Undergraduate - UnitAZA4810 - The globalisation of civil and human rights

Students successfully completing the unit will be expected to demonstrate:

1. a comprehensive understanding of the key intellectual and political debates about the nature of justice, civil rights and human rights on a global scale, as well as the relationship between universal notions of justice and rights and arguments about difference and diversity;
2. a thorough grasp of the key differences and similarities in the arguments, objectives, strategies and outcomes of significant campaigns for justice and rights during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, of the links and tensions between local and global campaigns and movements, and of the development of global civil and human rights frameworks;
3. knowledge of the unique challenge that political and cultural debates in Africa pose to the development of civil and human rights frameworks.
4. strong skills in the critical reading of a variety of texts, including contemporary documents, polemical literature and campaign material, the academic scholarship based upon those texts and the theoretical and conceptual debates about justice and rights;
5. strong skills in critical oral and written assessment of the academic scholarship, including methods, assumptions and uses of evidence, and in organising and defending a verbal and written argument based upon those assessments;
6. a capacity to devise, plan and successfully complete a detailed case study, including significant documentary research, that evaluates the significance of a particular campaign, organisation or issue; and
7. a capacity to reflect upon and make critical use of a range of resources including, where relevant, on-line materials, film and visual images.