Human rights define the value and worth of each person and their relationship to government and society. They identify standards regarding the quality of life that each of us can expect to enjoy.
Human rights have the following qualities:
- Human rights are inherent: human rights do not have to be given to us by a government to exist. They are our birthright and belong to us simply because we exist as human beings.
- Human rights are inalienable: human rights cannot be given away or taken away.
- Human rights are universal: human rights belong to everyone, irrespective of their sex, race, colour, religion, national or social origin or other status.
The United Nations (UN) has enshrined many human rights in international human rights instruments. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, forms the basis of these documents. Its Preamble says, in part, that the ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’.
Women’s rights are human rights
Due to some social structures, traditions, stereotypes and attitudes about women and their role in society, women do not always have the opportunity and ability to access and enforce their rights on the same basis as men.
The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is the key international human rights document that seeks to ensure the enforcement of the human rights of women on an equal basis with men.
This package focuses on women’s rights as human rights in the context of CEDAW. It focuses on the reality of women’s lives and the experiences they have specifically because of their gender.
CEDAW deals with rights including the right to vote and stand for election, equal rights to education, protection from discrimination in the workplace and equality before the law. This pack outlines these rights in section 7.