Man as a member of the human society has some rights in order to survive as well as to make his life better. “Human rights are concerned with the dignity of the individual-the level of self-esteem that secures identity and promotes human community”. As such their main implications and characteristic features may be enumerated as under:-

1. First and foremost implies that “everyone has them” i.e. all human beings possess them by virtue of being members of the great human society irrespective of the fact that they know about them or not.
2. Human rights are like moral rights and as such the element of their enforcement lies in the faculty of man’s conscience.
3. An appeal to the cases of human rights covers the world as a whole and as such it sanctions the use of persuasion as well as force by foreign powers to intervene in the domestic affairs of a state where human rights are not properly honoured.
4. Human rights also have an unqualified character. Like all rights, they may also be restricted in the interest of public peace, social decency, political security and the like.

Foundation of human rights

however there is no universally accepted conception in defining human rights. It has, in fact, varied from time to time, place to place, people to people. And despite this all, ‘the concept of human right is that of the respect for human personality and its absolute worth regardless of colour, race, sex, religion or other considerations. The charter of the united nations framed in 1945 underscored the principle of individual human rights.
On 16th Feb. 1946, the security council of UN set up a commission on human rights under the chairmanship of Mrs. Eleano Roosevelt to prepare the text of the declaration the commission did its job and the general assembly adopted it on 10 December 1948 known as ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ on 16 December, 1966, the General Assembly of the UN adopted three more declarations in the form of:-

• International Covenant on civil and political rights
• International Covenants on Economic, social and cultural rights
• International Covenant on Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination

Case In India

Historical perspective : Right from its inception in 1885, the Indian National congress struggled for the rights of the common people. The list of fundamental rights to be incorporated into the constitution of India found its conspicious place in Nehru report of 1928 the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights by the UN General assembly in December 1948 had its definite impact on the making of the Indian constitution. The makers incorporated a host of such rights in part-III of the constitution termed as ‘fundamental rights’. Some rights which could not be accommodated in part-III have been put into part-IV of the constitution termed as ‘Directive Principles of state policy’.

NHRC

However the most ‘important development in this regard is the creation of National Human Rights Commission (NHRc) in 1993 through an ordinance promulgated by the President on 23 September, 1993 which became an act in the following year. This body has a statutory status.

Functions

1.To enquire suo-moto or on a petition by the victim or by any other person related to the complaints of violation of human rights.
2.To intervene in any proceeding involving any allegations of violation of human rights pending before a court with the approval of such courts.
3.To visit any jail or other institution under the control of state government to study the living conditions of inmates.
4.To review the safeguards provided by law for the protection of human rights and recommended appropriate remedial measures.
5.To review the factors including terrorism that inhabits the enjoyment of human rights.
6.To study treaties and other international instruments on human rights and make recommendations for their effective implementation.
7.To spread human rights literacy in society.

Exception : The violation of human rights by the armed forces has been put beyond the jurisdiction of this commission.
Responsibilities : the commission shall submit its annual report to the president laid before each houses of parliament.

Limitations : No doubt the establishment of the NHRC is a bold and momentous steps taken by the government of India. But a critic may fear that it would not be able to discharge its functions effectively due to following limitations:-
1.It can’t look into the complaints of torture and harassment done by the armed forces.
2.It has not been provided with its own machinery of investigation. For such a task it would depend upon the staff of the central and state governments who may not be prompt and impartial in helping it in a situation where their brethren are involved.
3.Last, its functions are of a recommendatory nature.

Conclusion : Indisputable is the fact that India’s stand in respect of the protection of human rights has been quite straight forward. Stray cases of state terrorisin may not be ruled out but these excesses are like the exception, not the rule. So as an open society with a democratic system, our country is away from atrocities done by police, paramilitary and military forces as we find in China and Pakistan.
As important as civil and political rights in the Indian context are the rights of the marginalised -- women, tribals, Dalits or lower-castes, and the poor whose survival depends on access to natural resources. It is the rights of the marginalised and of the minorities in the country today that are in peril. The challenge is to empower the poor and marginalised to demand their rights and participate in the public sphere

Civil and political rights

The insecurity of Mrs Gandhi's regime resulted in the suppression of all dissent and the ultimate suspension of most Civil and Political Rights during the Emergency (1975-77). In the last 20 years, the movement for civil and political rights has become much more coherent and widespread. It has grown beyond a set of urban middle class liberal intellectuals to a wide and diverse socio-political base. With the increase of insurgencies in the 1980s and the consequent State suppression of separatist movements in different parts of the country, various kinds of human rights organisations -- some genuine and some fronts for underground groups -- began to appear. The massacre of the Sikh community following the assassination of Mrs Gandhi in 1984 raised serious questions about the role of the State in protecting the fundamental rights of citizens.
Public Interest Litigation and the judicial activism of the Supreme Court initiated by Justices V R Krishna Iyer and P N Bhagwati has played a major role in expanding the scope of human rights and giving it a much-needed legitimacy through some very important verdicts (on prisoners' rights, rights of landless labourers, release of bonded labourers, etc).

Rights of the marginalised

The emergence of the women's movement in the 1970s gave a new dimension to the rights discourse in India. In 1974, the Committee on the Status of Women in India submitted a report that highlighted the marginalisation of women in every sphere of life. The emergence of a number of women's groups such as Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), Manushi, Joint Women's Forum etc raised a new consciousness and public debate on the issue of women's status, domestic violence, dowry, rape, custodial violence, trafficking and the invisible labour of women in the household. The women's movement not only critiqued the Indian patriarchy, casteism and feudalism, it also promoted a new awareness of women's rights. Though it began as a largely urban movement, over a period of 30 years, the women's movement has emerged as one of the most articulate and widespread movements in India, with new campaigns for women's political participation and rights. It is partly because of the pressure from the women's movement that the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments to introduce local self-government provided 33% reservation for women in local self-government institutions. The women's movement has played a key role in ensuring the participation of women in the electoral process and governance.

In the post-Emergency period a number of political and social activists and public-spirited professionals opted out of party/electoral politics and focussed on the micro-level process of social mobilisation amongst marginalised communities. These social action groups working at the micro level began to highlight the historic and structural marginalisation of the Dalits (the so-called outcasts), Adivasis (more than 80 million tribal people who form around 8.3% of the Indian population) and landless labourers. The empowerment of the marginalised has been the key mission of such social action groups. However, when it came to the demand for entitlement for these communities, most of these groups began to use the rights language, particularly because of the constitutional guarantees. As many of these groups were sceptical of mainstream human rights discourse, they have used the term 'People's Rights' to emphasise the collective characteristics of rights and to focus on the political aspect of their rights.

Economic, social and cultural rights

It is ESC rights that are most elusive. This is because the rhetoric of economic and social rights is not necessarily reflected in policies, programmes and budgetary allocations. As a result, the State pretends to promote economic and social rights, while systematically undermining these rights following the dictums of the IMF, World Bank and WTO. This situation leads to a growing sense of disillusionment and cynicism about the so-called rights-based approach. As a result the political content and policy feasibility of the rights-based approach is increasingly questioned, particularly because it is more often used as a development strategy than a means for political empowerment of the people and policy transformation.

Right to transparent and accountable governance

The great expectations of India's welfare State began to recede after 20 years of hope and optimism. Over a period of time, the welfare State became too fat to be functional. The first set of actors, led by the World Bank, advocated 'good governance' to address resource leakage, misappropriation and mismanagement of the loans taken from the Bank and to ensure that there would be relatively less risk in credit management and repayment. This was more for strategic reasons than any commitment to the democratic principles of public accountability and transparency. The second set of proponents of transparent governance have been grassroots action groups (like the Mazdoor Kisaan Shakti Sangathan in Rajasthan) and advocacy organisations who sought government accountability as part of the citizen's right to know and the right to participate in governance.
The Jan Sunwais (public hearings) and social audits initiated by MKSS in Rajasthan are a well-known example of a process of mobilisation that combines a rights-based approach with people's participation. The people's planning process in local self-governance in Kerala promoted by the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP) is another example of participatory practices with a rights-based perspective. The Community Learning Movement for accountable governance, promoted by the National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), is an example of a rights-based praxis, based on the principles and practice of participation.
In spite of the relatively greater visibility and legitimacy of the human rights discourse, the meaning and utility of rights is still a highly contested arena. Though India has ratified five of the six covenants (ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, ICCRC, and CERD) and conventions that constitute the legally-binding international human rights treaties, the implementation of these rights is rather poor. Although the new policy papers and the documents of the Planning Commission of India increasingly use the rights language, in terms of real programmes and implementation the performance of the Government of India is far from satisfactory.

Making human rights work: Linking rights with participation

If human rights are to have real meaning, they must be linked to public participation. And participation must be preceded by empowerment of the people. A sense of empowerment requires a sense of dignity, self-worth and the ability to ask questions. The sense of empowerment along with a sense of legal entitlements and constitutional guarantees gives rise to a political consciousness based on rights. A process of political empowerment and a sense of rights empowers citizens to participate in the public sphere.
Most mass movements in modern India (the All India Democratic Women's Association, Ragpickers Union etc) have emphasised the process of empowerment while they also 'struggled' for rights.

People-centred advocacy is a possible link between rights and participation. People-centred advocacy seeks to connect social development, human rights and governance. It is about creating enabling conditions for socio-political empowerment and enhancing the capability of the marginalised to advocate for themselves so that they can claim their rights, seek public accountability and participate in the process of governance. People-centred advocacy seeks to go beyond changing public policies to changing people's attitudes, behaviour and unjust power relationships.
People-centred advocacy can be an effective way to link rights and participation. Human rights are legtimised claims and the State has an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil these rights. However, rights become real only when people begin to realise their full potential as human beings and assert their rights in the private and public sphere.