Women Human Rights and Gandhian Perspective

Human rights are essential for any civil society. In fact it is an inalienable right of every individual because she or he is a human being. The struggle to protect and preserve human rights is as old as human civilization itself. It has been a long and slow historical process for the realization of these rights. At the very beginning the concept of human rights evolved from the Doctrine of Natural Rights in which individual have right to life, liberty and property. In the LEVIATHAN. Hobbes assume that "every man has a "right to life" and the" right to its preservation" so much so that the social contract in which every man surrender all of his right to" this man or body of man" doesn't deprive the individual of his right to life." I Apart from the docutrine of natural rights the roots of the concept of human rights can be traced back to Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Rights (1628), Bills of rights (1689), American Declaration of Independence (1776), and French Revolution (1789). The humanity had faced continuous suffering and exploitation in world wars. Hence special efforts were made by the UNO to protect the human rights. Thus in 1948, the human right has been universally declared by UNO. It consists of 30 articles with its preamble. It is one of the greatest achievements for all peoples and nations. The charter of United National Organisation in its preamble declared "We the people of UN determine to reaffirms faith in the fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of the nation's large and small.."2 The concept of human rights is difficult to defined. Generally human rights are those rights which are essential for the existence as well as the development of human personality.