This chapter provides a general introduction to the idea of human rights as it is embodied in a variety of different legal regimes at the international, regional and national levels. It also comments on the interdisciplinary aspects of human rights and situates it in its historical context.keywordshuman rightsinternational covenant on civil and political rights (iccpr)freedom rightsinternational covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (icescr)universal declaration of human rights (udhr)these keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.