HUMAN RIGHTS

rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. They refer to a wide continuum of values that are universal in character and in some sense equally claimed for all human beings. It is a common observation that human beings everywhere demand the realization of diverse values to ensure their individual and collective well-being. It also is a common observation that these demands are often painfully frustrated by social as well as natural forces, resulting in exploitation, oppression, persecution, and other forms of deprivation. Deeply rooted in these twin observations are the beginnings of what today are called human rights and the legal processes, national and international, associated with them. rights that belong to an individual as a consequence of being human. They refer to a wide continuum of values that are universal in character and in some sense equally claimed for all human beings. The origins of the concept of human rights are usually agreed to be found in the Greco-Roman natural-law doctrines of stoicism, which held that a universal force pervades all creation and that human conduct should therefore be judged according to the law of nature, and in the jus gentium (law of nations), in which certain universal rights were extended beyond the rights of Roman citizenship. These concepts taught more of duties than rights, however, and allowed for slavery and serfdom. It was during the period from the Renaissance until the 17th century that the beliefs and practices of society so changed that the idea of human (or natural) rights could take hold as a general social need and reality. The writings of St. Thomas Aquinas and Hugo Grotius, as well as Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights of 1628, and the English Bill of Rights, all reflected the view that human beings are endowed with certain eternal and inalienable rights. This modernist conception of natural law as meaning natural rights was elaborated in the 17th and 18th centuries by such writers as Ren Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, Benedict de Spinoza, and Francis Bacon. Particularly to be noted are the writings of the English philosopher John Locke, who was perhaps the most important natural-law theorist of modern times, and the Philosophes, including Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The struggle against political absolutism in the late 18th and the 19th centuries further advanced the concept of human rights. Thomas Jefferson and the marquis de Lafayette gave eloquence to the plain prose of the previous century, and freedoms were specified in a variety of historic documents such as The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and the Bill of Rights (1791) of the Constitution of the United States (1787). The idea that natural law is the foundation for human rights came under attack during the late 18th century by such men as conservatives Edmund Burke and David Hume, as well as by Jeremy Bentham, a founder and leading proponent of utilitarianism. This assault continued into the early 20th century. Such writers as John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Karl von Savigny, Sir Henry Maine, John Austin, and Ludwig Wittgenstein sought other justifications for, and definitions of, those rights. But efforts to assert and protect the rights of humanity continued to multiply in one form or anotherthe abolition of slavery, labour laws, popular education, trade unionism, universal suffrageduring the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the notion of human rights had achieved universal acceptance, at least in principle, by the second half of the 20th century, following the fall of Nazi Germany. This general agreement that all human beings are entitled to some basic rights marked the birth of the international and universal recognition of human rights. In the charter establishing the United Nations, all members were pledged to achieve universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion, and the UN has continued to affirm its commitment to human rights, particularly in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (q.v.; 1948). International concern for human rights has also been evident outside of the United Nations. For example, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which met in Helsinki in 197375, produced the Helsinki Final Act. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which first met in 1950, eventually produced the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Social Charter; the Ninth Pan-American Conference of 1948 adopted the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man; and the Organization of African Unity in 1981 adopted the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. There are also a number of private groups involved in human-rights advocacy. One of the best-known international human-rights agencies is Amnesty International (q.v.; founded in 1961), an organization dedicated to publicizing violations of human rights, especially freedoms of speech and religion and the right of political dissent. Additional reading Documentary: United Nations, Human Rights: A Compilation of International Instruments, 3rd ed. (1978), contains the texts of human rights treaties and other instruments established under the auspices of the United Nations. United Nations, Yearbook on Human Rights (annual), documents national and international developments in the human rights field. See also James Avery Joyce, Human Rights: International Documents, 3 vol. (1978); Burns H. Weston, Richard A. Falk, and Anthony A. D'Amato (eds.), Basic Documents in International Law and World Order (1980); Ian Brownlie (comp.), Basic Documents on Human Rights, 2nd ed. (1981); Richard B. Lillich (ed.), International Human Rights Instruments: A Compilation of Treaties, Agreements, and Declarations of Especial Interest to the United States (1983); and unifo, International Human Rights Instruments of the United Nations (1983). General: Basic works on the subject include Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, International Law and Human Rights (1950, reprinted 1973); Jzsef Hlasz (ed.), Socialist Concept of Human Rights, trans. from the Hungarian (1966); Egon Schwelb, Human Rights and the International Community: The Roots and Growth of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1964); Evan Luard (ed.), The International Protection of Human Rights (1967); Asbjrn Eide and August Schou (eds.), International Protection of Human Rights: Proceedings of the Seventh Nobel Symposium, September 2527, 1967 (1968); R. Bilder, Rethinking International Human Rights: Some Basic Questions, Wisconsin Law Review, pp. 171217, no. 1 (1969); John Carey, UN Protection of Civil and Political Rights (1970); Vernon Van Dyke, Human Rights, the United States, and World Community (1970); Maurice Cranston, What Are Human Rights? (1973); J. Humphrey, The International Law of Human Rights in the Middle Twentieth Century, in Maarten Bos (ed.), The Present State of International Law and Other Essays (1973); Moses Moskowitz , International Concern with Human Rights (1974); Manouchehr Ganji, The Realization of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights: Problems, Policies, Progress (1975); Richard P. Claude (ed.), Comparative Human Rights (1976); Thomas Buergenthal (ed.), Human Rights, International Law, and the Helsinki Accord (1977); Franciszek Przetacznik, The Socialist Concept of Human Rights: Its Philosophical Background and Political Justification, Belgian Review of International Law, 13:239278 (1977); Fouad Ajami, Human Rights and World Order Politics (1978); James Avery Joyce, The New Politics of Human Rights (1979); B.G. Ramcharan (ed.), Human Rights: Thirty Years After the Universal Declaration (1979); Myres S. Mcdougal, Harold D. Lasswell, and Lung-Chu Chen, Human Rights and World Public Order: The Basic Policies of an International Law of Human Dignity (1980); Richard A. Falk, Human Rights and State Sovereignty (1981); Louis Henkin (ed.), The International Bill of Rights: The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1981), and The Rights of Man Today (1978); S.P. Marks, Emerging Human Rights: A New Generation for the 1980s, Rutgers Law Review, 33:435452 (Winter 1981); A.H. Robertson, Human Rights in the World: An Introduction to the Study of the International Protection of Human Rights, 2nd ed. (1982); Karel Vasak (ed.), The International Dimension of Human Rights, 2 vol., trans. from the French (1982); Paul Sieghart, The International Law of Human Rights (1983); and Hurst Hannum (ed.), Guide to International Human Rights Practice (1984). Regional instruments and arrangements: J.E.S. Fawcett, The Application of the European Convention on Human Rights (1969); S. Marks, La Commission permanente arabe des droits de l'homme, Revue de droits de l'homme/Human Rights Journal, 3:101108 (1970); Frede Castberg, The European Convention on Human Rights, trans. from the Norwegian (1974); Council Of Europe, European Convention on Human Rights: Collected Texts (1975); A.H. Robertson , Human Rights in Europe, 2nd ed. (1977); Thomas Buergenthal and Robert E. Norris (eds.), Human Rights: The Inter-American System (1982 ); R. Gittleman, The African Charter on Human and People's Rights: A Legal Analysis, Virginia Journal of International Law, 22:667714 (1982); and U. Umozurike, The African Charter on Human and People's Rights, American Journal of International Law, 77:902912 (October 1983). Human rights journals: Human Rights Law Journal (quarterly); Human Rights Quarterly (formerly Universal Human Rights); The Human Rights Review (three times a year, 197681); and Revue des droits de l'homme/Human Rights Journal (quarterly, 196879). Burns H. Weston