Human rights

Human rights are a conception of natural rights that are considered to be universal including civil rights, freedom from unjust actions and the right to express oneself freely. There are a variety of human rights charters and laws including the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, regional charters like the European Convention of Human Rights and specific national human rights laws like the British Human Rights Act.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was put together by Eleanor Roosevelt after the Second World War for the United Nations. Some of the motivations for these and other documents, such as the Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki for rights in human research, came from revelations at the International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg) and the Nuremberg Military Tribunals.

Some enforcement mechanisms are forming, with various amounts of jurisdiction, including the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, and specific regional tribunals such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia[1] and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.[2]

A variety of human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch exist in order to try and pressure governments into granting the protections and abstaining from the prohibited actions of the charters and the values which underlie them, as well as pressuring other governments and organizations into advocating for human rights, and applying both market and governmental pressure into conforming to human rights agreements.

There continue to be international agreements in specific areas, such as the Convention against Torture.