Introduction

Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all
members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.

Preamble, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

While some dictionaries define the word right as “a privilege,” when used in the context
of “human rights,” it becomes something more than that. Every person is entitled to certain
fundamental rights, simply by the fact of being human. They are “rights” because they are things
you are allowed to be, to do or to have. These are called “human rights” rather than a privilege.
According to the Douglas J. Elwood, in his book entitled “Human Rights1,” he said that a human
right is a moral right. It is derived from the inherent dignity of a human and it is important for the
community. It is unconditional and it cannot be altered.

These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm or hurt
you. They are also there to help us get along with each other and live in peace. Not everyone
knows their rights, generally they know they have the right to vote or the right to be educated.
They know they have a right to be respected. But there are many other rights.

When human rights are not well known by people, abuses such as discrimination,
intolerance, injustice, oppression and slavery can arise. Born out of the atrocities and enormous
loss of life during World War II, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights2
was signed in 1948 to provide a common understanding of what everyone’s rights are. It forms
the basis for a world built on freedom, justice and peace.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, nations around the world came together to say
“never again”. They established the United Nations and agreed a simple set of universal
standards of decency for mankind to cling to: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These
standards were intended to protect the individual from the state, to uphold the rights of minorities

1
Elwood, D. J. (1990). Human rights: a Christian perspective. Quezon City: New Day .
2
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved January 4, 2017, from http://www.un.org/en/universal-
declaration-human-rights/
and to provide support for the vulnerable. Thus the Universal Declaration of Human Rights came
to be.3

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the

history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds
from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General
Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a common standard of achievements for all the
people and to all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be
universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.4 We have 30 basic human
rights, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are: Right to Equality, Freedom
from Discrimination, Right to Life, Liberty, Personal Security, Freedom from Slavery, Freedom from
Torture and Degrading Treatment, Right to Recognition as a Person before the Law, Right to Equality
before the Law, Right to Remedy by Competent Tribunal, Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest and Exile, Right
to Fair Public Hearing, Right to be Considered Innocent until Proven Guilty, Freedom from Interference
with Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence, Right to Free Movement in and out of the Country,
Right to Asylum in other Countries from Persecution, Right to a Nationality and the Freedom to Change
It, Right to Marriage and Family, Right to Own Property, Freedom of Belief and Religion, Freedom of
Opinion and Information, Right of Peaceful Assembly and Association, Right to Participate in
Government and in Free Elections, Right to Social Security, Right to Desirable Work and to Join Trade
Unions, Right to Rest and Leisure, Right to Adequate Living Standard, Right to Education, Right to
Participate in the Cultural Life of Community, Right to a Social Order that Articulates this Document,
Community Duties Essential to Free and Full Development, and Freedom from State or Personal
Interference in the above Rights.5

Historical Background or Development

In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, conquered the
city of Babylon. He freed the slaves, declared that all people had the right to choose their own
religion, and established racial equality. These and other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay
cylinder in the Akkadian language with cuneiform script known today as the Cyrus Cylinder.
This ancient record has now been recognized as the world’s first charter of human rights. It is
3
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/WhatareHumanRights.aspx
4
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from http://www.un.org/en/universal-
declaration-human-rights/
5
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (abbreviated). (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2017, from
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/edumat/hreduseries/hereandnow/Part-5/8_udhr-abbr.htm
translated into all six official languages of the United Nations and its provisions parallel the first
four Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quickly to India, Greece and eventually
Rome. There the concept of “natural law” arose, in observation of the fact that people tended to
follow certain unwritten laws in the course of life, and Roman law was based on rational ideas
derived from the nature of things.

In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by
which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which
enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was the right of the
church to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit
property and to be protected from excessive taxes. It established the right of widows who owned
property to choose not to remarry, and established principles of due process and equality before
the law. It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct.

Documents asserting individual rights, such as the Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of
Right (1628), the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen (1789), and the US Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s
human rights documents. The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most
significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional
law today in the English-speaking world. Widely viewed as one of the most important legal
documents in the development of modern democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning
point in the struggle to establish freedom.

The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the Petition of
Right, produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil
liberties. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his
government to exact forced loans and to quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy
measure. Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in
Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham. The
Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and charters and
asserted four principles: (1) No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament, (2) No
subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the right of habeas corpus), (3)
No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and (4) Martial law may not be used in time of
peace.
 On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of Independence.
Its primary author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration as a formal explanation of why
Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after
the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and as a statement announcing that the thirteen
American Colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. Congress issued the Declaration
of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as a printed broadsheet that was
widely distributed and read to the public.

Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and the right of
revolution. These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread internationally as well,
influencing in particular the French Revolution. 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 and the landmark document of the Western world. It is the oldest
written national constitution in use and defines the principal organs of government and their
jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens. The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the
Bill of Rights—came into effect on December 15, 1791, limiting the powers of the federal
government of the United States and protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors in
American territory.

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 to petition. It also prohibits unreasonable
search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment and compelled self-incrimination. Among the
legal protections it affords, the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making any law respecting
establishment of religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life,
liberty or property without due process of law. In federal criminal cases it requires indictment by
a grand jury for any capital offense, or infamous crime, guarantees a speedy public trial with an
impartial jury in the district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy.

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. Just six weeks after the
storming of the Bastille, and barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du
Citoyen) 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 citizens are to be
guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.” It argues that
the need for law derives from the fact that “...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has
only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same
rights.” Thus, the Declaration sees law as an “expression of the general will,“ intended to
promote this equality of rights and to forbid “only actions harmful to the society.”

In 1864, sixteen European countries and several American states attended a conference in
Geneva, at the invitation of the Swiss Federal Council, on the initiative of the Geneva
Committee. The diplomatic 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.

World War II had ranged from 1939 to 1945, and as the end drew near, cities throughout
Europe and Asia lay in smoldering ruins. Millions of people were dead, millions more were
homeless or starving. Russian forces were closing in on the remnants of German resistance in
Germany’s bombed-out capital of Berlin. In the Pacific, US Marines were still battling
entrenched Japanese forces on such islands as Okinawa. In April 1945, delegates from fifty
countries met in San Francisco full of optimism and hope. The goal of the United Nations
Conference on International Organization was to fashion an international body to promote peace
and prevent future wars. The ideals of the organization were stated in the preamble to its
proposed charter: “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 United Nations organization went into effect on October 24,
1945, a date that is celebrated each year as United Nations Day. By 1948, the United Nations’
new Human Rights Commission had captured the world’s attention. Under the dynamic
chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights
champion in her own right and the United States delegate to the UN—the Commission set out to
draft the document that became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Roosevelt, credited
with its inspiration, referred to the Declaration as the international Magna Carta for all mankind.
It was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally proclaims the inherent
rights of all human beings: “Disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous
acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human
beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been
proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people...All human beings are born free and
equal in dignity and rights.” The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work together
to promote the thirty Articles of human rights that, for the first time in history, had been
assembled and codified into a single document. In consequence, many of these rights, in various
forms, are today part of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.6

Facts and Figures

The latest statistics for 2016 is yet to be released. However, in 2015, Amnesty
International investigated the human rights situation in 160 countries and territories worldwide.
Progress continued in some areas, but many people and communities faced grave human rights
abuses.7

6
History of Natural Law & Basic Freedoms, Cyrus the Great. (n.d.). Retrieved January 08, 2017, from
http://www.humanrights.com/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/
7
Amnesty International, International Secretariat, Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, UK
Biblical View
 The term “Human Rights” was not written in the Bible, however, no matter how modern
the concept of Human Rights is now, issues such as human dignity, equity, justice, freedom,
oppression, and responsibility are not only found in the Scripture but are part of its central
message. In his book Human Rights8, Elwood discussed that there is a universal conception of
what is right and what is human. He asserts that rights are then “religious” because they imply a
shared conviction that there is a universal moral order under which all humans in the community
live. Furthermore, Douglas J. Elwood stresses out that human rights are not only moral values
and claims; they also imply moral obligations upon every member of the human community
justifying that it belongs to the human community. Therefore, the concern for human rights, is a
concern for those values and their corresponding moral and legal obligations that can give actual
shape, continuity, and direction to the possibility that humankind may become one covenantal
community. That is why the emergence of the International Bill of Human Rights can be traced
back to its theological origins.

The Christian perspectives on human rights revolve around four theological concepts that
are reflected in Christian traditions. The first is the Image of God; this is a belief that in the
dignity and worth of persons as a source for the idea of human rights springs from a Judeo-
Christian understanding that persons are created in God’s image. Order of Creation is a support
to the concept of human rights that the Sovereign God created and ordered domains and spheres
of influence in the world. Order of creation arguments can emphasize the importance of humans
as the crown of creation, leading to an individual rights emphasis or they can stress the
interrelatedness of all creation and thus emphasize care for the environment and orders of
creation in their own right. Next is the Human Frailty and Sin. It talks about the other side of
Christian attention to human rights on the basis of God’s image and the good ordering of creation
arises from a theology that recognizes human sin. A belief in the inability of individuals and
communities to act rightly makes Christian traditions attentive to both individual wrongs and
structural evil in the area of human rights. Lastly, Community and the Human Family, that the
people of God are a part of the human family is a fourth theological construct that is central to an
understanding of human rights for Christians. The beliefs about human rights described above
display a diversity of theologies and approaches. Those perspectives find their sources in
understandings of the image of God, creation of sin, and community.9

Church View

Roman Catholic View

In an essay, Jan Lochmann, a Czech Reformed theologian, wrote an essay about Human
Rights from a Christian perspective. In the essay, he discussed that the Christian perspective on
Human Rights is not intended to recommend a solitary and exclusive path in the understanding
of human rights. Furthermore, it is not an argument for the defense of “Christian privileges” but
rather it does not establish privileges but compels unconditional openness and commitment to
others. A truly Christian perspective implies rights for Christians only in the context of “fellow-

8
Elwood, D. J. (1990). Human rights: a Christian perspective. Quezon City: New Day.
9
Adeny, F.S. and Sharma, A., (2007). Christianity and human rights: influences and issues. New York.: New York
Press.
human rights.” Jurgen Moltmann agreed and he said that it is when Christianity is fulfilling its
uniquely “Christian tasks” that it serves the humanness of all human beings.10

In the universal Declaration on the rights of man, on 10th December 1948, it is explicitly
affirmed that the recognition of the dignity and the rights of man is the foundation of freedom
justice and peace, and that disregard and contempt for them are acts of barbarousness that offend
the conscience of mankind.

The Catholic community in their efforts wrote a great deal of illustration of the complete
role played by the Catholic Church. It is the Catholic Church that is the chief figure in every
effort to promote and protect human rights. It is, in fact, no exaggeration to affirm that the
question of human rights was driven home to history particularly by the Christian ideal, that their
vicissitudes followed throughout the centuries curved the thought and events of the Catholic
Church.

Christianity has worked for the recognition of the values of the human personality in
international law, with gradual pressure in three directions: by making a powerful contribution to
the affirmation of the rights of the human person; by basing this affirmation on the irrepressible
claim of natural law; and by coupling also the nucleus of international law with this law. And a
posteriori counter-proof of the goodness of the Church's message is offered by its translation into
works made in the course of the centuries. Faithful to the Gospel, right from the beginning the
Church has tried to mitigate human sufferings, diminish social differences, rehabilitate women,
alleviate the hard fate of slaves, serfs, the oppressed, prisoners, the poor.

Due recognition should be given to the Church for its work to abolish slavery, for the human and
Christian revaluation of work, for the spreading of education and culture; for her care of the sick;
her many initiatives of charity; the heroic adventures of Catholic missionaries; the glorious and
moving episodes of the unarmed but indomitable resistance put up by the Church to the blows
and oppression of Nazism and Communism.

As regards the contribution of teaching given by the Church for the affirmation of human
rights, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI and Vatican II have uttered golden words, which can never
be forgotten.

A stronger guarantee is needed and more effective means of ensuring respect for them,
possibly with the proposed creation of the office of a High Commissioner of the United Nations
for human rights, or of an international Court on the rights of man, along the lines of the
European one already existing; it is desired to intensify the struggle against racial
discriminations, to accelerate the progress of the movement for the rights of women, to suppress
religious intolerance and anti-religious persecution, to obtain from all States effective recognition
Of the full exercise of the freedom of association and of freedom of opinion and of speech. This
is what we are still waiting for.

10
Elwood, D. J. (1990). Human rights: a Christian perspective. Quezon City: New Day.
 There is still a long way to go, and on this way the world will continue to be
accompanied by the Church. The concrete contribution the Catholic Church has made and will
continue to make to the development of international initiatives, is certainly of great importance.

The Holy See11, considered either as the central government of the Church or as the government
of the State of Vatican City, has its recognized place in the world of international Organizations.
And from this place it carries on its precious activity, both to encourage inter-governmental
organisms in every activity with aims of peace and solidarity, and to contribute directly to every
work that has as its goal the progress of mankind. And the Catholics, organized on the
international plane in their many agencies, will continue to make the beneficial influence of the
Christian voice heard in the many problems that society has to cope with today. Operating
among and with the international Organizations, the Catholic Church brings to the world today,
and will bring to it also tomorrow, the force and light contained in the evangelical Message.12

Protestant View

Methodist theologian J. Robert Nelson13 offers a fine summary of a Protestant position on

Human Rights. He writes that "Concern for the integrity, worth, and dignity of persons is the
basic presupposition of human rights." He suggests that within the Protestant tradition Calvinism
has served more "as stimulus and tutor to human rights" than Lutheranism, because Calvinist
theology fostered the rise of democratic government based on the notion of a covenant.
Therefore: "It is not coincidental that the constitutional document of Woodrow Wilson's League
of Nations was called the Covenant, and the covenant concept persists in the United Nations'
program to further human rights." However, often the Protestant view of human rights is flawed
in its emphasis that each person is of "infinite value," as liberal Protestants usually say, in that
the claim of one person to a human right cannot in all cases be held to be absolute: “The right of
one member of the community must not be used to override the well-being of the whole, any
more than the whole community may annul the right of any one member. The individual always
exists in community, and it is within this community that the truly personal character of the
individual's life is realized.”

For many Protestants, despite their emphasis on individual rights, "it is the intimacy and
solidarity of members of the community which are the distinctive signs of their concept of the

11
Vatican speaks about human rights at United Nations. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2017, from
http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/11/02/vatican_speaks_about_human_rights_at_united_nations/1269497
12
THE CHURCH AND HUMAN RIGHTS. (n.d.). Retrieved January 02, 2017, from
https://www.ewtn.com/library/HUMANITY/HUMNRTS.HTM
13
Faith in Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved January 4, 2017, from https://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=CyGhyLqJT6IC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=robert%2Bj%2Bnelson%2Bhuman
%2Brights&source=bl&ots=DGwKeVzW7C&sig=Fr9k-7miZvIQFf4EzjOGJgAN2-
w&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=robert%20j%20nelson%20human%20rights&f=false
 church." Yet, it is equally clear that Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians have often
defended these communal values more vigorously than Protestants.14

Arguments

The following are some common arguments in favor of a Charter of Human Rights. It is
commonly argued that a statutory Charter of Human Rights would expressly recognize rights not
currently recognized by a country’s law, and therefore also:

 Help promote a stronger culture of respect for human rights;

 Improve government policy-making and administrative decision-making from a human
rights perspective;
 Bring a country into line with every other liberal democracy;
 Better meet the obligations a country has undertaken, under international law, to protect
human rights standards such as those contained in the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (for
copies of the core international human rights treaties, see the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights); and
 Potentially allow the government courts to play a broader role in protecting human rights
under the nation’s law

Some common arguments against a Charter of Human Rights

Some suggest that a Charter of Human Rights would be unnecessary, given the existing common
law and statutory protections of rights in some countries. Opponents of a Charter of Human
Rights also consider that a Charter of Human Rights could damage the current system of
democratic government, for instance by:

 Creating an undue focus on rights, as opposed to responsibilities, social justice or the

public interest;
 Giving unelected judges too much power over important social issues;
 Undermining the responsibility, and accountability, of members of the government in
respect of the protection of human rights; and
 Undermining national sovereignty in respect of human rights.15

14
R&HR. (n.d.). Retrieved January 04, 2017, from
http://religionhumanrights.com/Religion/Christian/Protestant/wcc.fhr.htm
15
Arguments For and Against a Charter of Human Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved January 08, 2017, from
http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/node/3071
Ethical/ Moral View

Ethical and moral views regarding human rights are very intrinsic. They’re given meaning and
importance even though they’ve existed the same time as the first human ever. Every source
sounds dogmatic as the other. In my opinion, and based on my readings, we humans brag so
much about our human rights only and only when we need them. Our human rights are only
called upon and given importance when we are harmed and threatened. Although that is how
human rights serve its purpose, problems wouldn’t arise if we think of our actions before we act
it. The root of the problem begins when we violate another person’s human rights.

Human Rights is not simply having a list of your rights declared by the very people who caused
so much violation of human rights in the history of time, it is much more than that. It is not being
able to differentiate what the consequences of your actions are.

Human Rights are supposed to be “untouchable,” they are inalienable and are not open for
question whether they should be some higher ups’ decision. Upon reading the works that we
have cited, when it comes to a person’s rights, it is as if it is not his or her decisions. It is as if his
rights depend on the authorities, which is very wrong. It isn’t even a question whether you need
to use it or not, or if you have to review it now and then. Your human rights are as natural as the
pigment of your skin. You were born with it, nobody should question it. But in our society today,
we don’t even bother taking the time to know what our rights are. We only call upon them when
we need them. In my opinion, it should be your right, but more of a responsibility, to know your
rights.