Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory. Rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. The headquarters of the Council are at the United Nations Office at Geneva in Switzerland.
Children's rights or the rights of children are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as "any human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." Children's rights includes their right to association with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for physical protection, food, universal state-paid education, health care, and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child's civil rights, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child's race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, color, ethnicity, or other characteristics.
Human Rights First is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3), international human rights organization based in New York City, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Its work centers on four main issue areas: authoritarianism, extremism, systemic injustice and the abuse of technology. It closely works with lawyers, veterans and security experts, technologists, and allied advocates to further its policy agenda. In 2004, it launched an "End Torture Now" campaign. The organization also runs the Fighting Discrimination program which focuses on hate crimes.
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in the relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.
ContactPoint was a government database in England that provided a way for those working with children and young people to find out who else is working with the same child or young person, making it easier to deliver more coordinated support. It was created in response to the abuse and death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbié in 2000 in England. Various agencies involved in her care had failed to prevent her death, in particular by individually never realising other agencies had been in contact with Victoria.
Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and exploitation. This definition is substantially wider than the same document's definition of "trafficking in persons". Children may also be trafficked for adoption.
Human rights education (HRE) is the learning process that seeks to build up knowledge, values, and proficiency in the rights that each person is entitled to. This education teaches students to examine their own experiences from a point of view that enables them to integrate these concepts into their values, decision-making, and daily situations. According to Amnesty International, HRE is a way to empower people, training them so their skills and behaviors will promote dignity and equality within their communities, societies, and throughout the world.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) is an international network of NGOs, with a membership of over 2,500 organizations worldwide advocating for a fair, effective and independent International Criminal Court (ICC). Coalition NGO members work in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal, and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The CICC Secretariat is hosted by the Women's Initiative for Gender Justice and it is based in The Hague.
A civil society campaign is one that is intended to mobilize public support and use democratic tools such as lobbying in order to instigate social change. Civil society campaigns can seek local, national or international objectives. They can be run by dedicated single-issue groups such as Baby Milk Action, or by professional non-governmental organisations (NGOs), such as the World Development Movement, who may have several campaigns running at any one time. Larger coalition campaigns such as 2005's Make Poverty History may involve a combination of NGOs.
Solange Pierre, known as Sonia Pierre, was a human rights advocate in the Dominican Republic who worked to end antihaitianismo, which is discrimination against individuals of Haitian origin either born in Haiti or in the Dominican Republic. For this work, she won the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
Adam F.C. Fletcher is an educational theorist, scholar and advocate focused on youth voice, student engagement and community empowerment. He is recognized for founding The Freechild Project.
The Human Rights Party Malaysia was a Malaysian human rights-based political party founded on 19 July 2009, led by human rights activist P.Uthayakumar. Uthayakumar was the pro-tem Secretary General of HRP with the support of Uthayakumar's brother, P.Waythamoorthy, both leaders of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), an apolitical human rights and equal rights non-governmental organisation (NGO).
Child pornography is illegal in most countries, but there is substantial variation in definitions, categories, penalties, and interpretations of laws. Differences include the definition of "child" under the laws, which can vary with the age of sexual consent; the definition of "child pornography" itself, for example on the basis of medium or degree of reality; and which actions are criminal. Laws surrounding fictional child pornography are a major source of variation between jurisdictions; some maintain distinctions in legality between real and fictive pornography depicting minors, while others regulate fictive material under general laws against child pornography.
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) is an independent agency of the U.S. government which monitors human rights and rule of law developments in the People's Republic of China. The commission was given the mandate by the U.S. Congress to monitor and report on human rights issues with a particular focus on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its reporting covers developments in freedom of expression, the right to peaceful assembly, religious freedom, freedom of movement, freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention or torture, and the right to a fair trial, among others. The commission publishes an annual report to the President of the United States and Congress, typically in the fall of each year. It also maintains a database of prisoners of conscience, holds regular roundtables and hearings, and issues letters to other institutions concerning human rights matters.
The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, commonly known by its French acronym LICADHO, is a national Cambodian human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) established in 1992. It is based in Phnom Penh and also operates 12 provincial offices. LICADHO's activities focus on monitoring human rights violations, providing legal representation to victims of human rights abuses and providing humanitarian assistance to victims of human rights abuses. The organization also monitors 18 Cambodian prisons and has specialized programs for the protection of women's rights and children's rights. LICADHO is regularly cited in the Cambodian media for stories on local human rights issues. The organization has also received international coverage for its work to combat human trafficking and prisons, and has been particularly vocal in highlighting Cambodia's land-grabbing crisis since 2003. Current LICADHO director Naly Pilorge has authored a number of op-eds in major international media outlets publicizing the human rights situation in Cambodia. LICADHO was the sole Cambodian rights organization invited to testify at a 2013 US House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on Cambodia's "looming political and social crisis".
Melanie Nathan is a South African-born attorney, a mediator, equality activist, and human rights advocate, who advocates, speaks and writes on issues impacting LGBTI communities around the world, with a focus on the United States and Africa. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1985. She publishes the LGBTI advocacy blog O-Blog-Dee-O-Blog-Da. She is the executive director of the African Human Rights Coalition. She was appointed a community grand marshal for San Francisco Pride 2014, in recognition of her global human rights advocacy work for LGBTI people. She is also a director of the Peacemaker Museum World Tour.
Protection of children’s rights is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a number of other laws. Children’s rights embrace legal, social and other issues concerning children.
The Atarib market massacre, Atarib market bombings or 2017 Atarib airstrike were three aerial bombardments on a marketplace in the Syrian rebel-held town of Atarib in the Aleppo Governorate of Syria perpetrated on 13 November 2017, during the Syrian Civil War. These airstrikes hit a commercial street with a market and a police station. The bombings killed 84 civilians, including six women and five children, and injured another 150 people. Atarib was part of the "Safe Zone" established in September 2017.
Climate change litigation, also known as climate litigation, is an emerging body of environmental law using legal practice to set case law precedent to further climate change mitigation efforts from public institutions, such as governments and companies. In the face of slow climate change politics delaying climate change mitigation, activists and lawyers have increased efforts to use national and international judiciary systems to advance the effort. Climate litigation typically engages in one of five types of legal claims: Constitutional law, administrative law, private law (challenging corporations or other organizations for negligence, nuisance, etc., fraud or consumer protection, or human rights.
