Human rights encompass all manner of protective laws, from the right to freedom from slavery and discrimination, to the rights of equality, belief, education and fair trial.
Our list of songs about human rights crosses the eras and sub-genres of music, showcasing pop’s most stand-out songs surrounding the state of the world we live in and the ever-important need for positive action.
Songs About Human Rights
1. Janelle Monáe – Americans
Janelle Monáe is no stranger to revolutionary concepts, her discography embedded with a plethora of unique sentiments surrounding civil rights and peace.
Her 2018 track, Americans, is doused in the irony of her own culture, cleverly exposing the backwards, grandiose logic of her fellow citizens; “Die in church, live in jail … I like my woman in the kitchen, I teach my children superstitions, I keep my two guns on my blue night stand.”
Beneath Janelle’s cutting ironic insight is the rallying calling for equality, “This is not my America, until women can get equal pay for equal work.. Until same gender loving people can be who they are.”
Americans is masterful in its harmony, sliding from an American gospel inspired intro, into an intoxicatingly catchy 80’s style beat; a bright, distracting contrast to the morbidity hidden within her lyrics.
2. Queen – Is This The World We Created?
This Queen track from 1984, is stunningly sparse and atmospheric, giving all its attention to its gripping lyrical content.
Is This The World We Created? illustrates world suffering and the cruel nature of hunger, drawing vital yet subtle attention to how the historical political greed of the West helped spawn the worldwide swathes of tragedy burdening the news;
“Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed, take a look at all the suffering we breed, so many lonely faces scattered all around, searching for what they need. Is this the world we created? What did we do it for? Is this the world we invaded against the law?”
3. Stevie Wonder – Vision
Stevie Wonder’s track Vision captures the otherworldly ambience of the dreamlike state detailed by his lyrics. Against a divinely soft and ethereal jazz soundscape, Wonder adopts the perspective of a man who has found himself upon an Earth finally free of the ceaseless barrage of tragedy and human suffering.
He describes ‘people hand in hand, where hate’s a dream and love forever stands,’ before cascading back to reality, “Have we really gone this far through space and time, or is this a vision in my mind?”
Wonder crowns his captivating track with a final verse, “Could a place like this exist so beautiful, or do we have to take our wings and fly away to the vision in our minds?”, whilst anchoring Vision’s harmony in a lushly imaginative and mystical sound, reflecting the third-eye journey of his lyrics.
4. Tracy Chapman – Why?
Tracy Chapman’s protest track, Why?, stands out in the midst of her #1 self-titled debut album. This track hosts an abundance of unanswerable rhetorical remarks, its message centred around the entitlement to food and safety;
“Why do babies starve when there’s enough food to feed the world? Why when there’s so many of us are there people still alone? Why are the missiles called peace keepers when they’re aimed to kill?”
Tracy ends her track abruptly, artfully symbolising the sudden ending of human life from the unfathomable and intentional catastrophe of the wars alluded to by her lyrics.
5. Max Richter – All Human Beings
Max Richter crafts his track All Human Beings around a spoken word sample reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, padded with a celestial ambience which sets you trailing into a daydream of freedom.
The synth track which fluffs the interesting choice of lyrical content is ever-evolving with a whole-hearted hope embedded within every moment, and finished with a soft murmuring of the Declaration in a layered array of world languages.
This track may be a little cheesy, but there really aren’t many pieces as uniquely inspired as this.
6. H.E.R. – I Can’t Breathe
I Can’t Breathe takes the dying words of George Floyd, crafting them into a message of brutal astonishment at the racism still lingering within America.
Written and released during quarantine, H.E.R’s 2020 pop/hip-hop track draws its power from the Black Lives Matter movement, transforming their appeal into an anthem for human rights concerning racism and equality.
An incredible line adorns H.E.R’s outro, preaching the morbid truth about racism’s deep-rooted effect, whilst referencing Billie Holiday’s classic 1939 song, Strange Fruit, to show how true progress is yet to be made despite nearly a century having passed;
“[You struggle] To swallow the strange fruit hanging from my family tree, because of your audacity”
7. P!NK – Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken
P!NK’s 2018 charity single Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken dedicates only one line to a description of human suffering, before celebrating a bright message of hope and perseverance through struggle;
“I will have to die for this I fear, there’s rage and terror and there’s sickness here, I fight because I have to, I fight for us to know the truth”
This track translates equally as well to overcoming personal struggle as it does to seeking peace in a world of disaster, each lyric burning bright with inspirational, undying strength;
“This is a battle I must win, to want my share is not a sin. There’s not enough rope to tie me down, there’s not enough tape to shut this mouth, the stones you throw can make me bleed, but I won’t stop until we’re free ’cause wild hearts can’t be broken.”
8. Bob Dylan – Only A Pawn In Their Game
This classic Bob Dylan track is influenced by the assassination of Medgar Evars, a Mississippi leader of the NNACP who was murdered in 1963 by a poor white man.
Bob Dylan weaves this story into his lyrics to showcase white privilege, whilst demonstrating how white people who commit hate crimes are being played like pawns by politicians who are equally as guilty as the perpetrators;
“A South politician preaches to the poor white man, ‘You got more than the blacks, don’t complain, you’re better than them, you been born with white skin,’ they explain … Like a dog on a chain, he ain’t got no name, but it ain’t him to blame, he’s only a pawn in their game.”