What Are Human Rights?

For a great video explaining the history of human rights, click here!

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, human rights are the freedoms from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution that belong to all human beings. To be honest, that is only the tip of the iceberg.

In 1789, the National Assembly of France approved a document entitled "Declaration of the Rights of Man". This was the first detailed explanation of human rights (although women were not addressed in the document). According to this declaration, "the natural and imprescriptible" rights of man are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. Liberty is defined as

"the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights. These limits can only be determined by law."

After the atrocities committed during World War Two, the United Nations penned a document entitled "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in 1948. The document includes 30 articles, each spelling out a defined human right. While this document addresses women, as well as people of all races, religions, and nationalities, it does not address rights for people of different sexual orientations or gender identities.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights serves as an international standard for human rights as defined by law. Although this is a great document, we have a long way to go.