APPROACHES TO

HUMAN RIGHTS
DR.B.MADHANA REKHA, MCC
THEORIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS
1.The Natural Theory of Rights
2.Legal Theory of Rights
3.Social Welfare Theory of Rights
4.Idealistic Theory of Rights
5.Historical Theory of Rights
THE NATURAL THEORY OF RIGHTS
• Rights are created by nature.
• Rights are universally applicable.
• Every human being enjoys rights.
• It is indispensable for their existence.
JOHN LOCKE’S THEORY OF NATURAL RIGHTS
• Locke wrote Two Treaties of Government .
• Locke said man surrendered some of his natural rights but continued to
enjoy the remaining rights.
• All individuals are equal and born with inalienable natural rights.
• Rights are God given and can never be taken away.
• Nature has made all men free and rational,
• Natural rights are right to life, liberty and property.
HERBERT SPENCER
• Believed in the process of evolution.
• All men have the fundamental right to equal
freedom
• Enables to do what they will.
GREEKS AND ROMANS
• Greek philosophers spoke about natural rights
• Their writings influenced Romans.
• They believed that all human beings were subject to natural
law.
• It is applicable to people living within the Roman Empire.
• It binds people of all races together in Rome.
REASONS FOR SETBACK OF NATURAL LAW THEORY
• The church spoke of the law of God and church.
• Glorious Revolution of 1688 or The Bloodless Revolution.
• Catholic King James II of England was deposed by a Protestant -William
of Orange who married Mary -daughter of King James.
• The king and queen signed the Declaration of rights which became
English Bill of Rights in 1689.
• It gave powers to Parliament over monarchy which lead to political
democracy.
AMERICAN REVOLUTION

• Echoed the ideas of Locke.

• Proclaimed ‘All men are by nature equally free’,
• ‘Independent’ and have ‘inherent rights’.
FRENCH REVOLUTION

• French spoke about natural, inalienable and

sacred rights of man.
• John Locke & Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques
Rousseau spoke on ‘rights of self preservation’
EVALUATION

• The natural rights has certain merits

• They are necessary for man’s ethical and moral
development,
• They are very valuable.
 DEFECTS
1. It is vague
2. No precise meaning .
3. Not reasonable
4. Incorrect
5. Ignores the state
 THE LEGAL RIGHTS THEORY

• State is the source of rights.

• Membership brings rights to man.
• Rights are artificial creations.
• The state makes laws as rights.
• Individuals owe rights to the state
• They have no right against the state.
ROLE OF STATE
1. Rights spring from the state.
2. Defines what are rights and what are not rights
3. Provides the fundamental rights.
4. Enforce law and uphold rights
5. State can change laws.
 EVALUATION
• Merits
• Every individual enjoys rights
• They are recognized by the state.
• Demerits
• Does not deal philosophically.
• Does not explain whether the state is right
• Very narrow
• Makes the state absolute.
• Individuals are thrown at the mercy of the state and
• Have no right to resist law.
SOCIAL WELFARE THEORY (UTILITARIANISM)
• Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill spoke on social
welfare.
• Greatest Happiness of Greatest Number
• Social Happiness
• Aimed at social welfare.
• Makes the individual and society happy
• Precedence over customs,
• traditions and natural rights.
• Rights as a social crime.
• Rights are based on utility.
THOMAS HOBBES SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

• Thomas Hobbes in his book Leviathan (1651)

• Spoke about the structure of Society & legitimate Govt
• Written during English Civil war (1642-1651)
• Argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute
sovereign.
• It said that man lost his natural rights when a social
contract was made.
JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU’S
SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
• Jean Jacques Rousseau stated 3 stages
a. Man is born free but everywhere he is in chains.
b. Man is oppressed and dependent on others
c. Man becomes free through obligation and surrendered
his individual will to general will.
MERITS
• Principle of social welfare.
• Britain got rights through the support of
Utilitarians.
• Political, social and economic reforms were
introduced in England and other countries.
 DEMERITS
• The principle of the greatest happiness of the
greatest number is vague.
• Governments have excessive powers,
• Led to the erosion of the rights of the individuals.
• Indian Parliament and State Legislatures have
eroded the Fundamental Rights of the individuals.
IDEALIST RIGHTS THEORY -(PERSONALITY THEORY)

• Humans need external conditions for the

development of their personality.
• These conditions are created by the state.
• Rights are linked with individual good and
common good of all.
EVALUATION
Merits-
• Aims highest growth of the individual
• Views rights through moral or ethical angle
• Provides great services in social context.
DEMERITS
•Practically ambiguous.
•Vague,
•Standards cannot be applied.
THE HISTORICAL THEORY OF RIGHTS
• Result of historical evolution.
• Rights were based on customs, traditions
and usages for the common good.
• For the Primitive man custom was a
unwritten law.
• These unwritten customs became the basis of
law,
• Later gave rights to the individual in written form.
• In Modern times Rights are recognized and
supported by law,
 MERITS
• Rights rose as a result of historical evolution.
• In England people fought for customary rights.
• A custom followed generation after generation becomes
a customary right,
• It becomes a basis for law.
 DEMERITS
• Defective because all laws are not products of
history.
• In India, the Caste System is a product of history.
• Greece philosophers like Aristotle upheld slavery.
• Today no state supports slavery as a right.
• In India, Sati and Child marriages had to be
abolished.
CONCLUSION

• In practice different theories have to be

brought together.
• Rights can hardly be overestimated.
• They are the concern of all.