The development of human rights has a long and interesting history. In general, human rights are understood to be the rights provided to individuals which protect them from persecution or mistreatment by others or governments. They describe how we all expect to be treated with a focus on human dignity and respect. Human rights have developed throughout history and emerged from several major historical time periods, including: ancient history, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, American Revolution, French Revolution, and World War II.
MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES – SINCE WORLD WAR II
Due to its significance and development, human rights has remained an important issue in modern times. More specifically, historians focus on the modern development of human rights from the time during and after World War II. This is because human rights issues were thrust into the forefront of humanity in the early 20th century with the events of both World War II and the Holocaust. During the first few decades of the 20th century, the world was faced with several significant genocides, war crimes, and conflicts, which caused people to suffer a loss of their basic human rights. This included events such as: Ukraine Famine, Holocaust, and Nanking Massacre. In fact, these events were important for the eventual development of modern human rights.
Both the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were created following the events of World War II and the Holocaust. In fact, these two major world events were important in the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because the world sought to prevent other such events from occurring again. This is best evidenced in the United Nations Charter, which is the document that was created at the establishment of the United Nations in 1946. For example, at its creation, people hoped the United Nations Charter “reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights, and dignity and worth of the human person”. As well, it promoted the idea of “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion”. As such, the terrible genocide of the Holocaust, which was carried out by Nazi Germany, caused nations to want to establish a universal set of rights that could set out a basic agreement on respect for human rights.
Therefore, in 1946, members of the United Nation set out by creating the Commission on Human Rights, which was a committee of 18 different members. Eleanor Roosevelt, who was an important American political figure and the wife of American President Franklin D. Roosevelt, led the Commission on Human Rights. The commission met several times over the next few months and drafted the main declarations present in the document.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created by the United Nations during its third General Assembly on December 10th, 1948. At the time, the UN was made up of 58 different member nations. Of these 58 different member nations, 48 voted for the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while eight nations abstained from voting and two others did not vote. The majority of countries that abstained from voting were from the Soviet-bloc of nations in Europe who likely objected to some of the freedoms declared in the document.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is important today because it was the first ever document that listed universal rights and set out a basic framework in which nations could ensure the protection of human rights for their own citizens.
Another important aspect of human rights that emerged following World War II was the establishment of the Hague Conventions and Geneva Conventions. For example, the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 at The Hague in the Netherlands, established several ‘laws of war’. This was the first instance of formal agreements between countries about what was considered to be a war crime. Another example was the Geneva Conventions, which were a series of treaties from 1864 to 1949, that established a framework for international law. Every member country of the United Nations agreed to the terms of the Geneva Conventions at this time, and established the different types of war crimes. As such, there are several different types of acts that can be considered war crimes, including: willful killing of innocent civilians, mistreatment or killing of prisoners of war, taking hostages, torture and rape, use of child soldiers, destruction of civilian property, theft of civilian property and goods, and misleading or hiding intentions of war.
Throughout the remainder of the 20th century, the idea of fundamental and universal human rights remained an important topic. For example, the United Nations continues to deal with human rights issues across the world today and works to unite people in solving the different issues. This can be seen in more modern genocides and war crimes, such as the Rwanda Genocide. However, other modern issues related to human rights also include: women’s rights, poverty, modern slavery, modern child labor, voting rights, and more. To deal with these more modern issues, the United Nations established the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on March 15th, 2006. The goal of the UNHRC is to deal with claims of United Nations member nations and human rights violations.
MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES – SUMMARY
Today, human rights face numerous issues around the world, despite the advancements made throughout the previous centuries. In fact, many of the issues that plagued humanity in the 20th century, continue still to this day. For instance, one of the main issues facing human rights in the modern world is that some people are guaranteed rights in the constitutions of their countries, while others live in societies that do not grant or guarantee any rights. For instance, people living in a country such as the United States have very different rights protecting them, than the people living in North Korea. As such, it is important to note that the distribution of rights is unequal across the globe. Furthermore, the modern world is still grappling with issues such as hunger, poverty and war. These issues make the establishment and protection of human rights to be incredibly difficult.
Another problem for modern human rights is that technology and the advancement of society has created new areas of concern. For instance, new technologies create issues around free speech, censorship, and privacy. As humanity advances, so to do the avenues in which human rights can either strengthen or weaken. More specifically, the advancements of the internet, smartphones and social media have created all new areas in which human rights are being tested.
Below is a list of modern issues facing human rights. This list is not exhaustive and is meant to illustrate the ongoing struggle that humanity faces with maintaining and strengthening human rights.
- Poverty and lack of access to basic needs (healthcare, education, clean water, food, housing)
- War, state-sponsored violence and other armed conflicts
- Crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes
- Government repression and authoritarianism
- Restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly
- Child labor, human trafficking, and modern slavery
- Discrimination based on age, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
- State or corporate-based surveillance, digital censorship, and online privacy threats
- Lack of accountability for human rights abuses
