human rights

plural noun

: rights (such as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution) regarded as belonging fundamentally to all persons

Examples of human rights in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

It is not recognized as a legitimate government by most of the international community due to its human rights abuses, including stripping away the rights of women and girls. — Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026

Jarquín was imprisoned for nine months, and later told journalists and human rights investigators that guards burned his genitals with cigarette butts. — Ismael López, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2026

Some of those receiving nations have a reputation for corruption and human rights abuses, and in most cases, those being deported have no links to the host nation. — Karen Masterson, The Conversation, 5 Oct. 2026

In January 1977 the writer, dissident, and future president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel, was arrested by the Communist regime for his part in organizing the groundbreaking Czechoslovak human rights initiative, Charter 77. — Václav Havel, The New York Review of Books, 3 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1629, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for human rights

• acolytes
• ammonites
• amorites
• analytes
• andesites
• appetites
• argillites
• astrocytes
• belemnites
• bryophytes
• canaanites
• carmelites

Legal Definition

human rights

noun plural

: rights (as freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution) regarded as belonging fundamentally to all people