Human rights

Human rights are moral principles or norms that describe how people should treat each other. Many of them are protected by both national and international laws. Human rights are inherent, which means every person has them simply because they are human. They cover many areas, including civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Examples include the right to life, freedom of speech, protection against enslavement, and the right to education.

People have thought about human rights for a very long time. The modern idea became very important after World War II. Many people wanted to make sure that terrible things like those in the Holocaust would never happen again. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This document lists a set of rights that countries are encouraged to protect. It sets a worldwide standard for human dignity, freedom, and fairness. The UDHR has inspired many international agreements and national laws that help protect human rights around the world.

People do not always agree about human rights. Some people ask which rights should come first, how they should be used in daily life, and whether they apply everywhere. Some people from cultural relativism traditions say that individual rights do not always fit with communities that focus on the group, and that these rights can sometimes clash with local customs and traditions.

Even so, human rights remain an important part of how countries work together and how laws are made. Groups such as the United Nations, many non-governmental organizations, and national governments work to watch over and support human rights around the world.

History

Main article: History of human rights

Many of the basic ideas behind the human rights movement grew after the Second World War and the terrible events of the Holocaust. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris. Long ago, people did not think about human rights the way we do today, but some early ideas existed for many centuries. The idea of natural rights came from the medieval natural law tradition and became an important starting point. It grew during the European Enlightenment, with thinkers such as John Locke. It also played a part in the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The Magna Carta, issued in England in 1215, also influenced later laws about rights.

Between the two World Wars, the League of Nations was set up. One of its goals was to promote many rights that later appeared in the Universal Declaration. After World War II, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is not a law that countries must follow, but it encourages them to protect many human, civil, economic, and social rights. In 1966, two agreements called the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adopted. These made the rights in the Universal Declaration binding on all countries.

Promotion strategies

Charles Beitz describes six ways that human rights agencies, international organizations, countries, and NGOs could help protect human rights. These include:

• checking reports to make sure countries keep their promises under treaties
• using rewards and the threat of sanctions
• giving support to societies that lack resources
• taking part in a country's internal affairs
• using force only as a last resort
• changing trade policies or international laws that get in the way of rights

One military approach is the Responsibility to protect. This idea says that United Nations member states can step in to protect people from terrible harm. A 2011 military intervention in the First Libyan Civil War by NATO and Qatar is often criticized. Critics say it went beyond protecting people and aimed at removing the government.

See also: R2p and Peacekeeping

Economic sanctions are often used against people or countries that break human rights rules. However, they are criticized for hurting whole populations. Helping vulnerable groups can also reduce abuses. Girls' education, guaranteed minimum incomes, and conditional cash transfers have helped reduce child labor. One example of a cash transfer is Bolsa familia, which pays parents who keep their children in school.

Many groups watch for human rights abuses. These include United Nations committees, governments, and independent non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange, and Anti-Slavery International. These groups collect evidence and push for change. Teaching people about human rights is also seen as a way to prevent abuses. Many laws at the international, regional, and national levels are designed to protect human rights.

See also: Human rights education and Activism

Protection at the international level

Main article: International human rights instruments

The United Nations works to protect human rights around the world. Its Human Rights Council was created in 2005. It can look into claims that human rights have been broken. Its 47 members are chosen by the United Nations General Assembly, and the council meets in Geneva. Independent experts look into problems and report back to the council. Other UN groups, called treaty bodies, check whether countries follow the human rights agreements they have signed. The UN's rules are written in the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter asks countries to work together to respect human rights and freedoms for all people.

Some international groups also help protect human rights. The International Court of Justice settles disagreements between nations, but it does not judge individual people. The International Criminal Court looks into war crimes and crimes against humanity that happen within its jurisdiction. Some countries have not joined it. The Rome Statute created the court. These international courts, along with regional human rights systems, only step in when a country's own legal system cannot handle a case.

Regional human rights regimes

See also: National human rights institutions and Human rights commission

See also: Human rights in the Soviet Union

In over 110 countries, national human rights institutions (NHRIs) have been set up to protect, promote, or watch over human rights. Not all of them follow the Paris Principles, which were agreed in Paris in 1991. Still, there are more of them every year, and they are having an effect.

In Africa, the African Union (AU) is a continental union of fifty-five African countries. It was started in 2001 to help support democracy, human rights, and a sustainable economy. Its African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights works to promote and protect human rights, explains the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and looks at complaints. An African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was created. The Court of Justice of the African Union is meant to become the union's main court, but it has not been set up yet.

In the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS) includes thirty-five independent countries. Its Inter-American Court of Human Rights is based in San José, Costa Rica, and was set up in 1979. Its human rights work comes from the American Convention on Human Rights, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, and the Charter of the Organization of American States.

In Asia, there were no region-wide human rights groups or agreements adopted by governments until 2012. However, lawyers wrote the Declaration of the Basic Duties of ASEAN Peoples and Governments in 1983. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It now also includes Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights began in 2009, and the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration was adopted in 2012. The Arab Charter on Human Rights was adopted in 2004.

In Europe, the Council of Europe was founded in 1949. It is responsible for the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights, which is based in Strasbourg, France. Its members must accept the rule of law and support democracy and freedoms. It also promotes the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the European Social Charter. The European Union has its own Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture was set up to help prevent torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.

Philosophies of human rights

Several ideas explain how and why human rights became part of what people expect from society. One of the oldest Western ideas is that human rights come from natural law, which has roots in philosophy or religion. Natural law ideas base human rights on a "natural" moral, religious, or even biological order. This order does not depend on changing human laws or traditions. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle wrote about natural justice. Later thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas and John Locke, included natural law in their work. Thomas Hobbes argued that people could agree on what they feared, such as violent death. He said people should accept a ruler to stay safe. This helped lay the foundation for the idea of a social contract. Locke later said that if a ruler failed to protect "life, liberty, and property," people could rightly replace that government with a new one.

Other theories explain human rights in different ways. Some say that moral behavior developed through biology and social evolution (linked to David Hume). Others describe human rights as a pattern of rules that societies create (as in the work of Max Weber). Some see them as a social contract, in which people accept rules from a legitimate authority in exchange for security and economic benefits (as in John Rawls). The philosopher John Finnis argues that human rights are justified because they help create the conditions people need to live well. The biological theory connects human social behavior, based on empathy and altruism, to natural selection. The philosopher Zhao Tingyang argues that the traditional human rights framework is not universal. He proposes "credit human rights," in which rights are tied to responsibilities.

Concepts in human rights

See also: Human Rights Law

Human rights are often sorted into two groups: civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes both groups because they were meant to work together. People need freedom from fear and freedom from want. They also need rights like the right to work, the right to education, the right to health and the right to housing. Without civil and political rights, people cannot claim their other rights. Without a working society, they cannot use their civil and political rights. In practice, countries often favour one group over the other. Some rights are called inalienable rights, which means they cannot be given up. Karel Vasak described three generations of human rights. Philip Alston and others warn that some rights should not be ignored when priorities are set. In 1995, the international community agreed that all human rights are universal, indivisible and related.

Main articles: Cultural relativism, Moral relativism, Moral universalism, and Universal ethic

Some people believe that human rights do not apply equally everywhere, and that they can clash with some cultures. Others, including Anwar Ibrahim, argue that freedom is not only a Western idea. Michael Ignatieff notes that people who use cultural arguments are often the powerful. Some countries claim the right to judge certain crimes committed elsewhere under universal jurisdiction. Others say state sovereignty comes first. Multinational companies have a large role in the world, but no international treaty specifically covers their behaviour on human rights. Some rights, such as the right to life and freedom from torture, cannot be limited even during a national emergency. peremptory norms or jus cogens are binding on all states.

Criticism

See also: Philosophy of human rights § Critiques of human rights, and Human rights inflation

Some critics do not agree that human rights apply to everyone. They say human rights come from Judeo-Christian, European, and Enlightenment ideas, which they call Western. Because of this, they argue, other cultures that do not follow Western ways of life cannot fully enjoy them. Some right-wing critics say human rights are unrealistic and cannot be enforced. They also say human rights get in the way of a country governing itself. Left-wing critics say human rights do not help reach good goals. They also say human rights do not stop better ways of reaching those goals.

Simone Weil argued that people should focus more on their duties to others than on their own rights. She believed that rights only exist when others accept their duties toward us. Duties, she said, always belong to us and apply to everyone. Some people also say that reviews of human rights can show political bias.