Characteristics of Human Rights

1. Human rights are moral claims, and therefore they are grounded in morality, not just law. They have a very high priority compared to other moral or non-moral claims, such as claims based on honor, disgust, utility etc.

2. They require mandatory (as opposed to discretionary) compliance and are therefore more than mere aspirations – they are necessary for the protection and realization of certain fundamental, basic and universal human values and interests.

3. They are instrumental principles in the sense that we don’t want them for their own sake; they are means for the creation of better life quality and not just goals in themselves.

4. they are universal: all human beings have certain rights, for no other reason than their humanity and the values attached to humanity; this means that human rights precede and trump considerations of national sovereignty and that national sovereignty therefore does not provide a means to escape human rights obligations.

5. They are pre-political: they are a moral order that has a legitimacy and existence preceding contingent social, legal, political, cultural and historical conditions and that can be used to assess and question those conditions

6. They are independent from legal/social/cultural/religious recognition: human beings have human rights even if the laws and customs of their country/group do not recognize or perhaps even violate these rights – although people’s rights are obviously much more secure when they are translated into law and culture.

7. They are unconditional: people have rights without conditions; respect for rights is not conditional upon fulfillment of duties, status, legal recognition of rights or persons etc. 

8. They are inalienable: since rights are owned by human beings because of their humanity, these rights aren’t given and hence can’t be taken away; people still have rights when those rights are violated

9. They are not forfeitable: people can’t give their rights away for the same reason that these rights can’t be taken away; however, people can decide that they don’t want their rights enforced.

10. They are equal rights: rights are equal in two meanings of the word; they are equal between people (because all people are equally human) and they are equal to other human rights (there are no “basic” and “less urgent/important” human rights)

11. They are interdependent: different rights need each other, violations of one right most likely lead to violations of other rights (which is one reason why there can’t be a core of “basic” rights).

12. They are limited: rights have to be balanced against each other because respect for one right can imply a violation of another right; balancing means imposing limitations on some rights for the benefit of other rights (or of the rights of others); the fact that there are no basic rights makes this balancing more difficult but not impossible. Conflicting rights then have to be balanced by taking into account the nature of the underlying values, or the way in which the two conflicting rights realize the values they are supposed to uphold. 

13. They are not politically neutral: not all forms of government can equally respect human rights; there’s a close link between human rights and democracy.

14. They are multidimensional: human rights are not just a matter between citizens and the state; they are addressed at everyone and impose duties on everyone. Corporations and other organizations also have to be mindful of their operations’  human rights implications. This means that human rights also function in a trans-national and trans-generational dimension.

15. They are simultaneously negative (free from x) and positive (free to do x): they always and everywhere require both self-restraint and tolerance as well as active intervention,  according to the circumstances.

Religious Foundations: Traditional Religions support ideas that the human person has worth and value and should be treated with a measure of dignity and respect. This leads to the idea that there are enduring standards of morality and justice against which to evaluate people’s actions and the laws of communities.

However, the emphasis in religion is on duties, not rights. For example, the Ten Commandments prescribe what we ought to do—not that to which we are entitled. Implicit in the idea that we have duties is the idea that others are entitled to be treated as rightsholders, or persons.

With the development of Christianity, ideas of universality and equality emerge along with the concern for the severely disenfranchised. Christians believe that all people are created by God; therefore they are entitled to decent treatment by the existing powers. These are revolutionary ideas that have shaped the ethical foundations of our culture.

The Middle Ages: This period of European history is characterized by the struggle between Islam and Christianity and the domination of the Catholic Church. It was also a time of rivalry between kingdoms, warlords, military conflicts and wars in Europe, and crusades against Islam in the Middle East. 

To finance his wars, King John of England, in order to raise cash from his wealthy subjects (earls, lords, dukes, etc.) agreed to recognize their property rights, guaranteed freedom of movement for the purpose of trade and commerce, and freedom from arbitrary arrest. This marks the emergence of the Magna Carta (1215), a document that spelled out the duties that nobles owed to the King and God, and—importantly—the rights owed to these subjects. It is worthwhile to note that the idea of rights emerges first as a means by which the upper classes protect their property and freedom. The idea of rights will expand historically as lower classes acquire more influence, economic power, and social standing. 

The Period of Revolutions: English Bill of Rights (1688-89) rejects absolute monarchy and establishes a constitutional monarchy that must acknowledge the rights of British citizens to run for seats in Parliament (this marks the beginning of the notion of “freedom of speech,” i.e., right to debate in Parliament), bear arms in self-defense, and to be free of cruel and unusual punishment (right to trial). The aim is to restrict arbitrary rules by a monarch. This widens the scope and number of the legal rights of citizens. Rights are still primarily those of aristocrats, but the idea covers more individuals than it did at the time of the Magna Carta. This is the seed that will grow in the following centuries.

The English philosopher John Locke’s Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) is an important landmark: he articulates rights based on commands of “natural law” and proclaims that there are natural rights to life, liberty, and property. Government is formed to protect those rights: this is its sole justification, according to Locke. Locke was an important philosophical influence on the US Constitution and Bill of Rights (Locke owned property in America). The other important idea is that governments should be formed based on the consent of the governed.

America’s Declaration of Independence (1776) is a political, not legal document: it demands rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Jefferson changed “property” to “happiness”).

Another important event overturning monarchies was the French Revolution with its Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen, 1789.

The legal foundations of the United States were shaped by the War of Independence The birth of the nation brought us the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Government is devised as a system of checks and balances, which will further protect the rights of citizens; the authority is derived from the governed (as in Locke).

Bill of Rights: the vast majority of rights relate to due process that protects all individuals, even though at the time it applied mostly to white, property-owning men. It took major movements and political struggles to include all citizens of the United States. 

The First Amendment of the US Constitution is the hallmark of the American contribution to contemporary human rights theory. Here is the text: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 

This explicitly guarantees the rights to free exercise of religion (this was a reaction to religious wars in England), freedom of speech, and the press, rights to assemble peaceably,  and to petition to government.

Slavery: It took a Civil War in the United States to abolish slavery (1861-1865.) Europe banned the slave trade between the 1830s to 1860s. After long struggles and much suffering, the ideas of individual and human rights prevailed. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863) declared slavery illegal.

Industrial Revolution: During the period of industrialization, a middle class emerged, but it also generated great wealth disparities and thus begins the rise of labor unions (late 1800s). They try to protect what rights’ scholars refer to as “second generation” claims to socio-economic rights, such as to subsistence income, basic social services like education, public health and safety measures such as water treatment and vaccinations. Most laborers initially worked in horrendous “sweatshop” conditions. The idea that there are second generation rights still remains a contested notion. The nineteenth century also saw the rise of the suffragettes, who protested gender inequality and the lack of rights of women to vote, among other things.

The 20th Century: In the 1920s, the League of Nations forms: some humane labor laws and factory safety regulations are enacted; the struggle for second-generation rights led to strikes, unions, and a few concessions by capitalists who feared socialist revolts. Women won the right to vote in the US in 1920, with the 19th Amendment.

The stock market crash of 1929 and Great Depression of the 1930s (25% of Americans out of work) led to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal  - the beginning of unemployment insurance, public works (“welfare” state); “big government” and mixed economies (i.e., capitalism but with protection from its ravages); the goal is to provide a social subsistence minimum. The scope of the welfare state widens: subsidized housing, new colleges and roads, food and health care subsidies, more generous unemployment insurance and pensions regardless of the ups and downs of free-market business cycles - the goal is to prevent citizens from falling beneath the floor of a defined social minimum. We see a clear recognition of something like second generation rights - again this remains a hotly contested idea, especially today as we see how many of these protections have eroded.

Second World War: The next milestone is a reaction to the rise of Hitler (and fascism in Europe), who denied human rights and promoted a doctrine of racial and ethnic superiority that led to the Holocaust. After the war, the Nuremberg trials established the first international criminal trials for those committing massive human rights violations; the Geneva conventions (1949) are formulated to regulate conduct during war, e.g., a prohibition on torture (the issue returns again and again as a result of the treatment of detainees and prisoners in Iraq, Guantanamo, Syria, Ukraine, and elsewhere).

The United Nations forms. The Security Council of the UN is not – like some of its critics assume – a world government. It is a voluntary alliance, whose core commitment is to peace and human rights protection. Its founding document is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Again, there is a split over first generation rights (due process, free speech, civil and political rights) and second generation rights (socio-economic). The UN Declaration supports both, but the U.S. tends to support only the first.

Cold War and Decolonization: the idea of First, Second, and Third Worlds emerges. The question now becomes: How do we manage to get along peacefully as societies become more diverse? How do we cherish both individual and group differences and yet maintain social cohesion and order necessary for stability and security? How should we use institutions to preserve democracy and majority rule and yet secure fair treatment for minorities? Do groups also have rights, or can only individuals be rights holders?

The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of contemporary feminism and an environmental movement—women’s rights to reproductive control, rights to clean environment. The recognition of diversity and environmental rights are connected to the idea of “third generation rights”.

The 1980s sees the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of the “welfare state” (programs put in place during the New Deal era. This debate still goes on and revolves around second generation rights). 

Globalization: Communism’s collapse left capitalism as the only plausible method for organizing societies. We see more mobility, immigration, and refugee crises. The economic divide between first and third worlds raises issues having to do with all three generations of rights, but especially economic entitlements due to the huge wealth disparity between first and third world countries.

In the 1990s, the rise of ethnic nationalisms and more genocide (Bosnia, Rwanda) leads to the treaty that establishes the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 1998.