Human rights is one of the greatest achievements of humanity. Human rights are the inalienable, inviolable rights that all people have in equal terms. After a long historical process, it has been agreed that humans have dignity, and that is why they have rights. In this paper I will try to explain why human rights matter and the responsibilities of individuals towards protecting human rights by describing the historical process of the development of human rights.

History of human rights is full of struggle. There are two main phases for guaranteeing human rights. The first one is the struggle against absolute rulers and the second one is the struggle for restricting parliaments for the sake of human rights. Basically, human rights have two subjects as state and individual. In other words, human rights are about protecting individuals from the state which has legitimate use of force. Since the state has the ability to use force against individuals, it is accepted that it must be limited by rules and principles, because when it becomes unlimited the one who controls the state mechanism can use power for their own interest. So, two phases of the history of human rights is about restricting two bodies of state mechanism as executions and legislation. The first phase is related to restricting absolute power of state and then restricting state authorities for guaranteeing human rights. After the absolute kings were restricted with constitution and human rights, the power shifted to parliaments that consisted through elections. However, since the activities of parliaments were not restricted, it led to massive human rights violations, mostly during WW2. For this reason, currently human rights are perceived as the main borders of all state activities including parliaments. 

Before the human rights doctrine which coincided with the pre-17th century, rulers were exercising their power without any restriction. There was no equality in the society at all during feudal and pre-feudal times. Ordinary people didn’t have the right to learn how to write and read and they had to work in the land of the lord. People had no freedom of travel or freedom of speech. They had no right to own property. The ruler was also a judge and had the right to give the death penalty without any trial. Some women were hunted with the accusation of being witches. Slavery was allowed and widespread.  

Then with the 17th century, the idea of humans born free and equal started to grow as the reason for restricting absolute rulers. In other words, human rights started to become the reason for restricting absolute rulers. In England, the Petition of rights which is similar to Magna Carta aims to guarantee the life and property of people. It was aiming to give more power to parliament against the king. However, since the king did not accept the limitation, England underwent a huge civil war. Then the parliament supporters defeated the king and in 1679 The Habeas Corpus Act was accepted. All these events limited the power of the ruler and gave more power to the parliament. Similar to the process of England, the documents of the American and French Revolution accepted the idea that human beings are born with rights. However, all the historical process was depending on the importance of parliaments. Although human rights were recognized in general, they did not limit the parliaments with human rights. For that reason, when extremist rulers captured the parliament they made decisions totally incompatible with human rights. As a result, millions of people lost their lives during WW2 due to the decisions of parliaments. For this reason, constitutional courts were established to check parliaments. In addition, in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was recognized internationally and decided to create an international mechanism for preventing any human rights violation. Today, there are lots of international mechanisms for checking the regulations and actions in accordance with human rights.

After highlighting the struggle given for human rights, and showing that this is the process that started from the time when humans were not free and equal, and continuing with the limitation of states and recognizing human rights internationally, I also want to stress the importance of it. If we had no freedom of speech, I wouldn’t write this article and you wouldn’t read. However, there is more than this. Humans as having human dignity, have their own potential. When individual deprived from freedom of speech, freedom of travel, and face with the discrimination, torture, slavery and so on – individual cannot benefit from being human. In other words, the characteristics that make humans valuable for protection are preserved by human rights. As an individual, humans are able to make decisions in contrast to all other creatures; they have the capacity to determine good and bad, to distinguish correct from incorrect actions. Therefore, human rights open space for individuals to choose best for themselves without making intervention to the others rights. The other side of the importance of human rights is about the responsibilities of individuals towards human rights.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF INDIVIDUAL

Basically, individuals have two responsibilities towards human rights. The first one is not to violate any of the rights of others for the sake of respecting the human rights of others. In other words, people have to allow others to realise themselves and benefit from being human. The second one requires taking reaction against human rights violations. Although the state is responsible for protecting human rights, and in case of violation, it is responsible for investigation and punishment, people as a main actor in the democratic system should raise their voice against violations. This is a crucial part of human rights since there is danger of normalisation of violations. If violations become widespread and normal, the world alarms. In case the state does not fulfil its responsibilities, it’s the individual’s duty to check the government. Having no reactions against violations means the spread of violation and if violations become common that means you are going to be the next candidate for victim. As a whole, the responsibility to stand against human rights violations stem from being human. If you don’t react against nuclear attacks, women murders, baby killings, drug trafficking, bombardment of hospitals which are carried out at the moment in the world unfortunately, there is always the possibility of spreading the effects of human rights violation. So in order to stay human with human rights, we shouldn’t be silent against violations.

Muhammed Emin Ersan

Sources:

Konya-Mazlumder – İnsan Haklarının Tarihsel Gelişimi

Dergipark – Ortaçağ Avrupa’sında İnsan Hakları