Human Rights

Human Rights

Introduction

The relationship between human rights and community is a complex and evolving one (Ishay, 1997). The basic definition and framework for human rights is contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on December 10, 1948. This declaration sets forth the moral principle that all human beings are entitled to certain human rights and freedoms. Subsequently, numerous additional declarations and documents have focused on specific rights or categories of rights or categories of individuals, including genocide, war captives and victims, collective bargaining, prostitution, children, refugees, prisoners, slavery, women, homosexuals and lesbians, forced labor, racial discrimination, cultural rights, political asylum, mental retardation, hunger and malnutrition, disabled persons, religion, and medical care.

Community and human rights are linked, at least in the minds of some experts, in three ways. First, and most clearly, is through the so-called human rights community, composed of people and organizations who advocate for human rights. They are really more of an interest group whose common bond is support for human rights around the world, just as the environmentalism community is composed of those who support environmentalism around the world.

The second way human rights is tied to community is found in contemporary Europe, where some see support for human rights as a mechanism for building social cohesion within European nations and communities and across the European community. This movement begins with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that one goal is to “develop a normative representation of the manifold relationships of interdependence which tie individual human beings to one another.” It is further argued that human rights are a form of contract that can be used to structure social interaction, integrate foreigners, create shared meanings, and encourage democracy. All of these, it is suggested, will lead to greater social cohesion across Europe and peaceful interaction as well.

The third connection between human rights and community issues involves the ongoing debate over whether the possession of human rights, as a legal principle, applies only to individuals or to entire groups and communities as well. Human rights advocates hold that rights should be afforded to entire groups and that those groups have standing to bring legal action to gain and hold on to rights. They see this as an important strategy for extending and broadening human rights protections around the world. However, many national governments take the opposite position and define ...