HUMAN RIGHTS
 KATOS KONSTANTINOS
 EIRINI FRESA
GENERAL
• Human rights are moral principles or norms, which describe certain standards
of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal
rights in municipal and international law.
• Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice
and peace in the world...
— 1st sentence of the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
— Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
CLASSIFICATION
• At an international level the most common categorization of human rights
has been to split them into civil and political rights, and economic, social and
cultural rights.
• However, there are three major classifications:
Indivisibility
• The UDHR included both economic, social and cultural rights and civil and
political rights because it was based on the principle that the different rights
could only successfully exist in combination.
• The indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights has been confirmed
by the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action:
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.
— Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, World Conference on Human
Rights, 1993
This statement was again endorsed at the 2005 World Summit in New York
(paragraph 121).
Categorization
Economic, social and cultural rights are
argued to be:
Similarly civil and political rights are
categorized as:
• aspirations or goals
• capitalist
• ideologically divisive/political
• cost-free
• non-justiciable
• immediate
• Positive
• justiciable
• Progressive
• negative
• resource-intensive
• non-ideological/non-political
• Socialist
• precise
• vague
• real 'legal' rights
UNITED NATIONS
•
The foundation of the United Nations
and the provisions of the United Nations
Charter provided a basis for a
comprehensive system of international
law and practice for the protection of
human rights.
•
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly in
1948.
•
Canadian law professor John Humphrey
and French lawyer René Cassin were
responsible for much of the cross-national
research and the structure of the
document respectively, but the document
was structured by Cassin.
UNITED NATIONS
• The purposes of the UN:
1. to achieve international cooperation in solving
international problems of an economic, social,
cultural, or humanitarian character
2. promoting and encouraging respect for human
rights and for fundamental freedoms for all
without distinction as to race, sex, language,
or religion
UNITED NATIONS
The United Nations shall promote:
higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions
of economic and social progress and development
 solutions of international economic, social, health, and
related problems
international cultural and educational cooperation
universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race,
sex, language, or religion.
Substantive rights


Right to life

Freedom from torture

Freedom from slavery

Right to a fair trial

Freedom of speech
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion


Sexual and reproductive rights


Freedom of movement
World Health Organisation
Sexual orientation and gender identity