Human rights

This article adopts the colloquial use of the term human rights as a universal body of entitlements, as distinct from its broader interpretation as the equivalent of domestic "civil rights". It is mainly concerned with the developments of the concept of human rights that have taken place since the issue in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among those developments have been its near-universal popular endorsement as a statement of the principles that should govern the way governments treat their citizens, and a far from universal realisation of those principles. Agencies of the United Nations have conferred operational significance on the declaration by the creation of an agreed body of international treaties and have implemented mechanisms for monitoring compliance with them. Regional and national authorities have taken further action, extending in some cases to legislation. A number of civil and criminal law actions concerning human rights have been taken in courts created for the purpose. Misgivings remain however, concerning the philosophical foundations of the concept, and there has been popular opposition to some of its court rulings, and to the adoption of the promotion of human rights as an objective as foreign policy.