36 Facts About Human rights

Human rights are moral principles or norms for certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law.

Doctrine of human rights has been highly influential within international law and global and regional institutions.

The idea of human rights suggests that "if the public discourse of peacetime global society can be said to have a common moral language, it is that of human rights".

The strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable scepticism and debates about the content, nature and justifications of human rights to this day.

The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition that became prominent during the European Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui and which featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

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From this foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the 20th century, possibly as a reaction to slavery, torture, genocide and war crimes, as a realisation of inherent human vulnerability and as being a precondition for the possibility of a just society.

Human rights advocacy has continued into the early 21st century, centred around achieving greater economic and political freedom.

Concept of human rights existed in the Ancient and pre-modern eras, although Ancient peoples did not think of universal human rights in the same way humans do today.

The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition that became prominent during the European Enlightenment.

From this foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the 20th century.

In 1831, William Lloyd Garrison wrote in a newspaper called The Liberator that he was trying to enlist his readers in "the great cause of human rights", so the term human rights probably came into use sometime between Paine's The Rights of Man and Garrison's publication.

The women's Human rights movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a non-binding declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, partly in response to the events of World War II.

The UDHR urges member states to promote a number of human, civil, economic and social rights, asserting these rights are part of the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".

Measures to help the economic status of vulnerable groups in order to reduce human rights violations include girls' education and guaranteed minimum incomes and conditional cash transfers, such as Bolsa familia which subsidize parents who keep children in school rather than contributing to family income, has successfully reduced child labor.

Human rights abuses are monitored by United Nations committees, national institutions and governments and by many independent non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International.

Educating people on the concept of human rights has been argued as a strategy to prevent human rights abuses.

Human rights enshrined in the UDHR, the Geneva Conventions and the various enforced treaties of the United Nations are enforceable in law.

In practice, many Human rights are very difficult to legally enforce due to the absence of consensus on the application of certain Human rights, the lack of relevant national legislation or of bodies empowered to take legal action to enforce them.

In over 110 countries national human rights institutions have been set up to protect, promote or monitor human rights with jurisdiction in a given country.

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights is a quasi-judicial organ of the African Union tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and considering individual complaints of violations of the Charter.

Inter-American Court of Human Rights was established in 1979 with the purpose of enforcing and interpreting the provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights.

In October 2009, the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights was inaugurated, and subsequently, the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration was adopted unanimously by ASEAN members on 18 November 2012.

Arab Charter on Human Rights was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States on 22 May 2004.

European Convention on Human Rights defines and guarantees since 1950 human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe.

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One of the oldest Western philosophies on human rights is that they are a product of a natural law, stemming from different philosophical or religious grounds.

Human rights are described as a sociological pattern of rule setting .

Term "human rights" has replaced the term "natural rights" in popularity, because the rights are less and less frequently seen as requiring natural law for their existence.

Philosopher John Finnis argues that human rights are justifiable on the grounds of their instrumental value in creating the necessary conditions for human well-being.

Similarly the ex Soviet bloc countries and Asian countries have tended to give priority to economic, social and cultural Human rights, but have often failed to provide civil and political Human rights.

The term inalienable rights refers to "a set of human rights that are fundamental, are not awarded by human power, and cannot be surrendered".

All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and related.

Proponents of cultural relativism suggest that human rights are not all universal, and indeed conflict with some cultures and threaten their survival.

In particular, the concept of human rights is often claimed to be fundamentally rooted in a politically liberal outlook which, although generally accepted in Europe, Japan or North America, is not necessarily taken as standard elsewhere.

Relativistic arguments tend to neglect the fact that modern human rights are new to all cultures, dating back no further than the UDHR in 1948.

Right-wing critics of human rights argue that they are "unrealistic and unenforceable norms and inappropriate intrusions on state sovereignty", while left-wing critics of human rights argue that they fail "to achieve–or prevents better approaches to achieving–progressive goals".