Fundamentals in Human Rights

FOUR FUNDAMENTALS IN HUMAN RIGHTS.
1. FREEDOM
Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint,
and the absence of a despotic government.
“State shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably
to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The right to freedom of expression is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights, which sets out in broad terms the human rights that each of us has. It was later
protected legally by a raft of international and regional treaties. Exercising these rights without
fear or unlawful interference is central to living in an open and fair society; one in which people
can access justice and enjoy their human rights.
Freedom of the press prohibits the government from interfering with the printing and distribution
of information or opinions. It can be limited by libel and copyright laws.
Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the
individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common
interests. The right to freedom of association is recognized as a human right, a political freedom
and a civil liberty. This freedom can be limited by laws that protect public safety.
Freedom of expression includes freedom of speech, of the press, of association, of assembly and
petition. This freedom doesn’t extend to expression that defames, causes panic, creates fighting
words, incites people to crime, creates sedition, or is obscene.
Freedom of speech is the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental
interference. The right doesn’t extend to hate speech, advertising, child pornography, and a few
other instances.
Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to

manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.
2. EQUALITY
Equality means that all people have the same worth and must be treated equally, regardless of
e.g. ethnic background, sexual orientation or functional impairments.
The word equality comes from the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is about all people having the same dignity and rights.
All people have a right to say what they think, believe in whichever god they want and choose
whichever partner they want to live with.
The Declaration of Human Rights applies to all people in the world. A modern democracy does
not function well if human rights are not respected. The state must be able to protect its
inhabitants from discrimination and oppression.
Gender equality concerns equality between women and men. Women and men have to have the
same rights and opportunities. They also have to have the same amount of power to influence
society and their own lives. When someone is treated worse because they are a man or a woman,
this is discrimination on the basis of gender.
Human rights instruments prohibit discrimination on several grounds. Article 2 UDHR prohibits
discrimination on the following 10 grounds: race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth and other status.
3. JUSTICE
Justice is the concept of fairness. Social justice is fairness as it manifests in society. That
includes fairness in healthcare, employment, housing, and more.
Justice is an underlying principle for peaceful and prosperous coexistence within and among
nations. We uphold the principles of social justice when we promote gender equality, or the
rights of indigenous peoples and migrants. We advance social justice when we remove barriers
that people face because of gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.
In order to uphold these principles of social justice and remove some of the barriers that people
face we, as a society, need to ensure that people are treated with dignity, treated with respect,
treated fairly and listened to and have a say overe their lives. These values, as well as being
essential for social justice, are at the very heart of human rights. Social Justice is all about
working towards a more equal society. Part of this is ensuring that people are treated with dignity
and respect by those with public power, also the main goal of human rights. However, human
rights are not just values. Human rights are set out in law and they set the rules on how the state
should treat individuals. This means human rights can be a powerful tool to enable us to achieve
social justice, anchoring our actions in the law rather than values alone, which can be stretched
or become optional especially in difficult times or situations.
4. HUMAN DIGNITY
Human dignity is the recognition that human beings possess a special value intrinsic to their
humanity and as such are worthy of respect simply because they are human beings. This concept,
once foundational to ethical reflection in such diverse areas of engagement as social ethics and
human rights on to the clinical bedside and bioethics, has come under increasing criticism. As
part of our institutional identity as a Christian bioethics center, The Center for Bioethics &
Human Dignity is firmly committed to the belief that human dignity is an inherent quality in all
human beings in virtue of our having been created in the image of God. Thus every human
being, regardless of age, ability, status, gender, ethnicity, etc., is to be treated with
respect. Furthermore, we believe that how one understands this concept affects how one views
and engages bioethical issues across the entire life span. The articles in this section explore this
key concept in both its foundational development and its application to the broader concerns of
bioethics.
At its most basic, the concept of human dignity is the belief that all people hold a special value
that’s tied solely to their humanity. It has nothing to do with their class, race, gender, religion,
abilities, or any other factor other than them being human.
The original meaning of the word “dignity” established that someone deserved respect because
of their status. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that concept was turned on its
head. Article 1 states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights.” Suddenly, dignity wasn’t something that people earned because of their class, race, or
another advantage. It is something all humans are born with. Simply by being human, all people
deserve respect. Human rights naturally spring from that dignity.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted in 1966, continued this
understanding. The preamble reads that these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the
human person.” This belief goes hand in hand with the universality of human rights. In the past,
only people made dignified by their status were given respect and rights. By redefining dignity as
something inherent to everyone, it also establishes universal rights.

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FOUR FUNDAMENTALS IN HUMAN RIGHTS.

The right to freedom of expression is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of

Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to

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