The Issue
Human rights are rights that everyone is entitled to by the simple virtue of their being human. This being the case, human rights cannot help but be universal in nature. Even with the enormous amount of rhetoric and academic discourse surrounding the concept of human rights, there continues to be much debate, controversy and even uncertainty regarding it.
While the idea of human rights is philosophical and even ‘common sense’ in nature—and has its origins in ancient times—the legal nature of human rights as entitlements is more modern. Despite human rights being encoded into national and international law today, there continue to be grave human rights abuses throughout the world.