The Human Rights

Human rights refer to those rights which human beings have simply because they are human beings. These rights are quite independent of social circumstances or the achievement level which the individual has attained. A person’s human rights cannot be relinquished, transferred or forfeited by the actions of another individual. Additional rights which a person may have are largely derived from the human rights which are basic to each individual.

The Advocates of Human Rights

• Cleisthenes (600 B.C) made military service and civil administration open to the poor in ancient Greece.

• Pericles (489-429 B.C) made democracy complete for all freemen of ancient Greece.

• Aristotle (384-322 B.C) believed that justice and fairness must prevail in all human affairs. Honor and riches in the society must be granted on the basis of the efforts expended or the qualities which were displayed by each individual.

• Marcus Tulius Cicero (106-43 B.C) proposed a well-developed concept of natural law which was eternal and which applied to all people at all times.

• George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) believed that the most important agent of history is the state, which is the creator and protector of values including human rights.

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) advocated communism as the only way to protect the rights of the proletarian who are constantly oppressed by the bourgeois.

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1842) believed that the government is the one that issues pious declarations about the rights of men, yet it is also the one that hampers the implementation of these rights.

• Thomas Aquinas (125-1274) advanced the idea that men have the right to disobey manmade legislation which violate eternal principles of justice and equality.

• Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (1694-1778) contented persuasively for freedom of the person, the press and religion.

• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) argued that if there was much evil in the world it could not be blamed on man’s natural inclinations but on the social injustice and inequality which drive man to commit every conceivable depraved act.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

One of the very first achievements of the United Nations is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948. The Assembly proclaimed the Declaration a “common standard of achievement for all peoples of all nations” It called upon all member states and all people to promote and secure the effective recognition and observance of the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration.

In 1950, the General Assembly decided that December 10 each year should be observed internationally as Human Rights Day. Articles 1 and 2 of the Declaration states that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and are entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in the Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Articles 3-21 of the Declaration set forth the civil and political rights to which all human beings are entitled including:

The right to life, liberty and security of person;

Freedom from slavery and servitude;

Freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

The right to recognition as a person before the law; equal protection of the law;

To be brought to an effective judicial remedy; freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal; the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty;

• Freedom from arbitrary interference of privacy, family, home or correspondence;

• Freedom of movement; the right of aslum; the right to a nationality;

• The right to marry and found a family; the right to own property;

• Freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression;

• The right of association and of assembly;

• The right to take part in government and the right of equal access to public service.

Articles 22-27 of the Declaration set forth the economic, social and cultural rights which all human beings are entitled including:

• The right to social security;

• The right to work;

• The right to rest and leisure;

• The right to standard of living adequate for health and well – being:

• The right to education; and

• The right to participate in the cultural life of the community.

The concluding Articles 28-30 recognize that everyone is entitled to social and international order in which these rights and freedoms may be fully realized, and they stress the duties and responsibilities which the individual owes to the community.

The Provisions stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are now adopted and enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.