MANHATTAN, Kan. - As a nation we have been slow to evolve in our understanding of human rights. When asked, most of us think that civil rights are human rights. They are, but they are only the beginning.
Civil rights are basically your right to be created equal to everyone else. Civil rights are incomplete if they are not accompanied by economic, social, political, and cultural rights. Unfortunately early on in the civil rights struggle, here was a big battle in the NAACP over human vs. civil rights. At the heart of this battle were two men: Walter White, the executive secretary of the NAACP and a lawyer who could pass as white, and W. E. B. DuBois one of the founders of the NAACP. DeBois asked: "Why should we ask for only one of the five rights categories?" Eventually, White won, and force out an ever more radical DeBois from the NAACP which set human rights back 50 years. Equality is precious but is incomplete.
Political rights are closely related to the Bill of Rights - the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. They cover codes such as freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to vote. But they also cover such things as forbidding torture and inhuman or degrading treatment; slavery or involuntary servitude; arbitrary arrest and detention; and, debtor's prisons. Political rights forbid propaganda advocating either war or hatred based on race, religion, national origin, language, sex or gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity,
Political rights provide for the right to equality before the law; the right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty (something our mass media often forgets these days); the right to appeal a conviction; the right to be recognized as a person before the law; the right to privacy and protection of that privacy by law.
Much of what has been done in the name of the "War on Terror," what has transpired at Guantanamo Bay and "black" jails operated by the CIA as well as detention centers here in the US, have violated these principles over and over again. Our complacency in such inhumane acts has made all of us not better than those we claim are the root cause of modern terrorism.
Economic rights covers the right to a minimum wage and wages sufficient to support a minimum standard of living; a regulated work week; no child labor; right to leisure - that's correct, the right to have a vacation with pay; self-determination; equal pay for equal work - ask Lilly Ledbetter about this one; the right to form trade unions - the Taft-Hartley Act would never stand in a county with true economic rights; free primary education, and accessible education at all levels at minimal cost; and copyright, patent, and trademark protection for intellectual property.
Social rights are born out of your basic human needs: food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education. The policies of the holocaust started out as laws that excluded people from buying food - shades of which appear in the current health care reform debate by writing into law regulations that prevent people of getting health care base solely on their immigration status. Can we all agree that children have a right to education? Does a blind child have the right to have her books in Braille? Is having a book in Braille a special right? No, it is what is needed so that everyone is at the same starting spot.
Cultural rights include the right to practice the religion of ones choice. Freedom from religion is also a human right. Right to speak the language of our choice - to be served in the language of our need. How do you deliver services to people don't speak English? Immigrants are paying taxes in this country. The obligation is on the state to provide equal access to the taxpayers. All people are born equal in rights and dignity. People opposed to abortion forget that "born" is in this statement.
Added to these traditional classifications are the following new categories of human rights:
Environmental rights include the right to live in a clean environment on which all natural systems are in balance; food safety and protection from genetically modified foods; respect and promotion of the rights of future generations to live in an environment that is free of pollution and waste; that we are liberated from a culture of consumption and attachment to the material; and the end of an "extractive" approach to the world's resources.
Developmental rights - People in developing world who demand to control their own natural resources demand developmental rights. Every war taking place in the world at this moment is over natural resources. The developing world arms both sides of the conflict and don't care who wins, because in either case we will get the spoils of the war.
The women's and LGBT movements are demanding something called Sexual Rights. These are an evolving set of rights related to sexuality and reproduction that contribute to the freedom, equality and dignity of all people, and they cannot be ignored. Women demand the right to determine if and when they will marry; if they will have sex and with whom; and if they will have children. The LGBT Rights movement connects to the human rights movement though these rights.
Other new human rights will come about because new violations of human rights will begin to occur. Take for example the right to access the digitized world.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a series of promises: As long as you are human you are entitled to the same human rights regardless of what government you live under; what religion you belong to, what you skin color is, or who you love. Human rights are universal. 
Taking on The Right's Discourse of "Special Rights"
One of the reasons we have not been able to move ahead in the US is that the power structure keeps us divided under the myth of zero sum: that in order to get my rights others have to give up some of theirs. There is no quantity limit to human rights. My rights do not diminish, when others are given their rights.
Zero sum is what is used by those who oppose human rights when you hear catch phrases like "they want special rights." Zero sum is what is used by the Radical Right, never supporters of the hard won civil rights achievements of the 50s and 60s, when they get African Americans to oppose marriage equality; when the convince Kansans to vote against our own interests and elect representatives who are nothing but corporate ponzies; and, when they convince women to tell other women they can't have access to reproductive health choices.
One of our greatest challenges is to bring the US into compliance with human right standards by establishing laws and a legal regime based on people's needs, not corporate interests. We cannot take the government to court for treaties they haven't signed, for health care that isn't provided to us, or for services no longer provided. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take cases to court, even when we loose, because what we have to do is create a movement that demands our human rights and that will only be accomplished through a multifaceted approach that includes education, action and civil disobedience.
Political Potential of Human Rights
Taking on the myth of zero sum means that social justice movements can no longer work in isolation from one another. Civil rights, disability rights, women's rights, environmental justice, children's rights, economic justice, peace, LGBT rights, and the anti-poverty movement must begin to see their work as interrelated, interdependent, and indivisible.
When African Americans tell me to "stand down" in my quest to add "sexual orientation and gender identity/expression" to a municipal anti-discrimination ordinance, they are supporting Jim Crow. When LGBT person supports anti-immigration legislation, they are support queer bashing. When politicians cut needed social services, they are perpetrators of violence against children. When corporations are given tax breaks to pollute our environment, they are committing crimes against humanity.
That is a value system based on human rights.
If we want the US to become a nation that bases its domestic and foreign policy on human rights, we have to begin by demanding our human rights in our churches, the civic organizations we belong to and in our schools. We must apply political pressure on the federal government to ratify and uphold treaties and when we enter the election booth, we need to know what where candidates stand on human right values. When have to stop the "us" vs. "them" binary thinking that calls for simplistic answers to global problems and live the values we claim we stand for as a nation: liberty and justice for all. No exceptions! Only then will we understand that our neighbor's material needs are our spiritual needs.
This Human Rights Day lets end discrimination and embrace the diversity of the human family once and for all.
Christopher, these are excellent pieces. You gave us a full in-depth understanding of the history and reasoning - as well as the imperative. I am sure that these will be well-read and have long "shelf lives" here at this site.