Global Human Rights: Principles, Values, and International Frameworks

International Human Rights Instruments

• Convention on the Political Rights of Women
• Convention on the Abolition of Slavery
• Declaration on the Rights of the Child
• Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons
• Declaration on the Human Environment
• Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons
• Convention Against Torture

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and National Constitutions

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a landmark document upon which democratic countries must base their constitutions. For example, principles found in the UDHR are reflected in national laws, such as in the Spanish Constitution:

• Article 1: Spain becomes a social and democratic state of law.
• Article 10:
  1. The dignity and inherent rights of individuals.
  2. The rules concerning fundamental rights and freedoms.

Defining Core Values

Values are fundamental principles that guide human conduct and behavior. They can be understood as:

• Projects or Ideals: Aspirations that human beings appreciate and strive for.
• Free and Personal: Chosen and acquired through the free exercise of will.
• Beliefs: Deeply attached to the personality of human beings, forming an important part of their identity.
• Indicators: Guiding principles for individual conduct and behavior throughout life.

Essential Moral Values and Their Classification

It is necessary to identify a set of moral values regarded as basic or essential. These values guide what are often called Peace, Freedom, Justice, Equality, and Solidarity. We also have a broader classification of values:

• Aesthetic Values: Beauty, elegance
• Economic Values: Wealth, competitiveness
• Vital Values: Health, energy
• Religious Values: Faith, holiness
• Intellectual Values: Rigor, wisdom
• Social Values: Prestige, good image
• Moral Values: Justice, peace

Supporting Virtues

Closely related to these core values are several supporting virtues, such as kindness, sacrifice, responsibility, respect, sensitivity, effort, honesty, and compassion.

Characteristics of Human Rights

Human rights possess distinct features:

• Ideal of Civilization: They emerge from an ideal of human civilization, aiming for the construction of a more humane world.
• Universal Vocation: They are universal and should be recognized without exception for all persons.
• Interdependent and Complementary: Rights reinforce and complement each other.
• Inalienable: No one, nor any country, can be obliged to renounce them or be deprived of the benefits they provide.

Inalienable Rights: Third Generation

The third generation of human rights addresses global challenges such as violence, underdevelopment, and climate change, which can only be solved through global solidarity. These include:

• The right to live in peace without the threat of violence.
• The right to development for all peoples, leading to the eradication of poverty.
• The right to be born and live in a safe and healthy environment, free from pollution, ensuring ecological balance.
• The right of all citizens to safeguard their cultural identity, including the identity of indigenous peoples, amidst economic globalization.

Concluding Principles of Human Rights

Two final considerations are crucial:

• The contents expressed in these statements respond to very general basic principles that needed to be concretized and developed through further statements.
• Human rights establish benchmarks that democratic countries must necessarily follow when strengthening their constitutions and forms of government.