I can tell you what they are not: they are not biased political opinions that are stated without legitimate authority. Just like obligations, rights need a legitimate accepted authority to be valid. For example, in the US declaration of independence, the founders address king george, their statement about fundamentsl rights is based on the fact that these rights are self-evident as the will of a just God , and since obviously the king's authority derives from God, his violation of these rights against americans gave the americans a right to reject king george's authority.

You maybe a secularist,but even then you still need a legitimate authority all humans are subject to. That could be a global treaty (UNDHR isn't) or something else but there simply is no legitimate authority that can implement a universal human right. As things stand now, each sovreign nation's government declares what rights it's subjects have, both as citizens and humans. Not that I agree with the way things are, but I do believe in each nation's right for self determination. But I think there is a fundamental question of why and if a nation should maintain any sort of economic or diplomatic relations with a country that has contradictory views on human rights.

It's not that I agree with China's stance on human rights, but more that the west needs to take care of human rights in it's own borders first and even then how can you support China by maintaining trade relations and at the same time claim they violate human rights? Why is the west supporting human rights violations?