Safeguarding Human Rights
Muneeb Rashid Malik
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. […] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.
Human Rights Day is observed on 10th December every year. It is the day when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. TheUniversal Declaration of Human Rights is a document that proclaims the rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being. This year’s theme for Human Rights Day was related to the COVID-19 pandemic and it focused on the need to build back better by ensuring human rights are central to recovery efforts. In India, the statute which deals with the protection and promotion of human rights is the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.It is in accordance with the Paris Principles, adopted in Paris in the year 1991, and endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20th December, 1993. Section 2(1) (d) of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, defines Human Rights as the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India. According to the United Nations, human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.