Human rights - Universal, Inalienable, Dignity

human rights

Table of Contents

Introduction
Historical development
- Origins in ancient Greece and Rome
- Natural law transformed into natural rights
- “Nonsense upon stilts”: the critics of natural rights
- The persistence of the notion
Defining human rights
- The nature of human rights: commonly accepted postulates
- The content of human rights: three “generations” of rights
  - Liberté: civil and political rights
  - Égalité: economic, social, and cultural rights
  - Fraternité: solidarity or group rights
- Legitimacy and priority
  - Liberté versus égalité
  - The relevance of custom and tradition: the universalist-relativist debate
  - Inherent risks in the debate
International human rights: prescription and enforcement
- Developments before World War II
- Human rights in the United Nations
  - The UN Commission on Human Rights (1946–2006) and the UN Human Rights Council
    - The UN Commission on Human Rights and its instruments
    - The UN Human Rights Council and its instruments
  - Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
  - The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  - The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
  - The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Its Optional Protocols
  - Other UN human rights conventions and declarations
- Human rights and the Helsinki process
- Regional human rights systems and developments
  - Human rights in Europe
  - Human rights in the Americas
  - Human rights in Africa
  - Human rights in the Arab world
  - Human rights in Asia
- International human rights in domestic courts
Human rights in the early 21st century

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Listen to former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick speaking on human rights and foreign policy

For Students

human rights summary

Read Next

Women casting their vote in New York City, c. 1920s. At Fifty-sixth and Lexington Avenue, the women voters showed no ignorance or trepidation, but cast their ballots in a businesslike way that bespoke study of suffrage."

Voting in the U.S.A.

Prominent woman's suffrage advocates parade in an open car supporting the ratification of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote in federal elections. (From left) W.L. Prendergast, W.L. Colt, Doris Stevens, and Alice Paul; c. 1910-15.

Votes for Women

Discover

Artist interpretation of a Space meteoroid impact. Meteor impact. Asteroid, End of the world, danger, destruction, dinosaur extinct, Judgement Day, Planet Earth, Doomsday Predictions, comet

10 Failed Doomsday Predictions

Adolf Hitler (Nazi, nazism, German leader).

9 Things You Might Not Know About Adolf Hitler

Two chicks near an egg with a white background (poultry, chick, chickens, birds).

What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter?

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

solar eclipse, sun, moon, astronomy, space

How Do You Tell the Difference Between Total, Annular, Solar, and Lunar Eclipses?

Still from the film Deliverance, 1919. The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. View shows Keller in the cockpit/front seat of an airplane.

How Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane?

Vietnam War. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant Marty A. Hammer, during a visit to military personnel, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, October 26, 1966. President Johnson

Vietnam War Timeline

To say that there is widespread acceptance of the principle of human rights is not to say that there is complete agreement about the nature and scope of such rights or, indeed, their definition. Among the basic questions that have yet to receive conclusive answers are the following: whether human rights are to be viewed as divine, moral, or legal entitlements; whether they are to be validated by intuition, culture, custom, social contract, principles of distributive justice, or as prerequisites for happiness or the achievement of human dignity; whether they are to be understood as irrevocable or partially revocable; and ...(100 of 15274 words)

Access the full article

Help support true facts by becoming a member.