HUMAN

RIGHTS
CHAP T E R 4
 DEFINITION
• A right is a freedom to act or
refrain from acting or an
entitlement to be acted upon
or not acted upon.
• A right is a power or privilege
to which a person has a just
claim.
1. NATURAL RIGHTS
• Natural rights are rights
derived from Nature- they
are universal; can’t be
taken away (exist
necessarily) “inalienable”
• Life, liberty, pursuit of
happiness.
 2. LEGAL RIGHTS
• A legal right is based on a
society’s customs, laws,
statues or actions by
legislatures. These are called
“civil rights”- and are
culturally and politically
relative. - right to vote
 3. CLAIM RIGHT
• A claim right entails that
another person has a duty to
the right-holder. Imposes
duties on others to act or
refrain from acting.
• Life, liberty, property,
informed consent.
3. LIBERTY RIGHT
• A liberty right is a privilege or
freedom to do something and
does not entail obligations on
others.
• Permitted to do something
only if no other person has a
claim right forbidding.
4. POSITIVE- NEGATIVE

• Positive- Permission to do or
entitlement to be done unto.
• Negative- permission not to
do or entitlement to be left
alone- non-interference.
5. INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP
• General sense of right is that it
belongs to individuals.

• Group as entity in its own.

• Individual rights because of group-

labor, disability, patient, prisoner,
reproductive, animals, children,
parents.
CONFLICT OF RIGHTS
•A Major question for a an
individual, society or
moral system is how to
resolve conflicts of
rights?
 HUMAN RIGHTS
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) was adopted by the United Nations
General Assembly on December 10, 1948
• Preamble states: recognition of the inherent
dignity and of the equal and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family is
the foundation of freedom, justice and
peace in the world.
 PREAMBLE
• Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights
have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the
advent of a world in which human beings shall
enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom
from fear and want has been proclaimed as the
highest aspiration of the common people,
• Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled
to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion
against tyranny and oppression, that human rights
should be protected by the rule of law,
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
• Asserts the four freedoms: freedom of speech,
belief, freedom from want, and freedom from fear –
which is "proclaimed as the highest aspiration" of
the people.

1. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms

set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any
kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin,
property, birth or other status
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
2. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of person.
3. No one shall be held in slavery or
servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall
be prohibited in all their forms.
4. No one shall be subjected to torture or to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
5. Everyone has the right to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law.
6. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
arrest, detention or exile.
7. Everyone charged with a penal offence
has the right to be presumed innocent until
proved guilty according to law in a public
trial at which he has had all the guarantees
necessary for his defense.
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
8. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor
and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
protection of the law against such interference or
attacks.

9. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,

conscience and religion
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
10. Everyone has the right to work, to
free choice of employment, to just and
favorable conditions of work and to
protection against unemployment.
11. Everyone, without any
discrimination, has the right to equal
pay for equal work.
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
12. Everyone has the right to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of himself
and of his family, including food, clothing, housing
and medical care and necessary social services,
and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old
age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances
beyond his control.

13. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special

care and assistance. All children, whether born in or
out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
protection
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
14. Everyone has the right to education
15. Education shall be directed to the full
development of the human personality and to
the strengthening of respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms.
16. Parents have a prior right to choose the
kind of education that shall be given to their
children.
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
17. Everyone has duties to the community in
which alone the free and full development of
his personality is possible.
18. Everyone has the right freely to participate
in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy
the arts and to share in scientific
advancement and its benefits.
19. Everyone has the right to the protection of
the moral and material interests resulting from
any scientific, literary or artistic production of
which he is the author.
 UNIVERSAL
DECLARATION
20. Everyone has the right to freedom of
movement and residence within the borders
of each state.
21. Everyone has the right to leave any
country, including their own, and to return to
their country.
22. Everyone has the right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from
persecution.
 CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

Child labour by 17 year olds:

A. Is always a violation of the rights of the child.
B. Is a violation of the rights of the child if the task is
harmful.
C. Can be acceptable if the government has fixed
the minimum working age to be under 17.
 RATIONALE

Child labour by 17 year olds:

C is correct. The Children’s Rights Convention bans
child labour if it is dangerous or a form of exploitation,
but allows governments to fix the age under which
the ban is valid. There is much pressure to reach more
stringent restrictions on child labour.
 CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

According to international agreements relating to the

right to water:
A. Governments are obliged to provide their citizens
with clean and healthy water.
B. Governments are not allowed to discriminate
against some citizens in provision of water.
C. Governments are not allowed to deny their
citizens access to a water supply.
 RATIONALE

According to international agreements which relate

to the right to water:
According to the interpretation by the UN Committee
on Economic and Social Rights, B and C are correct,
A is not. The fulfilment of the right to water is
something that governments have to strive towards,
but this right cannot be claimed as such by the
citizens.
 CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

Elections:
A. All citizens are allowed to vote, even if they have
lost their civil rights due to criminal activity.
B.Two votes for each person are allowed if the voter is
an employer.
C. The balloting must be performed secretly.
 RATIONALE

Elections:
Only C is correct. A state can prevent persons who
have lost their civil rights from voting. Equal rights for
everyone who is entitled to vote is an international
rule.
 CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

Freedom of expression:
A. May be restricted in order to protect against
defamation.
B. Cannot be restricted for reasons of public morality.
C. Can be restricted to prevent religious intolerance.
 RATIONALE

Freedom of expression:
A and C are correct. Freedom of expression can,
under certain conditions, be restricted for reasons of
public morality, for the prevention of crime, for the
protection of health or for protection against
defamation, if this is foreseen by law.
 CHOOSE THE BEST ANSWER

Punishment of children in schools:

A. Is not allowed in the form of corporal punishment.
B. Is not forbidden if the punishment is mentally cruel.
C. May only be used if parents agree.
 RATIONALE

Punishment of children in schools:

A is considered as correct, since the European Court
of Human Rights has repeatedly considered
corporal punishment as a violation of the ECHR (and
this complies with the interpretation which is given by
the Children’s Rights Committee to the Children’s
Rights Convention). B is incorrect, as the ban relates
to all cruel punishments. As for C, there is no clause
that makes punishment directly dependent on the
parents’ agreement.