Quick questions on The nature and development of human rights: HSC Legal Studies

Human rights are rights that are universal (apply to all human beings), inherent (held by virtue of being human), inalienable (cannot be given away or taken without due process) and indivisible (civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are interdependent).

The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (UK) abolished slavery throughout most of the British Empire. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery in the United States in 1865. Slavery is now prohibited under article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966. Modern slavery (human trafficking, forced labour) is the subject of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth).

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 recognises the right to education. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 elaborates this in articles 13 and 14. In Australia, compulsory primary education was legislated in the second half of the 19th century, with most states enacting compulsory school attendance by 1900.

The right of peoples to self-determination is recognised in common article 1 of the two 1966 Covenants. It includes the right of colonised peoples to political independence (the post-1945 decolonisation movement) and the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination, recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007. Self-determination remains the underlying principle behind contemporary debates around Indigenous voice, treaty and constitutional recognition.

Environmental rights are a comparatively recent addition. The Stockholm Declaration 1972 first recognised a link between human rights and the environment. In 2022 the UN General Assembly Resolution 76/300 recognised the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. The Rio Declaration 1992 underpins the principle of sustainable development.