Youth and Human Rights

The knowledge and understanding of human rights is very important to each and every individual. There are two fundamental categories of human rights, substantive rights and legal rights. Substantive rights, that consist of the right to life; freedom from torture; freedom from slavery; freedom of speech; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; and the right to a fair trial, are very basic and vital rights that every single person including youth should have. Legal rights, on the other hand consist of six rights that include, civil and political rights; the rights of women, minorities, and groups; environmental rights; and social rights, which every citizen including youth is legally entitled to.

However, achievement of the world where the concept of human rights for all people is highly practiced is not without challenges. In certain parts of the world especially in developing countries violations of human rights towards minorities, women and subordinated groups still exist on a large scale. One of the most serious cases of human rights a violation is related to war crime, war of aggression, and crimes against humanity for example genocide. It has been observed that human rights violations are highly associated with inequality of access to public facilities and opportunities for a better livelihood.

Various key stakeholders such as international organizations, governmental bodies, non-governmental organisations, private sectors, media and youth themselves have been showing their concern by contributing to many activities and programmes designed to promote and educate human rights related matters in all levels of society as well as to prevent any further violations of human rights in the future.