This course offers an overview of the rise of human rights and their uses and applications in the modern era. In analyzing multiple genealogies of human rights, we pay close attention to shifting meanings of both terms of the equation: "the human" and "rights." The class focuses on key debates and historical events that have shaped human rights discourses and legal instruments. Particular attention is given to international law (for example, the Geneva Conventions), intergovernmental organizations (e.g. League of Nations and the United Nations), and institutions charged with prosecuting human rights violations (such as the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia). In analyzing the development of legal and normative regimes around human rights, we inquire into how specific disciplinary viewpoints may impact understandings of how and where human rights originated, their efficacy, and their consequences in practice.