Human Rights: “The basic rights and freedoms to which all human beings are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law’’

Rights (noun): Things to which you are entitled or allowed; freedoms that are guaranteed.

• If you were to ask people in the street, “What are human rights?” you would get many different answers. They would tell you the rights they know about, but very few people know all their rights.

• Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual.

• Their fundamental assumption is that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity.

• They are called human rights because they are universal. Whereas nations or specialized groups enjoy specific rights that apply only to them, human rights apply to everyone.

• The full scope of human rights is very broad. They mean choice and opportunity.

  • They represent the freedom to obtain a job

  • adopt a career

  • select a partner of one’s choice and raise children.

  • the right to travel widely

  • the right to work gainfully without harassment, abuse, and threat of arbitrary dismissal.

  • embrace the right to leisure.

• Ultimately, human rights are the basis of everything people cherish about their way of life.

• Long before the term “human rights” came into existence, men and women struggled, fought, and died for these principles

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the world’s premier human rights instrument.

  • Its opening paragraph is a powerful affirmation of the principles that lie at the heart of the modern human rights system: “Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

• Yet a wide gap exists between the articulation of these goals and their accomplishment.

• Bridging the enormous gulf between the ideal of universal human rights and the reality of widespread human rights violations is the challenge that drives human rights advocates