Ferguson in a Global Frame:

Human Rights Matters in the United States and Beyond

Comparative Literature 290
T,Th. 10-11:30
260-241 (we may change room to accommodate classplease stay tuned)
Instructor:
David Palumbo-Liu (260-229)
palumbo-liu@stanford.edu
Office hours TBA and by appt
This course introduces students to fundamental concepts of international human rights and uses these
concepts to frame problems of inequality, marginality, exclusion and injustice that are chronic across the
globeincluding the United States. Focusing on Ferguson as a point of inflection, this course will consider
police repression of political protest in a comparative context. The course will also use the lens of
fundamental human rights to explore a states failure to investigate and prosecute, and its failure to protect its
citizens from violations committed by agents or from non-state agents.
In each thematic unit, we will examine the United States in a comparative lens, and will consider how
we understand, frame, mourn and contest the violations of rights in literature, the visual arts, and in social
and political action. We will continuously examine the role of the arts in disseminating, shaping and
deepening our understanding of multiple dimensions of human rights violations. At the same time, we will
consider how these cultural products reflect on, illuminate, contest or problematize advocacy texts and
sources of international law. We will examine texts from the United States, Brazil, South Africa, South Asia,
France, the UK, Israel-Palestine, as well as documents from international and regional human rights bodies.
Important note: I am committed to making this first-ever course as meaningful to us as possible,
and I expect you all to feel the same way. There is a substantial amount of work assigned, and the course will
depend on us not only reading and viewing all the materials, and doing all the assignments, but also fully
participating in the discussion and construction of the course. We will be emphasizing collaboration and
team-work. This course will require a substantial amount of your time, energy, thought, effort, but I am
confident that the result will be well worth it.

Presentations and Reflection Papers:

This course assumes that its students are embarking in a joint project with its instructor to reflect and deepen
the collective understanding of human rights theory and practice. For this reason, the course is heavily
project oriented. Students will be present group presentations that must include visual and oral components,
as well as short write-ups of the process of production of these projects. This is not a writing-intensive
course. However, students interested in producing a low media blog rather than a multimedia presentation
may do so with the instructors approval.

2 group presentations.
1 Short reflection paper for each group presentation (individually drafted by each group member)
due at the end of presentation weeks.

One final project (paper or multimedia). Students must discuss final project topic with instructor
during week 7. Note: You will present a rough draft of your formal project as your second group
presentation in the final weeks of the class.

Important Note on Group Presentations:

It is absolutely essential that each group member be fully involved and fully responsible for their groups
work. I will trust you to negotiate amongst yourselves the best formula, that all group members agree to.
And once that is in place all members must hold to that arrangement.
Besides the above assignments, students will help add and curate content for the website:
www.teachinghumanrights.org
These short activities will consist of every week adding and/or commenting on one bibliographic entry or
adding one news or scholarly article with a comment or gloss. In each case you should add tags as
appropriate. We will give you an account on the site. This exercise will begin in week three.
Please check out this excellent site started at Fordham: http://fordhamenglish.com/staywoke
You might also want to check out #FergusonSyllabus, and share others that you find useful.
Zip files containing all materials for presentations are due one week after the presentations. Students should
edit presentations to incorporate in-class discussion and feedback and provide a short, 200-word reflection on
what you learned from the presentation and discussion after.
Attendance and Participation:
Attendance, as well as active and informed participation on the part of every student is necessary for the
success of this class. This is why these two elements account for 20% of your grade.
Course Materials:
Aside from the three books you are required to purchase or share, plus two PDFs that have been uploaded
(Carol Anderson, June Jordan), all other reading materials are available online via the links provided.
Books:
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Gaye Theresa Johnson, Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity
George Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place
Films:
La Haine (1995; dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
Occupation 101 (2008; Sufyan Omeish, Abdallah Omeish)
Engineering the Border (2014; dir. Alex Rivera)
Dont Beat Me, Sir! (2011; dir. Shashwati Talukdar, P. Kerim Friedman)

INTRODUCTION:

HUMAN RIGHTS - BASIC DEFINITIONS, NORMS, HISTORY

Class 1
Tuesday January 6. Introduction: What are Human Rights? How would we distinguish them from

Civil Rights? How are human rights claims relevant for individuals who live in entrenched
democracies such as the United States? (Guest speaker: Claret Vargas, Stanford Human Rights

Center)
Readings (in class):
Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
United States Bill of Rights http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/overview or
https://www.aclu.org/united-states-bill-rights
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
https://www.cidh.oas.org/Basicos/English/Basic2.American%20Declaration.htm
American Convention on Human Rights http://www.oas.org/dil/treaties_B32_American_Convention_on_Human_Rights.htm
Class 2
Thursday January 8. There will be no class today. For your assignment please upload into the folder
labeled Beginning Statements a 250-word essaywho are you? Why are you taking this class?
What do you want to learn? Please upload this essay by Saturday Jan 10, 11:59 PM. Alsoevery one
should read everyone elses between Sunday morning and class Tuesday.
Class 3
Tuesday January 13
Discussion of your statements. A brief history of human rights
Readings:

Gary Bass, The Old New Thing: Samuel Moyns The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. The
New Republic, October 20, 2010. http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-andarts/magazine/78542/the-old-new-thing-human-rights
Carol Anderson, A Hollow Mockery: African Americans, White Supremacy, and the Development
of Human Rights in the United States, from Soohoo et al., eds., BHRH, Vol. 1 (2008), pp. 75-94.
Imperialists for Human Rights https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/12/imperialists-for-humanrights/

ONE: REPRESSION OF PUBLIC PROTESTS AND OTHER FORMS OF FREEDOM OF

EXPRESSION
Class 4
Thursday January 15. Fergusons Protests and Police Reaction.
Readings:
Human Rights Watch, Letter to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon About Law Enforcement Response to
Ferguson Protests http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/09/09/letter-missouri-governor-jay-nixon-about-lawenforcement-response-ferguson-protests#_ftn1
Amnesty International, On the Streets of America: Human Rights Abuses in Ferguson, (selections)
http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/onthestreetsofamericaamnestyinternational.pdf
Pen America, Press Freedom Under Fire in Ferguson, Oct. 26, 2014 (selections)
http://www.pen.org/sites/default/files/PEN_Press-Freedom-Under-Fire-In-Ferguson.pdf
Take Back the Streets: Repression and Criminalization of Protests Around the World
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/global_protest_suppression_report_inclo.pdf
Please note: next week involves more reading that usual, but each of the selections is especially interesting.
Please budget enough time to read each assignment carefully and thoughtfully.
Class 5
Tuesday January 20
We continue discussion of documents reviewed in class 3 and engage with critical theory and artistic
responses to police repression and disparate impact on minorities and contrast the rhetoric of images from
mainstream media and minority voices.
Start of web workvisit from our tech staff.
Readings in American Essays
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time: My Dungeon ShookA Letter to My Nephew on the 100th
Anniversary of Emancipation.
June Jordan, Civil War
Vijay Prashad, Black Bodies, Broken Worlds. http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/08/blackbodies-broken-worlds/.
Robin DG Kelley, Why We Wont Wait
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/25/75039/#.VHc44gZxiPR.facebook
Youth Riots in UK

How the Youth are Represented in the London Riots

http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/rayJMA/how-the-youth-are-represented-in-the-londonriots
London Rioters Resent Media Image of Hooded Thug
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE77942520110810?irpc=932
Riot from Wrong: Youth, Media, Violence
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/riot-wrong-youth-media-and-violence
Interview with Stuart Hall

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/feb/11/saturday-interview-stuart-hall

Class 6
Thursday January 22
The relation between race and space

Gaye Theresa Johnson, Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity (Chapter 2Spatial Entitlement; Chapter
3Cold Wars and Counter WARS; Chapter 5Space, Sound, Shared Struggles)
George Lipsitz, How Racism Takes Place (IntroductionRace, Place, Power; Section 1Social
Imaginaries and Social Relations; A Bridge for this Book; A Place Where Everybody is Somebody)
Nicols Guilln. Tengo (I have) http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/havana/GuillenE.htm

Class 7 Tuesday January 27

Film: La Haine ZDVD14270.
Class 8 Thursday January 29 International Standards and comparative global trends in suppression

of dissent, weakening of protective norms and accountability mechanisms. Why does a human
rights frame matter? Discussion of ideas and plans for first group presentations.
Readings:
United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials,
Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders,
Havana, 27 August to 7 September 1990, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.144/28/Rev.1 at 112 (1990).

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/i2bpuff.htm
ICCPR article 19 http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/i2bpuff.htm
Take Back the Streets: Repression and Criminalization of Protests Around the World
https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/global_protest_suppression_report_inclo.pdf
Police Repression of Protests: Sao Paulo (Brazil). https://news.vice.com/article/scars-of-policebrutality-in-brazilian-protests-haunt-world-cup-kickoff
Ferguson and Gaza: How They Are, and Are Not Similar.
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/22/ferguson_and_gaza_the_definitive_study_of_how_they_are_a
nd_are_not_similar/
Class 9
Tuesday February 3
Film: Occupation 101
Class 10
Thursday February 5
Session with Hume Writing and Speaking Center
Class 11

Tuesday February 10: Group Presentations

Class 12
Thursday February 12: Group Presentations

TWO: RACE, POVERTY AND POLICING

Class 13
Tuesday February 17.
Guest lecture.

Primer on the Inter-American Commission & CAT Committee (Guest speaker, C.Vargas)
Thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Discriminatory
Policing in the United States
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGOtPqlHLM&feature=youtu.be
Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns
(regarding the protection of the right to life during law enforcement and the importance of bringing
domestic laws regarding the use of lethal force by police up to international standards)
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session26/Documents/A-HRC-26-36_en.doc
http://justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/UN-ICCPR-Concluding-ObservationsUSA.pdf Paragraphs 6, 7, 8, 10, 11.

Class 14
Thursday February 19 US Stop and Frisk, UK Stop and Search: similar experiences different remedies.
Readings:
Stop and Frisk http://ccrjustice.org/the-human-impact-report.pdf
Floyd v. City of New York. summary: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/conlaw/2013/08/federaldistrict-judge-shira-scheindlin-finds-nycpds-stop-and-frisk-policies-violate-equal-protectio.html and
http://ccrjustice.org/stopandfrisk (synopsis and additional resources).
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/nyregion/de-blasio-stop-and-frisk.html
Stop-Watch (campaign regarding Stop and Watch policies in UK) http://www.stopwatch.org/about-us/
http://echrblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/uks-stop-and-search-violates-echr.html
Bansky images re: stop and watch. http://banksyt-shirts.com/wp-content/uploads/banksy-stopand-search-girl-414547.jpg http://db-artmag.com/archiv/assets/images/629/50.jpg
Discussion of Gillan & Quinton v. United Kingdom, (2010) EHRR 45.
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/documents/humanrights/hrr_article_5.pdf (read pages
189-196). see also short Gillan summary at https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/who-we-are/ourwork/legal-work/key-liberty-legal-cases

THREE: MILITARIZATION OF POLICE and CULTURES OF IMPUNITY

Class 15.
February 24.

Readings:
ACLU War Comes Home. https://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform/war-comes-home-excessive-militarizationamerican-police-report read: Executive Ssummary, Methodology and Recommendations (pp. 2-11; 4145)
Human Rights Watch: Lethal Force: Police Violence and Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo
(2013) http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/brazil1209web.pdf read Executive Summary
and 94-99, 110-117.
Shielded from Justice (1998 HRW report on police impunity in the United States).
http://books.google.com/books?id=htGP6WGvOREC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP8#v=onepage&q&f=fal
se or http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports98/police/toc.htm
read: Overview, Contributing Factors, Race as a Factor, Filing Complaints; Investigations into
Shootings; Civil Remedies; Local Criminal Prosecution; Federal Criminal Civil Rights Prosecution;
Federal Passivity to International Human Rights Standards; U.S. Law.

Class 16
Thursday February 26: Reflections on presentations DUE. No class today.
MONDAY MARCH 2: MAKE-UP SESSION: ATTEND SCREENING OF ENGINEERING
THE BORDER at 4 pm
Class 17
Tuesday March 3
Visit with director Alex Rivera. Borders, surveillance, security, immigration, race and space.
Discussion of your ideas for your final projects.
Class 18
Thursday March 5
Film: Please Dont Beat M e, Sir!
Class 19
March 10
Final Presentations
Class 20
March 12
Final Presentations
Finals week: before the end of finals, please write a 250-word essay that reflects back on what has
most impressed you about this coursewhat have you learned that has mattered most?
Final versions of group presentations are due the last day of finals week, 10 PM, no exceptions!