Human rights - Research Paper Example

? Human Rights Human Rights The United Nation defines human rights as those rights that an individual attains at the time ofhis/her birth irrespective of the background of an individual. The notion of human rights has been promoted since the European Enlightenment period and various philosophers have promoted them at different points in time. Human rights are not separate laws adopted by governments of different nations, but these rights are a part of the constitution of several nations such as United Nations and several nations have signed agreements created by the UN to promoted human rights in their own regions. Human rights have been divided into their categories including: civil and political rights, social and economic rights and cultural and developmental rights. Human rights are universal in nature, they are dependent on each other, they are equally distributed and it is the duty of the nations to promote and protect human rights. Human Rights Definition The term human rights is used to refer to the rights that are inherited by all human beings at the time of their birth and these rights are awarded to individuals irrespective of their nationality, gender, color or religion (Motilal, 2006, p.53). Human rights hold that all human beings are equal and should not be discriminated against under any circumstances. Human Rights that are universal in nature have been awarded to all human beings in form of laws that are created on the local and the international level. All nations do not have to abide by these laws, but those nations that have signed treatise are expected to abide by universal human rights. History The concept of human rights can be seen in the religions and the philosophy of the Western European nations and the current human rights concept was first witnessed during the period of European Enlightenment (Haggerty, 2000, p.268). During the period of 16th century, it was proposed that all human beings had their free will to choose which ever religion they want to practice and whatever leaders they wanted to follow. Similar form of ideology was witnessed during the period of English Civil War when John Locke who became one of those who used the term human rights proposed that all human beings should have these rights (Haggerty, 2000, p.268). The idea of human rights was even witnessed during the American as well as the French revolution during the period of 18th century (Forsythe, 2009, p.286). During the 19th century, the idea of human right was also promoted by John Stuart Mill who believed that human beings should have the right to speak freely, assemble and should have the right to perform any actions as long as that action does not violates the rights of other human beings (Haggerty, 2000, p.268). Hegel was another great philosopher who promoted the idea of human rights and specially paid emphasis on freedom of a person and said that all individuals should have the right to own assets, get into contracts with other human beings and should be protected through rules and regulations created by the government (Forsythe, 2009, p.134). Human Rights Laws Several nations have their own separate human rights laws in order to protect the people of their nation and these laws have been created to protect individuals from the atrocities of the government and the people who violate human rights. Several organizations that exist throughout the world have defined certain human rights and those nations who do not operate according to their definition are held responsible for violation of human rights and are considered as nations that have no regards for human life. Human rights are not separate laws that have been created to protect human life, but the ideology of human rights has become a part of constitutions throughout the world. Human rights can be witnessed in the constitution of US as well as France. Several laws within the constitution of the US are made to protect the human rights. These laws includes the 14th Amendment of the US constitution which states that all individuals living within US has the right to vote and this right cannot be violated by any means (Forsythe, 2009, p.218). The First Amendment of the United States Constitution allows the public to speak freely and express their concerns and the citizens of the US are even allowed to assemble in order to protest against the government to safeguard their rights and to stop the government from making changes to the constitution that may violate human rights (Forsythe, 2009, p.249). During the period of 1948, United Nations made a very strong move to protect human rights by created a document recognized as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Forsythe, 2009, p.250). This document was created to protect the rights of all individuals and these rights have been awarded to humans irrespective of their race, color, ethnicity, gender and or religion. This document is not considered a law, but two significant agreements have been based on these documents. These agreements include: The International Covenant on Civil, Political, Economic, Social as well as Cultural Rights (Forsythe, 2009, p.442). These agreements are signed between the member nations of the United Nations and under this agreement, the member nations can not violate human rights codes stated in these agreements. Several other agreements that are created under the umbrella of United Nations are created to protect human rights and these agreements are recognized as International Human Rights Law. Categories of Human Rights Human Rights are divided into three categories and these three categories are recognized as generations of human rights. The first category of human rights is an individual’s civil as well as political rights and is recognized as the first generation of human rights. These rights are based on an individual’s liberty and include: individual’s right of life as well as freedom from being treated as slaves and freedom from being tortured and security (Forsythe, 2009, p.339). The second generation of human rights is recognized as social as well as economic rights and these rights include: individual’s right for education, employment, medicine as well as basic necessities including shelter and food (Forsythe, 2009, p.92). The third generation of human rights is recognized as cultural and developmental rights and these rights include: right to live in a society that does not contain hazards and risks to the health of the members of the society. Characteristics of Human Rights According to the definition of human rights proposed by the United Nations the characteristics of human rights include: universalism and inalienable. This means that all nations should indulge in the promotion and protection of human rights and human freedom irrespective of their socio economic and political structures (Motilal, 2006, p.53). The United Nations even states that human rights cannot be infringed upon by the states except in certain scenarios. For example: An individual’s right to freely express himself should not be violated until the right is harming others and is used to indulge in criminal activity. The UN even identifies human rights as being dependant on each other and cannot be divided. This means that all the rights that have been allotted to human beings are dependent on each other to function in a proper manner (Motilal, 2006, p.53). For example: the right of freedom of speech and right to assemble are dependent on each other because without the right of freedom of speech, one cannot protest against the government. This even means that if one of the rights allotted to human beings is promoted, other rights will be promoted automatically (Motilal, 2006, p.53). Another major characteristic of human rights is that these rights are allotted irrespective of the background of an individual and thus these rights are equal in nature. The last characteristic of human rights is that it is a duty of the government to ensure that they are promoted human rights for the well being of their citizens. References Forsythe, D. P. (2009). Encyclopedia of human rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Haggerty, G., & Zimmerman, B. (2000). Encyclopedia of lesbian and gay histories and cultures. New York: Garland ;. Motilal, S., & Nanda, B. (2006). Human rights, gender, and environment (4th revised reprint, 2009. ed.). 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