Human Rights

Human rights refers to - "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled", often held to include the right of life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression and equality before law

The United National Human Rights Declaration states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
This was adopted by the UN General assembly in 1948 after the barbarism of the second world war and this Human rights declaration is not legally binding on the member states

two Covenants – International
Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and International
Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1966. India signed both
these International Conventions in 1979

The UN is the only international body which has legal jurisdiction for universal human rights legislation and the first international body to make a human rights declaration
The UN Human Rights Council is the organ with the investigations into Human rights violations
along with the international court of justice which is the principle judicial organ of the UN

Human rights legislation commonly contains:
Security rights - against rape, murder, involuntary suicide etc
liberty rights - freedom of thought and expression etc
political rights - protesting peacefully, participating in the public etc
due process rights - against abuses like improper trail and imprisonment
equality rights - equal citizenship and before law etc
welfare rights - education, paid holidays etc
group rights - protection against ethnic genocide etc

Property rights Vs Human rights is a delicate matter and many views are expressed on this issue.
UN High Commissioner of Human rights - to study and monitor human rights

There are also many other international bodies and legislations that deal with the human rights in normal and war/emergency times

Human rights are in the human history from as back as 2000BC and can be referenfed in Bible, Vedas, Quran and all other religious books of the past
china does not have any human rights in the period of confucius
Persia has a very good record of Human rights from 6th century BC under Cyrus the great and they were well documented - the first ones - on a cylinder
Maurya empire in the 3rd century also has unprecedented human rights under Ashoka the great
The revolutions in USA and France were the corner stones for the establishment of human rights in a structural way in the early modern world

Types - Positive(govt should take action to try and legislate them) and negative (govt should not take action to remove them!) Human rights
Three generations of Human rights - civil and political rights, social and cultural rights, and third generation rights are solidarity rights

criticism of human rights is that the concept has its roots in cultural imperialism and a poilitcally liberal outlook which is generally accepted in western europe, japan, india and north america but is not taken as a standard elsewhere. Also, some argue it has the effect of christianity on it!
And so, islam has its own set of human rights which apply only to them and not to all human beings!!

Human rights violations and abuses include those documented by non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International.

the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Costa Rica are the only (mappable) countries that did not violate at least some human rights significantly. Rest all the countries including the biggest of the democracies in the world are all included in violations of human rights

Indian Perspective:
More concern is on Woman and child abuses
Abuses against STs, nomadic tribes and other backward castes and communities
Resettlement and rehabilitation
destitute conditions of the people below poverty line
insurgency
Trafficking in woman and children
human rights awareness

Human rights protection Act 1993 - 11 annual reports are given so far and the 12th annual human right report for 2005 is also out