Human rights - Helsinki Process, International Law, Humanitarianism

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

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After World War II, international concern for human rights was evident at the global level outside the UN as well as within it, most notably in the proceedings and aftermath of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE), convened in Helsinki, Finland, on July 3, 1973, and concluded there (after continuing deliberations in Geneva) on August 1, 1975. Attended by representatives of 35 governments—including the NATO countries, the Warsaw Pact nations, and 13 neutral and nonaligned European states—the conference had as its principal purpose a mutually satisfactory definition of peace and stability between East and West, previously made ...(100 of 15274 words)

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