What are Human Rights?

Human Rights are rights every individual is entitled to based on them being

humans. These rights are innately given to everyone regardless of who they are.

Furthermore, Human Rights are universal since they apply to everyone. The Universal

Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is claimed to have thirty rights, which are

encapsulated into a single body of rights.

The idea of Human Rights started at Cyrus the great when he liberated the

slaves of Babylon and given the people the freedom of religion. It was then was

written on a clay tablet called the Cyrus cylinder. This idea then spread rapidly. The

idea of Natural Law started in Rome, where the people voluntarily obeyed a particular

law even though they were not asked to follow it. However, the Natural laws were

often neglected by people in power until England created the Magna Carta Liberatum

where not even the king could overrule the rights of the people. The French created

their long list of rights during the French revolution. Hence the Natural law becomes

Natural Rights. Napoleon again trampled on these rights but was then defeated by

European states. These states then grant Human Rights all over Europe. The rest of

the world, however, is deprived of it. Hence Mahatma Gandhi pushed for Human

Rights. However, in the first and second World Wars, human rights were again

breached by people in power and almost alienated. Due to this, the UN reestablished

Human Rights by creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

Regardless of the reestablishing sinewy universal Human Rights, there are still

countless cases of Human Rights violations existing in modern times. The Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, unfortunately, does not have a force of law. Hence just

mere words, but the proper practice of Human Rights starts with us.