Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 2

1.1. Objectives .......................................................................................................... 2

1.1.1. General........................................................................................................ 2

1.1.2. Specifics ..................................................................................................... 2

2. HUMAN RIGHTS .................................................................................................... 3

2.1. Individual rights of men in antiquity ................................................................. 3

2.1.1. The Magna Letter ....................................................................................... 4

2.1.2. The Influence of English Documents and the Enlightenment .................... 4

2.1.3. Declaration of Virginia (1776) ................................................................... 5

2.1.4. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) ......................... 6

2.2. Human rights concept ........................................................................................ 6

2.3. International human rights law .......................................................................... 7

2.4. Sovereignty and International Human Rights Law ............................................ 7

2.5. Human rights violations ..................................................................................... 7

3. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 10

4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES ........................................................................ 11

1. INTRODUCTION
In the present work, the group speaks in favor of Human Rights, a theme of paramount importance
for human living.

It was understood by the end of World War II that if there were an effective system of international
protection of human rights capable of holding states accountable for the violations committed by
them or in their territories, perhaps the world would not have had to experience the horrors
perpetrated by the Nazis, at least not on such a large scale. Human rights then became a real
concern on a global scale, which drove the process of its universalization and the development of
international human rights law, through a normative framework that allowed the international
accountability of states when they fail to protect the human rights of their citizens. It has come to
be understood that state sovereignty, in fact, cannot be understood as an absolute principle and
should be limited in favor of the protection of human rights, given that this is a problem of
international relevance.

It is with this brief history that we introduce our theme, which adds complexity and a certain
controversy.

1.1. Objectives
1.1.1. General

 Understand the conceptualization of human rights.

1.1.2. Specifics
 Talk about International Human Rights Law
 State the origin of individual rights;
 Briefly describe the violation of human rights;

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2. HUMAN RIGHTS
2.1. Individual rights of men in antiquity
The origin of the individual rights of the human person was in Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Egypt was the first civilization to develop a system for individual protection from the
state, a legal system that could be called codes, formulating rules of law. It was during
the period called the Cuneiform Law that “codes” such as the Hamrabi Code (1690 BC)
began to appear, perhaps the first to enshrine a list of rights common to all men, such as
life, property, honor, dignity, the family, foreseeing the supremacy of laws over their
governments.

Another relevant aspect in considering the arrival of these rights in Greece and Rome was
the philosophical and religious influence of the human person, which can be felt with the
spread of Buddha's ideas about equality of all men (500 BC). Ancient Greece is one of
the major historical sources of Western European rights. Although they were not great
jurists, the Greeks presented themselves as great philosophers and political thinkers. The
Greek laws, from the century. SAW. BC, more precisely those of Athens, differed from
the other laws of antiquity in that they were democratically established. They were not
decreed by the rulers, but freely established by the people in the Assembly, they resulted
from the popular will. The Greek philosophical conception did not conceive of a system
of guarantees of individuals against the state or rulers, because the sealing of the citizen's
personality deserved “polis” disapproval, by virtue of a political ethical judgment, and
not legally institutionalized, the law would derive from a more or less vague notion of
justice that would be diffused in the collective consciousness. While the Greeks thought
philosophically, the Romans thought legally. These were the great jurists of antiquity
recognizing the divergence between the “just” and the “law”, conceived three strata in the
legal order:

Natural, rational and perpetual law (later identified as a common element of the
various positive rights) and civil law, reserved for citizens as regulator of individual
relations. The Roman concern, however, was the interindividual relationship, reaching
the Roman process a high degree of evolution. In its three phases (the lawsuit, the form
period and the cognitive extra order) the law enforcement was improved, but at no time
was the judicial mechanism structured to secure the person against the emperor's will.

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Another important landmark of this period was the Law of the Twelve Tablets, which can
be considered the origin of the written texts that consecrate freedom, property, and the
protection of the rights of the citizen. Under the aegis of Christianity, through the
conception that “man was created in the image of God”, the understanding of the rights
of the human person in the political organization was opened, establishing a link between
the individual and the divinity and overcoming conception of the state as the only perfect
unity, so that the citizen man was replaced by the person man.

St. Thomas Aquinas reaffirms that "man's dignity derives from his being the image of
God" and that a person is an end in itself, never a means. Things are means and are ordered
to people at their service; but people, though ordered in some way from each other, are
never in a relationship of middle and end and should not be instrumentalized. The
development of human rights in antiquity was not possible because the inherent notion of
personal freedom did not yet exist. Slavery was seen almost as natural, and even the idea
of democracy in Republican Greece and Rome was linked to the integration of the
individual into the state, which absorbed it completely. It was not conceived that freedom
could in some cases go against the sovereignty of the state.

2.1.1. The Magna Letter

It was the embryo of what human rights would be. Not that this document dealt
specifically with this, but there were mentions of the Church's freedom from the state,
and the equality of the citizen before the law. Indeed, paragraph 39 stated: "No free man
shall be arrested, detained, deprived of his property, outlawed or exiled without the
judgment of his peers or the disposition of the law." King John was pressured to sign the
Magna Carta to avoid constant violations of the laws and customs of England..

2.1.2. The Influence of English Documents and the Enlightenment

In 1628, the Petition of Right also mentioned important aspects of individual rights. The
great influence of Enlightenment thought, which made men equal by reason, is inherent
to them. "The concept of Natural Law is then proposed under the aegis of rationalism,
which would naturally belong to man, because he was born human and not by virtue of
his social class, or because he belonged to a particular country, ethnic or religious group."
Both the Enlightenment and English pioneerism had a great influence on the constitutions
of the English colonies in North America.

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2.1.3. Declaration of Virginia (1776)
It was the first political document that recognized, along with the legitimacy of popular
sovereignty, the existence of rights inherent in every human being regardless of
differences in sex, race, religion, culture or social position. Briefly exposing the natural
rights of men, this statement, written by Virginia state congressmen, established the
protection of individuals' life, liberty, property and “the pursuit of happiness” as essential
to a government that seeks the common good.

He expressed the foundations of the democratic regime by recognizing the innate rights
of every human person that could not be alienated or suppressed by a political decision,
and further underlined the importance of popular sovereignty. Defense of equality before
the law. Press freedom as one of the great bulwarks of freedom

The theories of Locke, Rousseau, and Montesquieu came to strongly inspire the creation
of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and US Independence. The precepts embodied the
foundations of human rights, such as:

 All men are by nature free and independent;

 All power is vested in the people, and therefore is derived from them, and the
magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times responsible for
them.
 Government is, or should be, constituted for the common benefit , protection, and
security of the people, nation, or community;
 No one has exclusive privileges or public office or service will be hereditary;
 The executive and the state Legislature should be separate and distinct from the
judiciary and to guarantee against oppression, members of the first two would
have to have temporary endowment and vacancies would be filled by frequent
elections, certain and regular elections
 The elections of the people's representatives must be free
 Any power to suspend or enforce the law is unlawful without consent of the
representatives of the people.
 The right of defense in criminal proceedings is assured, as well as prompt trial by
impartial jury, and no one is deprived of liberty except by land law or by the
judgment of his peers.
 Unsecured bail and excessive fines and cruel and extraordinary punishments

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  Prohibited issuance of general search or arrest warrants without exact
specification and proof of crime
 Freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of freedom
 All men have an equal right to the free exercise of religion with the dictates of
conscience.

José Afonso da Silva concludes that “basically the Declaration was concerned with the
structure of a democratic government, with a system of limitation of powers.” (1992, p.
142)

For Leon Du Guit , “the declarations of law, beginning with that of Virginia, imply
limitations on state power as such, inspired by the belief in the existence of natural and
imprescriptible human rights” ( Apud SILVA, 1992, p. 142 ).

2.1.4. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789)

In 1789 the people of France carried out the abolition of the absolute monarchy and the
establishment of the first French Republic. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
Citizen was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly as the first step in writing a
constitution for the Republic of France.

The Declaration proclaims that all citizens must be guaranteed the rights of “freedom,
property, security, and resistance to oppression”. This argues that the necessity of the law
stems from the fact that “… the exercise of each man's natural rights has only those
boundaries which ensure that other members of society enjoy these same rights”.
Therefore, the Declaration sees the law as “an expression of the general will”, which
intends to promote this equality of rights and prohibit“ only harmful actions for society
”.

2.2. Human rights concept

There are several concepts of human rights, here we bring two of them: “Human rights
are a term commonly used, but not categorically defined. These rights are conceived to
include those 'moral and political claims that, in the contemporary consensus, every
human being has or should have before his society or government', claims that are
recognized as 'by right' and not just by love, grace. or charity. ” (Louis Henkin )

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"Human rights emerge as a set of faculties and institutions that, at each historical moment,
fulfill the demands of human dignity, freedom and equality, which must be positively
recognized by the national and international legal systems." ( Antonio Enrique Pérez
Luño ) .

2.3. International human rights law

The process of universalization and internationalization of human rights stands as an
extremely recent movement in the history of law, presenting more concrete delineations
only after World War II. It will be noted that, in view of the activities committed during
World War II, the international community has come to recognize that the protection of
human rights is a matter of legitimate international concern and concern. By constituting
a subject of legitimate international interest, human rights transcend and go beyond the
reserved domain of the state or exclusive national competence. Global parameters of state
action are created, which form a common code of action, which states must comply with,
as regards the promotion and protection of human rights. The “International Human
Rights Law” movement is consolidated.

2.4. Sovereignty and International Human Rights Law

International treaties aimed at the protection of human rights, while affirming the
international personality of the individual and endorsing the universal conception of
human rights, impose international obligations on the ratifying states. If, in the exercise
of their sovereignty, States accept the legal obligations arising from human rights treaties,
then they submit to the authority of the international institutions with regard to the
supervision and enforcement of those rights in their territory. From this point of view, the
violation of human rights contained in the treaties, as disrespect for international
obligations, is a matter of legitimate and authentic international interest, which makes the
traditional notion of national sovereignty more flexible.

2.5. Human rights violations

Human rights defenders agree that, years after its issuance, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights is still more of a dream than a reality. There are violations of it anywhere
in the world, thousands are in prison for saying their ideas. Torture and imprisonment for
political reasons, often without trial, are common. For example, Amnesty International's
World Report 2009, World Report, and other sources show that individuals are : Tortured

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or abused in at least 81 countries. They face unfair trials in at least 54 countries. Their
freedom of expression is restricted in at least 77 countries

Women and children in particular are marginalized in many ways, the press is not free in
many countries, and dissidents are often silenced permanently. Although some victories
have been achieved in 6 decades, human rights violations are still a plague in our present
world. To help inform the real world situation, this section provides examples of
violations of the six articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):

Article 3 - the right to life

“Everyone has the right to life, liberty and personal security.” An estimated 6500 people
were killed in armed combat in Afghanistan in 2007, nearly half of them killed by non-
combatant civilians at the hands of insurgents. Hundreds of civilians were also killed in
suicide attacks by armed groups. In Brazil in 2007, police killed at least 1260 people, the
highest total to date. All incidents were officially qualified as "acts of resistance" and
received little or no investigation. In Uganda, 1500 people die each week in internally
refugee camps. According to the World Health Organization, 500,000 died in these
camps.

Article 4 - No to slavery

“No one shall be held in slavery or forced labor; slavery and the slave trade have been
banned in all their forms. ”In northern Uganda , the LRA guerrillas have kidnapped
20,000 children in recent years and forced them to serve as soldiers or as sex slaves in the
army. In Guinea-Bissau, children as young as 5 years old are trafficked out of the country
to work in cotton fields in southern Senegal or as beggars in the capital. In Ghana, children
ages 5-14 are cheated with false promises of education and future for hazardous work,
and unpaid in the fishing industry.

Article 5 - No to torture

"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or

punishment." In 2008, US authorities continued to hold 270 prisoners in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, without charge or trial, subject to water - boarding , "a torture that simulates
drowning. In Darfur violence, atrocities and abduction are prevalent, and foreign aid is
virtually cut. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo government security services and
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armed groups routinely commit acts of torture and maltreatment, including continued
beatings, stabbing and rape of those detained by them. Detainees are held
incommunicado, sometimes in secret places of detention. In 2007 the Republican Guard
(presidential guard) and the Special Services police division in Kinshasa arbitrarily
arrested and tortured numerous people qualified as government critics.

Article 13 - Freedom of Movement

"1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within a State.”

"2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his
country.”

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3. CONCLUSION
Finished the job, bring in summary form the following points : The s individual rights of
men appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Hammurabi Code was the first to report
common rights to men, such as life and dignity. Subsequently, the ideals of equality and
freedom of man arise in Greece. However, it was up to Roman law to establish a
relationship between individual rights and the state. The Law of the Twelve Tables, a
Roman creation, was the written origin of the ideals of freedom and protection of citizens'
rights. From the Universal Declaration of 1948, a new branch of law was developed
characterized as a right of protection: international human rights law. The process of
universalization of Human Rights began its legislative phase with the elaboration of
Covenants and Treaties that brought truly normative character to the consecrated rights,
and the evaluation and reaffirmation of the principles through World Conferences on
Human Rights. Although the first steps towards the construction of an international
human rights law were taken shortly after the end of World War I, with the emergence of
the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization, the consolidation of this
new branch of law occurs only with the end of World War

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4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
BOBBIO, Norberto. A Era dos direitos. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus, 1992.

GNATIEFF, Michael. The Rights Revolution, publicado no Canadá pela House of

Hanansi Press, em 2000

GOODHART, Human Rights: Policies and Practice. (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2009

RAMOS, André de Carvalho. Curso de Direitos Humanos. São Paulo: Saraiva. 2014

VIEIRA, Oscar Vilhena. Direitos Fundamentais. São Paulo: Direito GV/Malheiros, 2006.
Um ótimo texto sobre o que significa “ter um direito” pode ser encontrado no primeiro
capítulo deste livro

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