Human Rights Freedom

Prior to the Second World War, the phrase “Human Rights” was hardly ever used. In spite of this, in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to reaffirm faith in basic human rights it was not inventing the principles of Human Rights but reaffirming them, as it states that, “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”. One can say that the initiative of Human Rights is a makeover of older ideas.

Since human rights were not established by any human authority or government, but were derived from the essential dignity and nature of humanity, two approaches to their history can be taken. Firstly it can be assumed that the perception is derived from broad and profound moral ideas such as those of fairness and human dignity that are found in many cultures, including the world’s ancient religions. This approach has the advantage of making the concept indusive and of providing a basis for the claim that Human Rights are universal. The second approach stresses the uniqueness of the concept of rights and asserts that it is western and modern. On this view the western origin of the idea is consistent with the view that it ought to be universalized under contemporary conditions.

Many ancient social codes and religions accentuated on duties to others and especially to those suffering from abuse or misfortune. These duties were often deprived from a belief that there was a universal source of truth for all human beings. In the Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition this derives from a belief in a single, universal God and the worth of all his creations. This implied moral limits on the power of rulers and obligations to the needy. The universalism of moral duty has sometimes been explicitly extended to stranger. Concepts such as benevolence, compassion and love are found in Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity. The emphasis of these ancient codes was however on duties rather than rights. They also commonly excluded from their protection various groups, such as foreigners, non-believers, women, slaves and homosexuals. Some rulers did, however, recognize the principles of religions toleration. The ancient world had no conception of human rights but it had the concept of the rule of law and various conceptions of justice that implied rights for various categories of persons.

Ancient religions, such as Judaism and Buddhism and secular philosophy and secular philosophies such as those of Confucian and Plato, had a conception of the “Human” without a clear conception of citizens rights but no conception of human rights since Citizens rights did not accommodate women, slaves and foreigners. The Stoic philosophers developed the idea of citizen’s rights and that of universal moral law but did not combine them in the concept of universal human rights.

The idea of rights passed from the classical to the modern world through medieval Christian philosophy. This process was complex and remains rather vague. Christian philosophers incorporated the classical idea of natural law into the Christian conception of divine law in their attempts to justify the right to private property. At the same time various mediaeval power-holders, such as landowners and urban corporations, asserted claims to customary and legal rights against monarchs seeking to increase their own power and wealth. The Magna Carta (1215) is a famous example of such demands. The Protestant Reformation made freedom of conscience a fundamental political issue of early modern Europe. In 17^th Century England the principles of property rights and religions toleration came together in resistance to the absolutist pretensions of the Stuart monarchy. John Locke gave these ideas philosophical expression in his “second Treatise of Government” in which he claimed that everyone had natural rights to life, liberty and property and that government was a trust established to protect these rights through the rule of law. His theory was based on Christian natural law philosophy but provided outlines of the modern concept of Human rights.

The idea of natural rights was particularly influential in America, were the demand for freedom of conscience and resistance to excessive taxation were exceptionally strong and in France, where absolute monarchy was reluctant to grant civil liberties such as freedom of expression and conscience, that had been won in England. The American Declaration of independence (1776) justified the revolt against British rule in terms of “unalienable rights” to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In 1791 the Americans added the bill of rights as a set of amendments to the US constitution and included rights to freedom of religion, the press, expression and assembly, protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the right not to incriminate oneself and the right to due process of law. Although the Americans appealed to the philosophy of natural rights the specific rights that they claimed had long been established in colonial and English law.

In 1789 king Louis XVI of France convened the Estates General and antiquated medieval parliament in and attempt to raise more taxes to finance France’s rivalry with Britain. Negotiation among the monarch, aristocracy, clergy and the “3^rd Estate” (commoners) broke down and the 3^rd estate established a national assembly and proclaimed a Declaration of the rights of Man and the citizen as a set of principles for a new constitution of France. The declaration affirmed the rights to liberty property, security and resistance to oppression, equality before the law, freedom from arbitrary arrest, the presumption of innocence freedom of expression and religion and the right to property. Whereas the American Revolution had ignored the rights of women and the question of slavery, the French revolution raised both these revolutions were universal in theory but restricted in practice to propertied, white males. Despite these limitations, the French Declaration was the most important historical inspiration for the universal Declaration of the Human Rights adopted in 1848.

The upheavals of the French Revolution discredited the idea of the Rights of man. Political philosophers such as Edmund Burke and Jeremy Bentham criticized it for subverting social order and or as unscientific. The rise of industrial capitalism changed the emphasis of social philosophy from forms of government to the dynamics of the economy and society. Karl Marx criticized the Rights of Man as the ideology of the bourgeois class. Nevertheless, several development that were important for the future of human rights took place in the 19^th century: the anti-slavery movement, the campaign for the social and political rights of women, workers and socialist movements trade unions and political parties the development of the humanitarian laws of war concern for religions and ethic minorities and protests against racial discrimination and colonialism.

These campaigns were important in two particular respects. The first was their emphasis on what are called economic and social rights such as fair working conditions health and education. These are sometimes called “2^nd generation” rights, in contrast to first generation civil and political rights but this is misleading both because earlier generations of rights advocates had been concerned with economic rights such as the rights to substance and property and because form the 17^th and 20^th centuries campaigners for instance workers and women, demanded political rights partly in order to defend their economic and social rights.

The second important aspects of these movements was their internationalism struggles for the rights of minorities, workers and women all had an international dimension and the international solidarity of non-governmental organizations, which is a prominent feature of contemporary human rights struggles was pioneered as the industrial revolution made international travel and communication faster and easier.

The 1^st world war was a humanitarian catastrophe but it also advanced the causes of economic and social rights, the rights of women and minorities and the right of national self-determination against imperial domination. At the end of the war the League of Nations was established and although both its convention and its practice proved to be disappointing to those concerned with human rights. It addressed questions of minorities workers rights, slavery, the rights of women and children and the plight of refugees. This even if the league was a political failure, it contributed to the very idea of the United nation and its commitment to Human Rights.

The historical struggles of property owners, intellectuals, colonists, workers, women, national minorities and anti-colonial campaigners all contributed to the development of the contemporary conception of Human Rights. The discourse of rights derives from classical western philosophy, Roman law, medieval Christianity and modern liberal and socialist ideologies. The idea of human rights is however rooted in a set of fundamental moral and religious belief that are far from exclusively western. The beliefs were developed into conception of rights in response to tyrannical government and oppressive social and economic conditions that are not particularly western. The human rights movement has been global since the conditions far global social moments came into being. The idea and specification of human rights have always been controversial in theory and practice. They have evolved as men and women have struggled for a life of dignity under changing conditions. This struggle will continue globally.

Bibliography

Human Rights: Interdisplinary Approach Cambridge: policy press by M A Freeman (2002).

“Nonsense upon Silts”, Bentham, Burke, Marx on the Rights of Man by J Waldron, London Methuen, (1987).

“The Idea of national Rights”, by B Tierney, Atlanta G.A Scholars Press, (1997).

http://www.rightsandhumanity.org/randhd/default.asp?ID=19#2

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