Development of Human Rights Law (incl. in India) — Human Rights Law Notes

Development of Human Rights Law (incl. in India)

India did not wait for the world to tell it about rights. Even as the UDHR was being drafted in 1948, the Constituent Assembly was writing a bill of rights of its own into Part III of the Constitution — many of them almost word-for-word echoes of the Declaration. The development of human-rights law is the story of the same idea maturing on two tracks at once: internationally and at home.

This topic overlaps with “origin” (Topic 1) but pivots to the legal growth of the field — how a moral idea became enforceable law, at both the international and the Indian level.

A. The international track

The UN Charter (1945) first placed human rights in a binding treaty; the UDHR (1948) set the common standard; the two Covenants (1966, in force 1976) turned those standards into hard treaty obligations; and a network of specialised treaties (CEDAW 1979, CRC 1989, CAT 1984, CRPD 2006) and regional systems built the modern edifice.

B. The Indian track

India’s development runs through three channels:

The Constitution (1950). Fundamental Rights (Part III) carry the civil and political rights; Directive Principles (Part IV) carry the socio-economic ones.
Judicial expansion. From the 1970s the Supreme Court read Article 21 (life and personal liberty) expansively — Maneka Gandhi (1978) required any procedure to be fair, just and reasonable, and later cases read in rights to a clean environment, legal aid, livelihood and health.
Statutory machinery. The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 created the National and State Human Rights Commissions, giving rights a dedicated enforcement body.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — the “and in India” half

Facts. The question adds “including in India” — a frequent trap for students who answer only the international story.

Rule. Split the answer into an international track and an Indian track, and give the Indian track equal weight.

Apply. International: Charter 1945 → UDHR 1948 → Covenants 1966 → specialised treaties. Indian: Constitution 1950 (Parts III & IV) → judicial expansion of Article 21 → PHRA 1993 and the NHRC.

Conclusion. Two balanced tracks, ending on the PHRA 1993, cover the whole question.

Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, s.2(1)(d): “‘human rights’ means the rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India.”

In Simple Terms: Indian law defines human rights by tying them to the Constitution and to the international covenants, and makes them enforceable in court — the clearest sign that the moral idea has become hard law here.

flowchart LR
    A["DEVELOPMENT<br/>of HR Law"]:::root
    A --> B["International track"]:::leaf
    B --> B1["Charter 1945 -> UDHR 1948<br/>-> Covenants 1966<br/>-> CEDAW/CRC/CRPD"]:::leaf
    A --> C["Indian track"]:::leaf
    C --> C1["Constitution 1950<br/>Parts III & IV"]:::leaf
    C --> C2["Judicial expansion<br/>Article 21"]:::leaf
    C --> C3["PHRA 1993<br/>NHRC / SHRC"]:::leaf
    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#000,stroke-width:1px,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;
    linkStyle default stroke:#888,stroke-width:1px;

Case Laws

Maneka Gandhi v Union of India (1978) — Article 21 procedure must be fair, just and reasonable; the engine of India’s rights expansion.
Jolly George Varghese v Bank of Cochin (1980) — an international covenant is not automatically enforceable in India until transformed by legislation, marking the limits of the Indian track.

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