CHAPTER ONE

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RIGHTS

 Meaning of Human Rights

• Human rights are inherent to us all, regardless of

nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color,
religion, language, or any other status
• Human rights are internationally agreed values,
standards or rules regulating the conduct of states
towards their own citizens and towards non-
citizens.
• Human rights are, in the words of the preamble of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘a
• ‘a common standard of achievement for all peoples
and all nations’.
• These rules, which states have imposed upon
themselves, serve to restrict the freedom of states
to act towards their entire population:
• citizens as well as non-citizens, men as well as
women, adults as well as children, whites and non-
whites, believers and non-believers, married
persons and the unmarried.
• This situation is different from the past, when
states, or rather their leaders, were absolute
sovereign who could treat their subjects in any
way they wanted.
• Nowadays, human beings have rights: human
rights.
• The term “human right” came into being
very recently particularly after WWII.
• It replaced early notions like “Natural
rights”/ “the rights of man”.
• It has been stated that the history of rights
reflects the various demands
• forwarded by human beings at different
times and conditions.
• Human beings demand the realization of diverse
values to ensure their individual and collective
being.
• In addition, the prevalence of exploitation,
oppression and persecution led to the emergence of
the consciousness about human rights.
• Human rights are understood to represent
individual and group demands shaping and
sharing of power, wealth, enlightenment and
other values
• values of respect and its constituent elements of
mutual tolerance, mutual clemency).
• Human rights also refer to the "basic rights and
freedoms to which all humans are entitled."
• Examples of rights and freedoms which have come
to be commonly thought of as human rights
include civil and political rights,
• such as the right to life and liberty,
freedom of expression, and equality before the
law; and economic, social and cultural rights,
• including the right to participate in culture, the
right to food, the right to work, and the
right to education and equality before the law.
• A more common definition of human right is that they
are universal legal guarantees protecting individuals
and groups against actions by governments,
• which interfere with fundamental freedoms and
human dignity.
• Human rights law obliges governments to do
something, and prevents them from doing others.
• They are also universal moral rights that belong
equally to all people simply because they are human
beings.
• In other words, they are inherent. Human rights are
also often described as generally accepted principles
of fairness and justice.
• Human rights are frequently held to be
universal in the sense that all people have and
should enjoy them
• and to be independent in the sense that they
exist and are available as standards of
justification and criticism whether or not
they are recognized and implemented by the
legal system or officials of a country.
• Earlier in this century, the term “human rights”
was defined as those rights guaranteed by the
International Bill of Human Rights (comprised
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
• the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with its
Optional Protocols).
• Over the years, however, international and regional
human rights instruments have made more explicit
the rights set forth in the International Bill of
Human Rights.
• “Human rights” are now defined with far more
detail and specificity.
• International human rights law is, therefore, more
protective of vulnerable individuals and groups,
including children, indigenous groups, refugees
and displaced persons and women.
• In addition, some human rights instruments have
expanded the definition by elaborating new
rights.
 Are all human rights applied to mere state actors?

• while most human rights are perceived as

individual rights vis-à-vis the Government, human
rights norms may also apply to non-State actors
• (such as armed opposition groups, corporations,
international financial institutions and individuals
who perpetrate domestic violence) and to those
who commit human rights abuses.
• The campaign to abolish slavery, one of the oldest
efforts to protect human rights, was an attempt to
prevent private actors from keeping or trading in
slaves.
• By Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions and their 1977 Protocols,
international humanitarian law applies to armed
opposition groups.
• Further, a series of treaties exist relating to
hijackers, kidnappers of diplomats, etc.
• More recently, international human rights norms
have been addressing the responsibility of
governments to restrain individuals from
committing human rights abuses in the areas of
domestic violence, female genital mutilation, etc.
• The Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights state:
• ... The obligation to protect requires states to
prevent violations of such rights by third parties.
• , the failure to ensure that private employers
comply with basic labour standards may amount
to a violation of the rights to work or the right to
just and favorable conditions of work...
• Human rights tell states what they may not do (state
abstention), but also what they are supposed to do
(state obligations).
• These prohibitions and obligations are strongly
interrelated.
• For, example, states may not immediately,
arbitrarily arrest people, or put them to death,
they may not torture people, they may not deny
them freedom of expression and freedom of
association and peaceful assembly.
• On the other hand, they must care for fair trials, for
the equal protectino of the law, for a minimum
standard of living, including food, clothing, housing,
 what is the difference between the concepts human rights and human rights law?

• Human rights are legally guaranteed by human

rights law, protecting individuals and groups
against actions which interfere with fundamental
freedoms and human dignity.
• They are expressed in treaties, customary
international law, bodies of principles and other
sources of law.
• Human rights law places an obligation on states to
act in a particular way and prohibits states from
engaging in specified activities.
• However, the law does not establish human rights.
Human rights are inherent entitlements which
come to every person as a consequence of being
human.
• Treaties and other sources of law generally serve
to protect formally the rights of individuals and

• groups against actions or abandonment of

action by governments which interfere with the
enjoyment of their rights.
 Historical and Philosophical Foundations of
Human Rights

What are the foundations of human rights?

• There are different arguments on the origin and
philosophical foundations of human rights.
• Some argue that human rights originated in the
liberal political tradition of the West, whereas as
others propose that human rights have universal
origin and multiple justifications.
 The Western Tradition

• The two most important historic human rights

documents are of western origin:
• the Virginia Bill of Right of 1776, which was
incorporated in 1791 in the United States
Constitution, and
• the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizens of 1789.
Both documents contain a list of human rights in
the sense of human liberties.
• The study of the history and philosophy of
human rights is mainly related to the liberal
political philosophy of the West,
• particularly the revolutions in France,
England and North America.
• These developments in Western Europe and
Northern America represent the demands of
people against their rulers.
• The objectives were to protect the citizen
against arbitrary power and establish rule of
law, i.e. constitutionalism.
• A detailed formulation of the liberal political
philosophy as applied
• To the specific problem of human rights
may be found in the French Declaration of
the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 and
particularly in its second article:
• ‘The aim of all political association is the
conservation of the natural and inalienable
rights of man.
• These rights are liberal, property, security
and resistance to operation.’
• The French Declaration stated a number of entitlements
which are now generally called Civil and Political
rights.
• These include, the basic principle that all men are born
and remain free and equal in their rights, including
 equality before the law,
 freedom from arrest except in conformity with the law,
 protection against the retroactivity of the law,
 freedom of opinion,
 freedom of expression, and the well-known definition
of liberty as freedom to do anything which is not
harmful to others.
• The French Declaration of 1789 constituted
the proclamation of rights,
• which is the most widely known and the
most far-reaching in its consequences in
Europe and beyond.
• Its impact on the French nation and on
other people struggling against
authoritarian governments was such that
Lord Action,
• Other historic texts have also incorporated the
notion of human rights.
• In England, the concept of human rights existed at
least since the time of King John who in 1215 was
forced to sign the Magna Carta, also known as
the Great Charter.
It guaranteed to the citizen freedom:
 from imprisonment
 from dispossession of his property and
 freedom from prosecution and exile unless by the
lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the
land.
• In 1628 the English parliament adopted petition of
rights that prohibited the king from levying taxes
and imprisoning any person without charges or law.
• The 1688 Glorious Revolution led to the Bill of
Rights of 1689 (just a century before the French
Revolution)
Which assured the supremacy of parliament,
 the right to free election,
 freedom of speech,
 the right to bail,
 freedom from cruel and unusual punishment
 The independence of the judiciary and freedom of
the press were established shortly thereafter.
• The philosopher John Locke devised a influential political
theory to sustain constitutional arrangements.
• He held that sovereignty relates not to the monarch but to
the people as a whole,
• And that government is an instrument for securing the lives,
the property and
• the well-being of the governed without enslaving them in
any way.
• ‘Government is not their master; it is created by the people
voluntarily and maintained by them to secure their own
good’.
• Locke argued, mainly in his writings associated with the
Glorious Revolution that certain rights self-evidently connect
to to individuals as human beings (because they existed in
the ‘state of nature’ before humankind entered to civil
society);
• among them are the rights to life, liberty and
property; that, upon entering civil society
(pursuant to a ‘social contract’),
• humankind surrendered to the state only the right
to enforce these natural rights,
• the state’s failure to secure these reserved natural
rights (the state itself being under contract to
safeguard the interests of its members)
• gives rise to a right to a responsible, popular
revolution.
• The theory of reserved natural rights is the basis
of the maintenance of fundamental liberties;
• they belong to the individual by nature, have not
been surrendered to the community and therefore
cannot be limited or denied by the state.
• This political philosophy of Western Europe was
inherited and found expressions in North America.
• Thomas Jefferson stated that the Americans were
a ‘free people claiming their rights as derived
from the laws of nature and not as a gift of their
Chief-Magistrate’.
• ‘the immutable laws of nature, as the principal source
from which the societies derived their rights.
• When Jefferson came to draft the Declaration of
Independence in 1776 (sometimes referred to as the
‘Virginia Bill of Rights’)
• he referred to the necessity for a people, Laws of nature
and of Nature’s God entitled them’.
• The belief in natural rights was reflected in the
declaration in the famous words;
• “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are gifted by their Creator
with certain inalienable rights,
• that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness’.
• This has much in common with the French
Declaration, particularly the idea that the
rights of man are ‘natural and inalienable’
• Jefferson selects the three cardinal rights,
i.e. life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness,
• whereas the French declaration chooses
liberty, property and security.
• However, ‘resistance to domination’ contained in the French

declaration also appear in the Declaration of Independence in a

different style along the Lockean philosophy,

• ‘that to secure these rights governments are instituted

among men, deriving their just powers from the

consent of the governed;

• that whenever any form of governments becomes destructive

of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or

abolish it…..’.
• The Declaration contained other rights.
• However, it didn’t form part of the positive law,
• and it was not made part of the Federal
Constitution drafted in 1787,
• which was criticized for not including a
statement of fundamental rights.
• But through amendments fundamental rights
were included in the constitution, which came
into force in 1791,
• and are generally known as the Bill of Rights,
including civil and political rights.
• The developments in France, England, and North America tell us rights
represent people’s demands against their rulers.
The objectives were the same:
 to protect the citizen against arbitrary power and establish rule of law.

• The concept of natural law as implying natural rights was elaborated in the
17th and 18th century by well-known philosophers.

• Particularly to be noted are the writings of the 17 th century English

philosopher John Locke and the works of 18 th century philosophers including
Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

• John Locke and other philosophers have formulated and postulated the notion
of natural rights as derived from natural law as the underlying principle of
any political association.

• This suggests that individuals have natural rights and the legitimacy of the
• However, other philosophers have rejected the concept as baseless.

• In England, Conservatives Edmund Burks and David Hume

criticized the concept because the fear that the public affirmation of
natural rights would lead to social upheaval.
• Jermy Bentham, one of the founders of Utilitarianism, criticized the
notion of natural rights as follows;
 ‘Rights is the child of law; from real law come real rights; but from
imaginary laws, from ‘law of nature’ come imaginary rights….
 A natural right is simply non-sense.

 David Hume concurring to this idea stated ‘natural law and natural
rights are unreal metaphysical phenomena’.

 John Stuart Mill has proclaimed that ‘rights ultimately are found on
utility’ thus suggesting the notion of natural rights.
• Others have emphasized that ‘rights are a function
of cultural an environmental variables unique
to particular communities’.
• Rejecting the notion of natural rights,
• the John Austin and the philosopher Ludwig
insisted, respectively,
• that the only law is the command of the
sovereign’ (a phrase of Thomas Hobbes) and that
the only truth is that which can be established by
verifiable experience.
• Because of these and other factors, the idea of
natural rights had become a matter of general
skepticism.
• But the role it had played in the struggle of people
for freedom and equality, and its contribution to
modern human rights conception is undeniable.
• Of course, the notion of natural rights and the 17 th
and 18th century revolution in the West together
• make up the main stream of historical and
philosophical foundation for the modern idea of
human rights.
• Some even suggest that it is the mainstream
conception, which, after the horrors of WWII,
found expression in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights of 1948.
 The Universal Tradition
Is the emergence of human rights associated with mere western tradition?

• As already stated some people argue that

human rights have their origin not only in the
west but also in non-western societies and
cultures.
• They stated that other societies had some
form of concern for the protection of the
individual and the limitation of power of
rulers even if they might have not used the
language of ‘rights’.
• At the International Conference on Human Rights in Tehran, in 1968,
• the Shah of Iran noted in his opening address that the precursor of the
celebrated documents (the UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR) recognizing the
rights of man was promulgated in his country by Cyrus the Great
about 2000 years ago.
• The author Christian Dubie has recounted the magnanimity and
clemency of Cyrus to subject peoples-in marked contrast to the
practice of earlier conquerors- and particularly his respect for their
religion.
• The author deduced from the ‘Charter of Cyrus’ the recognition and
protection of what we now call the rights
 to liberty and
 security,
 freedom of movement,
 the right to property, and even certain economic and social rights.
 Others also quote different sources showing the protection of some
rights.
• One of the Pharaohs of Egypt has been quoted as
giving the instructions that ‘ When a petitioner arrives
from Lower or Upper Egypt……Make sure that all is
done according to the law, that custom is observed
and the right of each man respected’.
• The code of Hammourabi, king of Babylon 2000
years before Christ, recording the mission of the
monarch reads as
• ‘to make justice reign in the kingdom, to destroy the
the violent, to prevent the strong from oppressing the
weak….to inform the country and promote the good
of the people’.
• This statement signifies the protection of certain
rights.
• Arguably, the number of culture which have been
contributed to the elaboration and dissemination
of the ‘rights of man’ ‘natural rights’ or ‘human
rights’ is very large.
• In International Human Rights Year in 1968,
UNESCO published a collection of texts gathered
from different cultural traditions and periods of
history,
• which tried to show the universality of the
notion of individual rights.
• one can conclude that the moral worth of the
individual is an idea which no culture can claim as
uniquely its own.
• The idea of individual worth can be found in the work
of advisers, philosophers, prophet’s and poets from
different countries and many faiths in all continents.
• It is therefore clear that the evidence for human rights
is as old as history itself,
• because it concerns the need to protect the individual
against the abuse of power by monarch, tyrant or the
state.
• in studying the history and philosophy of human rights,
on the liberal philosophy of Western world is not
because they have any monopoly of the subject,
• it is rather because they have produced its best-known
formulation and instituted the most effective systems
of implementation.
 Classifications and Basic Features of Human Rights
Classification of Human Rights

• the classification of human rights facilitate our

understanding of the contents of human rights.
• However, there is no complete agreement on the
classification of human rights .
• This is because the difference on the grounds for and the
purposes for classifications.
• For instance, based on the type of the right holder
human rights can be classified into; individual rights
and group rights.
• Human rights can also be classified based on the type of
state obligation as negative rights and positive rights.
• the most-widely classification is the idea of
three-generation rights proposed by the
French jurist Karel Vakas.
• This is a classification of rights based on
their evolution/generation in human history.
• He was inspired by the three themes of
French Revolution; Liberty, Equality and
Solidarity.
• According to Vakas’s classification, human
rights are classified into three generations
of rights.
• First generation rights (the ‘classic’ human rights).
They include civil and political rights
• Second generation rights include economic, social
and cultural rights
• Third generation rights include solidarity
rights/collective rights.
• However, some scholars assert that the term
‘generation’ is somewhat inappropriate.
• It suggests a succession of phenomena, whereby a
new generation takes the place of the previous
one.
• That is, however, not the case with the three
‘generations’ of human rights.
• On the contrary, the idea is rather that the three
‘generations’ exist and be respected
simultaneously.
• To that effect, the word ‘generations’ should have
been replaced by ‘categories’.
First-Generation Right
• First generation rights include civil and political rights.
• They are primarily the result of the 17th and 18th century
reformist theories associated with the English, American
and French Revolution.
• They are the result of liberal political philosophy of
individualism.
• It has been suggested that the realization of these rights
require state abstention rather than state intervention.
• However, civil and political rights can not be realized by
mere non-interference.
• For example, the right to security and the right
to fair and public trial necessarily require
positive state action.
• The rights contained under Article 2-22 of the
UDHR and most of the rights contained in the
ICCPR may be classified as first-generation rights.
• First-generation rights (Core rights) are rights that
are indispensable for an existence in human
dignity and therefore need absolute protection.
They include;
• The right to life
• The right to liberty and security
• The right to equality
• Freedom from racial and other forms of
discrimination
• Freedom from slavery or involuntary servitude
• Freedom from torture and from cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment
• Freedom from arbitrary arrest
• The right to fair and public trial
• The right to privacy
• Freedom of movement
• Freedom of opinion and expression
• Freedom of peaceful assembly and association
• The right to participate in government and equal
access to public services
• The right to property
Second Generation rights
• They include economic, social and cultural rights.
• The origin of this generation of rights is associated with the
socialist movements of the 19th century and the 1917
Bolshevik Revolution.
• The realization of these rights requires state intervention.
• These rights are to be implemented progressively
depending on the availability of resources.
• However, the right to equality and the principles of non-
discrimination has to be implemented immediately.
• However, the state has not only positive obligation, but
also negative obligation,
• the obligation to refrain from violating these rights,
particularly from taking what are called retrogressive
measures.
The rights contained under Article 22-27 of the UDHR and most
of the rights contained in the ICESCR may be classified as
second-generation rights. These include
• The right to work and the ‘right in work’
• The right to form/join trade unions
• The right to education
• The right to social security
• The right to health
• The right to adequate standard of living
• The right to participate in cultural life
Moreover, cultural rights include the right to participate in the
cultural life of one’s community,
• to share in scientific advancement and
• the right to the protection of the moral and material interests
resulting from one’s scientific, literary or artistic production.
Third-Generation rights
• These include collective or group rights.
• Some of these rights are associated with the emergence of
Third World nationalism and its demand for global
redistribution of power, wealth and other values.
• The third-generation rights include, but not limited to, the
following;
• The right to self-determination ( political, economic, social
and cultural self-determination)
• The right to development
• The right to participate in and benefit from the ‘common
heritage of mankind’
• The right to peace
• The right to healthy and balanced environment
• The right to humanitarian disaster relief
Basic Features of Human rights
• knowing the major features/characteristics of
human rights will help you to understand more
about human rights and distinguish them from
other rights.
• Human rights have the following three basic
features. These are:
Human rights are universal,
natural and inalienable and interrelated,
interdependent and indivisible.
 Human rights are universal.
• They are rights to which every human beings are
entitled irrespective of their difference in their sex,
race, religion, nationality, social origin, color etc.
• We have these rights by virtue of being a human.
• The universality character calls for their respect and
protection at all places and times.
• However, there are some challenges to the
universality of human rights.
• Because of the existence of various cultures across
the world, proponents of cultural relativism argue
that human rights are relative to culture of a given
society and cannot be universal.
• Concerning to this controversy, the 1993
Vienna Convention on Human Rights
asserts that
• ‘human rights and fundamental freedoms are
the birth rights of all human beings, and
the universal nature of the rights freedoms is
beyond question’.
• Therefore, the universality of human rights
has generally been accepted.
 Human rights are natural and inalienable.
• As they are derived from inherent dignity of
human beings, human rights exist by nature.
• They are neither given nor deprived.
• By inalienability, we mean that nobody can
deprive anybody of these rights and nobody can
reject them by him/herself.
• Therefore, what a political society does is not to
grant these rights to human beings
• but to recognize them and guarantee their respect
and enforcement through its laws and institutions
 Human rights are interrelated, interdependent and
indivisible.
The respect for human dignity requires the recognition
and respect of the civil, political, economic, social,
cultural and other demands.
All these demands of human beings deserve due
attention.
• The recognition and realization of economic and social
rights is necessary for the realization of civil and
political rights and vice versa.
• The recognition and realization of one right cannot be
separated from the other.
• Therefore, all different sets of human rights shall be
recognized, respected and protected
In addition to the above three basic characteristics,
human rights have the following features:
A) Human rights are eternal.
As far as human society exists, human rights
continue to exist.
In addition, any change in government and any
change in social, political/economic outlooks do
not have any impact on human rights.
This feature can be counted in the universal
character of human rights mentioned above.
Human rights contain the principles of equality
and non-discrimination.

There are no human beings who are more than

others. They have all equal dignity.
Therefore, equal dignity requires equal respect
and treatment.
 Human rights are rights all human beings have
and any form of discrimination is not acceptable.
Differential treatments are justified if and only
if there are well-grounded reasons
Human rights are not absolute.
 Rights are subjected to limitations/restrictions whenever such is
necessary to protect some legitimate public or individual interest.
 For instance, the right to freedom of expression can be restricted
to protect national security, public order, public morals, or the
reputations/rights of others.
• Therefore, some of the most frequently cited characteristics of
human rights are as follow:
• focus on dignity of the human being
• legally protected
• internationally guaranteed
• protect the individual and groups
• oblige States and State actors
• cannot be waived/taken away
• equal and interdependent
Thank you for your
attention !!!