- "Human rights are moral principles or norms for certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected in municipal and international law."
It involves the use of force to protect civilians from violence, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity.
- "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'."
- "They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone."
- "It is generally considered that they should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances."
- "They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of law and imposing an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others."
- "The doctrine of human rights has been highly influential within international law and global and regional institutions."
- "Actions by states and non-governmental organisations form a basis of public policy worldwide."
- "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."
- "The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval natural law tradition."
- "...such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui..."
- "...possibly as a reaction to slavery, torture, genocide and war crimes..."
- "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."
- "It has also been argued that human rights are 'God-given', although this notion has been criticized."
- "The adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948."
- "Ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day conception of universal human rights."
- "Human rights advocacy has continued into the early 21st century, centered around achieving greater economic and political freedom."
- "...the right to a fair trial, protection against enslavement, prohibition of genocide, free speech or a right to education..."
- "The precise meaning of the term right is controversial and is the subject of continued philosophical debate."
- "as a realization of inherent human vulnerability and as being a precondition for the possibility of a just society."
- "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."