LAWS AND RIGHTS

1. Where do laws come from?

There is not a clear explanation about the origin of the laws but, what we all know is that laws are
necessary and important to our lives in society.

It is possible that laws have not always been as we know them today, and some theories could
explain the evolution of rules until our days.

Three of these theories are:

 Natural law theory.

It means that some rights and laws belong to our human nature not to any legal or political
codes. As a consequence, nothing could be done against our natural or positive laws
because they are legitimate themselves.

This theory says that we should not accept laws that are against our natural rights,
freedom, life, dignity, etc.

The negative aspect of this law is to set what rights are natural. It is clear that freedom,
dignity and life could be considered to be natural, but what about "new" terms such as
freedom of expression, right to property or live in democracy? Do they belong to us as
human beings or do laws have to guarantee them?

 Conventionalism.

It is contrary to natural laws. This theory says that laws have to be fair and must be agreed
between people. As a consequence, if a majority of society supports or rejects one law, it
must be passed or rejected.

 Legal positivism.

This theory argues that the only laws we should obey are those which have been
established by a country or a state at a particular time.

Legal positivism says that if we have rights (education, freedom, etc.) is because they have
been included in a written law, so natural laws have no sense.

One of the main defenders of the legal positivism is Hans Kelsen. He says that laws have to
be effective and not fair because justice and moral can vary but, laws are made for
everyone equally.

The point with legal positivism is: if we separate law from morality, could a law go against
human rights?

1
 2. The origin of current human rights.

Many people may think that the origin of human rights is very recent; however, they are a result of
the continuous fight to get human dignity.

Historically, great empires, societies and civilisations tried to establish legal equality between all
citizens. From ancient Greece to Rome; through Christianity up the middle Ages, citizens started
to join civil and political rights although women, slaves and foreigners did not received an equal
treatment.

In the 17th century, things changed a little, when the Bill of Rights was passed. It was the first time
that people was protected against the monarch's abuses.

However, there are two documents that mark the beginning for human rights: The United States
Declaration of Independence (1776) and The Declaration for the Rights of Man and the Citizen
(1789).

It was the first time that the principles of equality and liberty between all men were established on
legal texts. Unfortunately, once again these texts were imperfect because they did not include
women, children, slaves or the poorest.

 The current declaration of human rights.

Today, human rights are related to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This
document was written after the two world wars when some barbaric events that caused million of
deaths happened: the Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis; the assassination of millions of innocent
people under the regime of Stalin in the Soviet Union; and the atomic bombs the American
dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki whose poisoning effect left thousands
of victims.

In front of this global horror, in 1945 several countries gathered with the idea of promoting peace
and security in the world. As a consequence, the United Nations was born and today it includes
almost 200 states.

The first document presented a list of the basic rights that all countries should respect. Finally, in
1948 the current Universal Declaration of Human Rights was presented in Paris.

2
 3. What is included in the declaration of 1948?

The Universal declaration of Human Rights is made up of the following parts:

 The preamble.

It mentions the facts that motivated its birth: the acts of barbarism committed during and
after the two world wars. It also includes the principles that should govern our life in society:
freedom, justice, peace and friendship.

For the first time, the concept of dignity is reflected as the fundamental basis of all human
rights; rights that cannot be violated and will have to be applied to any person without any
possible discrimination.

The preamble also indicates that for human rights to be fulfilled, they must be incorporated
into the laws of each country so that they can be respected and put into practice.

In order to avoid the previous political confrontations between the two great communist and
capitalist blocks, all the civil, political, economic and social rights that both blocks
requested, were included in the content of the text. As a result, a final document was written
with the commitment of all states, to fulfil the whole content of the Declaration.

 30 articles.

Let's take a global view of the articles included in the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights:

 Fundamental principles. (Art. 1-2).

It refers to values such as: freedom, equality and solidarity. It would form the basis on which
all human rights are based. This principle tells us that all human beings are born free and
with the same dignity, so that no one can be discriminated against under any
circumstances.

 Individual civil rights. (Art. 3-11).

It refers to values such as freedom and personal security. Nobody, not even the
government can do it for us, because they belong to us in our own right. Among these
principles would be: the right to life or not to be tortured

 People's civil rights in relation to society. (Art. 12-17).

It refers values such as freedom. It would be all the things that we are all obliged to respect
in our relationship with others. This principle includes: the right to property, privacy, asylum
or having a family.

3
  Political rights. (Art. 18-21).

It makes a mention of participation. The freedoms of others must be respected and no one
has the right to take them away from us and therefore, we have the right to participate in
the society in which we live. This principle includes: freedom of thought and expression; the
right to vote and to belong to any political party

 Economic and social rights. (Art. 22.27).

He would talk about equality. It refers to the things that we must be provided with, in order
to fully develop as individuals in society. This article includes: the right to have sufficient
resources to be able to live, the right to social security, education, etc.

 Right to social and political order. (Art. 28).

It refers to values such as: solidarity, peace and development. These would be the
situations that guarantee us the chance of living in a free and fair world. Some examples
would be; the right to a clean environment or to live in peace.

 Duties and limitations. (Art. 29-30).

It refers to respect. It would be all the obligations that we must fulfil in order to enjoy rights.
This article includes the obligation to respect the freedom and rights of others.

4. Not respecting human rights.

Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed a long time ago, it is not
respected in many parts of the world. They reason for that could be that it was a very
ambitious project and not all the states want to apply it. In some countries intolerance and
discrimination is part of their lives; women are still treated as if they were inferior to men
and as a consequence, females are poorer and get less education.

The Declaration can't fight against religious beliefs. Fanaticism leads to intolerance and
can cause wars and terrorists actions with thousands of deaths.

Unfortunately, fanaticism adopts other forms such as: xenophobia, racism and social
exclusion of those who are considered inferior. People can be discriminated because they
are different or form part of a minority group.

The situation even gets worse when we talk about economy. The UN has created
programmes for underdeveloped countries whose levels of poverty, illiteracy, and lack of
access to basic resources is enormous. As always, the countries in which this situation is
given are: Africa, Asia and Latin America.

4
 The Millennium development goals.

In the Year 2000, the Millennium Development Goals were passed. Its main objectives were to
eradicate poverty and illiteracy; it also wanted to improve the health of women and children
with a time line of fifteen years.
Unfortunately, at the end of that period some improvements have been achieved, but they
have not been sufficient. As a consequence, a new project called: Sustainable Development
Goals have been created in order to continue improving the living conditions of the most
needed people.

5. Who protects our rights?

Human rights are continuously violated, but there are institutions, organisations and even
anonymous people who make sure that our rights are respected. Some of those mentioned
before are:

 Governments and International institutions.

Rights are protected by law. Moreover, in some countries like in Spain, some rights are
gathered in our Constitution. If someone violated them or did not respect them, we could go to
the European Court of Human Rights.

The United Nations is in Charge of monitoring the states and making sure that the international
agreements are accomplished. In order to guarantee and promote the respect of human rights,
the UN has created other agencies all over the world. Some examples of these organisations
are: UNICEF, deals with education of the children; UNESCO, in charge of education and
culture; FAO, which deals with food crises; and UNHCR, in charge of people who have lost
their houses during wars.

Once again, although these institutions make a continuous effort to help people, is not enough
and sometimes they are criticises because the help is very slow for those in need.

 The international criminal court.

At the end of the 20th century, there were major crimes committed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda
with thousands of deaths. It was thought that a court in charge of judging and condemning war
crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity would be necessary.

The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, was created in 2002. This ambitious
project has been recognised by 123 countries but, it loses its main purpose because some
major countries such as US, Russia, China, India and Israel do not recognise it.

However, the ICC has achieved some important goals:

5
- 2009. A Detention order against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crime against
his own people.
- 2012. 14 years of prison for Thomas Lubanga for recruiting and using children for armed
conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 Non-governmental organisations.

Civil society is also highly involved in defending human rights through NGOs (non-
governmental organisations.

Some of the most important organisations are: Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch. The make a great job denouncing human rights violations related to civil and political
rights. They also try to teach people how to respect human rights and to know what rights they
have.

Other important NGOs are: The International Committee of the Red Cross, Médecins Sans
Frontières, Intermon-Oxfam and Manos Unidas among others. They work on the economic and
social rights of the poorest and there they focus on victims of war conflicts, famine and natural
disasters. They have also implemented programmes to eradicate poverty, illiteracy and
discrimination against women and the least favoured.