Human Rights Essay

In recent centuries, numerous movements for political change have occurred with one of their reasons being human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), one of the most recent declarations of human rights, occurred after World War II. This doctrine was established to avoid the horrific acts of the Holocaust from reoccurring. This doctrine lists specific human rights, such as the right not to be tortured, the right to own property, and the right to asylum. These rights are fundamental and take part in various other doctrines, declarations and constitutions. From this point, one can see how human rights have slowly moved away from society’s moral code to political interests.

The beginning of the United States of America is another example of political change by means of human rights. Settlers established the United States of America in order to freely practice their religion and seek fortune. At the time, America was only a colony of England, thus forced to abide by British laws. The colonists then decided to secede from England because they did not agree with the actions of the English government. One of these reasons was that their rights were being violated. They did not believe in housing the British soldiers free nor did the colonists agree with the inability to bear arms. The British had overtaken the major cities of the overseas colony and enforced harsh rulings and taxes upon the colonists. In the end, the discontented settlers joined forces to drive the British out of America. That their rights were being hindered was their only excuse.

The new America then set to the task of creating a Constitution. A Bill of Rights was included in this Constitution. This was done in order to refrain from any impediment on their natural human rights. The first, the third, and the forth amendments are directly correlated with basic human rights. With these three amendments, it is clear that the Bill of Rights protects the natural basic rights of the...