Human rights

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The basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: This document, adopted by the United Nations in 1948, outlines the basic human rights that are to be protected and respected by all nations.
International human rights law: This includes treaties and conventions that have been adopted by nations to protect human rights, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The role of the United Nations in human rights: The UN is a key player in protecting and promoting human rights globally, through its various bodies and mechanisms such as the Human Rights Council and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Human rights violations: This includes a range of abuses such as torture, extra-judicial killings, disappearances, and discrimination based on race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
Transitional justice: The process of dealing with the aftermath of human rights violations, including prosecutions, reparations, and truth and reconciliation commissions.
Democracy and human rights: The relationship between democracy and human rights, and how the protection of human rights is fundamental to the functioning of democratic societies.
Economic, social, and cultural rights: These include the right to education, healthcare, and a standard of living, and are often interdependent with civil and political rights.
Intersectionality: The idea that individuals can experience multiple forms of discrimination and oppression simultaneously, and how this impacts their access to human rights.
Civil society and human rights: The role of non-governmental organizations, activists, and community groups in promoting and protecting human rights.
Human rights and foreign policy: How governments balance their interests and objectives with their obligations to promote and protect human rights.
Right to life: This guarantees that every human being has the right to live and no one should be executed or deprived of life arbitrarily.
Right to freedom from torture: This prohibits the use of torture and inhumane treatment in any form.
Right to freedom from slavery: This prohibits any form of slavery, debt bondage or forced labor.
Right to freedom from discrimination: This prohibits discrimination based on personal characteristics such as race, gender, religion, or nationality.
Right to freedom of expression: This guarantees the right to express oneself and to receive and impart information.
Right to freedom of peaceful assembly: This guarantees the right to assemble with others peacefully and without fear of repression.
Right to freedom of association: This guarantees the right to form and join associations and organizations.
Right to work: This guarantees the right to work under safe and equitable conditions, free from discrimination.
Right to education: This guarantees the right to education free from discrimination and for everyone.
Right to health: This guarantees the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
Right to food: This guarantees the right to regular access to adequate food without discrimination.
Right to housing: This guarantees the right to adequate housing without discrimination.
Right to freedom of movement: This guarantees the right to travel freely within one's own country and to leave and return to it.
Right to a fair trial: This guarantees the right to a fair trial and access to justice without discrimination.
Right to privacy: This guarantees the right to privacy and protection from unlawful interference in one's private life, home, and correspondence.
Right to participate in government: This guarantees the right to participate in the government of one's country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives.
Right to cultural participation: This guarantees the right to participate in cultural life and to enjoy artistic and scientific achievements.
Right to access to information: This guarantees the right to access information held by the government and other public bodies.
Right to a healthy environment: This guarantees the right to live in an environment that is clean and safe without harm to health or well-being.
Right to water: This guarantees the right to access to a sufficient amount of safe and clean water for drinking and sanitation.
Quote: "Human rights are moral principles or norms for certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law."
Quote: "They are commonly understood as inalienable, fundamental rights 'to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being' and which are 'inherent in all human beings'."
Quote: "They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal."
Quote: "They are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone."
Quote: "They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of law and imposing an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others."
Quote: "It is generally considered that they should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances."
Quote: "The doctrine of human rights has been highly influential within international law and global and regional institutions."
Quote: "The idea of human rights suggests that 'if the public discourse of peacetime global society can be said to have a common moral language, it is that of human rights'."
Quote: "The strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable skepticism and debates about the content, nature, and justifications of human rights to this day."
Quote: "Some thinkers suggest that human rights should be a minimum requirement to avoid the worst-case abuses, while others see it as a higher standard."
Quote: "Many of the basic ideas that animated the human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the events of the Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948."
Quote: "The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition that became prominent during the European Enlightenment..."
Quote: "From this foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the 20th century, possibly as a reaction to slavery, torture, genocide, and war crimes, as a realization of inherent human vulnerability and as being a precondition for the possibility of a just society."
Quote: "Human rights advocacy has continued into the early 21st century, centered around achieving greater economic and political freedom."
Quote: "They are regularly protected in municipal and international law."
Quote: "The precise meaning of the term right is controversial and is the subject of continued philosophical debate."
Quote: "It has also been argued that human rights are 'God-given', although this notion has been criticized."
Quote: "Ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day conception of universal human rights."
Quote: "Human rights should be a minimum requirement to avoid the worst-case abuses."
Quote: "There is disagreement about which of these particular rights should be included within the general framework of human rights."