What are Human Rights?
From We are America the Beautiful blog on April 4, 2021
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Former First Lady, Chairperson of the drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Cyrus the Great was the first to provide human rights as codified law, known as the Cyrus Cylinder. After he conquered Babylon in 539 BC, he freed the slaves and he granted the freedom to choose one's religion.
To learn more about the history of Human Rights, watch this very interesting video: https://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/
What are Human Rights?
Human rights are universal for all people from birth. They are how one should expect to be treated. Some examples are:
• Right to life
• Right to free speech
• The right for all people to be treated equally
• Freedom of movement and travel
• Right to seek asylum from persecution
• Right to an education
• Right to consent to marriage
• Right to a fair trial
• Protection from unlawful detention
• Protection from child labor and slavery
• Right to privacy
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was created by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, under General Assembly Resolution 217A. The 30-article declaration was drafted by representatives from all over the world.
According to the United Nations' webpage, the UDHR is "a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles)."
The Advocates for Human Rights state on their website, "When it was adopted, the UDHR was not legally binding, though it carried great moral weight. In order to give the human rights listed in the UDHR the force of law, the UN drafted two treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The division of rights between these two covenants is artificial, reflecting the global ideological divide during the Cold War. Though politics prevented the creation of a unified treaty, the two covenants are interconnected, and the rights contained in one covenant are necessary to the fulfillment of the rights contained in the other. Together, the UDHR, ICCPR, and ICESCR are known as the International Bill of Human Rights. They contain a comprehensive list of human rights that governments must respect, protect, and fulfill."
Click here to read the full UDHR: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
Despite the UDHR, we still do not have equal treatment for all races, genders, sexual orientations, or religions. Several states are seeking to restrict voting rights; 16,000 children die every day from starvation. Thousands of people around the globe are incarcerated for political speech; over 1 billion adults are illiterate; 27 million people are enslaved. The words of the UDHR are only ink on paper unless people decide to enforce them locally.
Sources:
https://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/
https://www.theadvocatesforhumanrights.org/human_rights_basics
https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights