Human rights are now a regular feature in the agenda of global politics. Often the nature of rights or the actual claims of violations are contested, neglected or even denied. Violations can have immediate implications for peoples’ survival, such as imprisonment, gender-based violence, the death penalty and violent persecution, while other violations of human rights have implications for how people preserve their human dignity and exercise their freedom, such as statelessness, discrimination, religious persecution and freedom of expression. The road to meaningful and impactful action on human rights is a journey for all of us. Ultimately, human rights are about access to livelihoods and environments that sustain life within a context where people can live with the freedoms of beliefs, identity, relationships and justice to reach their full potential creatively. This endeavour has intricate mixes and layers. Fundamentally, many of these rights are part of our daily life, taken-for-granted experiences, such as access to clean air and clean water, safe and adequate food, decent housing, education and health care. In many social development contexts, these fundamental rights are yet to be universally obtained. Human rights are influenced by the economic dominance of high-income countries which can subjugate low-income countries. Increased democratisation has allowed a more nuanced focus on the rights of citizens to live their lives free of persecution and discrimination. At a global level, rights such as freedom of movement and resources are inherently tied to the citizenship of specific privileged countries. This is part of global inequality. Human rights in the context of climate change present urgent challenges as to who is disproportionately affected by global warming, both in its effects and in the efforts to reduce emissions. The role of social development in climate change is increasingly critical to support fundamental changes in how we protect the global environment.