Importance Of International Human Rights

“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

― John F. Kennedy

Human rights are inherent to all human beings, regardless of their nationality, beliefs, religious affiliations, ethnicity or any other status and all humans are equally entitled to their human rights without discrimination and they stand interrelated, interdependent and indivisible from one another.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Where one expects his human rights to be respected, he must in return also respect everyone else’s in order to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is generally agreed to be the foundation of international human rights law. Adopted in 1948, the UDHR has inspired a rich body of legally binding international human rights treaties. It continues to be an inspiration to us all whether in addressing injustices, in times of conflicts, in societies suffering repression, and in our efforts towards achieving universal enjoyment of human rights.

Human rights can also be construed to be soft law. Hard law is “black letter law” the exact law as specified in court decisions. Soft law comes in two forms. There are legal rules which are not the subject of court decisions but which nevertheless influence policy making as if they were law. For example, some UN resolutions become accepted as authoritative guidelines even while remaining, legally speaking, non- binding recommendations.

Human rights are broadly divided into the following heads:

1. Civil and Political