Meaning, Demand, and

Source of
Human Rights
 MEANING OF HUMAN RIGHTS

✘ Traditionally defined as titles or claims to

certain material and spiritual goods, or to have
access to such goods in order for the human
person to live a dignified life.
✘ Human right is referred to the natural human
rights, meaning, that we have rights solely
because we are humans.
 MEANING OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are not given to us by

society. Instead, they are what society
has to respect, promote, and protect.
 MEANING OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are the concrete manifestation and

consequences of human dignity. Since everyone shares
the same dignity, obviously the right that we need to
protect, respect, and promote belongs to all. Therefore,
we have a moral obligation to recognize and respect the
same universal rights and contribute to the establishment
of harmony so that everyone will live freely and live life
to the fullest.
 DEMAND FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

It follows then that all of us must protect,

respect, and promote our basic dignity at
all times. We can do these by protecting,
respecting, and promoting human rights.
 DEMAND FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Social duties are implied in our human

rights. Since we are all equal in basic
human dignity, we have equal rights.
Our duty then is to see to it that these
rights are given to all of us.
 DEMAND FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are to be defended not only individually,

but also as a whole. Protecting them partially would
imply a kind of failure to recognize them. They
correspond to the demands of human dignity and fulfill
the essential needs of the person in the material and
spiritual spheres.

“The integral promotion of every category of human

rights is the true guarantee of full respect for each
individual right.”
 SOURCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The ultimate source of human rights is not

found in the mere will of human beings, in
the reality of the state, in public powers,
but in man himself and in God his Creator.
 SOURCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

These rights are UNIVERSAL,

INVIOLABLE, and INALIENABLE
TYPES OF HUMAN
RIGHTS
(As identified by St. John Paul II)
 To have a
background of
human rights is
important in
developing critical
understanding and
sensitivity to our
social situation.
 PERSONAL RIGHTS

1. Right to life
 This is the most fundamental right.
 The right to life is the primary condition
of all other human rights for the obvious
reason that only when a persons are
alive can they exercise their other rights
and thereby accomplish their mission.
If this is not protected, all other rights
are under threat.
 PERSONAL RIGHTS

1. Right to life
 This right means first of all the
preservation of life; it means resisting
any unjust aggression that either
directly or indirectly puts human life in
danger.
 It includes the right to basic necessities
in life: food, shelter, clothing, sufficient
health care, rest, and leisure.
 PERSONAL RIGHTS

2. Right to One’s Person

 We have a right over our own bodies
and bodily faculties and energies. God
created us as embodied-spirits to
enable us to carry out our task in our
physical world
 PERSONAL RIGHTS

2. Right to One’s Person

 The right to one’s person justifies self-
defense and the right to free movement
and to the inviolability of one’s home,
which serves as an extension of one’s
self.
 PERSONAL RIGHTS

3. Right to One’s Personality

 Persons have a right to develop their
own individual character.
 The at this time, though it is incomplete
and not yet permanent, influences the
moral choices you make, while the
actions and choices you make now
influence the kind of character you are
developing.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

1. Right to Education
• It is our right to avail of all possible
means and opportunities to help us
develop physically, intellectually,
spiritually and socially.
• Education starts from birth. Right from
our mother’s womb, we have the right to
be nourished, protected, and taken care
of until we grow up and become
capable of standing on our own feet.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

• From a network of human relationships

from our family, school, Church, and
society- we gain knowledge and skills to
survive and live a decent life.
• The right to education refers to both
formal and informal schooling
• It covers right and duty of parents to
educate their children and provide
moral formation and sound guidance as
long as they can afford it.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

• This is right to education includes the

responsibility of the children to make
the most of their learning opportunities.
They are obliged to listen to their
parents, elders, and authorities; study
well; chose the right company; and
acquire the necessary skills and
knowledge to become better persons.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

• From a network of human relationships

from our family, school, Church, and
society- we gain knowledge and skills to
survive and live a decent life.
• The right to education refers to both
formal and informal schooling
• It covers right and duty of parents to
educate their children and provide
moral formation and sound guidance as
long as they can afford it.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

2. Right to Conscience
• When it comes to making moral decision, all
human person have the right to act in
accordance with their conscience .
• A person of good conscience is somebody
who knows what is objectively good and evil,
and has the courage to do and defend what is
right, and correct what is wrong.
• It is both our duty and right to educate our
conscience correctly and follow it all the time.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

3. Right to Religion
• Insofar as persons are bound to seek
the truth and accordingly worship the
Creator, they have the natural right to
relate God and to freely express and
develop this relationship within the
teachings and practices of their chosen
religion.
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS

• Human persons have the right to

exercise their freedom of religion both
and privately (in the sacredness of their
intimate relation with God) and publicly,
with their community (in the exercise of
community worship as well as
charitable service and other social
aspects of their religion) as long as they
do not impinge on similar rights of
others.
 SOCIAL RIGHTS

1. Right to Honor/Respect
• Honor refers to the credibility and esteem
human persons enjoy in the society.
• False testimony, and other insults, like
slander, libel, calumny, detraction, and other
remarks or acts that rob the human persons
of their good name in society violate the right
to honor/respect
• When this right is violated, some just
restitution can be demanded to restore the
communal respect due the victims.
 SOCIAL RIGHTS

2. Right to Free Expression/Freedom of Speech

• The right to free expression and the right to assembly
are the key elements of a free society.
• Without these rights we could well have a dictatorship
with all other rights suppressed.
• Since we are created by God with intellect and will,
we should never be dominated or manipulated by
anyone or by any state.
• We have the right to freely express ourselves, what
we think is true, both in spoken and written words, as
individuals and/or as groups.
• We have the right to voice to our leaders and
administrators our views and feelings about how
they should govern us.
 SOCIAL RIGHTS

• This right is definitely not without

limitations. No one can use freedom of
speech as a license to destroy the
name of others.
• This right, in other words, obliges us to
speak the truth at the right time, in the
proper way.
 SOCIAL RIGHTS

3. Right to Organize
• Just like the right to free expression, the right
to organize is an essential ingredient of a free
society.
• Human persons have the right to form
associations with common objectives,
whether they are religious, civic, economic,
social, or political.
• But this right should not be used for pushing
one’s personal political agenda to the
detriment of the common good.
 ECONOMIC RIGHTS

1. Right to Livelihood
• It is primarily through work that
human persons gain the means to
satisfy their essential needs in life.
• It is the right and duty of every
person to work and earn a living in
the form of wages, salaries,
benefits, and profit.
 ECONOMIC RIGHTS

2. Right to Property

• To own something, especially as the fruit of

sweat and hard work, is undoubtedly an
expression of human dignity.
• The right to property is the right to exclusive
control of one’s own possessions.
• Control here means the right to acquire, use,
consume, and dispose of one’s property
within the bounds of the law.
 VOCATION RIGHTS

1. Right to Choose One’s Way of

Life
• All human persons have the right to
choose their career, vocation, and
status in life.
• Whatever you want to be in the future,
this right requires you to consider two
things. One is what can give you a real
sense of fulfillment. The other is how
you can be of service to the community.
 VOCATION RIGHTS

2. Right to Marriage
• This refers to the right of every person
to seek partner in life and enter a union
with the chosen person, as long as the
act is within the grounds of the law of
the state and the dictates of the natural
law.