1/17/23:

- Structural violence:
o We tend to think of human rights violations as one-time, single, large events, but,
they exist in structures and systems
o Broad concept that includes a “host of offensives against human dignity”
 Extreme poverty, relative poverty, social inequalities
 More spectacular forms of violence, often delivered as a punishment for
trying to escape structural violence
o Historically given and economically driven conditions
o Farmer: going beyond legal protection of civil and political rights
- Structural violence as “unfreedoms”:
o Amartya Sen: economist who contrasts economic indices with mortality data to
highlight the importance of inequality for development (shows social and
economic rights are intertwined in people’s well-being
o Unfreedoms: have liberal notions of freedom on paper, but many are still victims
of structural violence
o Check out his book: development as freedom
- Neoliberalism: a political and economic ideology that advocates the dominance of a
competition-driven market model
o Individuals are viewed as autonomous, rational actors whose decisions are
motivated primarily by economic concerns
o Sees government-run social programs as inefficient, disrupting free-market forces
o Claims that healthcare, education, and other essential services, should be
delivered according to market forces according to the laws of supply and demand
o Check out documentary: Life and Debt
 Neoliberalism and development, structural adjustment programs in
Jamaica
 “the laws of supply and demand with rarely serve the needs of my
patients”
- “civil rights cannot really be defended if social and economic rights are not”
- Human rights: historical emergence
o Long development of the idea of individual liberty rather than divine moral order
above all people
o 1700s: rights of man,
o Key conflict: do rights derive from natural law (ordained by god) or from human
existence
- Natural rights: rights from our basic humanity, moral autonomy of the individual, very
influential in colonization and decolonization
- Early critics of “natural” human rights:
o (1) conservative: man (sic) has rights because of the organic traditions and
institutions of his society, different political communities may construct different
rights, one abstract list of natural rights should be imposed on all
o (2) liberals (utilitarianism): natural rights were “unreal metaphysical phenomena,”
unreal rights that stemmed from an unreal natural law, to advance democracy, one
should reform actual rights and laws
 o (3) socialists/radicals: the rights of man are really the rights of the bourgeois man,
rights to liberty, property, and personal security served to support the capitalist
system of domination, at the expense of the proletariat’s economic well-being

Draw on the Introductions to Pathologies of Power and our textbook to describe human

rights in your own terms: what are human rights and why do they matter? 

Then, drawing on Farmer’s introduction, discuss an example of “structural violence” that

you have witnessed or become aware of where human rights were violated. What were the
causes and effects of this structural violence? How did this instance of structural violence
impact people’s rights? (Your example can be from anywhere in the world, including the
US, and can apply to health or another social/political/economic issue.)

In my terms, human rights are inherent rights and freedoms belonging to all humans
(regardless of state) to protect human dignity. This definition may seem vague, but as seen in
both the textbook and Pathologies of Power’s introductions, the term and concept of human
rights is very wide in scope. One point the textbook discusses is the variability of human rights:
they are “at once local, national, regional, and global” (Goodhart) and “have legal, political,
cultural, and economic dimensions” (Goodhart). Pathologies of Power also addresses similar
broad ideas. Framer states that human rights can be seen in conventional contexts like treaties or
also in accessibility (to health care, education, etc) (Framer). Both texts agree on the fact that
human rights span multiple disciplines, industries, and aspects of life.
In addition to attempting to define human rights, both introductions address why human
rights matter. Aside from the importance of human rights in protecting human dignity, the
textbook points out how human rights create legitimacy in international politics and relations. In
my own terms, human rights matter because they aim to protect humans from ourselves and the
systems that we have created. Defining human rights is the first step in reducing abuses,
especially those stemming from structural violence.
One example of structural violence that I witnessed was during my study abroad experience
in Jordan. In Jordan, it is very common for households to have domestic workers, who are
usually from other countries like the Philippines or Ethiopia. While the law claims to protect
domestic workers, the system and structures in place actually do the opposite. Domestic workers
often have their passports and paychecks held by their employers and may be confined to the
house with little or no contact with family members back home. Underlying racist ideas promote
this structural violence and cause many domestic workers to be stuck in bad situations for years
on end.

- Textbook: “at once local, national, regional, and global in scope; they operate
transnationally, meaning that they are not merely part of international relations among
states and international governance organizations but also spill over and cut across
political boundaries as ideas, discourses, and practices spread through activist networks
and via social media and other channels. Human rights have legal, political, cultural, and
economic dimensions and are studied by scholars in numerous disciplines from law and
literature to politics and policy”
 o Normative approach (what ought to be, spell out how people ought to be treated
o Empirical approach (what can be observed, manifested in the world, laws, norms,
concepts, treaties, policies, discourses, institutions, etc.
o Social constructionist theory: human rights are human inventions
- Farmer: “human rights abuse has been used to describe many offenses”
o “Conventionally defined violations outlined in the various treaties and charters to
which the guilty parties – nation-states, by and large – are so often signatories”
o Human right access to health care, education, and other social services
- Structural violence: “broad rubric that includes a host of offensives against human
dignity: extreme and relative poverty, social inequalities ranging from racism to gender
inequality, and the more spectacular forms of violence that are uncontestably human
rights abuses”
- Search: rights humans have simply because we exist as human beings, not granted by any
state
o Basic rights and freedoms that belong to every person in the world, from birth
until death
o Inherent to all human beings, protect the dignity of all human beings