HUMAN RIGHTS
Basic rights that fundamentally and inherently belong to each individual.
Human rights are freedoms established by
custom or international agreement that impose
standards of conduct on all nations. Human
rights are distinct from civil liberties, which are
freedoms established by the law of a particular
state and applied by that state in its own juris-
diction.
Specific human rights include the right to
personal liberty and DUE PROCESS OF LAW;to
freedom of thought, expression, religion, organi-
zation, and movement; to freedom from dis-
crimination on the basis of race, religion, age,
language, and sex; to basic education; to employ-
ment; and to property. Human rights laws have
been defined by international conventions, by
treaties, and by organizations, particularly the
UNITED NATIONS. These laws prohibit practices
such as torture, SLAVERY, summary execution
without trial, and ARBITRARY detention or exile.
History
Modern human rights law developed out of
customs and theories that established the rights
of the individual in relation to the state. These
rights were expressed in legal terms in docu-
ments such as the English Bill of Rights of 1688,
the U.S. Declaration of Independence of 1776,
the U.S. Bill of Rights added to the U.S. Consti-
tution in 1789, and the French Declaration of
the Rights of Man and the Citizen added to the
French Constitution in 1791.
Human rights law also grew out of earlier
systems of INTERNATIONAL LAW. These systems,
developed largely during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, were predicated on the
doctrine of national sovereignty, according to
which each nation retains sole power over its
internal affairs without interference from other
nations. As a result, early international law
involved only relations between nation-states
and was not concerned with the ways in which
states treated their own citizens.
During the late nineteenth and early twenti-
eth centuries, the notion of national sovereignty
came under increasing challenge, and reformers
began to press for international humanitarian
standards. In special conferences such as the
Hague Conference of 1899 and 1907, nations
created laws governing the conduct of wars and
handling of prisoners.
Not until after WORLD WAR II (1939–45) did
the international community create interna-
tional treaties establishing human rights stan-
dards. The United Nations, created in 1945, took
the lead in this effort. In its charter, or founding
document, the United Nations developed objec-
tives for worldwide human rights standards. It
called for equal rights and self-determination for
all peoples, as well as “universal respect for, and
observance of, human rights and fundamental
freedoms for all without distinction as to race,
sex, language, or religion” (art. 55). The UNIVER-
SAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, adopted
by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948, also
