Читать книгу Human Rights - Michael Freeman - Страница 17

The history of human rights is characterized by continuity, diversity and change. The concept has been continuously associated with struggles for freedom, autonomy and resistance to oppression. These struggles have taken place in diverse social contexts, and consequently these concepts have had different meanings. Nevertheless, there is a core to the history of human rights that enables us to see commonalities in struggles for freedom from Antigone to contemporary Syrian democrats. The value of human rights is not ‘self-evident’ nor can it be derived solely from positive law. The concept of human rights, with its different meanings in different contexts, has always been, and remains, contested. The history is both inspiring and troubling; this constitutes its relevance to human rights today.