RESEARCH TOPIC ON
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.