Human Rights – a brief look at its growth and development in human history

Geetarani Takhellambam *

Every human has the right to exist humanely and various rights and liberties have been recognized as basic over time for such existence. This spirit was beautifully expressed by the United States (US) Declaration of Independence, 1776 that all men are created equal and are endowed with certain unalienable Rights including that of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights also declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Earlier the issue of human rights was considered an internal domestic matter of the states but now it has become an integral issue in relations between states. The only area of concern for international conventions used to be what a state could do to foreign nationals. Treatment of their own nationals was completely beyond international relations.

Tracing back in International Law, one could say the convention of 1815 recognizing an obligation among the states to abolish the slave trade (Congress of Vienna), was a major step forward. This was followed by the 1890 Brussels conference and the International treaty to abolish slavery in 1926. After World War (WW) I, International Labour Organization (ILO) began to deal with workers rights and the League of Nations was given certain powers to protect ethnic minorities in areas, where boundaries alteration occurred following the war.

However, the real awakening of people's consciousness came about only after the World War II. Holocaust occurred during this war and the whole world chose to ignore the systemic murder of innocent civilians by German state until it was too late. The atrocities committed led to massacre of millions of Jews, gypsies and other minorities.

After the war the Nuremberg war crimes trials was conducted during 1945-1946 and leading Nazis were prosecuted under the charge of crimes against humanity. This was an important step towards international action against human rights violations and the conscience of human kind was shaken with the details of the atrocities coming out in open.

The formation of the United Nations (UN) after the WW - II, establishes Human Rights as a standard issue of international relation. On December 10, 1948 (Celebrated as Human Rights day around the world) the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which remains the most authoritative statement of Human Rights norms and is the first effort to limit the behavior of states.

Political and ideological struggles between states and Human Rights

With the growing importance of the Human Rights issue in international relation, it could also be observed that this issue has been used as a tactic to maneuver a state's foreign policies, especially in the ideological and political struggle going on between states. For instance during the cold war the UN Commissions of Human Rights (under US/Western Control) focused extensively on right to freedom of information, a right systematically violated by the communist bloc, but ignored all other rights like economic, social and political.

On the other hand the soviets and the communist bloc focused attention on racial discrimination and unemployment issues which prevailed in the US and most of the capitalist west.

There was no independent concern of Human rights as such with both superpowers regularly showing a flagrant disregard for Human rights.

For example: In 1954 the United States overthrew the freely elected government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala, when he started his redistributive policies aiming to better implement social and economic rights. This brought in 30 years of military rule and systematic massacre of thousands of Guatemalans by the armed forces and semi official death squads in the early 1980s.

On the other side the Soviet tanks entered into Hungary to put an end to liberal political reforms and re-impose a totalitarian dictatorship (1956).

Sovereignty of states and Human Rights

Following resolutions like the Economic and Social Council Resolution 1235, of 1965 and 1503 of 1970 etc. (the former authorizes the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) to discuss human rights violations in particular countries, specially concerning with racial discrimination and colonialism, and the latter to conduct confidential investigations of complaints), the UN started acquiring monitoring powers over sovereign states.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) was created at the 2005 World Summit replacing the UNCHR and is given a mandate to investigate violations of Human Rights. The HRC can request that the Security Council take action when Human Rights violations occur.

This action may be direct actions like sanctions or referring cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC), even if the issue being referred is outside the normal jurisdiction of the ICC. For instance, the Security Council referred the Human Rights situation in Darfur (Sudan) to the ICC despite the fact that Sudan has a functioning legal system

Superpowers have been undermining sovereign power of states under the guise of humanitarian intervention to prevent violations of Human Rights of the sovereign governments own nationals. US interventions in Yugoslavia (1990s), Haiti (1994), Afghanistan (2001) Iraq (2003) etc. are examples of such military interventions against sovereign states.

All these dilute the theory of absolute sovereign powers of the states to some extent. However, it remains that the UN is an intergovernmental organization established by a treaty among sovereign states and like any other intergovernmental organization it has only those powers that states give it and its effectiveness is questionable since these same states are the principal violators of Human Rights,

Role of Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs)

While states remain both the principal protector and violator of Human Rights, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become major forces in the protection of Human Rights in the world.

Working both with and against governments, they develop agendas for action and are involved in treaty negotiations seeking to establish international standards for state behavior. They hold investigations and their reports on Human Rights abuses around the world help in mobilizing public opinion. They often offer direct assistance to victims of those abuses and lobby political officials, corporations and international bodies and most importantly the media.

Role of state as protector of human rights is always a suspect as history shows. With modern forms of communication bringing individuals closer to each other across the world the level of awareness among the people is a great force in changing situations where human rights abuses takes place. There are still closed curtain areas around the world like in Myanmar and China. US, who has always claimed to be the guardian of human rights, have recently come to light to be major violator of human rights following the September 11 disaster.

New challenges

Terrorism brought an era of suicide bombing and mass killing for ideological and religious reasons. It is easy to lose sight of the rights of innocent civilians when tackling terrorism. It is a major challenge for individuals, NGOs and states equally to remember that Rights need to be protected regardless of religion, region or any other dividing factor.

Struggle between different groups will continue to occur, whether it is religious, ideological or political. Such struggles always undermine Human Rights and it depends upon the individuals, international organizations, NGOs and also states to ensure that the progress made in the development of Human Rights in international relation does not go astray.