Though the concept of human rights is central to social sciences, it is poorly understood. There is no agreement on its meaning, nature, and content. It is a concept very much contested not only between East (representing former socialist States) and West (representing liberal-democratic States) but also between developed and developing countries. Each group of nations has a different perception of human rights.
The so-called first world countries of the West believed in the supremacy of the individual, while the communist countries of East focused on the community and the unconditional priorities of class interest. Hence, the individual benefited from these group rights, as his/her rights were better provided for, within the community. The former communist States gave priority to economic, social and cultural rights and insisted that they could not be separated from the class character of society in which they existed, while the liberal-democratic States asserted the primacy of civil and political rights. This debate of priority of one set of rights over another continued to occupy the agenda of national and international governance during major part of the 20th century.
The newly emerging States of the Third World, while adopting the Eastern or Western model of human rights paradigms in their constitutions, or a combination of both, focused on solidarity or group rights such as right to self-determination of peoples, including sovereignty over their natural resources, the right to development, the right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, the right to peace and the right to ownership of the common heritage of mankind. They also insist on interdependence and indivisibility of civil and political rights to economic and social rights.
Thus, the modern concept of human rights is comprehensive in its nature and content. It includes three types of rights: civil and political, economic, social and cultural and the emerging collective or group rights. Some Western scholars have described these three sets of rights as first, second and third generation of human rights. In fact, the catalogue of rights is expanding every day. Moreover, it must be noted that no catalogue elaborating specific human rights will ever be exhaustive or final. Its content goes hand in hand with the state of moral consciousness, or development of civilisation at any given time in history.
It is gratifying to note that in general the East is now shifting more towards the West in their perception of human rights, and civil and political rights are given greater attention than ever before. The collapse of communism and the end of the “Cold War” suggests that arguments over divergent concepts of human rights are no longer a subject of mutual accusation and a spirit of cooperation between East and West is evolving gradually.
Human Rights are those conditions of life that allow us to fully develop and use our human qualities of intelligence and conscience and to satisfy our spiritual needs. We cannot develop our personality in the absence of rights. They are fundamental to our nature; without them we cannot live as human beings. To deny human beings their rights is to set the stage for political and social unrest, wars, hostility between nations and between groups within a nation-and that denial leads to urgent demands for a better life in larger freedom. Human rights, far from being an abstract subject for philosophers, political scientists and lawyers, affect the daily lives of everyone − man, woman, and the child. Rights are nothing but claims against the State or government or individual persons. They constitute, as opined by Michael Freeden, “a conceptual device, expressed in linguistic form that assigns priority to certain human or social attributes regarded as essential to the adequate functioning of a human being; that is intended to serve as a capsule for those attributes; and that appeals for deliberate action to ensure such protection” (Vijapur, 2010, p.20).
Rights are also used in a variety of ways indicating differences in ideological and philosophical perceptions. For some, rights are “normative attributes” that belong to a self-conscious person who perceives himself as an agent of purposive creative action. For others, rights are entitlements to choose from. McCloskey describes rights positively, as entitlements, to do, to have, enjoy or have done. For MacCormick rights “always and necessarily concern human goods”, that is, concern with what it is good, at least, in normal circumstances, for a person to have. Feinberg and White asserted that rights can be “possessed, enjoyed, exercised and claimed, demanded and asserted”. James Nickel states that human rights aim to secure for individuals the necessary conditions for leading a minimally good life. Public authorities, both national and international, are identified as typically best placed to secure these conditions. So, the doctrine of human rights has become, for many, a first port of moral call for determining the basic moral guarantees all of us have a right to expect of those national and international institutions capable of directly affecting our most important interests (Vijapur, 2010, p.20).
It should be acknowledged that rights and duties are two sides of the same coin. One’s rights impose duties on others. Allegiance to the State, where a citizen resides, obeying the laws of the State, payment of taxes, exercising right to vote, rendering compulsory military service, parental duty towards their children when they are young and the duty of adult persons to take care of the needs of their old parents, etc. are some of the duties which have been recognised in different countries. In 1976 the Indian Constitution added ten fundamental duties through an amendment.
Rights have not evolved overnight. Great revolutions, events and constitutional, political, social struggles have contributed toward the continuous evolution of rights. Here we cannot discuss the history of the idea of rights. However, it should be recognised that contrary to popularly held Western belief that human rights are of the Western origin, now there is an overwhelming emerging consensus that every culture / civilisation and nation in the world had some notion of human rights.
Subscribe on YouTube - NotesWorld
For PDF copy of Solved Assignment
Any University Assignment Solution
.webp)
