Human Rights Defined

What are your human rights? Let’s start with some basic human rights definitions:
Human: noun
A member of the Homo sapiens species; a man, woman or child; a person.
Rights: noun
Things to which you are entitled or allowed; freedoms that are guaranteed.
Human Rights: noun

The rights you have simply because you are human. If you were to ask people in the street,
“What are human rights?” you would get many different answers. They would tell you the
rights they know about, but very few people know all their rights. As covered in the
definitions above, a right is a freedom of some kind. It is something to which you are entitled
by virtue of being human.

Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the individual. Their fundamental
assumption is that each person is a moral and rational being who deserves to be treated with
dignity. They are called human rights because they are universal. Whereas nations or
specialized groups enjoy specific rights that apply only to them, human rights are the rights to
which everyone is entitled—no matter who they are or where they live—simply because they
are alive.

Yet many people, when asked to name their rights, will list only freedom of speech and belief
and perhaps one or two others. There is no question these are important rights, but the full
scope of human rights is very broad. They mean choice and opportunity. They mean the
freedom to obtain a job, adopt a career, select a partner of one’s choice and raise children.
They include the right to travel widely and the right to work gainfully without harassment,
abuse and threat of arbitrary dismissal. They even embrace the right to leisure.

In ages past, there were no human rights. Then the idea emerged that people should have
certain freedoms. And that idea, in the wake of World War II, resulted finally in the
document called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the thirty rights to which all
people are entitled.

A Brief History of
Human Rights
The Cyrus Cylinder (539 B.C.)

The decrees Cyrus made on human rights were inscribed in the Akkadian language on a
baked-clay cylinder.
Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia, freed the slaves of Babylon, 539 B.C.
In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, conquered the city
of Babylon. But it was his next actions that marked a major advance for Man. He freed the
slaves, declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion, and established
racial equality. These and other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay cylinder in the
Akkadian language with cuneiform script.

Known today as the Cyrus Cylinder, this ancient record has now been recognized as the
world’s first charter of human rights. It is translated into all six official languages of the
United Nations and its provisions parallel the first four Articles of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.

The Spread of Human Rights

From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quickly to India, Greece and eventually
Rome. There the concept of “natural law” arose, in observation of the fact that people tended
to follow certain unwritten laws in the course of life, and Roman law was based on rational
ideas derived from the nature of things.

Documents asserting individual rights, such as the Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right
(1628), the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen (1789), and the US Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s
human rights documents.

The Magna Carta (1215)

Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” signed by the King of England in 1215, was a turning point
in human rights.

The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most significant early influence on
the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in the English-
speaking world.

In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which
England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which
enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was the right of
the church to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and
inherit property and to be protected from excessive taxes. It established the right of widows
who owned property to choose not to remarry, and established principles of due process and
equality before the law. It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official
misconduct.

Widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of modern
democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to establish freedom.

Petition of Right (1628)

In 1628 the English Parliament sent this statement of civil liberties to King Charles I.
The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the Petition of Right,
produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil
liberties. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his
government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy
measure. Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in
Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and
charters and asserted four principles: (1) No taxes may be levied without consent of
Parliament, (2) No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the
right of habeas corpus), (3) No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and (4) Martial
law may not be used in time of peace.

United States Declaration of Independence (1776

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson penned the American Declaration of Independence.

On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. Its
primary author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration as a formal explanation of why
Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year
after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and as a statement announcing that
the thirteen American Colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. Congress issued
the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as a printed
broadsheet that was widely distributed and read to the public.

Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and the right of
revolution. These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread internationally as well,
influencing in particular the French Revolution.

The Constitution of the United States of America (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791)

The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution protects basic freedoms of United States citizens.

Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States of
America is the fundamental law of the US federal system of government and the landmark
document of the Western world. It is the oldest written national constitution in use and
defines the principal organs of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of
citizens.

The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of Rights—came into effect on
December 15, 1791, limiting the powers of the federal government of the United States and
protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors in American territory.

The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear
arms, the freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition. It also prohibits unreasonable
search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment and compelled self-incrimination. Among
the legal protections it affords, the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making any law
respecting establishment of religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any
person of life, liberty or property without due process of law. In federal criminal cases it
requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital offense, or infamous crime, guarantees a
speedy public trial with an impartial jury in the district in which the crime occurred, and
prohibits double jeopardy.

Human Rights
Following the French Revolution in 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen granted specific freedoms from oppression, as an “expression of the general will.”

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)

In 1789 the people of France brought about the abolishment of the absolute monarchy and set
the stage for the establishment of the first French Republic. Just six weeks after the storming
of the Bastille, and barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du
Citoyen) was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly as the first step toward writing a
constitution for the Republic of France.

The Declaration proclaims that all citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression.” It argues that the need for law derives from
the fact that “...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which
assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights.” Thus, the
Declaration sees law as an “expression of the general will,“ intended to promote this equality
of rights and to forbid “only actions harmful to the society.”

The First Geneva Convention (1864)

The original document from the first Geneva Convention in 1864 provided for care to
wounded soldiers.

In 1864, sixteen European countries and several American states attended a conference in
Geneva, at the invitation of the Swiss Federal Council, on the initiative of the Geneva
Committee. The diplomatic conference was held for the purpose of adopting a convention for
the treatment of wounded soldiers in combat.

The main principles laid down in the Convention and maintained by the later Geneva
Conventions provided for the obligation to extend care without discrimination to wounded
and sick military personnel and respect for and marking of medical personnel transports and
equipment with the distinctive sign of the red cross on a white background.

The United Nations (1945)

Fifty nations met in San Francisco in 1945 and formed the United Nations to protect and
promote peace.

World War II had raged from 1939 to 1945, and as the end drew near, cities throughout
Europe and Asia lay in smoldering ruins. Millions of people were dead, millions more were
homeless or starving. Russian forces were closing in on the remnants of German resistance in
Germany’s bombed-out capital of Berlin. In the Pacific, US Marines were still battling
entrenched Japanese forces on such islands as Okinawa.

In April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco full of optimism and hope.
The goal of the United Nations Conference on International Organization was to fashion an
international body to promote peace and prevent future wars. The ideals of the organization
were stated in the preamble to its proposed charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations
are determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our
lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind.”

The Charter of the new United Nations organization went into effect on October 24, 1945, a
date that is celebrated each year as United Nations Day.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has inspired a number of other human rights
laws and treaties throughout the world.

By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commission had captured the world’s
attention. Under the dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin
Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion in her own right and the United States delegate
to the UN—the Commission set out to draft the document that became the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt, credited with its inspiration, referred to the
Declaration as the international Magna Carta for all mankind. It was adopted by the United
Nations on December 10, 1948.

In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally proclaims the inherent rights
of all human beings: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous
acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which
human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has
been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people...All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights.”

The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together to promote the thirty
Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been assembled and codified
into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms, are today part
of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

AN INTRODUCTION

On October 24, 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations came into being
as an intergovernmental organization, with the purpose of saving future generations from the
devastation of international conflict.
United Nations representatives from all regions of the world formally adopted the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

The Charter of the United Nations established six principal bodies, including the General
Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and in relation to human
rights, an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

The UN Charter empowered ECOSOC to establish “commissions in economic and social

fields and for the promotion of human rights….” One of these was the United Nations Human
Rights Commission, which, under the chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt, saw to the creation
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Declaration was drafted by representatives of all regions of the world and encompassed
all legal traditions. Formally adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, it is the
most universal human rights document in existence, delineating the thirty fundamental rights
that form the basis for a democratic society.

Following this historic act, the Assembly called upon all Member Countries to publicize the
text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded
principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the
political status of countries or territories.”

Today, the Declaration is a living document that has been accepted as a contract between a
government and its people throughout the world. According to the Guinness Book of World
Records, it is the most translated document in the world.

International Human
Rights Law
By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commission had captured the attention of
the world. Under the dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin
Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion in her own right and the United States delegate
to the UN—the Commission set out to draft the document that became the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt, credited with its inspiration, referred to the
Declaration as the “international Magna Carta for all mankind.” It was adopted by the United
Nations on December 10, 1948.

In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally proclaims the inherent rights
of all human beings: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous
acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which
human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has
been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people....All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights.”

The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together to promote the thirty
Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been assembled and codified
into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms, are today part
of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.
INTERNATIONAL BILL OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is an ideal standard held in common by nations
around the world, but it bears no force of law. Thus, from 1948 to 1966, the UN Human
Rights Commission’s main task was to create a body of international human rights law based
on the Declaration, and to establish the mechanisms needed to enforce its implementation and
use.

The Human Rights Commission produced two major documents: the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Both became international law in 1976.
Together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these two covenants comprise
what is known as the “International Bill of Human Rights.”

The ICCPR focuses on issues such as the right to life, freedom of speech, religion and
voting. The ICESCR focuses on food, education, health and shelter. Both covenants
proclaim these rights for all people and forbid discrimination.

Furthermore, Article 26 of the ICCPR established a Human Rights Committee of the United
Nations. Composed of eighteen human rights experts, the Committee is responsible for
ensuring that each signatory to the ICCPR complies with its terms. The Committee examines
reports submitted by countries every five years (to ensure they are in compliance with
the ICCPR), and issues findings based on a country’s performance.

Many countries that ratified the ICCPR also agreed that the Human Rights Committee may
investigate allegations by individuals and organizations that the State has violated their rights.
Before appealing to the Committee, the complainant must exhaust all legal recourse in the
courts of that country. After investigation, the Committee publishes the results. These
findings have great force. If the Committee upholds the allegations, the State must take
measures to remedy the abuse.

SUBSEQUENT UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTS

In addition to the covenants in the International Bill of Human Rights, the United Nations has
adopted more than twenty principal treaties further elaborating human rights. These include
conventions to prevent and prohibit specific abuses such as torture and genocide and to
protect specific vulnerable populations such as refugees (Convention Relating to the Status of
Refugees, 1951), women (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, 1979), and children (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989). Other
conventions cover racial discrimination, prevention of genocide, political rights of women,
prohibition of slavery and torture.

Each of these treaties has established a committee of experts to monitor implementation of

the treaty provisions by its State parties.

EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the inspiration for the European
Convention on Human Rights, one of the most significant agreements in the European
Community. The Convention was adopted in 1953 by the Council of Europe, an
intergovernmental organization established in 1949 and composed of forty-seven European
Community Member States. This body was formed to strengthen human rights and promote
democracy and the rule of law.

The Convention is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
Any person claiming to be the victim of a violation in one of the forty-seven countries in the
European Community which has signed and ratified the Convention, may seek relief with the
European Court. One must first have exhausted all recourse in the courts of their home
country and have filed an application for relief with the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg.

HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS FOR THE AMERICAS, AFRICA AND ASIA

In North and South America, Africa and Asia, regional documents for the protection and
promotion of human rights extend the International Bill of Human Rights.

The American Convention on Human Rights pertains to the inter-American states—the

Americas—and was entered into force in 1978.

African states have created their own Charter of Human and People’s Rights (1981), and
Muslim states have created the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990).

The Asian Human Rights Charter (1986) was created by the Asian Human Rights
Commission, founded that year by a group of jurists and human rights activists in Hong
Kong. The Charter is described as a “people’s charter,” because no governmental charter has
been issued to date.

HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTS

1. Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted and
opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A
(XXI) of 16 December 1966 entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 9

2. Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
aiming at the abolition of the death penalty adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly
resolution 44/128 of 15 December 1989

3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted and opened for
signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16
December 1966 entry into force 3 January 1976, in accordance with Article 27

4. Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms as amended
by Protocol No. 11 with Protocol Nos. 1, 4, 6, 7, 12 and 13

5. African (Banjul) Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, OAU
Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 [1982], entered into force 21 October 1986)

6. American Convention on Human Rights O.A.S.Treaty Series No. 36, 1144 U.N.T.S. 123,
entered into force July 18, 1978, reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in
the Inter-American System, OEA/Ser.L.V/II.82 doc.6 rev.1 at 25 (1992)
Human Rights
Violations
Human rights advocates agree that, sixty years after its issue, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights is still more a dream than reality. Violations exist in every part of the world.
For example, Amnesty International’s 2009 World Report and other sources show that
individuals are:

 Tortured or abused in at least 81 countries

 Face unfair trials in at least 54 countries
 Restricted in their freedom of expression in at least 77 countries

Not only that, but women and children in particular are marginalized in numerous ways, the
press is not free in many countries, and dissenters are silenced, too often permanently. While
some gains have been made over the course of the last six decades, human rights violations
still plague the world today. To help inform you of the true situation throughout the world,
this section provides examples of violations of six Articles of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR):

ARTICLE 3 — THE RIGHT TO LIVE FREE

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”

An estimated 6,500 people were killed in 2007 in armed conflict in Afghanistan—nearly half
being noncombatant civilian deaths at the hands of insurgents. Hundreds of civilians were
also killed in suicide attacks by armed groups. In Brazil in 2007, according to official figures,
police killed at least 1,260 individuals—the highest total to date. All incidents were officially
labeled “acts of resistance” and received little or no investigation. In Uganda, 1,500 people
die each week in the internally displaced person camps. According to the World Health
Organization, 500,000 have died in these camps. Vietnamese authorities forced at least
75,000 drug addicts and prostitutes into 71 overpopulated “rehab” camps, labeling the
detainees at “high risk” of contracting HIV/AIDS but providing no treatment.

ARTICLE 4 — NO SLAVERY

“No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited
in all their forms.”

In northern Uganda, the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) guerrillas have kidnapped 20,000
children over the past twenty years and forced them into service as soldiers or sexual slaves
for the army. In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as five are trafficked out of the country to
work in cotton fields in southern Senegal or as beggars in the capital city. In Ghana, children
five to fourteen are tricked with false promises of education and future into dangerous,
unpaid jobs in the fishing industry. In Asia, Japan is the major destination country for
trafficked women, especially women coming from the Philippines and Thailand. UNICEF
estimates 60,000 child prostitutes in the Philippines. The US State Department estimates
600,000 to 820,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each
year, half of whom are minors, including record numbers of women and girls fleeing from
Iraq. In nearly all countries, including Canada, the US and the UK, deportation or harassment
are the usual governmental responses, with no assistance services for the victims. In the
Dominican Republic, the operations of a trafficking ring led to the death by asphyxiation of
25 Haitian migrant workers. In 2007, two civilians and two military officers received lenient
prison sentences for their part in the operation. In Somalia in 2007, more than 1,400 displaced
Somalis and Ethiopian nationals died at sea in trafficking operations.

ARTICLE 5 — NO TORTURE

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment.”

In 2008, US authorities continued to hold 270 prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, without
charge or trial, subjecting them to “water-boarding,” torture that simulates drowning. Former-
President George W. Bush authorized the CIA to continue secret detention and interrogation,
despite its violation of international law. In Darfur, violence, atrocities and abduction are
rampant and outside aid all but cut off. Women in particular are the victims of unrestrained
assault, with more than 200 rapes in the vicinity of a displaced persons camp in one five-
week period, with no effort by authorities to punish the perpetrators. In the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, acts of torture and ill treatment are routinely committed by
government security services and armed groups, including sustained beatings, stabbings and
rapes of those in custody. Detainees are held incommunicado, sometimes in secret detention
sites. In 2007, the Republican Guard (presidential guard) and Special Services police division
in Kinshasa arbitrarily detained and tortured numerous individuals labeled as critics of the
government.

ARTICLE 13 — FREEDOM TO MOVE

“1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each
State.

“2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.”

In Myanmar, thousands of citizens were detained, including 700 prisoners of conscience,

most notably Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. In retaliation for her political
activities, she has been imprisoned or under house arrest for twelve of the last eighteen years,
and has refused government offers of release that would require her to leave the country. In
Algeria, refugees and asylum-seekers were frequent victims of detention, expulsion or ill
treatment. Twenty-eight individuals from sub-Saharan African countries with official refugee
status from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were deported to
Mali after being falsely tried, without legal counsel or interpreters, on charges of entering
Algeria illegally. They were dumped near a desert town where a Malian armed group was
active, without food, water or medical aid. In Kenya, authorities violated international
refugee law when they closed the border to thousands of people fleeing armed conflict in
Somalia. Asylum-seekers were illegally detained at the Kenyan border without charge or trial
and forcibly returned to Somalia. In northern Uganda, 1.6 million citizens remained in
displacement camps. In the Acholi subregion, the area most affected by armed conflict, 63
percent of the 1.1 million people displaced in 2005 were still living in camps in 2007, with
only 7,000 returned permanently to their places of origin.
ARTICLE 18 — FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes
freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with
others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship
and observance.”

In Myanmar, the military junta crushed peaceful demonstrations led by monks, raided and
closed monasteries, confiscated and destroyed property, shot, beat and detained protesters,
and harassed or held hostage the friends and family members of the protesters. In China,
Falun Gong practitioners were singled out for torture and other abuses while in detention.
Christians were persecuted for practicing their religion outside state-sanctioned channels. In
Kazakhstan, local authorities in a community near Almaty authorized the destruction of
twelve homes, all belonging to Hare Krishna members, falsely charging that the land on
which the homes were built had been illegally acquired. Only homes belonging to members
of the Hare Krishna community were destroyed

ARTICLE 19 — FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to
hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

In Sudan, dozens of human rights defenders were arrested and tortured by national
intelligence and security forces. In Ethiopia, two prominent human rights defenders were
convicted on false charges and sentenced to nearly three years in prison. In Somalia, a
prominent human rights defender was murdered. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
the government attacks and threatens human rights defenders and restricts freedom of
expression and association. In 2007, provisions of the 2004 Press Act were used by the
government to censor newspapers and limit freedom of expression. Russia repressed political
dissent, pressured or shut down independent media and harassed nongovernmental
organizations. Peaceful public demonstrations were dispersed with force, and lawyers, human
rights defenders and journalists were threatened and attacked. Since 2000, the murders of
seventeen journalists, all critical of government policies and actions, remain unsolved. In
Iraq, at least thirty-seven Iraqi employees of media networks were killed in 2008, and a total
of 235 since the invasion of March 2003, making Iraq the world’s most dangerous place for
journalists

ARTICLE 21 — RIGHT TO DEMOCRACY

“1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through
freely chosen representatives.

“2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

“3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be
expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage
and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
In Zimbabwe, hundreds of human rights defenders and members of the main opposition
party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), were arrested for participating in
peaceful gatherings. In Pakistan, thousands of lawyers, journalists, human rights defenders
and political activists were arrested for demanding democracy, the rule of law and an
independent judiciary.In Cuba, at the end of 2007, sixty two prisoners of conscience
remained incarcerated for their nonviolent political views or activities.

SUMMARY

Human rights exist, as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the entire
body of international human rights law. They are recognized—at least in principle—by most
nations and form the heart of many national constitutions. Yet the actual situation in the
world is far distant from the ideals envisioned in the Declaration.

To some, the full realization of human rights is a remote and unattainable goal. Even
international human rights laws are difficult to enforce and pursuing a complaint can take
years and a great deal of money. These international laws serve as a restraining function but
are insufficient to provide adequate human rights protection, as evidenced by the stark reality
of abuses perpetrated daily.

Discrimination is rampant throughout the world. Thousands are in prison for speaking their
minds. Torture and politically motivated imprisonment, often without trial, are commonplace,
condoned and practiced—even in some democratic countries.