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From SourceWatch

Human rights (natural rights) are rights which some hold to be "inalienable" and belonging to all humans, according to natural law. Such rights are believed, by proponents, to be necessary for freedom and the maintenance of a "reasonable" quality of life.

If a right is inalienable, that means it cannot be bestowed, granted, limited, bartered away, or sold away (e.g., one cannot sell oneself into slavery). The issue of which rights are inalienable and which are not (or whether any rights are inalienable rather than granted or bestowed) is an ancient and ongoing controversy.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In 1948 the United Nations made the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was an over-arching set of standards by which Governments, organizations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other.

This Declaration introduced the notion in the public realm that rights had a moral dimension, independent of and overriding where relevant the legislature or government, which granted specific legal rights. The notion was not new; for example, Thomas Paine had argued in this way in his book The Rights of Man.

Other general Declarations have followed, notably the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 [1].

Websites

Website on business and human rights: http://www.business-humanrights.org/

References and further reading

• Amnesty International
• Human Rights Watch
• 'Human rights' entry from Wikipedia