International Human Rights: Latin American delegations and social rights

What was the contribution of Latin American delegates to the development of the international human rights system? How did the international human rights system affect Latin America? What was the relationship between Latin America and the US? How did the Inter-American system develop?

Primary Sources:

Inter-American Juridical Committee: Draft Declaration of the International Rights and Duties of Man and Accompanying Report The American Journal of International Law Vol. 40, No. 3, Supplement: Official Documents (Jul., 1946), pp. 93-116

1938 OAS Declaration in defense of human rights

UN Charter 1945.

American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man 1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948.

Core Readings:

Glendon, Mary Ann. 'The Forgotten Crucible: The Latin American Influence on the Universal Human Rights Idea.'Harvard Human Rights Journal 16 (2003), 27-39.

OR

Sikkink, Kathryn. "Latin America's Protagonist Role in Human Rights." Sur International Journal on Human Rights 12.22 (2015): 207-19.

AND

Juan Pablo Scarfi and Andrew Tillman (eds.) Cooperation and Hegemony in US-Latin American Relations: Revisiting the Western Hemisphere Idea. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. (Tanya Harmer and Mark Jeffrey Peterson's Chapters).

For an idea of how the Interamerican System has been used 'from below' read this if you like.

Pegram, Tom and Nataly Herrera Rodriguez. “Bridging the Gap: National Human Rights Institutions and the Inter-American Human Rights System.” In Par Engstrom (ed.) The Inter-American Human Rights System: Impact Beyond Compliance

For a perspective that looks back to the nineteenth century have a look at this if you like.

Liliana Obregón, "Between civilization and barbarism: Creole interventions in international law." Third World Quarterly. 27:5 2006, Vol. 27 Issue 5, 815-832.

Primary Source Activity

Look at the following source:

Inter-American Juridical Committee: Draft Declaration of the International Rights and Duties of Man and Accompanying Report The American Journal of International Law Vol. 40, No. 3, Supplement: Official Documents (Jul., 1946), pp. 93-116

1. Choose an article or a couple of articles that speak to your interests and what you think have been important themes in Human Rights in Latin America. Read the articles. How might you use the article in an essay about the role of Latin American states and citizens in international Human Rights and internationalism?

2. What does this source tell you and what doesn't it tell you? What other sources, or kinds of sources might you want to look for to compliment this one? How might you find them?

Further Reading:

Engstrom, Par. 2016. “The Inter-American Human Rights System and U.S.-Latin American Relations.” In Cooperation and Hegemony in US-Latin American Relations: Revisiting the Western Hemisphere Idea, eds., Juan Pablo Scarfi and Andrew Tillman, 209-247. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Par Engstrom (ed.) The Inter-American Human Rights System: Impact Beyond Compliance. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Juan Pablo Scarfi and Andrew Tillman (eds.) Cooperation and Hegemony in US-Latin American Relations: Revisiting the Western Hemisphere Idea. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Cabranes, José A. 1967. “Human Rights and Non-Intervention in the Inter-American System.” Michigan Law Review 65(6): 1147-1182.

Cooper, Andrew F. and Thomas Legler. 2006. Intervention without Intervening?: The OAS Defense and Promotion of Democracy in the Americas. Springer.

Cooper, Andrew F. and Thomas Legler. 2001. “The OAS Democratic Solidarity Paradigm: Questions of Collective and National Leadership.” Latin American Politics and Society 43(1): 103-26

Scarfi, Juan Pablo. 2017. The Hidden History of International Law in the Americas: Empire and Legal Networks. New York: Oxford University Press. (Chapter 6)

Greg Grandin, ‘Human Rights and Empire's Embrace: A Latin American Counterpoint’ in Wasserstrom et al (eds.), Human Rights and Revolutions (Lantham, 2007), 191-212.

Michael George Hanchard. Orpheus and Power: The Movimento Negro of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil 1945-1988. Princeton University Press, 1994. 

Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations Princeton: 2009.

Philip Alston and Gerard Quinn, ‘The Nature and Scope of States Parties' Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’, Human Rights Quarterly 9: 2 (1987), 156-229.

Winter, Jay, ‘1948: Human Rights’ in Dreams of Peace and Freedom in the Twentieth Century New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.