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.
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:
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. However, many countries in the world do not protect the human rights of their people.
Some major political groups and countries have made statements that promote human rights. Many governments and international groups punish human rights violators by refusing to trade with them, or even helping groups that want to overthrow their governments.
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 lists what the United Nations believes are human rights. It is not a law, but two important agreements have been written based on its ideas:
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".
Not everyone agrees on what the basic human rights are. It is 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:
Human rights abuses are 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:
Arresting someone because they said the government is doing bad things
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.
In the UK, every Act of Parliament must comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. Nonetheless, a person can challenge an Act if it violates the convention. However, the Government are not bound to change the law due to incompatibility, and they have the power to pass a law that contravenes with the Human Rights, if they wish.