Human Rights Education
Michelle Comaling, RCrim
Human Rights – defined as supreme, inherent, and inalienable rights to life, to dignity, and to self
development. The essence of these rights makes man human. It is concerned with issues in both
areas of civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights founded on internationally
accepted human rights obligations to which the Philippine Government is a state party.
Basic Characteristics of Human Rights
1. Inherent - Not granted by any person or authority
2. Fundamental - Without them, the life and dignity of man will be meaningless
3. Inalienable - Cannot be rightfully taken away from a free individual
4. Imprescriptible - Cannot be lost even if man fails to use or assert them, even by a long passage of
time
5. Indivisible - Not capable of being divided. Cannot be denied even when other rights have already
been enjoyed
6. Universal - Applies irrespective of one’s origin, status, or condition or place where one lives
7. Interdependent - The fulfillment or exercise of one cannot be had without the realization of the
other.
Classification of Rights
According to Source
1. Natural Rights - God-given rights, acknowledged by everybody to be morally good. Unwritten, but
prevail as norms of the society
Examples: The right to be happy, right to marry, right to life and property, etc.
2. Constitutional Rights - Conferred and protected by the Constitution and which cannot be modified
or taken away by the law-making body
Examples: right to suffrage, right to religion, etc.
3. Statutory Rights - Those rights which are provided by law promulgated by the law-making body.
May be abolished by the body that created them
Examples: rights of the accused, rights of persons under custodial investigation, etc.
According to Recipient
1. Individual Rights - Accorded to individuals
Examples: right to vote, right to own property, etc.
2. Collective Rights - Also called “people’s rights” or “solidarity rights”. Rights of the society, those
that can be enjoyed only in company with others.
Examples: right to cultural preservation, environmental rights, right to assembly, etc.
According to Aspect of Life
1. Civil Rights - Rights which the law will enforce at the instance of private individuals for the
purpose of securing to them the enjoyment of their means of happiness. Partake of the nature of
political rights when they are utilized as a means to participate in the government
Examples: right to self expression, right to marry, right to religion, etc.
,2. Political Rights - Rights which enable us to participate in running the affairs of the government
either directly or indirectly
Examples: right to vote, right to assembly, etc.
3. Economic and Social Rights - Those which the law confers upon the people to enable them to
achieve social and economic development
Examples: right to own property, right of employees, etc.
4. Cultural Rights - Rights that ensure the well-being of the individual and foster the preservation,
enrichment, and dynamic evolution of national culture based on the principle of unity in diversity in
a climate of free artistic and intellectual expression.
Examples: right to practice one`s culture, right to cultural religion, right to use own language, etc.
According to Derogability
1.Absolute or Non-Derogable Rights - Those that cannot be suspended nor taken away nor
restricted/limited even in extreme emergency and even if the government invokes national
security.
Examples: The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
2. Derogable or Can-Be-Limited Rights - May be suspended or restricted or limited depending on the
circumstances which call for the preservation of social life. It Must satisfy three requirements for it
to be valid:
i. It is provided for by law which is made known to every citizen;
ii. There is a state of emergency which necessitates the urgent preservation of the public good,
public safety, and public moral;
iii. It does not exceed what is strictly necessary to achieve the purpose.
Examples: (During pandemic) the right to travel may be limited, right to liberty, which can be
lawfully restricted
Human Rights Violations
Slavery - After being brought to the American colonies, Africans were stripped of human rights,
enslaved, brutally treated and considered lesser than their fellow human beings for centuries.
Holocaust - also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six
million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
Example of a violation of a human right
Facts:
Louie Soriao was a high school student in the sub province of Dinalungan, Aurora (S.Y. 1993 to
1994). Due to his reputation of talking back to school authority during the past years, he was
refused readmission to complete his fourth and final year of high school through a verbal notice
not to readmit. Soriao questioned the notice, averring that he was deprived of a hearing on the
matter and thus the verbal notice was a denial of his right to due process. The administration
ignored the student’s plea to reconsider its decision to deny him readmission claiming, “it was their
prerogative.” Seeking further remedies to no avail, Soriao filed a petition for certiorari to the
CA.
Issue: Whether or not the petitioner was denied his right to education.
, Ruling: YES. The Court of Appeals ordered Pineda, Head Teacher of the Juan C. Angara
Memorial High School to allow Soriao to enroll and study after he was meted out a disciplinary
action without due process. The Court of Appeals invoked the 1987 Constitution and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Freedom versus Human Rights
Two of the key values that lie at the core of the idea of human rights are human dignity and
equality.
Freedom: because the human will is an important part of human dignity. To be forced to do
something against our will demeans the human spirit.
Non-State actors on Human Rights
Non-state actors include organizations and individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or
funded through the government. These include corporations, private financial institutions,
and NGOs, as well as paramilitary and armed resistance groups.
Behaviour affecting the human rights of others in the private sphere needs to be addressed
also; non-state entities are obliged, as a minimum, to comply with peremptory norms of
general international human rights law.
Whenever power is exercised, there is the risk that it is used in an unrestricted manner
violating the human rights of individuals. It is of the utmost importance to ensure that all
institutions and individuals who are charged with enforcement or exert power do so in
accordance with human rights law.
The International Bill of Human Rights
The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the five core main treaties:
-Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty
Purpose: the promotion and encouragement of respect for human rights and for
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion
The UN Charter contains at least seven articles on human rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
One of the five core main treatise of the international bill of human rights. It is an
international document which articulates 30 fundamental rights and freedoms for all (right
to life, right against slavery, right to education, etc.).
It was drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all
regions of the world.
Michelle Comaling, RCrim
Human Rights – defined as supreme, inherent, and inalienable rights to life, to dignity, and to self
development. The essence of these rights makes man human. It is concerned with issues in both
areas of civil and political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights founded on internationally
accepted human rights obligations to which the Philippine Government is a state party.
Basic Characteristics of Human Rights
1. Inherent - Not granted by any person or authority
2. Fundamental - Without them, the life and dignity of man will be meaningless
3. Inalienable - Cannot be rightfully taken away from a free individual
4. Imprescriptible - Cannot be lost even if man fails to use or assert them, even by a long passage of
time
5. Indivisible - Not capable of being divided. Cannot be denied even when other rights have already
been enjoyed
6. Universal - Applies irrespective of one’s origin, status, or condition or place where one lives
7. Interdependent - The fulfillment or exercise of one cannot be had without the realization of the
other.
Classification of Rights
According to Source
1. Natural Rights - God-given rights, acknowledged by everybody to be morally good. Unwritten, but
prevail as norms of the society
Examples: The right to be happy, right to marry, right to life and property, etc.
2. Constitutional Rights - Conferred and protected by the Constitution and which cannot be modified
or taken away by the law-making body
Examples: right to suffrage, right to religion, etc.
3. Statutory Rights - Those rights which are provided by law promulgated by the law-making body.
May be abolished by the body that created them
Examples: rights of the accused, rights of persons under custodial investigation, etc.
According to Recipient
1. Individual Rights - Accorded to individuals
Examples: right to vote, right to own property, etc.
2. Collective Rights - Also called “people’s rights” or “solidarity rights”. Rights of the society, those
that can be enjoyed only in company with others.
Examples: right to cultural preservation, environmental rights, right to assembly, etc.
According to Aspect of Life
1. Civil Rights - Rights which the law will enforce at the instance of private individuals for the
purpose of securing to them the enjoyment of their means of happiness. Partake of the nature of
political rights when they are utilized as a means to participate in the government
Examples: right to self expression, right to marry, right to religion, etc.
,2. Political Rights - Rights which enable us to participate in running the affairs of the government
either directly or indirectly
Examples: right to vote, right to assembly, etc.
3. Economic and Social Rights - Those which the law confers upon the people to enable them to
achieve social and economic development
Examples: right to own property, right of employees, etc.
4. Cultural Rights - Rights that ensure the well-being of the individual and foster the preservation,
enrichment, and dynamic evolution of national culture based on the principle of unity in diversity in
a climate of free artistic and intellectual expression.
Examples: right to practice one`s culture, right to cultural religion, right to use own language, etc.
According to Derogability
1.Absolute or Non-Derogable Rights - Those that cannot be suspended nor taken away nor
restricted/limited even in extreme emergency and even if the government invokes national
security.
Examples: The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion
2. Derogable or Can-Be-Limited Rights - May be suspended or restricted or limited depending on the
circumstances which call for the preservation of social life. It Must satisfy three requirements for it
to be valid:
i. It is provided for by law which is made known to every citizen;
ii. There is a state of emergency which necessitates the urgent preservation of the public good,
public safety, and public moral;
iii. It does not exceed what is strictly necessary to achieve the purpose.
Examples: (During pandemic) the right to travel may be limited, right to liberty, which can be
lawfully restricted
Human Rights Violations
Slavery - After being brought to the American colonies, Africans were stripped of human rights,
enslaved, brutally treated and considered lesser than their fellow human beings for centuries.
Holocaust - also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II.
Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six
million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
Example of a violation of a human right
Facts:
Louie Soriao was a high school student in the sub province of Dinalungan, Aurora (S.Y. 1993 to
1994). Due to his reputation of talking back to school authority during the past years, he was
refused readmission to complete his fourth and final year of high school through a verbal notice
not to readmit. Soriao questioned the notice, averring that he was deprived of a hearing on the
matter and thus the verbal notice was a denial of his right to due process. The administration
ignored the student’s plea to reconsider its decision to deny him readmission claiming, “it was their
prerogative.” Seeking further remedies to no avail, Soriao filed a petition for certiorari to the
CA.
Issue: Whether or not the petitioner was denied his right to education.
, Ruling: YES. The Court of Appeals ordered Pineda, Head Teacher of the Juan C. Angara
Memorial High School to allow Soriao to enroll and study after he was meted out a disciplinary
action without due process. The Court of Appeals invoked the 1987 Constitution and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Freedom versus Human Rights
Two of the key values that lie at the core of the idea of human rights are human dignity and
equality.
Freedom: because the human will is an important part of human dignity. To be forced to do
something against our will demeans the human spirit.
Non-State actors on Human Rights
Non-state actors include organizations and individuals that are not affiliated with, directed by, or
funded through the government. These include corporations, private financial institutions,
and NGOs, as well as paramilitary and armed resistance groups.
Behaviour affecting the human rights of others in the private sphere needs to be addressed
also; non-state entities are obliged, as a minimum, to comply with peremptory norms of
general international human rights law.
Whenever power is exercised, there is the risk that it is used in an unrestricted manner
violating the human rights of individuals. It is of the utmost importance to ensure that all
institutions and individuals who are charged with enforcement or exert power do so in
accordance with human rights law.
The International Bill of Human Rights
The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the five core main treaties:
-Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the
abolition of the death penalty
Purpose: the promotion and encouragement of respect for human rights and for
fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion
The UN Charter contains at least seven articles on human rights.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
One of the five core main treatise of the international bill of human rights. It is an
international document which articulates 30 fundamental rights and freedoms for all (right
to life, right against slavery, right to education, etc.).
It was drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all
regions of the world.
