INTRODUCTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Throughout the history, every society has sought to define the concept of human

dignity, in the sense of seeking to ascertain the qualities and inherent value, if any,

of each person and his relation to society. These questions have been answered in

various ways, whether on the basis of the social obligations and duties owed by

individuals, in terms of social hierarchy based on birth or sex, through submission

to the will or royal or divine force or on the basis of the over-riding importance

attached to the maintenance of social harmony. Invariably, the ethical, religious or

political bases by which each society has premised its answers to these questions

have been reflected to a large extent, in values and systems by which that society has in turn been governed.

It is in this context that the concept of Human Rights a concept which tends to

emphasize the worth of the individual and to recognize his or her rights as against

their society arises. As generally used today, the term Human Rights covers the

series of often disparate rights and freedoms asserted by many to be universally

accepted and essential prerequisites for people’s enjoyment of life based on the

centrality of human dignity. Proponents of Human Rights regard them as being

inherent, inalienable and universal, inherent in the sense that they are the birth

rights of all human beings and people enjoy them simply by virtue of their human

existence and as such, they do-not have to be granted to them by any superior or

sovereign authority, inalienable in the sense that people cannot agree to give them

up or have them taken away from them; and universal in the sense that they do not

just apply to individuals as citizens or groups but to all persons regardless of their

group identities.1

The concept of Human Rights is as old as the human race. These rights have their

roots in antiquity. The roots for the protection of the Human Rights may be traced

as far as back as in the Babylonian laws, Assyrian laws and in the Dharma of the

Vedic period in India. Writings of Plato and other Greek and Roman philosophers

also depict for the protection of Human Rights though they had a religious

foundation. The laity state of Greece have equal freedom of speech, equality before

law, right to vote, right to be elected to public office, right to trade and of access to

justice to their citizens. Similar rights were secured to the Roman by the Jus civil

of Roman law.