The concept of Human Rights is a modern one, which could be dated back to the origins of the American and French revolutions. The concept of rights developed as an act of protecting the individual from the excessive powers of the newly formed notion of the Westphalia nation state.
Political theorists such as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau were among the first to verbalize the social rights of the individual as a citizen of the state and his/her obligation and duties to the state as they enter into a social contract. The theorists struggled to establish such ideologies, which grant humans the most basic rights within a state in a secular fashion.
Social Contracts
In the development of the social contract theory, we find no mention of a certain religious belief; mankind was given those basic rights for being a member of humanity. As the nation state grew, there was an expansion of rights that should be granted to each citizen. The new arguments didn’t only grant average citizen his/her social rights, they included political, economic, and environmental ones to ensure the well-being of the individual.
However, the concept of rights was only limited to certain states until the late 19th century; the concept didn’t fully develop to the level in which it is viewed today; the concept didn’t go beyond the western hemisphere. Even within those states that recognized the basic rights of humans, there were many abuses and violations, namely relating to women’s rights and slavery. They didn’t enjoy the same rights; they were viewed as second class citizens. We don’t notice a change in the attitude and practices of such rights until the beginning of the twentieth century.
20th Century Way of Doing Things!
Within the first 30+ years of the 1900’s, the world witnessed catastrophic events: two world wars were fought; an economic depression, a plague, an entire race was threatened by genocide, an atomic bomb was used to wipe out two Asian cities, and more.
Such events and their destructive outcome brought the subject of human rights to the forefront; it became one of the most discussed subjects of the twentieth century. Human rights were the driving force, which led to the creation of the United Nations.
In 1946, the Commission on Human Rights was created, and it was led by no one other than the widow of the UN’s founding father; Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt. The commission was made up of 9 members at the time, and it had a specific task; it had to establish an international bill of human rights. It couldn’t be an international treaty; it couldn’t be binding to all signatory nations.
The commission produced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR was first presented to the world on December of 1948, and it was the first step toward recognition of the rights of all people despite the differences. At the time it was presented to the General Assembly, 48 countries voted for, zero voted against it, and six abstentions.
The Declaration includes a preamble and 30 articles; the articles granted humans diverse types of rights, which could be categorized as personal rights, procedural rights, social rights, and political rights. Each person is granted his/her personal rights of speech, information, religion, property, thought. In addition, the procedural rights of a fair trial and the protection of his/her well-being during time of distress. Each person is also granted the social rights to employment, minimum standard of economic, social, and cultural well-being. Add to the political rights of citizenship, and political participation.
