Description

Human rights are those rights which belong to an individual as a consequence of

being human. They are based on elementary human needs as imperatives. Some of these

human needs are elemental for sheer physical survival and health. Others are elemental

for psychic survival and health. Thus, human rights can be perceived and enumerated.

These rights are associated with the traditional concept of natural law.

Rights being immunities denote that there is a guarantee that certain things cannot

or ought not to be done to a person against his will. According to this concept, human

beings, by virtue of their humanity, ought to be protected against unjust and degrading

treatment. In other words, human rights are exemptions from the operation of arbitrary

power. An individual can seek human rights only in an organized community i.e., a state,

or in other words, where the civil social order exists. No one can imagine to invoke them

in a state of anarchy where there is hardly any just power to which a citizen can appeal

against the violations of rights. Thus, the principle of the protection of human rights is

derived from the concept of man as a person and his relationship with an organized

society which cannot be separated from universal human nature.

Human rights being essential for all-round development of the personality of the

individuals in the society be necessarily protected and be made available to all the

individuals. They must be preserved, cherished and depended if peace and prosperity are

to be achieved. Human rights are the very essence of a meaningful life, and to maintain

human dignity is the ultimate purpose of the government. The need for the protection has arisen because of inevitable increase in the control over men's action by the governments

which by no means can be regarded as desirable. There are several states where

fundamental standards of human behaviour are not observed. The consciousness on the

part of the human beings as to their rights has also necessitated the protection by the

states. It has been realized that the functions of all the laws whether they are the rules of

municipal law or that of international law should be to protect them in the interest of the

humanity.