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HUMAN RIGHTS
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A summary of notes about the South African human rights
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Human Rights NotesDefining human rights
Human rights are basic to humanity. They apply to all
people everywhere.
An understanding of human rights is an important part of
our individual status as human beings and of our
collective status as members of the global community of
humankind.
Human rights apply to all individuals regardless of
citizenship or national origin, the legal relationship
between an individual and a state remains an essential
prerequisite to the effective enjoyment and protection of
the full range of human rights
Human rights are often defined in different ways and
include:
Human rights are defined by the United Nations as
rights inherent to all human beings, whatever
nationality, place of residence, sex, national or
ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other
status
Human rights, are a set of moral and legal
principles that apply to all human beings
irrespective of their age, sex, religion, nationality,
and other such characteristics.
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, the recognition and respect of peoples dignity
a set of moral and legal guidelines that promote and
protect a recognition of our values, our identity and
ability to ensure an adequate standard of living
the basic standards by which we can identify and
measure inequality and fairness
those rights associated with the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
History
Throughout history, concepts of ethical behaviour,
justice and human dignity have been important in
the development of human societies, as has the
question of the relationship of the individual to the
wider community.
Such ideas can be traced back to the ancient
civilisations of Babylon, China and India. They
contributed to the laws of Greek and Roman society
and are central to Buddhist, Christian, Confucian,
Hindu, Islamic and Jewish teachings.
Concepts of ethics, justice and dignity were also
important in societies which have not left written
records, but consist of oral histories such as those
of Indigenous people in Australia and elsewhere.
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, Ideas about justice were prominent in the thinking of
philosophers in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance
and the Enlightenment.
An important strand in this thinking was that there
was a 'natural law' that stood above the law of
rulers.
This meant that individuals had certain rights simply
because they were human beings. Significant
development in thinking about human rights took
place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
This found expression in the American Declaration
of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration
of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789).
Whereas earlier the focus had been on the
sovereignty of rulers, the emphasis now started to
shift to the rights of the individual as against the
state, with its associated ideas of fundamental
freedoms that people should be able to enjoy.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw
continuing advances in social progress, for example
in the abolition of slavery, the widespread provision
of education and the extension of political rights.
Despite these advances, international activity on
human rights remained weak. The general attitude
was that nations could do what they liked within
their borders and that other countries and the
broader international community had no basis for
intervening or even raising concerns when rights
were violated.
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