Human rights
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Human rights, or natural rights, are rights which some hold to be "inalienable" and belonging to all humans, according to natural law. Such rights are thought, by proponents, to be necessary for freedom and the maintenance of a "reasonable" quality of life.
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2 Origins of rights 3 Modern liberal definition of human rights 4 Human rights organizations 5 See also 6 External links |
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, [1] which was an over-arching set of standards by which governments, organisations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other.
This Declaration introduced the notion in the public realm that rights had a moral dimension – independent of and overriding, where relevant, the legislature or government – which granted specific legal rights. The notion was not new, e.g. Thomas Paine had argued in this way in his book The Rights of Man.
Other general instruments have followed, notably the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989. [1]
Origins of rights
Positive human rights follow mainly from the Rousseauianian Continental legal tradition, and are things to which every person is entitled and for which every state is obligated. Examples of such rights (not all are universally agreed upon) include: the rights to education, to a livelihood, to private property, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and legal equality. Positive rights were codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in many 20th century constitutions.
Negative human rights follow mainly from the Anglo-American legal tradition, and are rights which denote actions that a government should not take. These are codified in the United States Bill of Rights and the English Bill of Rights and include freedoms of speech, religion and assembly.
There are a number of theories of where rights come from. The theory espoused by the US Declaration of Independence and ingrained in Anglo-American legal thought is that rights arise from natural law. This theory is considered antiquated in moral philosophy.
There are a number of controversies regarding human rights. One is what rights are included as fundamental human rights, or even if there is such a thing. For example, the European Convention on Human Rights currently prohibits any signatory state from practicing capital punishment due to their definition of what everyone's right to life means in practice. Several other nations with noted respect for human rights (for example the United States and Japan) retain the death penalty. Another controversy is how best to enforce human rights and in particular the relationship between human rights and national sovereignty. One point of view is that human rights are universal and therefore it is proper for any national to attempt to enforce human rights through international courts or domestic law. The opposing view is that having human rights override national sovereignty is a form of imperialism in which powerful countries dictate which rights they consider most important against less powerful countries.
In the United States and some other English-speaking countries, the concepts of civil liberties and civil rights are related to human rights, see their respective articles for information on those notions.
Modern liberal definition of human rights
Within modern liberal political cultures, basic human rights are defined as those which can be upheld in a society which follows two basic rules:
- All individuals should be allowed to act in any way they choose providing that in doing so they do not prohibit other individuals from that same privilege.
- All individuals must take responsibility for the repercussions of their actions.
Human rights organizations
See also
- American Convention on Human Rights
- European Convention on Human Rights
- International human rights instruments
- freedom
- rights
- human rights abuse
- three generations of human rights
External links