Abstract
Human rights are rules that protect the dignity and freedom of each individual. In their totality, fundamental rights form the basis of the legal status of an individual. The specific expression and scope of these rights, both in the positive law of different states and countries and in various international legal treaties, may differ. In public international law, the most famous document that enshrines them is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In OSCE member states, issues of human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy, and the rule of law are international in nature and do not belong exclusively to the internal affairs of the state concerned.
TopIntroduction
Human Rights - According to the UN, are inherent rights of all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion or any other status. Human rights include the rights to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of expression and speech, the right to work and education, and much more (UN, 1948).
The general scope of human rights is governed by international law as well as national and municipal law, as far as international law is concerned, as far as it is reflected in domestic law, although the fundamental legal umbrella is protected by international law, as far as human rights are concerned. On certain standards of human life and behavior agreed upon by international civilization. Human rights doctrine, in addition to international law and the activities of global or regional organizations, also operates and is regulated as a result of measures and policies of states and non-governmental organizations.
Human rights are universally understood as inalienable, fundamental rights that derive only from being human beings, hence they are universal and egalitarian in the sense that they are one for all. It is on the basis of these principles that an understanding of human rights obliges states and individuals to respect the rights of other human beings, including the deprivation of these rights, even in the case of legal liability, as well as in circumstances such as unlawful detention, torture or Hanging.
The philosophy of human rights addresses existential, political, and legal issues such as the existence, essence, nature, universality, justice, and legal status of human rights. Evidence of the inalienability and universality of human rights, as well as the very definition of the concept of “right”, has often led to critical, skeptical and contradictory philosophical assumptions. These doubts, reflections, and critical responses have created new dimensions of the political and legal philosophy of human rights over time. There is a consensus that human rights include a wide variety of rights, although it is a matter of debate which of these specific rights should be considered in the basic human rights framework. Part argues that the general framework of inalienable rights includes rights such as the right to a fair trial, protection from slavery, the prohibition of genocide or the right to education, while part proposes that the human rights framework be kept to a minimum to avoid extreme manifestations of oppression.
The basic ideas that created the human rights movement developed after World War II, including its reaction to events such as the Holocaust. The culmination of these events was the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris in 1948 at the UN General Assembly (UN, 1948). Until then, such a universal concept did not exist - although the forerunner of the human rights discourse was “natural rights”, which was part of the medieval natural law tradition - these concepts became popular during the European Enlightenment, led by John Locke, Francis Hutchson, Jean-Jacques Burlamac and other philosophers. Which later became the political discourse of the French Revolution and the American Revolution. Contemporary arguments in human rights discourse were developed in the second half of the twentieth century as a response to slavery, torture, genocide, war crimes, etc., as a recognition of human vulnerability to such actions and of taking restrictive measures for a more just society.
Key Terms in this Chapter
International Human Rights Law (IHRL): The body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights: Commonly known as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) or the United Nations Human Rights Office, is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993 [3] in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.
Constitutional Democracy: Government processes that allow people, through their elected representatives, to exercise power and influence the state’s policies.
Natural Rights: Those rights that are not dependent on the laws or customs of any particular culture or government, and so are universal , fundamental and inalienable (they cannot be repealed by human laws, though one can forfeit their enjoyment through one's actions, such as by violating someone else's rights). Natural law is the law of natural rights.
International Law: Also known as International Ethics, public international law, and law of nations, is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between nations.
UN Human Rights Council: Created in 2005, has a mandate to investigate alleged human rights violations.
Council of Europe (CoE): An international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Europe. [3] Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a population of approximately 675 million, and operates with an annual budget of approximately 500 million euros.
International Court of Justice (ICJ): The primary court established by the United Nations for resolving legal disputes between states and providing advisory opinions to international agencies and the UN General Assembly.
Rule of Law: The political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): An international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was accepted by the General Assembly as Resolution 217 during its third session on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.
Democracy: A form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (“direct democracy”), or to choose governing officials to do so (“representative democracy”). Who is considered part of “the people” and how authority is shared among or delegated by the people has changed over time and at different rates in different countries, but over time more and more of a democratic country's inhabitants have generally been included. Cornerstones of democracy include freedom of assembly, association and speech, inclusiveness and equality, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights.
Human Security: A measure popular in liberal theory of the degree to which the welfare of individuals is protected and promoted in contrast to realist theory’s emphasis on putting the states interests in military and national security ahead of all other goals.
Human Rights Movement: Refers to a nongovernmental social movement engaged in activism related to the issues of human rights. The foundations of the global human rights movement involve resistance to colonialism, imperialism, slavery, racism, segregation, patriarchy, and oppression of indigenous peoples.
Human Rights: The political rights and civil liberties recognized by the international community as inalienable and valid for individuals in all countries by virtue of their humanity.
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms): An international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe.
Morality: Principles about the norms for behavior that should govern an actor's interactions.
Age of Enlightenment: (Also known as the Age of Reason or simply the Enlightenment) is an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries with global influences and effects.
Civil Society: A community that embraces shared norms and ethical standards to collectively manage problems without coercion and through peaceful and democratic procedures for decision making aimed at improving human welfare.
Morals: Principles clarifying the difference between good and evil and the situations in which they are opposed.
National Human Rights Institution (NHRI): An independent state-based institution with the responsibility to broadly protect and promote human rights in a given country.
Liberalism: A paradigm predicated on the hope that the application of reason and universal ethics international relations can lead to a more orderly, just, and cooperative world. liberalism assumes that anarchy and war can be policed by institutional reforms that empower international organizations and law.
Legal Rights: Those rights bestowed onto a person by a given legal system (they can be modified, repealed, and restrained by human laws). The concept of positive law is related to the concept of legal rights.