CNTP308

This course explores human rights issues through the study of social documentary films. Through class discussions of specific themes, film screenings, selected readings and the writing of film reviews and research papers, students become aware of the main issues surrounding the topic of human rights. We discuss economic, social and cultural rights, specified in the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS as referring to an adequate standard of living for food, shelter, medical care, education, among others. Throughout the course we learn about stories of struggle and resistance in relation to situations of human rights abuses. We screen documentary films dealing with gender issues, to discuss how women's rights are connected to economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights. We look at films dealing with the efforts of indigenous communities to protect their ancestral lands and their culture, and about groups who are especially vulnerable to certain kinds of human rights abuses, such as refugees. Many people become refugees because of human rights violations in their own countries, but many times they find a whole new set of human rights issues facing them in the country they are seeking refuge.