human rights

Home > ... > Social Sciences and the Law > Law > International Law > ...

Essential reading Compare
side-by-side The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

human rights

human rights universal rights held to belong to individuals by virtue of their being human, encompassing civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights and freedoms, and based on the notion of personal human dignity and worth. Conceptually derived from the theory of natural law and originating in Greco-Roman doctrines, the idea of human rights appears in some early Christian writers' works and is reflected in the Magna Carta (1215). The concept winds as a philosophical thread through 17th- and 18th-century European and American thought, including the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789). The United Nation's Commission on Human Rights, with Eleanor Roosevelt as chair, created the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which reasserted the concept of human rights after the horrors of World War II. Human rights have since become a universally espoused yet widely disregarded concept.

Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch promote human rights and denounce human-rights abuses. In addition, such abuses around the world are monitored and documented by independent investigators ( "special rapporteurs" ) appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, which, in turn, rebukes cited nations for their human-rights failures. (The council replaced the UN Human Rights Commission, which had been accused of protecting human-rights violators, in mid-2006; similar accusations have been leveled at the new council.) The charging in 1998 by a Spanish court of former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet with human-rights violations and the 1999 British ruling that he could be extradited to Spain, as well as the indictment and arrest (2000) in Senegal of former Chadian president Hissène Habré for human-rights violations during his presidency (although charges were later dropped, he was subsequently rearrested on a Belgian warrant), were regarded as small steps forward in the international protection of human rights.

See also civil rights ; feminism ; gay-rights movement ; war crimes .

Bibliography: See M. A. Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (2001).

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1E1-humanrigh" title="Facts and information about human rights">human rights</a>

Give this article a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"human rights." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 7 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"human rights." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (December 7, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-humanrigh.html

"human rights." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Retrieved December 07, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-humanrigh.html

Learn more about citation styles

human rights

The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military | 2001 | Â© The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military 2001, originally published by Oxford University Press 2001. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

human rights rights that are believed to belong justifiably to every person.

Create a link to this page

Copy and paste this link tag into your Web page or blog:

<a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/.aspx#1O63-humanrights" title="Facts and information about human rights">human rights</a>

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

"human rights." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 7 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"human rights." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (December 7, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-humanrights.html

"human rights." The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. 2001. Retrieved December 07, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O63-humanrights.html

Learn more about citation styles

Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauruses

Rate these entries|See all related entries

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Human rights in jeopardy: the Pontifical Academy for Social Science debates morality and greed.(FEATURE ARTICLE) Magazine article from: Catholic Insight; 6/1/2009
	Human Rights Commission approves principles to protect rights of mentally ill: asks for Third Decade against racism. Magazine article from: UN Chronicle; 6/1/1991
	IRAN: HUMAN RIGHTS WHITEWASH SHOWS EMERGENCE OF NEW BLOCK.(Brief Article) Newspaper article from: IPR Strategic Business Information Database; 4/30/2002

Facts and information from other sites

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

	Human Rights in Africa: Enhancing Human Rights Through the African Regional Human Rights System Magazine article from: Journal of Third World Studies; 10/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; Mugwana, George William. Human Rights in Africa: Enhancing Human Rights...passing reference to the concept of human rights as it was aimed at the abolition...foundation document of the African human rights regional system is the 1981 African...
	Human rights can be manifested differently Newspaper article from: China Daily; 12/12/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...obligations, separating people's rights from obligations or setting these...concepts against each other. Also, human rights are something covered by the sovereignty...the foremost collective human right. Human rights are the ultimate goal sovereignty...
	HUMANS FIND A LOST COUSIN.(MAIN) Newspaper article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY); 10/28/2004; 700+ words ; ...remains of the earliest modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Indonesia...a completely new species of human, with so many primitive traits...out Hobbit's place on the human family tree. Hobbit's discoverers...smart relative of modern humans. It's possible that the...of a skull of Homo sapiens, ...
	Human Genome Sciences Announces License Agreement With Genentech. PR Newswire; 8/7/2003; 700+ words ; ...Genentech has acquired exclusive, worldwide patent rights to develop and commercialize therapeutic biologic products for human use based on a human gene discovered by Human Genome Sciences that may have potential applications...
	Regulating human X chromosomes doesn't use same gene as in mouse. Newspaper article from: Genomics & Genetics Weekly; 8/30/2002; 700+ words ; ...off X chromosomes in mice, humans and other mammals. Because...studying cells from various human developmental stages, Migeon and her team discovered that human Tsix is expressed only on the inactive X chromosome, right alongside Xist. The two continue...that it does not do this in humans." ...
	A human step: the fight against our greatest foe ourselves-finds another voice in academe.(Florida State University's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights discussed) Magazine article from: Florida Trend; 2/1/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...fold purpose: to develop human rights-related courses throughout...university, to establish human rights field placements for FSU students...Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, for instance) that engage in human rights work. In the past two ...
	Human rights watch denies bias.(Correspondence)(Letter to the Editor) Magazine article from: Middle East Quarterly; 1/1/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...acknowledge Israel's troubling human rights record, Gerald M. Steinberg tries...a widely publicized statement, Human Rights Watch repudiated the NGO conference...donations)." Steinberg claims that Human Rights Watch denounced Israel's security...
	Introduction: human rights and the media. Magazine article from: Critical Arts; 1/1/2001; ; 700+ words ; ...pertinent choice of the topic "human rights and the media". It would seem...more effective implementation of human rights is that worldwide many people lack...there is widespread ignorance about human rights legislation and jurisprudence...
	Human Rights and Forced Displacement. Magazine article from: Refuge; 2/1/2002; ; 700+ words ; ...pages; ISBN 90-411-1518-8 Human Rights and Forced Displacement examines...and refugee law respectively. Human Rights and Forced Displacement begins...turns on the realization of their human rights; and the transition from war to...
	Using Human Rights to Combat the HIV/AIDS Pandemic Magazine article from: Human Rights; 10/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...that intellectual property rights are primarily instrumental...innovations. On the other hand, human rights are fundamental, deriving...human person. From a human rights perspective, the world community...place greater weight on the right to life and health than intellectual...