Human Rights: History and Theory(answer the question) - Essay Example

In the face of attempts to strip millions of people of their basic human dignity and legal personality, mass incarceration for political offenses, the intentional targeting of large numbers of civilians in wartime, and genocide, how can we talk about human rights, or at least talk about them as having such history that precedes 1945? Every single human has some rights. This belief is one of the newer ones in the history of beliefs regarding humans. "In the early day's slovenliness, chaos, and disorder caused many deaths.

" (Applebaum 90). This belief has been taken into account much later, but its origin is found in many cultural traditions of different religions. The Second World War was the event due to which the rights of the people began to emerge as a significant issue. During the course of history the rights of people were gained through the association to any group. The association could be with a family, nation, community, class or religion. There was a general rule which was applied in every society to treat others like they would want to be treated themselves.

The written sources, the Vedas, the Analects of Confucius, the Bible, The Quran, The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi are the oldest of the scriptures which have instructions regarding the rights and responsibilities of people. Before the 18th century, the sources were the Inca and Aztec codes of conduct and the Iroquis Constitution. In short, in every society, there was some kind of written as well as unwritten rules regarding the rights of the people, protecting their respect and interests as well as their health.

The process of genocide goes through two stages. The national pattern is disturbed in both, destroyed (in the case of the oppressed) and imposed (in the case of the oppressors). As a result, either the oppressed are ruled over by the oppressors or the oppressors are driven out of their territories and replaced by the oppressing people (Power 43). The modern documents regarding human rights are somewhat the sequels of the previous documents which declare the rights of people like Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights (1689), the French Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), and the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (1791).

These precursors, however, had removed women and people who were not white. Apart from that, people who were associated with certain groups or religions were also excluded from those bills. On the other hand, people who have been dominated around the globe draw on the principle which are expressed by these documents and based their revolutions that emphasize the right to self-determination on the same. The predecessors of the modern international laws of human rights and the founding of the United Nations are of great importance.

The best example of their importance would be the attempts to ban the trade of slaves and to limit the wars in the 19th century. The International Labor Organization was founded in 1919, which ensured that the workers were getting their health and safety rights. When the First World War came to an end, the protection of minorities came up as an issue. The League of Nations was born so that it could again assert those rights which were violated during the war (Morsink 36). The League of Nations, however, was an organization which was formed by the European champions of the First World War and which failed to achieve their target of stopping another world war from taking place.

The United States did not become a part of the League of Nations which caused it to falter as well as its failure to stop Japan from attacking China and Manchuria in 1931 and Italy from attacking Ethiopia in 1935. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the League of Nations dissolved. After the Second World War ended, the concept that people should have at least their basic rights materialized and became very strong. The murder of more than six million Jews, gypsies, persons with disabilities and homosexuals by the Hitler-led Germans left the entire world struck with disgust and terror.

This disbelief in the worthlessness of human lives in the eyes of those in power, in faith, and in reason, convinced millions to remain in place and risk their faith (Power 24). And the representatives of the losing countries were punished severely for committing crimes against peace and humanity. The governments then gave in to setting up the United Nations with the main aim being that there should be no more wars and presence of international harmony should be preserved. They work with the human rights policy of institutionalization and enforcement (Mertus 2).

People had been assured that people will get the freedom, shelter, food and nationality that they deserve and which is their basic right and that no one will be deprived of these things. President Franklin Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address in 1941 captured the essence of these values of human rights. He visualized a time will come when people will be free to choose their religion and express freely, and they will be free from fear and want. From all around the world, people called for standards of human rights which would not allow the governments to abuse the people and standards which would make the nations answerable for the mistreatment of the citizens.

People’s voices were heard and were kept in view in the meeting in 1945, where the United Nations Charter was drafted. Works Cited Applebaum, Anne. Gulag: a history. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Print. Power, Samantha. A problem from hell: America and the age of genocide. New York: Basic Books, 2002. Print. Morsink, Johannes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: origins, drafting, and intent. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Print. Mertus, Julie. The United Nations and human rights: a guide for a new era.

Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2005. Print