We live in a world where the discourse on universal human rights – rights bestowed on all of us equally by virtue of the fact that we are humans – is now predominant. Yet it is also a world which is illdivided in the realisation of such rights; a world where a lack of basic socio-economic rights condemns millions to hunger, thirst, ill-health and limited access to shelter, healthcare and education – in a world of plenty (UNICEF, 2018). It is a world where a lack of civil and political rights denies many the right to self-determination or control over their government, or to freedom of speech or cultural expression, or to freedom from arbitrary arrest, torture and even death (Amnesty, 2019). It is clear that the realisability of human rights is directly related to access to power and resources, and inextricably linked to relationships between human beings – all subject to the outcome of human agency and constant struggles on a daily basis by communities around the world.

This chapter discusses the historical development of ‘rights’ and how these transformed into ideas about ‘universal human rights’. It shows how the concept of rights developed historically from notions of legal through to political, social/economic and cultural rights, and has involved both individual and group rights. It describes how thinking about rights has developed from identifying rights solely with clans, tribes, communities, ethnic groups and then nation-states, to linking them to all humanity – including minorities – through concepts of universal human rights. It recognises the contribution of philosophical ideas about humanity, equality, democracy and social justice, as well as the impact of human agency on the development of a range of rights, and argues that such developments do not take place in a vacuum (Donnelly, 2013: 75– 92). Social, economic, ideological, cultural and geo-political influences affect our power to change society and ensure that human rights are a contested site.