Students undertaking this course remotely may have issues accessing materials online, please contact the CAP Student Centre for more information.
Despite the shift from authoritarian to democratic or semi-democratic forms of government in Asia, human rights abuses are rife. Although Asian states have ratified a large number of international human rights conventions, the violation of human rights and unequal application of and access to the law are common across the region. Citizens and migrants face arbitrary detention, torture, disappearance and death at the hands of state, para-state, and other actors. In this course, we will study the types of human rights prevalent in Asia today and ask what institutional, political and social structures allow for their persistence. We will ask what types of abuses occur despite the efforts of governments to eliminate them and what types are encouraged through government inaction, or tacit or explicit encouragement or abuse. Yet simultaneous to our study of rights violations, we will also study new the new strategies of redress that have emerged, including the growth of human rights organisations and transitional justice processes and the development of linkages between international and local organisations. Topics and countries emphasised will vary from year to year, but will include East, South, and Southeast Asia.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the broad landscape of human rights across Asia.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the field of human rights studies and its relationship to advocacy.
3. Use different materials – including academic analysis, testimony and other accounts by survivors of human rights violations, legal and other state documents, advocacy and campaign materials – to examine and synthesise similarities and differences in human rights violation, protection, and consolidation across time and national boundaries.
4. Develop diverse writing skills and be able to compose the following: case summary, op-ed, proposal for further research or advocacy.
Indicative Assessment
Class presentation: 750 words 10% (LOs 1, 2, 3)
Class blog entries: 750 words 20% (LOs 1, 2, 3)
Mid-term essay: 1500 words 25% (LOs 1-4)
Final proposal: 2000 words 40% (LOs 1-4)
Participation: 5% (LOs 1-3)
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
Workload
3 contact hours per weekApproximately 60 pages of reading per week
Regular participation in class discussion
Regular entries on the class Wattle site
Requisite and Incompatibility
Prescribed Texts
- Emergency Powers in Asia: Exploring the Limits of Legality, edited by Victor Vridar Ramraj and Arun K. Thiruvengadam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
- Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule, by Christina Fink (London: Zed Press, 2001).
- Policing America’s Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State, by Alfred W. McCoy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009).
- Online U.N. documents, such as reports by the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Detentions
- Online reports of nongovernmental organizations working around issues of human rights and law in Southeast Asia, including the Asian Human Rights Commission, Forum Asia, and the Asian Federation for Free Elections
- Online documents of the trials of former Khmer Rouge, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC)
Preliminary Reading
Online sources on current human rights issues and conditions in Asia.Cheesman, Nick. Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar's Courts Make Law and Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Chapter 4.
Cheesman, Nick, and Basil Fernando. "Why Asian Legal Institutions Fail to Protect the Human Rights of the Vulnerable.". In the Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia. Edited by Fernand de Varennes, and Christie May Gardiner. London: Routledge, 2016, forthcoming.
Crouch, Melissa. "Asian Legal Transplants and Rule of Law Reform: National Human Rights Commission in Myanmar and Indonesia." Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 5.2 (2013): 146-77.
D'Costa, Bina, Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia, New York: Routledge, 2011 [selections].
Davies, Mathew. "States of compliance?: Global human rights treaties and ASEAN member states", Journal of Human Rights. 13.4 (2014): 414-33.
Goodale, Mark, ed. Human Rights at the Crossroads. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013 [selections].
Haberkorn, Tyrell. “Dispossessing Law: arbitrary detention and human rights in southern Thailand.” In Accumulating Security, Securing Accumulation: Everyday Practices of Violence. Edited by Gayatri Menon, Shelley Feldman, and Charles Geisler. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. 122-37.
Haberkorn, Tyrell. "When Torture Is a Duty: The Murder of Imam Yapa Kaseng and the Challenge of Accountability in Thailand." Asian Studies Review 39.1 (2015): 53–68.
Haugen, Gary, and Victor Boutros. "The new mandate for human rights." International Justice Mission, 2010?
Heryanto, Ariel. State terrorism and political identity in Indonesia. London & New York: Routledge, 2006 [selections].
Hopgood, Stephen. The Endtimes of Human Rights. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013 [selections].
Islam, Md. Shariful, ed. Human Rights and Governance in Bangladesh. Hong Kong: Asian Legal Resource Centre, 2013. [selections]
Kalhan, Anil , et al. "Colonial continuities: Human rights, terrorism, and security laws in India." Columbia Journal of Asian Law 20.1 (2006): 93-234.
Kennedy, David. ‘The international human rights movement: Part of the problem?” Harvard Human Rights Journal 15 (2002): 101-125.
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. "Refugees, Abductees, 'Returnees': Human Rights in Japan-North Korea Relation"', in Sonia Ryang ed. North Korea: Toward a Better Understanding, Langham: Lexington Books, 2009. 131-157.
Moyn, Samuel. The last utopia: Human rights in history. Cambridge, MA & London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010 [selections].
Nasu, Hitoshi, and Ben Saul, eds. Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region: Towards Institution Building. Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2011 [selections].
Peerenboom, Randall. "Assessing human rights in China: Why the double standard?" Cornell International Law Journal 38 (2005): 71-172.
Wahyuningrum, Yuyun. “Indonesia and the Universal Periodic Review: Negotiating Rights.” In Human Rights and the Universal Periodic Review: Rituals and Ritualism. Edited by Hilary Charlesworth and Emma Larking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 256-74.
Plus, a range of primary source materials, including reports of UN Special Procedures and Treaty Bodies, and government submissions, non-governmental groups' documentation, indices, and critiques of source materials.
Assumed Knowledge
Recommended courses include:ASIA2049 Politics and Society in Contemporary Korea
ASIA2026 The Politics of China
ASIA2070 Democracy in Southeast Asia
ASIA2163 Religion and Politics in South Asia
ASIA2516 Indonesia: Politics, Society and Development
HIST2238 Human Rights in History
INTR2028 Regionalism, Rights and Order in Southeast Asia
POLS2113 Human Rights
POLS3028 Researching and Writing Human Rights
SOCY2061 Contemporary Chinese Society
Fees
Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.
Commonwealth Support (CSP) Students
If you have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). More information about your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.
- Student Contribution Band:
- 14
- Unit value:
- 6 units
If you are a domestic graduate coursework student with a Domestic Tuition Fee (DTF) place or international student you will be required to pay course tuition fees (see below). Course tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.
Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.
| Units | EFTSL |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | 0.12500 |
Course fees
- Domestic fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2024 | $4440 |
- International fee paying students
| Year | Fee |
|---|---|
| 2024 | $6000 |
Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links
ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.
First Semester
| Class number | Class start date | Last day to enrol | Census date | Class end date | Mode Of Delivery | Class Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2522 | 17 Feb 2025 | 24 Feb 2025 | 31 Mar 2025 | 23 May 2025 | In Person | N/A |
