Article No. 23 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that ‘Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment’ and that ‘Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work’. It adds that ‘Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection’. The last clause of Article 23 stresses the ‘right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests’.

Introduction

The concept of human rights has its origins in the centuries-old concepts of ‘Natural Law’ and ‘Natural Rights’. The concept of Natural Law defines inalienable rights that we have independently of any country's laws, beliefs, culture or custom. We have Natural Rights by dint of our own individual humanity. The concept of Natural Law was originally articulated by Aristotle, further developed in Roman times and enriched during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment eras.

The concept of ‘Natural Justice’ has also contributed to the current concept of ‘human rights’. Briefly, it says that we all have the right to be treated fairly and equitably. We are also all equal before the law. According to Thomas Aquinas (1225– 1274), the notion of Natural Justice first appeared in the writings of Socrates and Plato. Like the concept of Natural Law, the concept of Natural Justice too was further developed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment eras.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is itself a legal instrument, with the status of a ‘soft’ international law. We should note that the 1948 declaration remains a work in progress, and its goals are yet to be fully realised.

As for the concept of democracy, at its core it embodies the principle that, as individuals, we are owed the right to a say on decisions that have a major impact on our wellbeing. The principle of democracy has also been linked to the rights that working people are entitled to, more than a century ago. In the late 19th century it underpinned the demand to have the right to bargain collectively via trade unions.