HUMAN RIGHTS

EDUCATION
CLJ 2
CLASSIFICATION
OF HUMAN RIGHTS
According to SOURCE

Natural or Moral Rights

Legal Rights
Natural or Moral Rights

 God given rights, acknowledged morally good.

Legal Rights
 Constitutional rights – Guaranteed in bill of rights of the
Constitution.

 Statutory rights – Rights promulgated by legislative

body.
According to Aspect of Life:

 CIVIL RIGHTS
 POLITICAL RIGHTS
 JUSTIFIABLE RIGHTS
 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
CIVIL RIGHTS

 Rights the law will enforce at instance of private

individuals for purpose of securing to them the
enjoyment of happiness. Civil rights guarantee
people from abuses of State agents in the exercise
of the state’s three (3) inherent powers (police
power, power of imminent domain and power of
taxation).
POLITICAL RIGHTS

 Are those rights which enable us to participate in

running the affairs of the government either
directly or indirectly.
 Civiland Political rights are guarantees against
government abuse.
JUSTIFIABLE RIGHTS

 Immediately enforced once violated. Called

negative rights because State is refrained
from violating them.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

 Rights of people to self-determination, to pursue

economic, social and cultural development and
financial security. Ensure a life dignity. Called
positive rights – State expected to take effective
measures to fulfill them. Referred as
programmable rights – depends upon resources
and political will of the state.
According to Derogability

 Non-derogable or Absolute rights

 Derogable or Relative rights
Non-derogable or Absolute rights

Rights that cannot be suspended nor

taken away nor restricted or limited
even in extreme emergency and even
if government invoke national
security.
Derogable or Relative rights

Maybe suspended or restricted or

limited depending on
circumstances-for preservation of
social life.
STATE
Obligations to Human Rights
Obligation to RESPECT
Obligation to PROTECT
Obligation to FULFILL
Obligation to RESPECT

Requires the state and all its organs

and agents to abstain from doing
anything that violates the integrity of
individual or fringes on his/her
freedom.
Obligation to PROTECT

Requires the state and its agents – the

measures necessary to prevent other
individuals or groups from violating the
integrity, freedom of action, or the
human rights of the individual.
Obligation to FULFILL

Requires the state to take measures to

ensure for each person within its
jurisdiction opportunities to obtain
satisfaction of those needs, recognized
in the human rights instruments, which
cannot be secured by personal efforts.
Basic Principles of Human Rights

Human rights are inherent. Human

rights are birthrights. They belong to
the individual person for reason that
he or she is a human being.
Fundamental
Without human rights, a person’s life
and dignity would be worthless and
meaningless.
It is Inalienable
As such they cannot be stripped or
rightfully taken away from any free
human person.
It is Imprescriptible
 Human rights are not lost by mere passage of time. Human
rights do not prescribe even if he fails to use or was
prevented from asserting them. Human rights are
indivisible, interrelated. The indivisibility of human rights
is a manifestation that a person cannot be denied or
deprived of his/her human rights, notwithstanding that he
or she has already enjoyed, or is already enjoying other
rights. Human rights are not piece of meal rights and
freedoms, hence, not capable of being divided.
It is Universal
 Human rights are endowed every human
being from the moment of birth, without
distinction or irrespective of origin, sex,
race, creed, political color, status or
condition in life.
It is Interdependent
The fulfilment, enjoyment or exercise
of a particular right cannot be
attained without the realization of the
other rights.
Equality
Even the law of nature made manifest
this basic principle by the fact that all
human beings, male or female, are
born naked and helpless.
HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In 539 B.C

 Cyrus the Great, the first king of Persia.

Cyrus Cylinder

 recognizedas the world’s first charter of

human rights.
 Arabic,Chinese, English, French, Russian
and Spanish.
The Spread of Human Rights
Magna Carta (1215)

Magna Carta or “Great Charter”,

signed by the King of England in 1215,
was a turning point in human rights.
 The right of the church to be free from governmental
interference,
 The rights of all free citizens to own and inherit properties and
to be protected from excessive taxes.
 It established the right of widows who owned property to
choose not to remarry.
 Established principles of due process and equality before the
law.
 It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official
misconduct.
Petition of Right (1628)

In 1628 the english parliament sent his

statement of civil liberties to king
charles I.
The next recorded milestone in the
development of human rights.
Initiated by Sir Edward Coke.
FOUR PRINCIPLES

 No taxes may be levied without consent of

Parliament.
 No subject may be imprisoned without cause
shown.
 No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry.
 Martial Law may not be used in time of peace.
United States Declaration of
Independence (1776)

 In1776, Thomas Jefferson penned the

American Declaration of Independence.
On July 4, 1776, the United States
Congress approved the Declaration of
Independence.
Individual rights.
Right of Revolution.
The Constitution of the United States of
America (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791)

 Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the

Constitution of the United States of America is the
fundamental law of the US federal system of
government.

 Itis the oldest written national constitution in use and

defines the principal organs of government and their
jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.
 The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech,
freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms,
the freedom of assembly and the freedom of petition.
 prohibitsunreasonable search and seizure, cruel and
unusual punishment and compelled self-
incrimination.
 prohibits Congress from making any law respecting
establishment of religion and prohibits the federal
government from depriving any persons’ life, liberty
and property without due process of law.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen (1789)
 In 1789, the people of France brought about the
abolishment of the absolute monarchy and set the stage
for the establishment of the first French Republic.
 Was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly as
the first step toward writing a constitution for the
Republic of France.
 The declaration proclaims that all the citizens are to be
guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security and
resistance to oppression.
 Expression of the general will, intended to
promote this equality of rights and to
forbid only actions harmful to the society.
The First Geneva Convention

 The original document from the first

Geneva Convention in 1864 provided for
care to wounded soldiers.
 TheDiplomatic conference was held for the
purpose of adopting a convention for the
treatment of wounded soldiers in combat.
 The main principles laid down in the
Convention and maintained by the later Geneva
Conventions provided for the obligation to
extend care without discrimination to wounded
and sick military personnel and respect for and
marking of medical personnel transports and
equipment with the distinctive sign of the Red
Cross on a white background.
The United Nations (UN)
 Fiftynations met in San Francisco in 1945 and formed
the United Nations to protect and promote peace.
 World War II had rage from 1939 to 1945, and as the
end drew near, cities throughout Europe and Asia lay in
smoldering ruins.
 The goal of the UN Conference on International
Organization was to fashion an international body to
promote peace and prevent future wars.
“We the peoples of the United Nations
are determined to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war,
which twice in our lifetime has brought
untold sorrow to mankind.”
The Charter of the new UN
organization went into effect on
October 24, 1945, a date that is
celebrated each year as United
Nations’ Day.
READ IN ADVANCE!!!
 LESSON 2: FREEDOM AND HUMAN RIGHTS