Human rights are the principles and standards that belong to every person simply because they are human. They are not granted by any human power, and they cannot be surrendered or lost. They include the right to life, freedom of expression, the right to live in peace and dignity and the right not to be discriminated against.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, was the first time that governments agreed on fundamental freedoms and rights to be protected globally. It is considered to be the foundation of international human rights law, and its 30 articles are the basis for more than seventy human rights treaties that are applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all of which contain references to the UDHR in their preambles).
While the term ‘human rights’ has been around since ancient times, it only became widely used after World War II, the creation of the United Nations in 1945, and the adoption of the UDHR in 1948. It replaced the earlier phrase ‘natural rights’, which had fallen into disrepute in the 19th century, due to a growing movement called legal positivism that rejected the theory espoused by classical and medieval philosophy of natural law that duties rather than rights governed man.
A key point from the UDHR is that all people are equal – regardless of their religion, race, gender, language or socio-economic status. However, this ideal has not yet fully been achieved in many countries around the globe. For example, some people still face violence, discrimination and oppression because of their gender. Other examples are female genital mutilation, which remains common in parts of Africa, and the death penalty, which is still practiced in some countries.