What are Human Rights?

They key to understanding this is in what the words “Human Rights” meant when they were written in the modern eras definitive document; The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These days everybody knows that rights means a legal or moral claim to something. In the case of Human Rights, we all know that this is true.

1. a moral or legal entitlement to have or do something.

“she had every right to be”; Oxford Dictionary
But there is a second definition that was used in 1948, when the Declaration was written. It is the
key definition and has been mostly lost in time.

2. that which is morally correct, just, or honourable.

“she doesn’t understand the difference between right and wrong”; Oxford Dictionary
The second definition is what Human Rights are.

So if Human Rights are right and honourable and we all have a claim to them, why are they not real? Well, in 1948 the second definition also included the words “and implies a responsibility” to make them real. Well who does that? One of the unique features of Human Rights is that they are based on respect, all of them. This means that they cannot be taken and can only be given or granted to others. …. So it follows that the people who want Human Rights are the people who need to understand them and teach them to the rest of the planet. ……that is what will make Human Rights real.