Introduction
Those rights which every human being has by the virtue of being a human are known as human rights. It makes the survival of a human being different from that of an animal. These rights are available to all human beings irrespective of their class, caste, gender, ethnicity, race or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more.iThis article provides the origin and the historical development of the international law on human rights. It also discusses the kinds of human rights in brief.
Origin and Evolution of International Human Rights Law
Human rights can be traced as far back as in the Babylonian laws. These laws established fair wages, protection of property and the need to prove charges at a trial. Major religions also have a humanist perspective and embody various principles of human rights.
In historical times, even basic human rights were denied to people. Human Rights were deduced in the international law by European scholars because the treatment given to some humans was worse than how animals were treated. In the Roman empire, there were two classes of people, citizens and slaves. The slaves were treated like animals. Even in Indian mythology, the term ‘slaves’ have been used, but the treatment meted out to them was not animalistic and they were treated like domestic help.
In the medieval times during renaissance, treatment similar to that of the roman slaves was given to Asians and Africans. There were mass massacres and mistreatment of these individuals.
‘Natural law’ and ‘natural rights’ also embodied the concept of human rights. Plato was one of first to write about a universal standard of ethical conduct. Ulpian, a Roman jurist stated that natural law was assured to all human beings by the nature and State. Cicero laid down the foundations of natural law and human rights in his work. Several other jurists have also envisaged the concept of human rights in their work. Therefore, Greco-Roman natural law doctrines of Stoicism (founded by Zeno and Citium) are generally known as the origin of the concept of human rights.
On June 15, 1215, the Great Charter of the Liberties of England, also known as the Magna Carta was passed by the King John of England. It was in response to the heavy taxation burden created by the third Crusade and the ransom of Richard I. The main purpose of the Charter was to protect the people from the excessive and arbitrary use of powers by the King. As per the Charter, judges had to respect the laws, taxes could not be imposed without common counsel, land could not be seized and a trial was made necessary in order to imprison an individual. This Charter, however, only granted Rights to a privileged elite. This was changed to include all Englishmen in the Bill of Rights, 1689.
Many constitutions also had the concept of fundamental rights, like the 'Declaration of Independence' of the thirteen States of America in 1776 (The Virgina Declaration, 1776) and the Constitution of the United States of America, 1787, with amendments in 1789, 1865, 1869 and 1919. Other countries like Sweden in 1809, Spain in 1812, Norway in 1814, Belgium in 1831, Denmark in 1849, Prussia in 1850 and Switzerland in 1874 also made fundamental rights of a man an integral part of their laws.
However, the term ‘the rights of man’ was not considered to include the rights of women. In 1947, Eleanor Roosevelt suggested the change of this term to ‘human rights’. However, the term was actually coined by Thomas Paine and could be seen in the English translation of his work, French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789).
In 1929, the Proclamation of the Rights of Man was issued by the Institute of International Law after the realization of the worth of a human being. It laid down the duties of the State in protecting the right of an individual to life, liberty and prosperity; the rights without any distinction as to nationality, sex, race, language; the right of every individual to the free practice in public or in private of any faith, religion or belief. It can be considered as the first attempt to universalize human rights.
A paradigm change was however seen just before the second World War in the 1940s, when Europe itself faced the wrath of violation of human rights, the movement towards the protection of human rights began. The treatment of Jews by the Hitler and the human rights violations by Mussolini led to the development of human rights in international law. On January 6, 1941, a Proclamation known as ‘Four Freedoms’ was issued by the then American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He stated that human rights were to be given supreme importance everywhere.
In 1943, the Moscow Declaration of German Atrocities was issued. The United States, United Kingdom, France and Soviet Union declared in this declaration that the Germans should be held accountable for the atrocities and violations of human rights committed by
them under the international law. On January 1, 1942, the declaration of the United Nations was signed, which was the first document that used the term human rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in Paris. It sets out the various kings of human rights that are available to all human beings irrespective of their status in society. The UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols (on the complaints procedure and on the death penalty) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Optional Protocol, form the so-called International Bill of Human Rights.
Kinds of Human Rights
There are broadly two kinds of human rights
1. Civil and Political Rights- Civil rights are related to the protection of the right to life and liberty. Political rights are those rights which allow a person to participate in the Government of a State, for instance, right to vote, right to be elected at periodic elections, etc.
2. Economic, social and cultural rights- These rights include right to adequate food, clothing, housing and adequate standard of living and freedom from hunger, right to work, right to social security, right to physical and mental health and right to education. These are included under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Conclusion
Human Rights are guaranteed to every individual throughout the world. However, in practice, these rights are denied to many individuals by the State itself. For example, the rights of trans-genders and homosexuals are still repressed in many countries. Many women still face human rights violation when they are denied basic human needs. Dalits are still treated like untouchables in various parts of India. Minority communities face police brutality in many first world as well as third world countries. Even though the law on human rights has come a long way, there is still a need to implement such laws in a more effective manner.
*All information has been taken from International Laws and Human Rights by Dr. H.O. Agarwal unless otherwise specified*
Vanya Agarwal, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies
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