Human rights

How it is used

Almost always plural. Key texts include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and later UN covenants. Rights are respected, protected, promoted, violated or abused, and organisations monitor and report on a country's 'human rights record'.

Example sentences

1. The committee reviews the human rights record of every member state.

2. The agreement includes a clause on respect for human rights.

3. She works for an NGO that documents human rights violations.

Common collocations

• human rights violations
• human rights record
• protect human rights
• human rights law
• human rights defender

Related terms

• international lawThe body of rules that governs relations between states and other international actors, based mainly on treaties, custom and general principles of law.
• refugeeA person who is outside their own country and cannot return because of a well-founded fear of persecution; in wider use, also someone who has fled war or violence.
• NGOShort for non-governmental organisation: a non-profit group that is independent of governments and works on issues such as human rights, aid, development or the environment.
• self-determinationThe right of a people to choose its own political future and form of government, and to shape its own economic, social and cultural development.
• asylumProtection given by a state to a person who has fled their own country because of danger or persecution.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• human rights · Law
• human rights · Politics & Government

More terms: International Law & Human Rights

• territorial integrity
• International Court of Justice
• customary international law
• recognition
• non-intervention