. Human Rights in the World Community, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1992.
• Donnelly, Jack. International Human Rights, Westview Press, Boulder, CO. 1993.
• Downing, T. and G. Kushner (Eds.) Human Rights and Anthropology, 1988.
• Drinan, Robert F. Cry of the Oppressed, Harper & Row, NY, 1987.
• Falk, Richard. "The Rights of Peoples," The Rights of Peoples 17, J. Crawford (Editor) 1988.
• Forsythe, David P. Human Rights and World Politics, University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
• Hannum, Hurst. "New Developments in Indigenous Rights," 28 Virginia Journal of International Law 649, 1988.
• International Labour Organization. Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, ILO, Geneva, Switzerland.
• Roy and Alfredsson. "Indigenous Rights: The Literature Explosion," 13 Transnational Perspectives 19 (1987).
• State Department Country Reports for [latest year available]. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. Annual, published in February of each year.
• Lawyers Committee for Human Rights/ Human Rights Watch. Critique of the Department of State's Country Reports. New York, Annual.
• Buergenthal, Thomas, Robert Norris, Dinah Shelton. Protecting Human Rights in the Americas, Engel Publishers, Kehl, 1986.
• Boyle, Francis. "The Death Penalty in International Law," Social Justice Vol. 20, Nos. 1- 2, Spring-Summer 1993.
• Aguirre, Adalberto and David V. Baker. "Racial Prejudice and the Death Penalty," Social Justice Vol.20 Nos. 1-2, Spring-Summer 1993.
• Human Rights Violations in the U.S., Human Rights Watch/ American Civil Liberties Union, 132 West 43 Street, New York NY 10036, 1993.
• McWilliams, Carey. Prejudice, Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1944. p. 3-33.
• Shue, Henry. Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy, Princeton U. Press, c.1980.
• Forsythe, David. "Human Rights, the United States and the Organization of American States," Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 13, No.1, Feb. 1991.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND NATIVE AMERICANS

What linkages can be discerned between past and present aspirations to full rights by Native Americans?
How does contemporary scholarship on human rights integrate questions of race and ethnicity with claims to rights?
What special protections or mechanisms are in force in the U.N. system for the rights of indigenous peoples?
Do questions of "indigenous rights," "self-determination," and "sovereignty" in the international field affect Native Americans' claims to rights in the U.S.?
What inroads in the U.N. system are being achieved by Native Americans?

Suggested Sources:

• Anaya, S. James. "The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and International Law in Historical and Contemporary Perspective," Harvard Indian Law Symposium 191, 1989.
• Anaya, S. James. "International Law," Native America in the Twentieth Century, Mary B. Davis (Editor), Garland Publishing, NY, 1994
• Churchill, Ward. "The Earth is Our Mother," The State of Native America, M. Annette Jaimes (Editor). South End Press, Boston, 1992, pp. 139-188.
• Churchill, Ward and Glenn T. Morris. "Key Indian Laws and Cases," The State of Native America, M. Annette Jaimes (Editor). South End Press, Boston, 1992. pp. 13-21
• Durham, Jimmie. "Cowboys and..." The State of Native America, M. Annette Jaimes (Editor). South End Press, Boston, 1992. pp. 423-438.
• Deloria, Vine, Jr. Behind the Trail of Broken Treaties, Delacorte, NY, 1974. pp. 176-186, 260-263.
• Fordham, Monique. "Within the Iron Houses: The Struggle for Native American Religious Freedom in American Prisons," Social Justice Vol. 20, Nos. 1-2, Spring-Summer 1993.
• Human Rights Yearbook, Vol. 1, The Carswell Co. Ltd., Toronto, Canada, 1983.
• International Labour Organization. Convention 169 on Indigenous Peoples.
• Jaimes, M Annette. "Federal Indian Identification Policy," The State of Native America, M. Annette Jaimes (Editor). South End Press, Boston, 1992, pp. 123-138.
• Silko, Leslie Marmon. "The Border Patrol State," The Nation 17 October 1994. pp. 412-416.
• Torres, Raidza. "The Rights of Indigenous Populations," 16 Yale Journal of International Law 142, 1991.
• United Nations documents generally:
• UN Commission on Human Rights. Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities
• UN Commission on Human Rights. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
• UN Commission on Human Rights. Study on the Problem of Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations
• UN Commission on Human Rights. Human Rights Comittee Reports
• U.S. Government Printing Office. A Report...Select Committee on Indian Affairs, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., November 1989.
• United States Commission on Civil Rights. The Navajo Nation: An American Colony. A Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, D.C., September 1975.
• Video: USA On Trial. American Indian Movement.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND AFRICAN AMERICANS

To what extent have African Americans' claims for rights looked to international human rights law?
What are some of the means by which African Americans may seek implementation of rights via the international human rights regime?
What role have Non-Governmental Organizations played in the claims for rights under international human rights law for African Americans?

Suggested Sources:

• A Publication of the National Negro Congress- Official Proceedings, February 1936. National Negro Congress Office, Washington, D.C., 1936.
• Aptheker, Herbert. Afro-American History: The Modern Era, Citadel Press, New Jersey, 1973.
• Aptheker, Herbert. Annotated Bibliography of the Published Writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, Kraus Thomson Organization, Millwood NY, 1973.
• Frazier, E. Franklin. Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World. Alfred A. Knopf, N.Y., 1957.
• U.N. Convention Against Genocide.
• U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
• Urquhart, Brian. Ralph Bunche: An American Life. W.W. Norton, N.Y., 1993.
• Videotape: The Road to Brown on Charles H. Houston. American Film & Video Association.
• Audiotape: Malcolm X on International Human Rights

HUMAN RIGHTS AND ASIAN AMERICANS

Do protections against and prohibitions of internment of citizens exist in international human rights law today?
What principles of international human rights would be violated were practices against Japanese Americans during World War II to be repeated today?
What differences and similarities mark efforts since 1945 by Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans to achieve full respect for and implementation of their human rights?

Suggested Sources:

• Barnhart, Edward N. Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Catalog of Materials in the General Library, U.C. Berkeley Library, 1958.
• Daniels, Roger. American Concentration Camps, NY, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. 1989.
• Drinnon, Richard. Keeper of Concentration Camps: Dillon S. Myer and American Racism, Berkeley, U.C. Press, 1987.
• Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, 323 U.S. 283.
• Grodzins, Morton. Americans Betrayed: Politics and the Japanese Evaucation, U. of Chicago Press, Chigo, 1949.
• Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81.
• Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214
• Nishimoto, Richard S. Inside an American Concentration Camp: Japanese American Resistance at Poston, Arizona, U. of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1995.
• Stavenhagen, Rodolfo. "Challenging the Nation-State in Latin America," 45 Journal of International Affairs 436, 1992.
• Takagi, Dana Y. "Asian Americans and Racial Politics: A Postmodern Paradox," Social Justice Vol. 20, Nos. 1-2, Spring-Summer 1993.
• Uno, Edison. "Concentration Camps American-Style," Pacific Citizen, Special Holiday Edition, December 1974.
• Video: Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice.