Protection of Human Rights - Essay Example

According to Feldman, individual rights must be balanced against social goals3 and he views human rights as being linked to the conditions necessary for democracy; human rights “help to establish the conditions of free speech, tolerance, equality and mutual respect for people’s dignity…”4 Locke lays the foundation of civil society upon the premise that people surrender their natural freedoms to a system of common laws in order that they receive the protection of the Government and it is this system of laws that restrains them from harming others to enforce their natural laws.

5 In the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi atrocities, it was Winston Churchill who first pressed for “the environment of human rights” which led to the drafting and implementation of the Universal Convention of Human Rights.6 The Preamble to the Convention establishes “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” as the basis upon which its Articles are founded.7 There are 30 separate articles, all of which spell out the basic rights that are meant to be accessible to every individual, irrespective of the country to which he or she belongs8.

The aim and objective of this dissertation are to examine the execution of human rights law and its application through the various regional instruments that have been spelled out in different parts of the world. This dissertation will also examine violations in human rights that have been taking place and how best such violations may be prevented. It will attempt to assess whether human rights are best protected on a universal, regional or national basis, from the point of view of the framework of the law and its execution.

The Methodology that is proposed in this study is primarily a library-based research effort that will examine existing international law and the developments in the execution of human rights over the globe. 

An attempt will be made to analyze how successfully human rights have been protected thus far and which instrument has been found to be the most effective in according such protection. On this basis, conclusions will then be drawn as to how best human rights may be protected.