First published in 1992, The Five Love Languages is a book that is entirely focussed on the most intimate relationships held between adults. It looks at five different paths whereby love, affection and even romance are followed, which are referred to in the book as 'languages', hence the meaning of its title. The five so-called languages are spending quality time with one another, exchanging gifts, physical touching, words of affirmation, and acts of devotion. The last one is sometimes also referred to as acts of service. The idea of the book is that it is a guide to self-counselling that individuals and couples can follow in order to re-establish higher levels of affection and love in their relationship. In it, the advocated approach is that a person will look at the way their partner expresses his or her love with others, and an attempt is made to use the same 'language' subsequently. The original version of the book had the sub-title “How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate” although this was dropped from later editions.
At their simplest, human rights are a number of social norms that are in place to protect individuals from one another and larger organisations, such as big businesses or the state. The idea behind them is that no one can take away another person's rights which are said to be inalienable. That means that they cannot be subject to change or altered at the whim of a government or a dictator, for example. The idea of inalienable rights took off after the calamity of the Second World War when many civilians died as well as combatants. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was made under the auspices of the newly formed United Nations in 1948, and it still creates much of the legal basis for international monitoring.
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