International Human Rights and the International Human Rights System A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions Chapter 2: What are human rights? KEY QUESTIONS • What does it mean to be human? • What do human beings require to live fully human lives? • What are human rights? • What are the essential characteristics of human rights? 1. DEFINITIONAL CHALLENGES Defining “human rights” is difficult. There are many international human rights treaties, declarations and resolutions but none of them provides an agreed definition of “human rights”. There are many learned books on human rights – some academic in nature and others more popular – but they generally assume that readers know what “human rights” means without trying to define it. International human rights law can be defined, the characteristics of “human rights” have been identified and the content of “human rights” has been and is being developed. However, agreeing on a single, universally accepted definition of “human rights” has not been possible. “Human rights” is more described than defined. Human rights are said to be: • fundamental or foundational, going to the heart of human personhood • entitlements, not mere claims or requests • applicable to every human being. Agreeing on a single, universally accepted understanding of the origins of human rights has also been impossible. International law and international statements about human rights are silent on this subject. When asked where human rights come from, different people respond in different ways depending on their personal beliefs and opinions. Many people will say that human rights come from God and are gifts of God. Others will adopt a secular analysis or respond from an ideological perspective. Post-modern scholars will say that they are constructed from human imagination or for ideological purposes and have no objective reality. These issues are debated in academic circles. Sometimes they are also debated and even resolved at the domestic level, to the satisfaction of a particular community’s beliefs or culture or tradition. At the international level, however, a pragmatic approach has been adopted and these issues have been avoided, or bypassed, in favour of seeking to identify the characteristics of human rights and the content of human rights law. 2. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE THE ANSWERS TO TWO FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS One approach to resolving the difficulty of defining “human rights” is to examine what the concept of human rights seeks to do and what role human rights play in human self-understanding. From the beginnings of human consciousness, human beings have sought to understand themselves and the nature of their humanity. This capacity for consciousness and self-reflection is what distinguishes Chapter 2: What are human rights? | 5