Human Rights

Abstract

Some of those who are otherwise supportive of the United Nations take an indifferent or even hostile view of human rights, thinking of them as a rather abstract and boring subject—the drawing up of dry legal codes in which rights are hedged with so many qualifications and restrictions as to be meaningless. But human rights are not about texts but about people, what they and their neighbours are legally free to do, and what obligations fall on governments for guaranteeing those freedoms. From a moral point of view human rights are about the behaviour of individuals. From a legal point of view human rights are about the responsibilities of governments.