How are human rights violated?
A human rights violation occurs when the State or its agents (police, the armed forces and anyone acting with the authority of the State) deny an individual any one of the rights established by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The difference between a human rights violation and a criminal act is that the former is committed by the state and the latter is not. Therefore, when a police officer kills a person in his custody, he is committing a human rights violation but if a man kills a civilian or a soldier, it is a criminal act.
