010022 BA Ethics of Human Rights (2011W)

Human rights are at the basis of present legal systems - nationally they are incorporated in constitutions, internationally they are the backbone of international law. Politically they still carry a great promise, as the so called "Arab spring" showed this year. Their foundation is the belief that each human being independent of his or her race, gender, nationality, religion has an inherent dignity which is to be respected by the state legislation. The first human rights philosophers thought that this dignity is "self-evident". But is that really so? What are the secular and religious foundations of this belief? Is it universal? Are human rights connected with human duties? What is the relationship between the different generations of human rights, liberty rights, social rights and collective rights? Is the observation of human rights in cases of extreme violation to be enforced by the international community (the so-called responsibility to protect)?
These and similar questions will be discussed in this seminar on the basis of English text material. Papers can also be submitted in German.