Human Rights

International Law

In the West, the commandments in Scripture and duties defined by social status ordered traditional societies, but these were challenged in the 18th [Page 535]century by those demanding civil rights. In 1775, the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence affirmed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” A decade later, French revolutionaries proclaimed that “the rights of man” were natural rights and are intrinsic to the humanity of each person.

In the 19th century, as Western societies became more diverse and secular, the claim that rights are God-given gave way to the notion that civil and political rights are rooted in our human nature as reasoning, autonomous persons. By the 20th century, legal rights were understood as the liberties guaranteed to citizens by their governments. This theory of positive law prevailed until after World War II, when the victorious Allies confronted the horrifying fact that Nazi Germany had acted legally, by German law, in committing what the Allies identified as “crimes against humanity.”

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights without a dissenting vote. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which came into force in 1976, are the main treaties implementing this declaration.

The ICCPR and the ICESCR begin by affirming the right of self-determination of all peoples “to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” Both covenants also assert the right to non-discrimination, which the Universal Declaration defines as protecting and realizing human rights “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” The civil and political rights asserted in the ICCPR include the rights to life, liberty, security, protection against torture and arbitrary arrest, equal protection of the law, freedom of movement, participation in government, religion, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of assembly and association, and ownership of property.

The Universal Declaration also affirms economic, social, and cultural rights. Everyone “is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.” Also, every person has “the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment,” the rights to leisure time and education,

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