Human Rights of the Child in the Context of Child Abuse

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The concept of human rights is as old as the ancient doctrine of ‘natural rights’ founded on natural law, the expression ‘human rights’ is of recent origin and has emerged after the Second World War. The fact is that certain rights of man existed in the ancient periods which were known as the natural rights or divine rights. There rights find place in all ancient societies though they were known by different names. The human rights were referred to as civil rights, political rights, personal rights, legal rights, economic and social rights and natural or divine rights in ancient period. The names and the classification of rights kept on changing with the passages of time. Generally, it is believed that, 'the concept of human rights is western and that the origin of the concept of human rights in the world history found its expression in Magna Carta of 1215.' In India, Swami Vivekananda long back expressed, 'implementation of the principles of social justice and human rights for establishing a welfare state in the true Indian sense.' To diminish gap between the high and the low was necessary. The human rights in the form of ‘Dharma’ can also be traced in ‘Arthasastra’ of kautilya and ‘Manusmiriti’ of Manu, which laid down legal jurisprudence in ancient India. The idea of equality was germane to the Vedas. Vedic Ethics has idealized an equality of treatment among equals. Mahabharata tells about the importance of the freedom of the individual (civil liberties) in a State. Much earlier than the Greeks and Romans, Ancient Indian philosophers and thinkers expounded a theory of higher moral law of Dharma, about 5000 years ago, with a view to establish harmonious social order free from the traces of conflicts, exploitations and miseries. It can be derived that 'human rights' are those minimal rights which are available to every human being without distinction of language, religion, sex, caste, nationality and social or economic conditions in the society. These human rights are universal and have no boundaries. Rights being immunities denote that there is a guarantee that certain things cannot or ought not to be done to a person against his will. According to this concept, human beings, by virtue of their humanity, ought to be protected against unjust and degrading treatment. In other words, human protected rights are exemptions from the operation of arbitrary power. An individual can seek human rights only in an organized community, i.e., a State, or in other words, where the civil social order exists. No one can imagine to invoke them in a state of anarchy where there is hardly any just power to which a citizen can appeal against the violations of rights. Thus, the principle of the protection of human rights is derived from the concept of man as a person and his relationship with an organized society which cannot be separated from universal human nature.Human being essential for all-round development of the personality of the individuals in the society, be necessarily protection and be made available to all the individuals. They must be preserved, cherished and defended if peace and prosperity are to be achieved. Human rights are the very essence of a meaningful life, and to maintain human dignity is the ultimate purpose of government. The need for the protection has arisen because of inevitable increase in the control over men’s action by the governments which by no means can be regarded as desirable. There are several States where fundamental standards of human behavior are not observed .The consciousness on the part of the human beings as to their rights has also necessitated the protection by the States. It has been realized that the functions of all the laws whether they are the rules of municipal law or that of international law should be to protect them in the interest of the humanity.