Course Descriptions

This purpose of this course is to provide a basic orientation of international human rights and humanitarian law in an informal interactive environment.  The program framework is to provide a foundation on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other major human rights instruments.

 

Course Benefits/Objectives

Incorporation of human rights perspectives into professional / institutional capabilities

            1.  Health Professions

            2.  Educators

            3.  Military, Security, and Police Professions.

 

Course Offerings

Four 1.5 hour classes given individually or in a series:

            1.  Human Rights Terminology and History,

            2.  International Standards of Human Rights,

            3.  International Humanitarian Law,

            4.  The Drug War and Human Rights. 

 

 

 

 

CLASS OUTLINES

 

 


Class: Human Rights Terminology and History

 

 I.  Human Rights Terminology and History

                        A. Key Terms:

                              1. Human Rights

                              2. Ethics

                                    a.  Passive

                                    b. Affirmative

                              3.  Law

                                    a. Positive

                                    b. Natural

                              4. Genocide

                              5. Torture

                        B. Cross Civilizational Concepts of Human Equality and the Ethic of Altruism.

                              1. Classical

                                    a. Aristotle

                                    b. The Stoics

                              2.  Christian

                              3.  Buddhist

                              4.  Hindu

                              5.  Jewish

                              6.  Moslem

                        C. Natural Law

                        D. The American and French Revolutions Declaration of Independence

                              1.  Declaration of Independence

                              2. Bill of Rights (US Constitution)

                              3.  The Rights of Man

                        E. Civil War Amendments (US Constitution)

                        F.  Marxism

            II.  A History of Man's Inhumanity to Man and the Development of Human Rights

                        A. The Native-American Genocide

                        B. Rights and Violations in US History

                              1. Race

                              2. Ethnicity

                              3. Gender

                              4. Labor

                        C. 20th Century Genocide

                              1. Armenian Genocide

                              2. World War Two

                              3. Cambodia

                              4. Rwanda

                             D.  Famine in the 20th Century

 

 

 


Class: International Standards of Human Rights

 

            I   International Standards of Human Rights

                        A. Francis Lieber

                        B. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (UDHR)

                              1. Wartime Precedents

                                    a. Four Freedoms

                                    b. Atlantic Charter

                                    c. UN Charter

                              2.   Articles of political rights

                              3.   Articles on social rights

                        C. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 (ICCPR)

                              1. US ratification

                              2. UN Human Rights Commission

                        D. International Covenant on Economic and Cultural Rights, 1966 (ICESCR)

                              1. US non-ratification and opposition

                        E. Other

                              1. Convention on the Prevention of Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1949

                              2. Convention Against Torture, 1984

                              3. Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989

                              4. Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women

                              5. Regional Treaties

                                    a. European Social Charter

                                    b. European Convention of Human Rights

                                    c. Helsinki Final Act

                                    d. Inter-American Human Rights System

 

           

 


Class: International Humanitarian Law. 

 

            I.  International Humanitarian Law.

                        A. Early Humanitarian Norms

                              1. Just War Doctrine

                              2. Law of Nations

                              3. Lieber Code

                              4. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

                        B. Prior the Holocaust

                              1. Early Hague and Geneva Conventions

                                    a. Hague Law

                                          (1). 1899 - Laws and Customs of War

                                          (2). 1907 - Laws and Customs of War

                              2. Geneva Law

                                    a. 1964 - Wounded and Sick

                                    b. 1906 - Wounded and Sick

                                    c. 1927 - Wounded and Sick

                                    d. 1927 - Prisoners of War

                              3. Failure of accountability following World War I

                                    a.  1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact (Treaty for the Renunciation of War)

                        C. After the Holocaust

                              1. Post War Trials

                                    a. Nuremberg Charter

                                    b. Yamashita Trial

                                    c. International Military Tribunal (in Nuremberg)

                                    d. Tokyo Tribunals

                                    e. National Trials

                              2. Geneva Conventions of 1949

                                    a. Conventions I-IV

                                          (1)  Wounded and Sick

                                          (2)  Shipwrecked

                                          (3)  Prisoners of War

                                          (4)  Civilians

                                    b. Common Article 3

                                    c. Incorporation into US military doctrine

            II,.  Contemporary Official US Recalcitrance to Humanitarian Law

                        A. Official US response to My Lai massacre

                        B. US opposition to the new treaties

                              1. 1977 Addition Protocol to the Geneva increasing      protections for non-combatants

                              2. Treaty to Ban Land Mines

                              3. International Criminal Court

                              4. US Withdrawal from Vienna Convention on the Law of  Treaties

            C.  Humanitarian Law in Current U.S. military Operation

 

 

 


Class:  Addictions and the Drug War: A Human Rights Perspective

 

 

                  I.  Human Rights and the Drug War

                        A.  Problem, Past and Resent

                              1.  Addictive Qualities of Popular Drugs

                              2.  Annual Causes of Death in the United States

                              3.  Drug Use Estimates

                              4.  A Brief History of Opium (& Cocaine)

                                    a.  Pre-Christendom

                                    b.  Europe Discovers Opium

                                    c.  America Goes To War

                                    d.   Reagan's Drug War Legacy

                                    e.  Opium and the War on Terror.

                        B.   The Cost of Coercion

                              1. Domestic Enforcement

                                    a.  The American Addiction to Incarceration

                                    b.  The American Addiction to Discrimination

                                    c.  Militarization of Drug Enforcement

                              2.  Source Country & Interdiction

                                    a.  The International Human Rights Cost of Source Country Operations

                                    b.  The Failed Economics of Source Country / Interdiction Operations

                                    c.  AI Resolution

                                    d.  The Netherlands and the United States

                                    e.  Coercion v. Treatment 

                        C.  Non-coercive Options

                              1.  Methadone

                              2.  Syringe Exchange

                              3.  Safer Injection Facilities' (SIFs)

            4.  Heroin Maintenance

 

 

 


Instructor Biography

Captain Lawrence P. Rockwood II is a fourth-generation soldier in the U.S. Army.   He joined the Army in 1977.  His military assignments include working with Hawk and Patriot ground to air missiles as an Air Defense officer, involvement in anti-insurgency / anti-drug operations in Central America as counter-intelligence intelligence officer, and support of humanitarian operations in Somalia as a strategic intelligence officer.  After fifteen years of military service, he was separated from the US Army because of his action as a military intelligence officer. Concerned with human rights violations occurring in the proximity of US forces in Haiti and perceiving what appeared to him as indifference on the part of his command toward those suffering from these violations, he conducted an unauthorized survey of the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince for which he was later court-martialed.  He is presently an adjunct professor in the history department at California State University at San Marcos and Grossmont College. 

 

Instructional Methodology

        1.  Facilitated Discussion

        2.  Interactive Lecture

 

Bibliography / Reference Materials

 

Micheline Ishay ed., The Human Rights Reader.

Roberts / Guelf eds., Documents on the Laws of War

Paul Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights

Samantha Power, “A Problem From Hell.” America and the Age of    Genocide

Linda Rabben, Fierce Legion of Friends, A history of Human Rights   Campaigns and Campaigners

Peter Maguire, Laws and War, An American Story

Howard/Andropoulas/Shulman eds. The Laws of War

Michael Wlazer, Just and Unjust Wars

Aryeh Neier, War Crimes

         

Previous Course Offerings

 

Ø   U.S. Defense Dept.  Human Rights / Command Responsibility  Date: 1998-presnent     

Ø   CSUSM American History Date: 2000- present                             

Ø   Grossmont College       Date: 2004 -present

 

 

 


Course Scheduling

 

            Contact:     Lawrence Rockwood

                            5915 Lauretta St. #1

                              San Diego, CA  92110

                              619 297-5099

                              soldier@igc.org

                              http://soldier.home.igc.org/