Introduction

Article 1 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 reads "All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights". But what are human rights? What is the relevance of the
term "human" in human rights? Are these universal? Why do they matter and how did these
rights evolve? What is the relevance of such claims in the 21st century? These are only some
of the many questions that I try to answer through this blog.

But before one can answer such complex questions, we need to understand the meaning of
human rights.

What are Human Rights?

According to Andrew Heywood, the author of several political textbooks like Politics,
political ideologies and global Politics, Human Rights are rights to which people are entitled
by virtue of being human, they are a modern and secular version of "natural rights". There are
four characteristics to define human rights.

First, they are universal. Human rights belong to everyone without discriminating against any
particular race, religion, caste, creed and other such differences. Second, they are
fundamental in the sense they are crucially important and are of prime importance. Third,
they are absolute implication is that they are basic for each individual and fourth, they are
indivisible. It means that all forms of human rights, be it civic, economic or social are of
equal importance.

In simpler terms, the rights that each individual is entitled to as human beings, are referred to
as human rights. The essential characteristic to remember about human rights is that they are
universal and they are entitled to each human being regardless of their nationality, race,
religion and so on.

Evolution of Human Rights and their types

The precise moment when the concept of Human Rights emerged is hard to pinpoint. Many
cultures and traditional societies have believed in the worth every individual possesses as a
human. Nevertheless, it was in early modern Europe when the idea of Human rights can be
said to emerge in the form of "Natural Rights". The philosophers like John Locke, Thomas
Hobbes, Hugo Grotius etc declared some rights as natural in the sense that they were
fundamental to human beings and are the very core of human nature. However, few early
contributions are considered important and seen as landmarks that led to the beginning of the
fairly new concept of human rights.

Some of the major historical contributions include the Magna Carta of 1215, the Bill of
Rights of 1688, the US Declaration of Independence of 1776, and the Rights of Man and the
Citizen, 1789 France. These centuries witnessed the growth of humanitarian ethics and there
were gradual attempts to introduce rights. For instance, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 tried
to promote the abolishment of the slave trade which was eventually achieved by the Brussels
Convention of 1890. Even when most of the contributions were championed by states for
their own country and their own people, they laid the thrust of the language of rights.
Nevertheless, it was with the end of the two brutal world wars that the popularity of
Universal Human Rights gathered momentum. In 1948, the United Nations adopted the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its general assembly. In 1966, two major human
rights documents were adopted, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of
which came into force in 1976.

Karel Vasak, a distinguished and very well-known human rights scholar, introduced the idea
of three generations of human rights, which allows us to understand the types and
evolution of human rights better. The first generation of human rights is civil and political
rights. The second generation of human rights includes economic, social and cultural rights
and the third generation of human rights are called solidarity rights.

The first generation rights i.e., civil and political rights are the initial form of natural rights.
These rights developed during the English Revolution of the 17th century and the French and
American Revolution of the 18th century. The key theme underlying these rights is liberty.
The first generation rights include the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to
property and have expanded to include non-discrimination, freedom from arbitrary arrest,
freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of movement etc. These rights are often
seen as a manifestation of negative rights since they can be enjoyed only when there is a
restriction upon others. The key documents to understand the content of the first generation
of human rights are Article 3 to Article 21 of the UN Declaration and the International
Covenant of Civil and Political Rights of 1966 which came into force in 1976.

In the twentieth century, especially post World War II, second-generation rights began to
earn a greater prominence. The economy of countries was torn by war and there was massive
destruction as a result of the world wars. Therefore, the effort for economic, social and
cultural rights developed during the twentieth century. The rights rely on socialist
assumptions and the underlying theme is equality which is in contrast to first-generation
rights and the notion of liberty. The second-generation rights include the right to work, the
right to health care, the right to education, the right to social security etc. Therefore, these
rights are seen as a manifestation of positive rights as they place a claim on the state and a
duty to oblige for action, for example, welfare provisions. The key documents to understand
the content of second-generation rights are Article 22 to Article 27 of the UN Declaration and
the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966.

The third generation of rights emerged post-1945 and are referred to as solidarity rights.
This is for the simple reason that these rights are concerned with social groups and society on
the whole rather than an individual. They are therefore seen as collective rights. The
underlying theme of the third-generation rights is fraternity. Usually, these rights are shaped
by the difficulties faced by the countries of the Global South. These rights include the right to
development, the right to environmental protection, the right to self-determination, the right
to peace etc. The Stockholm Convention of Human Environment of 1972 and the Earth
Summit of 1992 at Rio can be analysed to understand these rights.

Way Forward

Now that we know that Human rights are the basic rights that a person has as soon as
he/she/they are born, hence we should try to be aware of our rights and use them wisely
without compromising the human rights of other people as it can be registered as a human
right violation.

Human rights have been interpreted by different communities and countries in different ways.
As history took form over time, human rights have also gained new meanings and definitions.
The notion of human rights has also been challenged at times. Major incidents have given rise
to big debates surrounding the rights, the latest one being the revoking of the Right to
Abortion that rested with American women before the Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health
Organization (2022) happened.

There is no saying what will be the future of human rights, but we can’t deny the fact that
safeguarding these vital rights can help establish peace and restore people’s faith in humanity
for sure.

Development of UCRD

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

History of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

 The United Nations was founded by 51 countries in October 1945, two months
after World War II ended. Two world wars, the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki and a global refugee crisis had led to fears of a destructive World War II.
 The UN was founded to avoid such a disaster, as well as to address human rights.
Out of all the people who wanted such notions to become a reality, it was Eleanor
Roosevelt – the wife of the late United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt –
who would play a crucial role in the formulation of the Universal Human Rights
Declaration
 President Harry Truman appointed Eleanor Roosevelt to the US delegation to the
United Nations in 1945. She was well known throughout the world as a champion of
poverty allegations and universal civil rights. It was in April 1946, after becoming
chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, that she took on the task of drafting a
human rights declaration for the world.
 Eleanor’s ideals about human rights and desire for global peace were influenced by
her experiences of both the world wars where she had worked with shell-shocked
soldiers undergoing psychological treatments during World War I while she had
visited the devastated cities of Europe during the second world war.
 Drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not at all an easy task. For
starters:
o Both the United States and the Soviet Union had their own definition of
human or to put it simply could not agree on what human rights were.
o Many conservative US politicians were not fond of supporting the economic
and social rights of the UDHR because in their eyes such rights were
‘communist’ in their nature and scope.
 However, Elanor with her charm and diplomacy managed to gather enough support
for the UDHR to be passed in a resolution.
 Hansa Mehta, a UN delegate from the newly independent country of India and the
only other woman on the Commission on Human Rights was crucial in shaping the
 declaration. It was she who changed the original declaration’s first article from “All
men are born free and equal” to “All human beings are born free and equal”.
 Even though the declaration isn’t binding or enforceable. It would serve as a
model for legislation in many countries.
 After the draft was presented to the United Nations General Assembly, it was adopted
on December 10, 1946.
 December 10, the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration, is
celebrated annually as World Human Rights Day or International Human
Rights Day.

About the Declaration:

 It is a document that acts like a global road map for freedom and equality – protecting the
rights of every individual, everywhere.
 The UDHR was adopted by the newly established United Nations on 10 December 1948, in
response to the acts of mankind during the Second World War.
o The UDHR was discussed by all members of the UN Commission on Human Rights
and finally adopted by the General Assembly in 1948.
 Although it is not legally binding, the protection of the rights and freedoms set out in the
Declaration has been incorporated into many national constitutions and domestic legal
frameworks.
 India’s role– At various stages of drafting, India made a series of substantive contributions
to the numerous articles that made up the UDHR.
 The UDHR, together with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and
its two Optional Protocols, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights(ICESCR), form the so – called International Bill of Human Rights.

Significance of the declaration:

 Its adoption recognised human rights to be the foundation for freedom, justice and peace.
 For the first time, the world had a globally agreed document that marked out all humans as
being free and equal, regardless of sex, colour, creed, religion or other characteristics.
 The UDHR continues to serve as a foundation for national and international laws and
standards.

The Declaration outlines 30 rights and freedoms that belong to all. (Open link for Articles
Infogram)

 The 30 rights and freedoms set out in the UDHR include:

o Right to be free from torture
o Right to freedom of expression
o Right to education
o Right to seek asylum.
o Civil and political rights, such as the rights to life, liberty and privacy.
o Economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to social security, health and
adequate housing.
 International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules that seeks, for humanitarian reasons, to
limit the effects of armed conflict. It protects persons who are not, or are no longer, directly or
actively participating in hostilities, and imposes limits on the means and methods of warfare. IHL is
also known as "the law of war" or "the law of armed conflict". IHL is part of public international law,
which is made up primarily of treaties, customary international law and general principles of law (see
Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice). A distinction must be made between
IHL, which regulates the conduct of parties engaged in an armed conflict (jus in bello), and public
international law, as set out in the Charter of the United Nations, which regulates whether a state
may lawfully resort to armed force against another state (jus ad bellum). The Charter prohibits such
use of force with two exceptions: cases of self-defence against an armed attack, and when the use of
armed force is authorized by the United Nations Security Council. IHL does not stipulate whether the
commencement of an armed conflict was legitimate or not, but rather seeks to regulate the
behaviour of parties once it has started.