The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Human rights are "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled".[1]. The doctrine of human rights aims to identify the necessary positive and negative prerequisites for a "universal" minimal standard of justice, tolerance and human dignity that can be considered the public moral norms owed by and to individuals by the mere virtue of their humanity. Such prerequisites can exist as shared norms of actual human moralities, as justified moral norms or moral rights supported by strong reasons, as legal rights at a national level, or as a legal right within international law.[2] Human rights advocates seek the strong protection of human rights through their effective realisation in each of these ways. The claim of Human rights is therefore that they are universal, in that they are possessed by all by virtue of the fact that they are human, and independent in that their existence as moral standards of justification and criticism is independent whether or not they are recognized and by a particular national or international legal system. or government.[3].

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Taken from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights