Most people know that they have certain rights, like the right to life, freedom, a safe place to live and to get paid for work. These are called “human rights” because they apply to every person on the planet, regardless of what country they are in or what they believe. Human rights are the basic things that we all need to be happy and to get along with each other. When we don’t have these things, it can lead to conflict and violence.
Violations of human rights are often the root cause of many conflicts. They can spark or fuel political unrest, provoke other kinds of violence and help a conflict spiral out of control. For example, when the right to a healthy environment is violated and large numbers of people are excluded from society’s decision-making processes or social life, it can lead to hunger and frustration. This can trigger violent responses from one side, which in turn can feed into a cycle of violence and suffering that makes peace difficult to achieve.
The concept of human rights is relatively new, coming into everyday use after World War II and the founding of the United Nations in 1945, and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The phrase replaced the earlier term “natural rights,” which had fallen out of favor partly because of the rise of legal positivism, which rejected the theory that there are certain natural laws governing human conduct.