What Are Human Rights And From Where Do They Originate

What are human rights and from where do they originate? According to Campbell, MacKinnon Stevens (2010), there are two prominent schools of thought with regards to human rights, natural law and positivism. Natural law is grounded in religion and morality, based on God, and contends that individuals know the difference between what is right and what is wrong (Cummings, et al., 2010). Proponents of natural law believe that every individual is born with human rights and that states can only enact laws to restrict these rights. Positivism can be traced to the Protestant Reformation, John Austin and Jeremy Bentham. Proponents of positivism contend that human rights are created by the state and that the state is solely responsible for†¦show more content†¦The abolitionists, suffragists and peace activists were responsible for fighting for human rights during the modern era. Abolitionists were concerned with slavery, the suffragists were concerned with women’s rights and peace activists were concerned with war and the peace (Cummings, et al., 2010). Individual human rights were not fully addressed on an international level until after World War I, by the League of Nations, which was the predecessor to the United Nations (UN). The League of Nations was responsible for promoting equal rights and protection for minorities in member nation-states. The UN was formed after World War II and was formed to prevent war and promote peace. The UN was instrumental in crafting documents and treaties with regards to human rights internationally and forcing its members to adopt domestic legislation protecting human rights. The UN was responsible for drafting the International Bill of Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which aimed to protect human rights but were not legally binding (Cummings, et al., 2010). The International Covenant on Civil Rights and Political Rights (CPR) and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) were legally binding and had a component for monitoring but lacke d an enforcement component (Cummings, et al., 2010). The United Nations has been responsible for monitoring