The concept of human rights is fairly new in our history.

It' OK, but the original is better.

ReegisCan we transform it into the sentence below?
The human rights concept is fairly new in our history.

You can, but you shouldn't.

ReegisMy understanding is that "human rights" would be together treated as a noun modifier - is it correct?

There's room for that interpretation, I suppose. Nevertheless, "human" is an ad

CalifJimNevertheless, "human" is an adjective, and "rights" is a noun, so you may meet with some opposition in combining both into what you call a noun.

It never crossed my mind

Reegishuman rights can be treated as a noun modifier, which (I hope) means that it is a modifier for a noun or a modifier that describes a noun

Yes. It is an NP (noun phrase) modifier. (Maybe I misunderstood earlier.)

[ [human_adj rights_noun]_NP concept_noun]_NP

CJ

Now crystal clear:) I studied mathematics so your description is perfect for me.

Could you please also comment if this second sentence sounds natural to you?

ReegisCould you please also comment if this second sentence sounds natural to you?

???

I wrote (above) You can, but you shouldn't.

That means no, it doesn't sound natural to me.

CJ

Linguistic rules are not so rigorous/scientific and I must admit that I don't always understand what it means that I shouldn't use a given setence. I think that sometimes people mean by this that it is not grammatically correct, or does not sound natural, or they just don't like it for some subjective reason that might not be shared by other natives.

Nevetheless, I will remember what it m