human rights
- fundamental rights, especially those believed to belong to an individual and in whose exercise a government may not interfere, as the rights to speak, associate, work, etc.
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Origin of human rights
First recorded in 1785–95
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for human rights
Contemporary Examples
There have been at least 50 cases similar to the bathhouse raid in the last 18 months, human-rights groups estimate.
As the director of Freedom Now, I hold Intigam Aliyev in high esteem and have long respected his work as a human-rights lawyer.
Behind Bars for the Holidays: 11 Political Prisoners We Want to See Free In 2015Movements.Org
December 25, 2014
Many prominent Congolese human-rights activists consider minerals to be at the heart of the perpetration of atrocities.
Human-rights groups, however, said most of those arrested were released for lack of evidence.
He patiently explains that overheating prisoners is not just a human-rights issue.
human rights
- the rights of individuals to liberty, justice, etc
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
human rights
Freedom from arbitrary interference or restriction by governments. The term encompasses largely the same rights called civil liberties or civil rights but often suggests rights that have not been recognized.
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Note
Political leaders in the United States often use the expression when speaking of rights violated by other nations.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.