Assignment for week six

 

 

Read:

• Johannes Morsink, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting and Intent, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999),
  • Introduction (pp 9-14)
  • chapter 1.1 - 1.5 (pp 1-35)
  • chapter 2.1 - 2.4 (pp 36-61)
  • chapter 8.1 - 8.6 (pp 281-328)
  • appendix UDHR (pp 329-36)
• American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man
• Sandra Steingraber's October 2008 lecture to the Bioneers conference (available in the classroom)
• view her Bioneers lecture here or here.
• The Washington Toxics Coalition Pollution in People study;
  here's the full report online;
  or download the report here

 

• Here are two unassigned, but powerful and compelling, video addenda. You may wish to take a peek at either or both of them.
  • One of the most powerful pollution-in-people studies conducted so far is described in a short video (20 min) produced a couple years ago by the Environmental Working Group, titled “10 Americans,” about the chemicals to which fetuses are exposed in utero. It can be viewed here.
    
  • In November 2009 the Washington Toxics Coalition published another pollution-in-people study, titled Earliest Exposures, in which seven pregnant women were tested to see what environmental chemicals fetuses are exposed to in their first nine months of life. The executive summary can be viewed here, and short video clips of interviews with the mothers can be seen here.
    
    
• If you view either of these videos, you might reflect on these questions:
  • Whose rights would you say have been compromised here?
  • Which specific rights would you say have been compromised?
  • And what entities or persons would you say have not met their duties to respect those rights?

Write:

Write out your responses to the Discussion Questions and post them into the Class Discussion forum in the classroom. Your initial responses to DQs should be posted into the classroom by Saturday or Sunday.

• Morsink DQs
• ADRDM DQs
• Pollution in People DQs

 

Research papers:

• an important note about writing your research paper

Midterm exam:

• details in the classroom's General Stuff forum