What are human rights?

From The Human Rights Handbook
Human Rights Resource Center,
University of Minnesota

 

Human rights are those rights that belong to every individual — man or women, girl or boy, infant or elder—simply because she or he is a human being. They embody the basic standards without which people cannot realize their inherent human dignity.

Human rights are universal: they are the birthright of every member of the human family. No one has to earn or deserve human rights.

Human rights are inalienable: you cannot lose these rights any more than you can cease to be a human being. Human rights are indivisible: you cannot be denied a right because someone decides that it is "less important" or "non-essential." Human rights are interdependent: all human rights are part of a complementary framework.

Because human rights are not granted by any human authority such as a monarch, government, or secular or religious authority, they are not the same as civil rights, such as those in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. Constitutional rights are granted to individuals by virtue of their citizen ship or residence in a particular country whereas human rights are inherent and held as attributes of the human personality.

Human rights are both abstract and practical. They hold up the inspiring vision of a free, just, and peaceful world and set minimum standards for how both individuals and institutions should treat people. They also empower people to take action to demand and defend their rights and the rights of others.

Although human rights were principally defined and codified in the twentieth century, human rights values are rooted in the wisdom literature, traditional values, and religious teachings of almost every culture. For example, the Hindu Vedas, the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, the Bible, the Quran (Koran), and the Analects of Confucius all address questions of peoples' duties, rights, and responsibilities. Native American sources include the Inca and Aztec codes of conduct and justice and the Iroquois Constitution.

International Human Rights Law

The foundation documents of human rights law are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR, 1966) and its Optional Protocol, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966). Known collectively as the International Bill of Human Rights, these four documents were followed by more than twenty human rights conventions—treaties that become binding law in those countries that ratify them. When a UN member state ratifies a convention, it agrees to abide by its provisions, to change the laws of the country to conform to the convention, and to report on its progress in doing so.

Some conventions define and ban abhorrent, inhuman acts (e.g., The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment); others address populations in need of particular protection and provision (e.g., The Convention on the Rights of the Child; The Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and the Members of Their Families) or groups who experience particular discrimination (e.g., the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women).