Human Rights and Fundamental Human Rights by A. O. Eze
FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS
Fundamental human rights are inalienable rights, and entitlements enjoyed by human beings as guaranteed in the constitution of a state. These rights are the fundamental bases for human existence. Fundamental human rights as its name implies are fundamental, basic and specific rights of individuals in a state. They are some of the human rights a state deemed necessary to incorporate in its constitution for optimal protection. Human rights are broader than fundamental human rights because the latter are subset of the former.
The question of human rights has remained a bone of contention since the evolution of man. The universal Declaration of human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 to ensure that all nations preserve and respect these rights. That day marked a new dawn in a quest to liberate man from injustice, forced labour, exploitation and other forms of man’s inhumanity to man. Human rights can be in the form of legal, political, social, economic and civil rights. Before the UDHR in 1948 other historical legal documents had tried to incorporate and protect human rights. According to Ojo (2006:16) at a glance, the evolution of human rights can be found in the following documents, among others:
1. Magna Carta, 1215;
2. Petition of Rights, 1682;
3. Bill of Rights, 1689;
4. Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776;
5. American Declaration of independence, 1776;
6. French Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789;
7. Universal Declaration of Human rights, 1948;
8. European Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Freedom, 1950;
9. American Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Freedom, 1959;
10. Written Constitutions for several independent modern states and states liberated from colonialism; and
11. African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 1986 (Taiwo, 1994: 21).
Furthermore, Heywood (2007:326), seem to have summarized what human rights entail when he rightly observed thus:
Human rights are rights to which people are entitled by virtue of being human; they are a modern and secular version of natural rights. Human rights are ‘universal’ in the sense that they belong to all humans rather than to members of any particular state, race, religion, gender or other group. They are also ‘fundamental’ in that they are inalienable…”
Hence, in chapter IV section 33 to 43 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), enunciated fundamental rights of Nigerian citizens as follows:
Section 33: Right to life
Section 34: Right to dignity of human person
Section 35: Right to personal liberty
Section 36: Right to fair hearing
Section 37: Right to private and family life
Section 38: Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Section 39: Right to freedom of expression and the press
Section40: Right to peaceful assembly and association
Section 41: Right to freedom of movement
Section 42: Right to freedom from discrimination
Section 43: Right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria
(For more detail see, 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended).