Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Human Rights Commissions & Committees

This research paper discusses the principal human rights commissions and committees, public and private, their charters, activities and performance. The cause of human rights has probably been advanced more by the actions and example of exceptional and dedicated individuals, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Andrei Sakharov and Harry Wu, among many others, than it has by the activities of professional human rights organizations. Some of the latter, such as the European Commission on Human Rights in the public sector, and Amnesty International among private organizations, have made substantial contributions at the margin to man's slow and frustrating progress toward a more civilized world. Since the 1970s, the human rights movement has become larger, better organized and more influential. Important elements of it have also some taken on some of the more unattractive features of the modern world. Some agencies have become more bureaucratic and hobbbled by inertia. Others are more dynamic but pursue their agenda with ideological fervor and narrowness of viewpoint. As the movement has become a career path for ambitious professional activists, competition among private human rights organizations for media and public attention has become more intense.

After the end of World War II, the United Nations took the lead in defining minimum standards of human rights and in sponsoring along with the churches, the International Red Cross and other private groups, humanitarian aid to victims of human rights abuses and war refugees. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the world community in 1948, the global community committed itself to uphold the following principles:

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights . . . Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person . . . No one shall be held in slavery or servitude . . . No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degradin...

Page 1 of 9 Next >

More on Human Rights Commissions & Committees...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Human Rights Commissions & Committees. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 04:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1691171.html