Human Rights Essay

A human rights essay should point out that right up till the Renaissance (that stretched from the 13^th to the 16^th century) man was looked upon as a fallen being who had sinned and could only save himself by adopting an other worldly attitude. But during the Renaissance the focus shifted from viewing humanity as a bunch of fallen sinners to the fact that man was created by God in his own image and so man was viewed as possessing Godlike qualities.

Philosophers like Locke and Lowe built on this idea through the celebration of what it meant to be human and advocated the protection of the dignity of man due to his Godlike nature. This is how the seed of the idea of human rights was planted in which it was believed that every single human being-(regardless of their economic or social status)- had certain inalienable rights like the right for freedom and the right to lead a life that was free of poverty, slavery and subjugation.

Human Rights Essay and the American Constitution

After the long hard and bitter struggle of the civil war, when America gained its independence and abolished slavery, the civil rights movement was adopted by the American constitution just as it was earlier adopted by thinkers like Rousseau who spread the ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity during the French revolution.

Both France and USA adopted a more open democratic system in which man was a free being with the right to vote his own leaders through the system of democracy-this was first described by Rousseau as rule by the people, of the people and for the people. In the earlier system of monarchic government human rights were only looked upon as a privilege of the nobility while it was considered the lot of the lower classes to be subjugated as they served them.

A human rights essay should point out that the human rights movement sees human rights as a universal phenomenon, since it states that even the poorest person has a right to get the basic amenities of life including food clothing and shelter as well as the right to freedom and equal opportunity. So in that sense, a human rights essay should point out that the human rights movement has helped mankind make a shift from a society based on privilege and hereditary status to one that is based on equal opportunity and dignity of all human beings