Human rights

This topic speaks about human rights, what it is, how human rights are related to us and how to protect them

Background of HR

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.” Abraham Lincoln

Human rights constitute prominent part of lives of all people around the globe. Their infringement contributes to such challenges as poverty, economic inequality, violence, gender inequality, degradation of environment, and lots of others.

The idea that people have some rights is not really a modern idea. It goes with mankind all the way from the ancient times. The best known examples are the so called Code of Hammurabi, Cyrus Charter of Human Rights or legislation of various ancient Greek city states. Talking about these documents, we must always take specific historical background into consideration. If not, we could judge them unfairly. For instance, slavery was considered perfectly normal and in line with the law and morality of ancient Greek, otherwise known for their democracy.

Nowadays, human rights are constituted by the system of international and national agreements and other commitments guaranteeing them. The compact system as we know it emerged at the very end of the Second World War, in June 1945, when the Charta of the United Nations was enacted.

Later on other documents, particularly the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10.12.1948), were adopted. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It became the most translated document ever; according to the Guinness Book of Records, it has been translated to 370 languages. Various other human rights instruments has been developed and acknowledged by the international community (both, global and regional), covering various specific areas as the rights of children or the rights of indigenous peoples. A list of them can be found in the library.

Some other documents related to the human rights issues:

Questions to reflect on

  • What was new for you?
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