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Human rights facts for kids

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English Bill of Rights of 1689
Bill of Rights (1689)

In law, human rights is the idea that all people should have rights:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

—Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Today, the principles are protected as legal rights in national and international law. They are seen as universal, which means they are meant for everyone, no matter what their race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, age, sex (also women's rights), political beliefs (or any other kind of beliefs), intelligence, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity are.

Every person has all of these rights, it is not possible to only grant some of them:

All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and related. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.

—Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, World Conference on Human Rights, 1993

History

The idea of human rights originated from ideas found in religion and philosophy in Western Europe. The modern Western idea of human rights started in the European Enlightenment. In the 16th century, some people started suggesting that everyone had the religious and political right to choose their religion and their leaders. This sort of thinking was important in the English Civil War. After the war, the philosopher John Locke argued that people should have these rights; he was one of the first people to call them "human rights." These ideas were also important in the American revolution and the French revolution in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, John Stuart Mill was an important philosopher who also thought about human rights. He said that people should be able to control their own bodies and minds. He talked about three special ideas:

Hegel was a philosopher who talked about the idea of free will. He also talked about what makes a person free: that a person has to have certain relations with other people to have true freedom. A person has to be able to:

Laws

Because people believe that human rights are important, countries make laws to protect them. These laws say that governments cannot take away people's basic rights. They make sure people who take away other people's rights are punished.

Some major political organizations have made statements that promote human rights. These are not laws, but they affect us anyway. If groups or countries do not follow these statements, others will condemn them (say that they are very bad); and then people may not talk with them, do business with them, or help them.

Declaration of Human Rights
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789

Some of the important places that human rights laws are written is in constitutions. The United States Constitution and Constitution of France are two of the oldest set of laws based on human rights.

In 1948 the United Nations made the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is a widely respected document that says what the United Nations believes are human rights. It is not a law, but is the basis on which two important agreements are written:

These are United Nations human rights Covenants: agreements between people or countries. The countries who sign these two covenants agree to follow them.

In addition to those Declaration and Covenants, there are many treaties and documents made by United Nations and other international organizations. Those treaties and documents are called "International human rights law".

List of human rights

Not everyone agrees on what the basic human rights are. It is very clear that few countries permit all these rights. Also, there are countries in which the rights are not illegal, but nothing is done to promote them. Here is a list of some of the most recognized rights:

Fundamental rights

Safety

  • Safety from violence
  • To seek asylum if a country treats you badly
  • Fair trial, and to be considered innocent until proven guilty

General life freedoms

Political freedoms

Abuses

Abuse means to intentionally harm a person or people physically, mentally, emotionally, or verbally once or many times. Human rights abuse follows along similarly, also keeping in count the universal rights. Human rights abuse happens when a person is hurt in a way that violates (goes against) his/her human rights. Human rights abuses are also often called human rights violations.

Examples of human rights abuses or violations are:
  • Putting a person in jail because they said that the government is doing bad things, or because they are religious or not religious.
  • Taking a person's home because they are from a different country
  • Not letting someone who is a citizen of a country vote because he or she has the "wrong" kind of attribute as mentioned on top of article.
  • Violence toward someone because they have a (or any) religion, or a different religion to the one of the abuser.

Many people, groups, and countries think protecting human rights is very important. But not everyone in the world believes in human rights. If people who do not believe in human rights have political power they can hurt many people. Even if these people have no political power, they can be violent to other people. There are many people who work to protect everyone's human rights; some of these are government groups, and some are not with any government. They are sometimes called human rights organizations. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are examples of human rights organizations.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Derechos humanos para niños

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