Human Rights: Rhetoric and Reality

Rhetoric and Reality: A Broad View of Human Rights

The universality of human rights centrally aims to explicate and defend an account of human rights as universal rights. It is however, not to argue here that human rights are timeless, unchanging or absolute; any list or idea of human rights lies in its very conception of the term itself-is historically specific and contingent. Human rights in the contemporary world are universal in the sense that they are almost universally accepted, at least in word, as ideal standards. All states regularly proclaim their acceptance of and adherence to international human right norms, and charges of human right violations are among the strongest complaints that can be made in international relations. Three quarters of the world’s states have undertaken international legal obligations to implement these rights by becoming parties to the international Human rights covenants and almost all nations have expressed approval of and commitment to their content. Consider the range of issues covered by the Universal Declaration of human rights which recognizes:

Containing thirty separate articles the UDHR supports equal rights including the right to life, liberty and the security of the individual.

It prohibits slavery and torture and calls for equal protection under the law. This includes freedom from arbitrary arrest and access to full and fair public hearings by an independent or impartial tribunal. Also outlined is the presumption of innocence, the right to defence and to only be held guilty against laws and penalties applicable at the time the offence was committed.

In addition is the freedom of movement, the right to seek asylum and to have a nationality.

The right to own property and the right of women and men of full age to enter freely into marriage with the full consent of both parties and to start a family is also included in the Declaration. Families themselves are...