Learning Objectives
Human Rights and National Development

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

• Understand key principles at the heart of human rights;
  
  
• Know the international human rights standards;
  
  
• Know the core human rights treaties and what it means to ratify them;
  
  
• Be familiar with how committees are set up to monitor States’ compliance with their responsibilities under the treaties.

Introduction and Overview

This unit covers the international human rights treaties and the rights they protect. It emphasises that there is international consensus and agreement on the meaning and scope of human rights. This has been distilled into an international human rights legal framework that sets standards, which are the minimum for all nations to follow. The unit traces the development of these standards in the United Nations, from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the present.

The unit illustrates the various rights that make up the contemporary definition of human rights that is based on a shared international understanding. It indicates that the State is mandated to protect the human rights of all from violations by State and non-State actors. It outlines the international legal framework of human rights comprising the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the seven core international human rights treaties, as well as the workings of the treaty system, including the responsibilities that come with ratification and the committees that provide the mechanism to invoke State responsibility to uphold human rights standards. In addition, this unit also provides links to other United Nations documents, conventions, guidelines and rules that protect human rights.