HUMAN RIGHTS Medical Humanities II 2015-2016 Prof
HUMAN RIGHTS Medical humanities II 2015-2016 Prof. Marija Definis-Gojanović, MD, Ph.D. Human rights • "fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." - universal (applicable everywhere), - egalitarian (the same for everyone) - natural / legal - in national / international law Human rights • Are guaranteed by international standards; • Are legally protected; • Focus on the dignity of the human being; • Protect individuals and groups; • Oblige states and state actors; • Cannot be waived or taken away; • Are interdependent and interrelated; • Are universal. Human rights • Human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the atrocities of The Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. • The ancient world did not possess the concept of universal human rights ("elaborate systems of duties, conceptions of justice, political legitimacy, and human flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, or well-being entirely independent of human rights“). History of concept • In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia: - conquered the city of Babylon - he freed the slaves, declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion, and established racial equality, - recorded these on a baked-clay cylinder in the Akkadian language - has now been recognized as the world’s first charter of human rights, - UN! History of concept • The modern concept - developed during the early Modern period. • Can be traced to Renaissance Europe and the Protestant Reformation (alongside the disappearance of the feudal authoritarianism and religious conservativism). • The most commonly held view: - concept of human rights evolved in the West, and - while earlier cultures had important ethical concepts, they generally lacked a concept of human rights (no word for "right" in any language before 1400).
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