Theories of human rights full paper
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The document discusses various theories of human rights, including: 1. The theory of natural rights, which states that individuals are born with inherent rights that cannot be denied by governments. This theory was advocated by philosophers like John Locke. 2. The theory of social rights, which argues that rights are created by society and law to benefit the greatest number of people. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill were proponents of this view. 3. The theory of legal rights, which claims that rights are established by states and individuals have no rights outside of what states grant them. This view was supported by philosopher John Austin. 4. The theory of economic rights, proposed by Karl Marx, rejects the concept of
Theories of human rights full paper
- 1. THEORIES OF HUMAN RIGHTS P. SADISH Assistant Professor Department of History Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Arts College Kalitheerthalkuppam Puducherry 605 107 9994973538 INTRODUCTION Human rights are one of the significant features of our political reality. It is the moral rights of highest order.1Human Rights are evolved out of self-respect. It is inherent to all humans without any discriminationof race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion and colour etc. It received new shape when human beings began to think themselves. Each and every human beings are entitled to these rightswithout any discrimination. HISTORICAL ORIGIN Though modern historians are manage to trace out “Magna Carta” of 1521 as the historical beginning of human rights, but itsreal origin goes back to 539 B.C. when Cyrus, the great (king of ancient Persia) conquered the city of Babylon, he freed all slaves to return home and declared people to choose their own religion and even maintained racial equality2. A clay tablet in theAkkadian language with cuneiform scriptcontains these liberties are considered as the first human rights declaration in history.It is translated into all six official languages of the United Nations and its provisions parallel the first four Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The idea of human rights rapidlyspread from Babylon to many nations especially India, Greece and eventually Rome where the concept of „natural law‟ arose in observation of the fact that people tended to follow certain unwritten laws in due course of life. The written pioneer to the modern human rights documents are the English Bill of Rights (1689), the American Declaration of Independence (1776), the French 1
- 2. Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789), the first Ten Amendments of the Constitution of the United States ( Bill of Rights 1791) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of UN (1948). WHAT IS HUMAN RIGHTS? In short, it is the basic rights and freedom of all human, it include the right to life, liberty, freedom of thought, expression and equality before the law. It is interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.There are several theories which are relevant to the concept of human rights such as, 1. Theory of natural rights2.Theory of social rights3.Theory of legal rights4.Theory of historical rights and 5.Theory of economic rights. THEORY OF NATURAL RIGHTS It statesthat an individual enters into society with certain basic rights and no government can denythese rights3. The natural rights evolved out of thenatural law that peoples are the creatures of nature. They existtheir lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and principles laid down by nature. When the idea of individualismdeveloped in the 17th century, theory of natural law were modified and focussed onthe rights of the individuals4.Itcannot be violated by anyone or by any society because they are natural beings. Therefore we can clearly say that today‟s human rights are the child of ancient natural rights. Themost notableexpression of this doctrine is found in the writings of John Locke. John Lockeargued that all individuals weregifted by nature with the inherent rights to life,liberty and property of their own and could not be removed or abolished by state. Two things are evidentfrom his view of natural rights, one is theindividual is an autonomous being capable of exercising choice and the second is thelegitimacy of government depends not only upon the will of the people, but also uponthe government‟s willingness and ability to 2
- 3. protect those individual natural rights. Accordingly, human beings are rational and good by nature and theycarried the same rights they had enjoyed in earlier stages of society into political society and important among them are freedom of worship, the right to a voice of their own government and the right of property. Jean Jacques Rousseau attempts to settle the natural rights of the individual with the need for social unity and cooperation through the idea of the social contract. Rousseau declared that natural law conferredinalienable sovereignty on the citizens of the state as a whole. The most significantdetails of idea of natural rights came from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine made the natural rights theory a powerful justification for revolution. Positivists strongly oppose these theory because they gave importance to society not for individual rights. THEORY OF SOCIAL RIGHTS The theory of Social rights states that rights are the conditions of society. It is the creation of society, law, customs, traditions and yield to what is socially useful or socially desirable5. What is socially useful should have for its test the greatest happiness of the greatest number.The real advocators of this theory wasBentham and Mill. They established the principle of greatest happiness of the greatest number and made it for themeasure of utility. But utility should be determined by considerations of reason and experience according to them. Laski accepts utility as the basis of rights. He agreed that the test of right is utility and the utility of a right is its value to all the members of the State. Rights are not independent of society, but inherent in it. One‟s rights are built upon one‟s contribution to the well-being of society. Rights are built upon their utility to the individual and the community. Utility is the measuring rod of a particular right.The theory has its appeal in the sense of justice and reason. 3
- 4. THEORY OF LEGAL RIGHTS According to this theory rights are created and maintained by the state6. The state is the only source of right and outside the state an individual has no rights at all and never claim rights against state. The theory further maintains that rights are not natural to man. The political pluralists object this theory, because the state does not create rights but it only recognizes them.One of the main exponents of this theory was Austin. There are lot of criticism about this theory because it does not provide an adequate basis of right. It might tell us the character of a particular state but it does not tell us what rights need recognition. This theory will lead to despotic state and tyranny of laws. It does not provide a basis to know what right ought to be ensured. Rights are in factnot what the state grants what the man needs for his self-development and what the state should grant. THEORY OF HISTORICAL RIGHTS According to this theory, rights are the product of history and originate in its customs7 which passed from one generation to another.It givesemphasis to custom. They are considered fundamental to the growth and development of man, because they are maintained by a long unbroken custom and the generations have habitually followed them. The scholarBurke maintains that the French Revolution was based on the abstract rights of man, whereas the Glorious Revolution of England was based on the customary rights of the people of that country. There is much truth in what Burke says because the French Revolution itself was the result of the prevailed conditions of thatcountry, but its slogan was liberty, equality and fraternity8.These three abstract principles were universally applied. 4
- 5. On the other hand, the Glorious Revolutionwas simply a reaffirmation of the historic liberties of English, had their heritage since the days of the AngloSaxons. It found due expression in Magna Carta, Petition of Rights and various other documents of constitutional importance. It is to note that many of our rights are really originated in our primitive customs. At the same time it does not mean the origin of all rights can be traced to customs and traditions. When rights are rigidly tied to customs alone, we entirely ignore the dynamic nature of society and the changing capacities of rights. Rights change with the facts of time and place. THEORY OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS It finds its inspiration in the teaching of Karl Marx. It rejects the concept of natural andother rights,stated from time to time as an explanation of the nature of rights. Marx‟s idea is simple and even convincing too to certain extent. According to him the State ispowerful agency to uphold the particular type of social organisation and law is a tool of the State that preserves and safeguards the interests of the dominant group in the society9. He explained that political, social, religious and other institutions are determined by economic components, which is essentially the mode of production. To each stage of production in the development of society corresponds as appropriate political form and an appropriate class structure. Every system of production leads to the rise of two opposite classes -- the exploiters and the exploited. Laskiagrees with Marx‟s idea and maintains that the way the economic power is distributed at any given time and place will shape the character of legal duties which are imposed on that time and place. The economically powerful group 5
- 6. in society dominates, controls and regulates the machinery of the government and occupies all the key positions of power. The laws are so made and the policies of the governing class are so devised and formulated that they protect the interests of this group alone. Consequently, the dogmas of equality before the law and other fundamental rights of the people are only a cloak of inequality, i.e. slavery. Rights are, as such, neither the product of human nature nor their origin can be traced to the ancient customs, or in their inherent utility, nor are rights the result of external conditions essential to man‟s internal and real development. The economic structure of society at a given period of time is the foundation on which the political system of a country is built. In a capitalist society, the aim and nature of rights are to promote and foster the interests and privileges of the dominant economic group that owns productive forces. For the masses rights are the instruments of their enslavement. Karl Marx finally believes that rights can exist and flourish only in a classless society where all are equal and no one is to be an exploiter. He ignored all talk of rights in the capitalist society and regarded fundamental rights the pillars of democracy and the fetish of bourgeois jurisprudence. CONCLUSION The descriptionof theories of rights express the fact that rights are originated inherently in human beings. However, it is helpful to the development of the human beings. Rights are the properties of human beings.It is necessary and useful for the social development. Human life is upgraded through these rights. Human rights are not just a product of morality but protect the basic freedom and well-being necessary for human agency. Human rights represent a social choice of a particular moral vision of human potentiality, which rests on a 6
- 7. particular substantive account of the minimum requirements of a life of dignity10 The distinctive focus of each theory results in significant variations in their lists of specific human rights or the kind of activities humans may indulge in. Human rights based on subsistence would not include the range of democratic rights that most liberals argue that an essential element of human rights based on dignity. Notes and References 1. Jack. Donnelly, Universal Human Right in Theory and Practice ,London, Cornel University Press, London, p. 12 2. E sourceL. Strauss, Natural Right and History (1957) 3. Llewellyn-Jones, Lloyd (2009). "The First Persian Empire 550–330BC". In Harrison, Thomas. The Great Empires of the Ancient World. Getty Publications. p. 104 4. R. Tuck, Natural Rights Theories (1982) 5. e source (www.share your essays.com) by Rehaan Bansal. 6. Ibid. by Rehaan Bansal 7. Ibid. by Rehaan Bansal 8. Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Ed. Conor Cruise O'Brien. New York: Penguin Books, 1986 9. e source(www.share your essays.com) by Rehaan Bansal 10. Jack Donnelly. Op. cit. 1989, p.17. Books 1. J. Dharmaraj, Human Rights (in Tamil), Tency Publication, Sivakasi, 2008. 2. Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man, New York: Penguin Books, 1985 3. Amartya Sen Elements of a Theory of Human RightsPhilosophy and Public Affairs, Research Library Core, 2004. 4. Donnelli D., Haward R., “Human rights in modern world, USA., 1991 5. Jack DonnellyUniversal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, Cornell University Press,2003 6. 7. Forsythe, Frederick P.Encyclopaedia of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, New York, 2009. Nickel, James,ed."Human Rights". The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 2010 7