I’m not the person you were originally discussing human rights with, but usually people who dedicate their education to ethics are the ones who write up a list of human rights.
And that list changes as we progress and develop new technologies.
For example The World Human Rights Commission reaches out to governments worldwide to get all countries as close to protecting humans rights as they can.
Unfortunately some countries choose to ignore them and continue harming people anyway for whatever reasons they want, if any at all. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any qualified people in the world to answer that question. There are quite a few people like that working on them as we speak.
I think it’s great that academics and intellectuals are trying to come up with educated and informed human rights recommendations, but that’s all they are: recommendations. Like you said yourself, their recommendations are often ignored. That’s because there is an inherent power dynamic to human rights. Rights must necessarily be given by the powerful to the less powerful, and only when and if the powerful decide it is in their interests to give them. Many times, it takes prolonged, organized, often violent rebellion to convince the powerful that it is in their interest to grant rights to the people.
That fair, I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying. Unfortunately that is what it takes to establish human rights in some places.
I just wanted to share that there are people working very hard to create an ethical framework that can is be implemented if and when a country is ready to adapt it.