What are Human Rights

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.