As early as there have been rights there have always been the rights holders (those who hold claim to rights) and those who are mandated to fulfil these rights, generally referred to as duty bearers. Hence right is not without a claim of entitlement and a source of the dissemination of the claim. The human rights history has always reflected interactions between rights holders and duty bearers. The activities of these principal sets of people are what characterise the human rights discourse. Human rights in practice is viewed as a contract or agreement between rights holders and duty bearers, as conveyed in the various declarations and documents regarding the rights of man. The various documents or conventions on human rights have over the years distinguished between rights holders and duty bearers in human rights conception and practice.
Earliest documents on rights can be traced to the declarations and assertions of rights in the English tradition as exemplified in the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta forms one of the most influential earliest documents on rights of man that prefigured subsequent declarations on rights. “The Magna Carta of 1215 was conceded by king John and is widely interpreted as embodying the central principles of due process” Vizard (2000:16). The Magna Carta placed the citizens as rights holders and the British monarch as the duty bearers. Another significant and influential document on the rights of man is the English bill of rights of 1689. Though these documents were much different from the modern idea of human rights, they had a profound influence on the ideas of liberty, rights, freedom, national independence, responsibility, sovereignty and accountability and were developed in Europe and the Americas in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries.
Other significant attestation to rights are the American declaration of rights associated with the American independence and the French declaration of rights in the late 18th and mid-19th centuries which assumed a universal form. “These declarations of rights appealed not to the legal traditions and customs of a particular country but to the ideas of a universal law and natural rights” Vizard (2010:17). The principle of universalism that was a unique feature of this earliest rights documents helped shape subsequent documents on human rights. This 19th century rights movement championed the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity which will eventually form the corner stone of the human rights agenda.
The French declaration of the rights of man and citizen (1789) recognised fundamental individual rights and freedoms and declared these to be the basis of government. The declaration unleashed an unprecedented debate about the nature and scope of human rights. New ideas and movements relating to the rights of free black people, the abolition of slavery, economic and social rights, and the position of women, national independence and the idea of self-determination were born and established in this period. Vizard(2000:18).
L. Swilder defines human rights as “a claim to be able to and allowed to perform an action because one is a human being not because one is a citizen or permitted in law or has a grant from the king or the pope or for any other reason” Kusumalayam (2008:43). No matter the kind of definition we choose to give to human rights, the central idea or phenomenon that cannot be left out in all definitions is the human being. The human person is the basis of any talk concerning human rights. “Human rights are those which enable a person to live as a human person developing himself as a human person” Kusumalayam (2008:44). Human rights are not just some social or political agenda but they are what make human beings completely human.
A human being stripped of his or her right as a human being is less human. Rights are mankind’s greatest assets and accompaniments needed for his self-actualisation and fulfilment in life. Therefore it is a must have for every human being. “Human rights are protective shields against those things that could hinder one’s attempt to progress towards fulfilment of oneself as a human person. They are not mere protective shields but also help the creative enhancement of oneself towards that fulfilment” Kusumalayam (2008:44).
Human rights elevate and promote the status, value and worth of a human being. It amplifies the dignity of humanity irrespective of race, gender, tribe or nation. Thus humanity is the only language, religion and race of the human rights agenda. It upholds the belief that as long as you’re a human being, possessing the criteria of what it takes to be human then you are unarguably entitled to live a life befitting of a human being, which is a life of dignity, self-worth and value. Thus the concept of human rights entails claims and entitlements by people and also implies the fulfilment or granting of this rights by some other which could include humans, organisations and institutions. Hence every human being can be a right holder and also a duty bearer.
The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) manual on human rights define human rights as, “certain minimum standards and rules of procedure to which those in power should or must adhere to in their treatment of people” Walter and Nowak (2010:6). The international charter of human rights drafted through consensus and binding on all countries signatory to it consists of, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the 1966 International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights on the one hand and economic, social and cultural tights on the other.
One of the major features of human rights is universality; according to Rosalyn Higgins “our aspirations and basic needs are more or less the same in any part of the world. All of us want to lead a safe, decent and dignified life. The basic aspirations do not differ from culture to culture, though the form in which they are realized might differ the basic human right is the same everywhere” Kusumalayam(2008:52). Another feature is indivisibility. Human rights are indivisible which implies that all human rights are interrelated and interdependent. Human rights are also basic and fundamental.
In 1966, a clear division was made on rights into two groups namely: civil and political rights and economic and social rights. Civil and political rights as stipulated in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR) include the right to life, liberty, security of the person, freedom from slavery, the right to a fair trial, freedom from torture and arbitrary arrest, right to equality before law, privacy and property, right to marry and sound family, freedom of movement and to seek asylum, the right to a nationality, freedom of thought, conscience and association, the right to free elections, universal suffrage and participation in public affairs. These set of rights regulates man’s relations to social and political groups and are also known as first generation rights.
The economic and social right also referred to as the second generation rights has championed the attainment of the basic necessities of life that ensures a decent living and well being. They also complement the first generation rights because without these rights the true impact and meaning of human rights will be less felt. The economic and social rights were “…another set of fundamental human rights which grew out of the recognition that to live well and freely, man must have at least the means requisite for living and which was made increasingly practicable by the advances in technology and industrialization…” Kusumalayam (2008:55). These rights as stipulated in the UNDHR include the rights to social security, the right to work and for a just reward, the right to form and join trade unions, the right to rest, leisure and to periodic holidays with pay, the right to a standard of living adequate to health and well being and the right to education.
Another set of rights known as cultural rights, follow on the heels of the economic and social rights they include: the right of everyone to participate in the cultural life of one’s community, to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications and to benefit from the moral and material interests resulting from any specific literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Worthy of note is the distinction between positive rights and negative rights. These distinguish between the first category of rights i.e. civil and political rights which are, rights to be allowed to do things corresponding to duties in other people not to interfere. While the second category of rights i.e. the second generation rights, concerns rights to be given corresponding to duties in other people to provide them. The first generation rights are commonly referred to as negative rights “because of the emphasis placed on the absence of restraints and interference. While second generation rights are commonly referred to as positive rights because they emphasize and are meant to guarantee opportunities that would achieve certain goals that would enhance the life and dignity of the human person” kusumalayam (2008:58).
The dynamism of human rights has also resulted in the emergence of new types of rights classified as the third generation rights; they are referred to as group rights or collective rights and the rights of the future generations.They include the right to development, the right to peace, the right to a healthy environment, the right to communicate, the right to benefit from the common heritage of mankind, the right to humanitarian assistance, the right to self-determination. According to KarelVasak, “the human rights of the third generation are those born of the obvious brotherhood of all men and of their indispensable solidarity.” Kusumalayam (2008:71).
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