The World 's Understanding Of Human Rights

“Ideas about human rights have evolved over many centuries. But they achieved strong international support following the Holocaust and World War II. To protect future generations from a repeat of these horrors, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948 and invited states to sign and ratify it”

Human rights were an achievement that we humans have been working for years. Therefore it came to effect for at least some of us around the world in the form of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is a declaration of 30 human rights that the United Nation adopted in December 10 of 1948. However, we face challenges along the way that oppose this belief of human rights. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, a novel called Night which is about a man’s experience of the Holocaust (written by Elie Wiesel who actually experienced the event) provide events that violated the human rights of two, three, and five.

During the Holocaust, over six million Jews were horribly murdered, starved, burned, and ripped of their humanity and rights as a human. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after the Holocaust when the United Nations came up with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that every single human being has their own rights that should never be violated. From having the right to life and liberty, to no torture, and even being equal to the law without discrimination.

　　Figure 1. A simplify list of human rights created and accepted as an international issue after the Second World War

Human rights have been the major factors of human equality and freedom. It was recognised to develop the potentials of each human beings. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was lawfully signed by the United Nations in 1948. It was to promote the social progress in the better standards of life, freedom, peace and the pursuit of happiness. Human Rights was set out for all human being, regardless of their differences in culture, race, and religion.

The idea that there are rights that are applicable to all of humanity originated during the eighteenth century in the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions. The atrocities committed during World War II, as well as the Four Freedoms, forcefully raised the issue of human rights in the postwar world. The victorious Allies put numerous German officials on trial before special courts at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. This was the first time that individuals were held directly accountable to the international community for violation of human rights. The trials ended up sentencing many Nazi officials to prison terms and the execution of ten leaders. In 1948, the UN General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It identified a broad range of rights to be enjoyed by people everywhere, including freedom of speech, religious toleration, and protection against arbitrary government, as well as social and economic entitlements like the right to an adequate standard of living and access to housing, education, and medical care. The document had no enforcement mechanism. However, it set the core principle that a nation’s treatment of its own citizens should be subject to outside evaluation. This slowly became part of the language in which freedom was discussed. After the Cold War ended, the idea of human rights played an increasingly prominent role in world affairs, but during the 1950s, Cold War imperatives shaped the

In the website I used named ShareAmerica, I used the story “Ways That World War II Changed The World.” The site stated, “May 8, 1945, also marked the birth of a new international system of norms and ideals, conceived to ensure peace, security and prosperity for all nations.” This talks about the making of the United Nations, a peace keeping organization created to be stronger than the League of Nations, which failed to prevent the war. Other organizations that were made as a result of the war were the International Monetary Fund, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (today’s World Trade Organization), and the International Military Tribunal. The same article also states, “In the wake of the Holocaust and other horrific crimes, countries recognized the benefits of a world with established norms and shared values. The Allies established

World War II’s atrocities and the Four Freedoms and Atlantic Charter sparked calls for a new global order ruled by universal rights for all of humanity. The war crimes trials of German officials showed that the international community would hold individuals accountable for violations of human rights. In 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which declared that all people should have basic rights to freedom of speech and religion, should be free from arbitrary government, and should enjoy social and economic entitlements such as housing, education, healthcare, and an adequate standard of living. Though the document could not be enforced anywhere, its assertion that governments were accountable for the way they treated their citizens became widely

The outbreak of the second world war, preceded the wake of new international institutions and treaties that, in turn, would commence a path towards true rights for mankind. These legal organizations responded to the immense magnitude of violations towards Human Rights during the 20th Century. The Second World War saw a disregard for human rights never before seen by mankind. With the genocide of Jews, incessant discrimination against race and sexuality, as well aerial bombings in support of territorial expansion, the world turned their devastation into a National Confederation against future catastrophe, the United Nations. Following the creation of the United Nations, attempted hope came in the form of coalitions such as the International Criminal Court, the European Court of Human Rights, The U.N. Human Rights Council and United Nations Security Council. The Institutions were given the mandate, by the United Nations, to be a last resort in the protection of Human Rights, even against a corrupted State Government and any other proclaimed authorities. These bodies have the jurisdiction to make judgements in support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, the rights of humanity are not internationally homogenous. Culture, religion, ethnicity and economic standpoints create complications and loopholes in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, limits and obstacles arise and these institutions must find a balance between Universalism and Relativism.

Having human rights in place imposes certain obligations on the government and justifies the complaints of those whose rights and freedoms have not been respected. Everyone is entitled to human rights regardless of their nationality, gender, race, religion, or political opinion. The failure to recognize these rights results in conflict and a vicious cycle of violence as more human rights are violated. To avoid such clashes, human rights have become a fundamental part of global law and policy. However, they have not always been that way. Catastrophic events in history that claimed thousands of lives ran their vicious course before it was recognized that there had to be human rights established. The most famous example of genocide is the Holocaust, which killed around six million Jews. After the Holocaust, the United Nations recognized that there had to be human rights put into place. Two human rights from the United Nations’ “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” that were perversely violated during the Holocaust are Article 5 (the protection against inhumane treatment or punishment) and Article 25 (the right to a standard of living.) Light is shed upon the exploitation of human rights during the Holocaust in both Night by Elie Wiesel and The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness by Simon Wiesenthal. The Holocaust was a devastating event that opened our eyes to just how cruel humans can be, and why human rights must be enforced and protected.

The doctrine of human rights were created to protect every single human regardless of race, gender, sex, nationality, sexual orientation and other differences. It is based on human dignity and the belief that no one has the right to take this away from another human being. The doctrine states that every ‘man’ has inalienable rights of equality, but is this true? Are human rights universal? Whether human rights are universal has been debated for decades. There have been individuals and even countries that oppose the idea that human rights are for everybody. This argument shall be investigated in this essay, by: exploring definitions and history on human rights, debating on whether it is universal while providing examples and background

Human rights are universal rights that we are entitled to. It is a freedom that is guaranteed based on the principle of respect for an individual. As mentioned in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights are a “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all member of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world” (Kent, page 80). When asked what our rights are, we tend to get different answers and meanings. Some people recite the rights that they know; but let’s face it, not everyone knows all of the rights that they truly have. The rights we have consist of many things such as the right of having an adequate food supply. The right to

The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights stands as the current gold standard for every individual’s rights. Focusing on culture, one may see that cultural rights are not clearly defined and are oftentimes in conflict with other types of rights. In this paper, I will first discuss the United Nations’ use of ‘cultural’ in its universal human rights in relation to the concept of cultural relativism. Then, using South African and American practices, such as virginity testing and discriminatory criminal justice system respectively, I will describe and analyze practices violate the UN’s universal human rights in addition to the practices’ use for the community or society as a whole. Lastly, I will compare the American Anthropological Association’s rights to culture to the UN’s universal human rights by analyzing the limitations of each.

In this essay, the writer will illuminate the role of standardisation in facilitating human rights, with particular focus on women’s rights. For a kick up, clear definitions of the key terms, standardisation and human rights will be given. The connection between the two will be further exploited in depth as the write up progresses. According to Wikipedia.org, human rights are ‘commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being…’ It follows therefore, that women’s rights relate to the freedom and right that women are entitled to simply by virtue of being a

The proliferation of international human rights treaties and jurisprudence gives rise to new questions about the efficacy of international human rights law (IHRL) in the promotion of domestic human rights practices. Scholars have long been skeptical of the effectiveness of human rights treaties given the absence of clear mechanisms of enforcement (Goldsmith and Posner 2005; Downs, Rocke, and Barsoom 1996). States may commit to human rights treaties for a variety of strategic or normative reasons (Simmons 2009; Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005; Risse, Ropp, and Sikkink 1999), but the extent to which such commitments actually lead to changes in states’ practices remains underexplored. Recent scholarship confirms that human rights treaties can