Human Rights: Select International Instruments

Literally, human rights are the rights that one has simply because one is human. This deceptively simple idea has profound social and political consequences. To maintain righteousness, sanctity of human rights must be upheld. Human rights, because they rest on nothing more than being human, are universal, equal, and inalienable. They are held by all human beings, universally. One either is or is not human and thus has or does not have human rights, equally. And one can no more lose these rights than one can stop being a human being-no matter how inhuman the treatment one may suffer. One is entitled to human rights and is empowered by them. Here, in the present volume, we have chosen some select international instruments on human rights which are representative and of utmost relevance in the present day content.