While some dictionaries define the word right as  “ a privilege” when used in the context of “human rights” we are talking about something more basic.

Every person is entitled to certain fundamental rights, simply by fact of being human. These are called “human rights” rather than privilege (which can be taken away at someone’s whim). Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, caste, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible.

They are “rights” because they are things you are allowed to be, to do or to have. These rights are there for your protection against people who might want to harm or hurt you. They are also there to help us get along with each other and live in peace.

International human rights law recognizes the individual’s rights and freedoms before states. States are obliged to refrain from violating these rights and to guarantee the law is upheld.

Thus human rights “can be defined as the privileges which all individuals have, in accordance with international law, before the authorities to preserve their dignity as human beings. Their function is to exclude state interference in specific areas of the individual’s life or to guarantee the provision of certain services by the state to meet basic needs and which reflect the fundamental demands a human being can make on the society they live in”

According to Section 2(d) of the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 enacted by the Indian Parliament in the forty-fourth year of the Republic of India, ‘human rights’ means the rights relating to life, liberty equality, and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India.

“…… Human Rights are the basic rights, which everyone inherits the moment one is conceived in the mother’s womb”.