Emerging human rights are civil society’s legitimate claims for the formulation of new or updated human rights.

Sixty years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drawn up. Since then, society, on a national as well as an international level, has undergone profound transformations as globalisation has intensified. As a result of this, pressing new human needs have come about. It is hoped that the emerging human rights will translate these new needs into new rights.

Not all of the emerging human rights are strictly new. Globalisation creates new challenges and reminds us of those still pending in the arena of human rights. Emerging human rights, then, consist of those rights that arise before the rapid and constant evolution of globalised societies, as well as those that resurface after having been “submerged” in the oblivion or the indifference of states or the international system.

The emerging human rights range from completely new formulations, like the right to a basic income, to new interpretations of classic rights, for example the right to the access to medicines - an extension of the right to health.

In spite of this duality between new rights and updates of the classics, the concept of emerging human rights comes from an integrative vision of human rights. This vision goes beyond the historical dichotomy that has divided human rights: civil, political, and economic, and social and cultural. It attempts to overcome the contradictions between collective and individual rights.

The emerging rights involve a new conception of citizen participation, giving a voice to national and international actors that have traditionally had little or no input in the configuration of national law, for example NGOs, social movements and cities. They are, therefore, civil society’s claims that aspire to a more just world with greater solidarity.

These claims have taken different forms, among those that stand out is the Universal Declaration of Emerging Human Rights, which arose from the Universal Forum of Cultures Barcelona in September 2004 and which was approved at the Forum of Monterrey (Mexico) in November 2007.