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General description of the NHR596 academic course
This course is based on a multidisciplinary socio-political, psychological, legal and philosophical approach, about the death penalty seen from the angle of violence and Non-Violence. In this course, the death penalty will be studied in a historical context, to understand the basic concepts related to it, such as: crime, justice, revenge, punishment, responsibility, deterrence. As part of the Human Rights curricula, this course is designed to debate and discussion for and against the death penalty. It looks at the arguments in favor and against and asks how capital punishment has become a human rights issue. Part of this module will be focused on the main International Human Rights Instruments about the death penalty, to learn how to draw up a broad schematic picture in the political history of abolitionist and non-abolitionist initiatives, texts and resolutions. The training will explore the imposition of the death penalty in the world with particular attention to the situation in the Arab world. Part of the course will focus on the analysis of selected articles of the law, in Lebanon and other Arab countries, imposing capital punishment, with the aim of analyzing the philosophical structure behind these laws, the justification and legitimization of the right of the State, or of the current power, to kill in the name of the law. Of course, the contents will consider the discriminations linked to the death penalty and faced also by those on death row, in terms of class, poverty, race, religion, disability, mental health, age, gender, sexuality. This course provides, through interactive methods, practical applications, case studies, text analysis within the logic of critical work, videos, quotes, etc. The Lebanese campaign for the abolition of the death penalty will serve as a concrete example for the study of a non-violent strategy in the abolitionist struggle. The students will prepare, as homework after the whole sessions, an opinion article about the main themes of this course, within the "Readings-Writings" global program adopted in the curriculum.
Number of credits: 3 credits
Prerequisites: academic approval