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'''Human rights''' are generally held to be the basic [[rights]] and [[freedom]]s to which all [[humans]] are entitled, entirely by virtue of their status as human beings.  

'''Human rights''' are generally held to be the basic [[rights]] and [[freedom]]s to which all humans are entitled, entirely by virtue of their status as human beings.  

 

The U.S. [[Declaration of Independence]] says that people are "endowed by their [[Creator]] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are [[Life]], [[Liberty]] and the pursuit of [[Happiness]]."  

The U.S. [[Declaration of Independence]] says that people are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  

<ref>http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html</ref>

<ref>http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html</ref>

This is based on the statement that every person is entitled to "life, liberty and the pursuit of [[property]]", which was altered to "happiness" to avoid conflicts with [[slavery]] (slaves could not own property).

The American [[Bill of Rights]] is based on the British Bill of Rights of 1688. The [[French Revolution]] adopted aBill of Rights and the concept spread rapidly through Europe and the colonial empires.  Prime Minister [[William Gladstone]], based British foreign policy in the late 19th century on opposition to violations of human rights, especially in the [[Ottoman Empire]].

In the 20th century, secular concepts of human rights proliferated: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the American Convention on Human Rights; the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; the European Convention of Human Rights; various UN conferences' declarations on the environment, economic development, AIDS, and other topics; and the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocols.  

In 1948, the [[United Nations]] issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a list of human rights they deem inherent and inviolable.<ref>http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html</ref>

The most well-known example of human rights is the United Nations 1948 '''[[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]''' or '''UDHR'''. This document contains thirty articles listing about fifty rights authored and approved by the UN under the leadership of [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], among others. At the time the UN Declaration was ratified by its members, it was hailed by Americans as a major advancement in the cause of liberty.  

Some of the rights in the UDHR may seem strange or foreign to conservative Americans.  For example, Article 23 guarantees all "protection against unemployment", Article 24 guarantees "periodic holidays with pay" for all workers, and Article 25 offers the "right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control".

:Article 29 (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.  (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.  

A number of [[totalitarian]] regimes continue to violate human rights, even when they have ratified the United Nations list.  

The first International Conference on Human Rights was held in Tehran, Iran, in 1968. A powerful bloc of Asian, African, and Arab states successfully asserted their control over the UN Human Rights Program. Their aggressive conference diplomacy was the culmination of a major transition in UN politics, with supposedly Western notions of individual freedom rejected in favor of an agenda that privileged economic modernization and the collective rights of peoples in Third World nations over those of individuals in those nations. Twenty years after the iconic image of [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] holding the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], the residual elements of the program she presided over were repudiated in a storm of insistent demands from the new anti-colonial order.<ref> Burke (2008)</ref>

The UN has done little since the [[Korean War]] to investigate or expose [[human rights]] violations, and in the early 21st century it rebuked America by voting it out of the [[Human Rights Council]].{{fact}}

The UDHR implicitly asserted that human rights are superior to notions of state sovereignty and called for the imposing of moral standards across the globe. These notions of universal human rights derive in part from [[Wilsonianism]]--the efforts of President [[Woodrow Wilson]] after World War I.  They were reiterated in 2002 by President [[George W. Bush]] in his refusal to recognize Iraqi sovereignty and his efforts to impose a new democratic system of governance upon Iraq, and are a component of the [[Neoconservative]] effort to spread democracy in the Middle East, even in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  The UN has supported this program, but the high cost has troubled Americans.

Many organisations and [[NGO]]s such as [[Amnesty International]], [[Human Rights Watch]], and [[Freedom House]] had abysmal records reporting on and exposing human rights violations during the Soviet era.{{fact}}

Deeply influenced by the UN's 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Indian constitution provides for a host of rights, including the right of equality, cultural and religious freedoms, and the right to education. Discrimination based on race, caste, gender, birthplace, and religion was subsequently outlawed. Yet, political and social realities have intruded. Because of India's multiplicity of religious and ethnic groups, each with their own traditions and beliefs, and the complex interplay between these groups, the principles contained in the constitution have not always been followed in practice.

==References==

==See also==

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[[Category:Political Terms]]

[[Category: Political Terms]]