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This seminar aims to examine international human rights norms and practices from political science perspectives, contextualizing them within the realm of violent intra-state conflicts. Since the end of the Cold War, over 90% of armed conflicts have been intra-state rather than inter-state, creating divisions among people, territories, and resources that often blur distinctions between right and wrong, civilian and combatant. International organizations and member states have consistently pursued the promotion of human rights as a means for achieving lasting peace and facilitating peaceful conflict resolution and post-conflict rehabilitation. However, establishing a functional human rights regime in post-conflict societies presents challenges and dilemmas, sometimes exacerbating political tensions. In this seminar, students will initially explore the evolution of international human rights, recognizing them not only as crucial norms and practices of the modern era but also as political phenomena. Subsequently, through the examination of theories on intra-state conflicts and empirical studies of conflicts across various regions, students will critically evaluate the limitations of the current international human rights regime and institutional efforts in peacebuilding, including transitional justice initiatives.
Sung Jin Park M.A. is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Political Science and Jena Centre for Reconciliation Studies (JCRS) in Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena, Germany. He studied for his BA and MA in universities in South Korea and now is working on his PhD dissertation on the politics of memory in post-conflict societies. His research attempts to answer the question of why post-conflict states show different ways of remembering the past conflict. Apart from his PhD project, his research interests include international human rights, post-conflict transitional justice, and the child soldier problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. |
