Human rights are fundamental standards which every person is entitled to. They are inherent in the dignity of each individual and can never be surrendered by anyone.
The idea that people have certain basic rights against the abuse of government power had begun to gain wider acceptance in the 19th and 20th centuries, through the work of international bodies such as the League of Nations and the International Labour Organisation. But it was the terrible atrocities of World War II that really propelled the human rights agenda onto the global stage.
In the aftermath of that dreadful conflict, governments made a commitment to prevent the bleakest moments in history from ever happening again. They drew up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
Its first two Articles, on life and liberty, set out the premise that all people have the right to live and the right to freedom. They also say that everyone has the right to be recognised everywhere as a person before the law. That means that there should be no discrimination based on race, religion, political or geographical origin, or any other reason.
The UDHR went on to say that governments have a duty, regardless of their own political, economic or cultural systems, to promote and protect all human rights for all their citizens without discrimination. It was a radical step forward and helped give rise to a range of communities, movements and nations which took up the UDHR as their own and used it to fuel their fight for human rights.