Human rights are moral principles or normsthat describe certain standards of human behaviour and are

regularly protected as natural and legal rights in municipal and international law. They are commonly
understood as inalienable,fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because
she or he is a human being" and which are "inherent in all human beings", regardless of their nation,
location, language, religion, ethnic origin, or any other status.They are applicable everywhere and at
every time in the sense of being universal,and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for
everyone.They are regarded as requiring empathy and the rule of law and imposing an obligation on
persons to respect the human rights of others,and it is generally considered that they should not be
taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances for example, human rights
may include freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution.The doctrine of human rights
has been highly influential within international law and global and regional institutions. Actions by states
and non-governmental organisations form a basis of public policy worldwide.

Social equality is a state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the
same status in certain respects, possibly including civil rights, freedom of speech, property rights and
equal access to certain social goods and social services. However, it may also include health equality,
economic equality and other social securities. Social equality requires the absence of legally enforced
social class or caste boundaries and the absence of discrimination motivated by an inalienable part of a
person's identity. For example, sex, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income
or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health or disability must absolutely not result in
unequal treatment under the law and should not reduce opportunities unjustifiably.Equal opportunities
is interpreted as being judged by ability, which is compatible with a free market economy. Relevant
problems are horizontal inequality the inequality of two persons of same origin and ability and differing
opportunities given to individuals such as in (education) or by inherited capital.

The idea of fundamental Human Rights is a concept that has gained increasing significance in modern
society. The view that all people are born equal central to the theory of ‘human rights’ and has
particularly been advocated in western societies who have arguably been the self elected police of the
development of global human rights. Human Rights have become a buzzword and trophy for western
societies to exhibit civilisation and consequently supremacy. Human rights have been used to justify
wars. For example in the ‘War on Terror’ human rights have become a justification to correct the
barbarism of mainly Muslim extremists’ societies. Although it can be argued that human rights are
primarily beneficial relatively to western cultures, upon closer examination it becomes apparent that
human rights are essentially more beneficial to the cultures to which they originate from and can
consequently be regarded as ethnocentric.

The atrocities committed against individuals in events such as slavery, the two World Wars, the
Holocaust, and the apartheid in South Africa caused the issue of human rights to become a major
concern for all nations across the globe, particularly for the western nations. The issue of human rights,
however, has its roots in natural law theories of the 17th and 18th centuries and was more firmly
established contemporarily in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other covenants,
conventions and declarations that were derived from it. At the core of this issue, is the controversy as to
whether human rights are universal or culturally relative. Another area of disputation is the efficiency of
the international community in the face of cultural practices that serve to discriminate against
individuals, such as female genital mutilation, for example. The use of secondary data was applied in
carrying out this research to address the above-mentioned issues.

References Edit

Blackford, Russell (July 20, 2006). "Genetic enhancement and the point of social equality". Institute for
Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Conley, Dalton (2013). You May Ask Yourself (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Floridi, Luciano (2010). Very Short Introductions : Information: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford.

Kahn, Sharon (2000). Academic Freedom and the Inclusive University. Vancouver: CAN: UBC Press. ISBN
9780774808088.

Hewitt, Martin (2000). Welfare & Human Nature : The Human Subject in Twentieth-Century Social
Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.