Human rights as a career

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, irrespective of nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the form of treaties, customary international law, general principles, and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Human Rights legislation commonly contains:

• Security rights that protect people against crimes such as murder, massacre, torture, and rape
• Liberty rights that protect freedoms in areas such as belief and religion, association, assemblies, and movement
• Political rights that protect the liberty to participate in politics by expressing themselves, protesting, voting, and serving in public office
• Due process rights that protect against abuse of the legal system such as imprisonment without trial, secret trials, and excessive punishment
• Equality rights that guarantee equal citizenship, equality before the law, and non-discrimination
• Welfare rights (also known as economic and social rights) that require the provision of education and protection against severe poverty and starvation
• Group rights that provide protection for groups against ethnic genocide and for the ownership by countries of their national territories and resources

Violation of Human Rights

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fundamental rights are violated when:

• A Certain, Creed or a group is denied recognition as a “person” (Article 2)
• Men and Women are not treated as equal (Article 2)
• Different Racial or Religious groups are not treated equally (Article 2)
• Life, liberty, or security of a person are threatened (Article 3)
• A person is sold as or used as a slave (Article 4)
• Cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment is used on a person (such as torture or execution) (Article 5)
• Punishments are dealt arbitrarily or unilaterally, without a proper and fair trial (Article 11)
• Arbitrary  interference into personal, or private lives by agents of the state (Article 12)
• Citizens are forbidden to leave their country (Article 13)
• Freedom of Speech or religion are denied (Article 18 & 19)
• The right to join a trade union is denied (Article 23)
• Education is denied (Article 26)

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CAREER IN HUMAN RIGHTS

The experience of past two decades has demonstrated the crucial importance of human rights. Traditionally, the human rights violation occurred due to State or its actors, however, the contemporary time has witnessed human rights violations by individuals, institutions and at societal levels. Over the years, the National Human Rights Commissions of India has been recording and reporting a number of human rights violations including civil, political, social and economic rights. These violations and victimizations are with regard to the issues concerning right to food, right to health, right to education, rights of women against violence and exploitation, rights of Children against abuse and exploitation, rights of migrants and their violation based on caste, creed, region and region.

Nature of Job

The human rights field has huge potential and need for multiple professionals. Work in human rights can be challenging and intense. Organizations use a variety of disciplines in their approach to Social Justice, Juvenile Justice, Gender Justice, Custodial Justice, and now emerging area of Climate Justice including direct service, monitoring & evaluation, lobbying and networking, advocacy, policy development, documenting and research. Activities include research focusing on preventing and ending human rights abuses in all regions of the world, monitoring human rights development, conducting on-site fact finding and investigations, writing case studies and reports on human rights conditions, engaging in advocacy to publicize and curtail human rights violations, litigation, lobbying, and promoting human rights practices in social and political structures. In addition, human rights professionals provide advisory and educational services, refugee assistance, victim’s rehabilitation, policy analysis for national and international institutions, assistance in institution building and project development and management in the field of human rights based civil society organizations.

The human rights based job includes

1.  Human rights activist,
2.  Human rights defender,
3.  Human rights analyst,
4.  Human rights professional,
5.  Human rights researcher,
6.  Human rights programmer,
7.  Human rights advocate,
8.  Human rights worker,
9.  Human rights teacher,
10. Human rights consultant,
11. Human rights campaigner,
12. Human right fundraiser
13. Human rights manager.

Skills required

   1. Writing skills
   2. Management skills
   3. Legal skills
   4. Communication Skills
   5. Reporting skills
   6. Research Skills
   7. Interviewing skills
   8. Language skill
   9. Inter-personal communication skills
  10. Documenting skills
  11. Fundraising skills
  12. Crisis Response Skills
  13. Advocacy Skills
  14. Active Listening and questioning Skills
  15. Teamwork skills
  16. Analytical and critical thinking skills
  17. Negotiating and Mediating Skills
  18. Conflict Resolution Skills
  19. Networking Skills

Organizations working in Human Rights

Having a Degree or Diploma or Certificate in Human Rights, one can work in the human rights field with a broad spectrum. There are governmental (National and State Human Rights Bodies), intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (Amnesty International, CRY, Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiatives, Asian Centre for Human Rights, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, PUCL and PUDR etc). Besides, a number of UN agencies working on the human rights issues might be useful for human rights, based employments in India and overseas as UNDP ((United Nations Development Programme), UNDESA (UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs), World Bank,  UNICEF (UN Children Fund), UNEP( UN Environment Programme), UNFPA (UN Population Fund), WHO (World Health Organization), IMF (International Monetary Fund), UN- HABITAT (UN Human Settlements Programme), FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization),  IFAD  (International Fund for Agricultural Development), ILO(International Labour Organization), ITU(International Telecom Union), UNAIDS (Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS), UNCTAD (UN Conference on Trade and Development), UNDG (UN Development Group), UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ), UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), UNIDO (UN Industrial Development Organization),  UNIFEM (UN Development Fund for Women), OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ), UNRWA(UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ), WFP (World Food Programme).