The International Human Rights Day is celebrated every year on December 10.
The day was established in 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly in order to mark the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
While neither legal nor binding, the document enshrined human rights in 30 articles including the Right to freedom from discrimination, right to equality between men and women, right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, right to liberty, right to be treated with humanity in detention and freedom of movement.
Despite 2023 being the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the UDHR, no country has managed to ensure access and freedom to all the human rights contained in the document.
Here are 10 basic Human Rights that should be available to all Human Beings;
- The right to freedom and equality
All human beings are born free, are equal in dignity and have the same rights.
- The right to freedom of thought, opinion and expression
All human beings have the equal right to hold opinions without interference and have the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media.
- The right to work
Everyone has the right to work as per their choice of employment and has an equal right to just and favourable conditions of work. It also encompasses the right to protection against unemployment.
- The right to education
The right to education gives one the right to get educated ideally till elementary school — and free of cost.
- Right to be treated equal before the law
Everyone must be treated equal before the law and entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. The right protects against discrimination and against any incitement to discrimination.
- Right of social service
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.
- Right to trial
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal or component of law.
- Right to privacy
This right protects all from being subjected to arbitrary interference with regard to their family, home or correspondence’s privacy and attacks on honour and reputation. The right allows everyone to seek protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
- Right to asylum
Everyone has the right to seek asylum in other countries for protection from persecution. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from the acts that defy the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
- Right to democracy
Everyone has the right to take part in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives along with the right of equal access to public service.
Here are some of the human rights that are commonly violated, not protected or not given the importance they deserve across the world.
- Right to food
Despite the world having more than enough food production to feed everyone on the planet, 828 million people go hungry. This is why the right to food is one of the most basic yet violated human rights in the world.
- Right to freedom from discrimination
Discrimination on the basis on sex, gender, race, political affiliation, religion, nationality, social status and sexual preference is still rampant across the world with studies highlighting that this discrimination has real-world effects on an individual’s future.
- Right to freedom of peaceful assembly
Despite peaceful assembly being a key social and civil right, in reality governments all over the world frequently violate this right with impunity.
- Right to marriage
People of all genders have the right to marry a person of their choice with mutual consent but in the real world, individuals belonging to certain groups like LGBTQ communities find themselves unable to get legally married due to local laws against same-sex marriage.
- Right to privacy
Every human is guaranteed the right to privacy within their homes and their personal lives but government surveillance, tracking from corporations and general use of personal data have meant that this right is very weakly enforced.