Introduction to Human Rights
Human – A member of the homo-sapiens species; a man, a woman, child or a person in general.
Rights – Things to which you are entitled or allowed, the freedom that is guaranteed.
“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. […] 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
Definitions:
The only way to define something is to find out its characteristics and tie them together in one or more aphoristic sentences. Before we try to define human rights, we must have a bird’s eye view of what other organizations, people, and scholars have found out. Read the following definitions:
Human rights mean the right relating to life, liberty, equality, and dignity of individuals guaranteed by the constitution or embodied in international covenants and enforced by courts in India.
– Section (2) of The Protection of Human Rights Act 1993
Human rights are foreign to no culture and native to all nations: they are universal.
– Kofi A. Annan, former Secretary-General of UN
Human rights as a claim to something of crucial importance for human life.
– Susan Okin
All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.
– Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, World Conference on Human Rights, 1993
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility.”
-French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789)
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers – Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Human Rights are common for all human beings on the earth and they are regardless of sex, family, creed, colour, language, religion, national, state, race, ethnicity, varnas, castes, place and etc. Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December — the day the United Nations General Assembly adopted, in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
What is United Nations?
As the world’s only truly universal global organization, the United Nations has become the foremost forum to address issues that transcend national boundaries and cannot be resolved by any one country acting alone.
Structure of the United Nations
The main parts of the UN structure are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat. All were established in 1945 when the UN was founded.
What is the United Nations Human Rights Council?
The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe. It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.
