What are Human Rights

1. Introduction

In this unit we will review the main concepts of human rights and how they are integral to the provision for health care services, regardless of the type of provider or the context where services are provided. Too brief, you may introduce your topics here

Objective

Upon completion of this Unit, you will be able to: Numbering for objectives; just use bullets

1.      Understand and discuss the basic concepts of human rights as they are apply to the delivery of health care services in communities in Botswana. Avoid understand and even if you had used another doing word, there will be two in one statement

2.      Give examples of how human rights can strengthen and support your work as a community health worker.

2. An introduction to Human Rights

In a modern society like Botswana, we can rarely go through a day without hearing the words 'human rights' in one form or another.  We can hear these terms in our own communities or about things going on in other countries in the Southern African region  or around the globe.  But what does 'human rights' mean and why is it important for a community health worker to know about them? 

2.1. What are Human Rights

Human rights are a set of minimum standards, often expressed in legal documents, for guiding how individuals in a society should live, respect and interact with each other and how institutions, whether government or non-governmental, should respect and interact with individuals.  Human rights encompass freedoms and privileges as well as entitlements and obligations.

The table below lists some of the main or core human rights that we hear about most often.  We will come back to some of these later in the unit when we look at how they apply to health care and what community health workers and other health workers do.

Table 1:  Examples of human rights

It is clear from the table how human rights influence almost everything we do and how we interact with each other!

There are three main types of human rights that we all share:  civil, political and socio-economic.  Civil rights include things like the right to life, the right to dignity, the right to a fair trial.  Political rights include things like freedom of thought or belief, the right to join political parties and to participate in social movements, and the right to vote.  Socio-economic rights include those things that are essential to human survival, such as the right to health, the right to food or shelter, and the right to equality. 

You can find the definitions of the each of these rights and the different international documents where they are defined in Annex 1 to this module. 

2.2. What are human rights for?

The most important function of human rights is to define and protect human dignity and equality.  Dignity and equality refer to those essential qualities and attributes that each one of has as a member of the human family, regardless of our situation or personal or social characteristics.  We have human rights because we are human.  And because we are all human, we all have human rights, regardless of the many things that make us different or unique from one another.

As you might be able to make out from the list in Table 1 above human rights make concrete certain values that are essential to our well-being and our ability to live together and thrive together as a community or a society.  These values are:

Ø  Freedom: because the human will or spirit is an important part of human dignity. To be forced to do something against our will demeans the human spirit.

Ø  Respect for others: because a lack of respect for someone fails to appreciate their individuality and essential dignity.

Ø  Non-discrimination: because equality in human dignity means we should not judge people's rights and opportunities on the basis of their characteristics.  

Ø  Tolerance: because intolerance indicates a lack of respect for difference:  we are not all the same in social or physical characteristics, but yet we are all entitled to dignity and respect.

Ø  Justice: because people who share a common humanity deserve fair treatment.

Ø  Responsibility: because respecting the rights of others entails responsibility for one's actions and exerting effort for the realisation of the rights of ourselves and everyone around us.

2.3. What makes human rights different than other moral standards or values?

Human rights are unique from other standards or obligations affecting how individuals relate to each other and the institutions that surround them.  There are cross-cutting principles or characteristics of human rights that help us understand their importance, how they are linked to each other, and how powerful they can be.   These include:

Ø  Universal:  Human rights belong to everyone everywhere regardless of things like location, type of government, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics or practices, such as cultural or religious beliefs, political affiliations, gender or sexuality.

Ø  Inherent:  Human rights are inherent to all of us as human beings.  They are not something we earn or that is given to us by someone else.  We have them because we are human.

Ø  Inalienable:  We can never loose our human rights.  Some human rights can be limited in certain circumstances.  They can also be violated or refused, but this does not change their status as something permanently attached to our status as human beings.

Ø  Interdependent:  Human rights link to each other and rely on each other.  The right to life is intricately linked to the right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, for example, or arbitrary arrest or detention.  The right to health is intricately linked to the right to food or shelter.  Without these, we cannot have health.

Ø  Indivisible:  Similarly, human rights cannot be separated from each other.  They come as a 'package'.  We can't pick and choose which to honour or protect or which to ignore. 

2.4. How do human rights work?

In working with human rights, we often speak about rights holders, or those who can claim rights or are entitled to rights; and duty-bearers, or those who have obligations to respect, protect, promote and fulfil human rights (see Box 1).  Duty-bearers are often governments but they can also be non-governmental entities or even other individuals. 

Human rights have both individual and collective aspects.  For every right there is a corresponding responsibility.  The rights of one person cannot be insisted on in a way that limits the dignity or equality of another, for example.  We have a collective responsibility to value and uphold the human rights of everyone, regardless of whatever differences we may have. Talk to the learner

Sometimes, human rights are violated meaning that they are not respected, protected, or fulfilled.  This can occur in situations of war or conflict, but also in more everyday circumstances such as when a police officer decides to punish someone by putting them in jail without giving any information about what crimes they have committed.  When these things occur, rights-holders are entitled to file complaints and seek remedies.  Complaints can be made through human rights commissions or the courts, for example.  The can also be made through regional or international bodies such as the African Commission on Human Rights or the Human Rights Council of the United Nations.  The remedy will depend on the seriousness of the violation that occurred.

Finally, in some cases human rights can be limited (but never denied or removed).  In situations of public emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, societies will accept some limitations on human rights (freedom of movement, for example) for the achievement of a larger social good such as protection from epidemic disease.  However, these limitations will usually be temporary and only made when they are the last resort or there is no other way forward.  One of the purposes of the Constitution of Botswana is to define when such limitations can be imposed and what criteria must be met before the government, for example, can take such actions.