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| Index | E-mail | Resources |
June 1998 |
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| Index | E-mail | Resources |
June 1998 |
Know Your Rights!
What are Human Rights?
When we started working for human rights, we did so because we held some things very clear in our minds: nobody, no matter who they were or what they did, should be tortured, extra-judicially executed, disappeared or denied due process rights. It seemed very simple and fundamental. As we got deeper into our activism, and began to learn about human rights, we realized that they were much more than what we originally thought. In this series, we hope to share with you some basics as to what human rights are conceived to be. We start on this issue with some general concepts; in subsequent issues we will deal with specific rights such as the right to life and to physical integrity. Our perspective is mostly legal, as is our background, and thus we’ll talk about what human rights are under international law - not what we wish they were. It is your job, as an activist, to turn your wishes into law.
What are human rights?
Human rights, simply put, are those rights that are the due patrimony of every human being, for the sole fact of being human. They can be understood as part of the social contract between individuals and the state (we allow the state to rule over us, in exchange for specific guarantees), or, naturalistically, as inborn properties of every human being. In any case, human beings enjoy these rights vis a vis the state that controls them and who is bound to protect them, and not against other individuals or states - though states have the affirmative duty to protect individuals against those who would interfere with their enjoyment of at least some of these rights (e.g. the right to life).
Human rights are often divided into two main classes, civil and political rights (civil, for short) and economic, social and cultural rights (economic for short). Civil rights include such things as the right to life, to physical integrity, to due process and to vote, while economic rights include the rights to food, shelter, medical attention and social security. While the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes both civil and economic rights, the world community has placed a greater emphasis on civil rights throughout the last few decades. There exist separate covenants on civil and economic rights, both at the international and American regional level, and while many civil rights have attained the status of customary international law, very few economic rights have done so. Though sometimes civil rights are associated with negative rights (the obligation of the state to not do something, e.g. not kill you or not torture you), and economic rights are associated with positive rights (the affirmative obligations of the state to do something, e.g. feed or house their citizens), the analogy is imperfect at best. Some civil rights are positivistic - such as the right to a fair trial, which necessitates a functioning judicial system -, and some economic rights are negative (the right to form trade unions).
The reasons for the dichotomy between civil and economic rights are mainly political. The liberal traditions of the west considered civil and political rights as the most fundamental - asserting that once these were achieved, economic, cultural and social rights would undoubtly follow. The socialist traditions, meanwhile, emphasized economic rights - considering that once the basic needs of all people were attained, there would be room for expanding their civil liberties.
In recent years, there has been a move to consider both types of rights as indivisible and equally important. Violations to economic rights often lead to violations of civil rights - state oppression is often harshest when economic oppression leads to expressions of dissatisfaction with the status quo -, and, as it has been often put, it’s just as bad to die of hunger than to be extrajudicially executed. However, international law has not yet caught up with this conception.
There is also a substantial distinction between the extent of civil and economic rights. While countries must respect all civil and political rights, with respect to economic, cultural and social rights they are only bound to undertakes to take steps, to the maximum of their available resources, so as to progressively achieve compliance of the rights in question. Thus, while a state, no matter how poor it is, must provide for an adequate judicial system, it is only obliged to provide for housing for its citizens, if it can afford to do so.
Human rights are considered to be universal, and thus apply to all humans regardless of nationality. In practice, however, this is not always the case. Only a limited number of human rights have acquired the status of international customary law, much less jus cogens, and thus legally apply only to the peoples of such states that have ratified the conventions guaranteeing them, or have otherwise enacted similar legislation. For example, it is likely that the human right to social security only applies to inhabitants of those nations that have ratified the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (or have adopted similar legislation).
Some human rights defined as such by international instruments, moreover, are likely to be considered human wrongs by some human rights activists - as they conflict with other fundamental rights. The American Convention on Human Rights, for example, states that life begins at conception and thus provides for the right to life of the fetus - which is contrary to the right of privacy and autonomy held by other human rights treaties. Many human rights treaties also impose limitations on freedom of speech, which conflicts with the broader concept of freedom of speech that civil rights activists in many countries espouse. Moreover, the are often conflicts between some civil rights - whose conception has been mostly western in nature - and cultural practices of non-western communities. For example, while some (by no means, all) human rights activists consider female (though usually not male) genital mutilation a violation to the right of physical integrity, it is a traditional practice of millions of women.
We should also note that most human rights are not absolute, governments may be able to violate them in case of national emergencies or otherwise according to the law. The right to life does not generally prohibit the death penalty, and governments may be allowed to interfere with correspondence if a national emergency requires it. A core of human rights, however, including the right to be free of torture and to not be extrajudicially executed, cannot be violated no matter what the circumstances.
So, how do we find out what human rights are? Keeping in mind what was said above, you can start by taking a look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - though keep in mind that many of the rights listed are aspirational in nature (this only means that countries do not have the /legal/ obligation to respect them - they still have the moral obligation to do so, which you can accentuate in your correspondence with them). Then, you can take a look at the different international and regional human rights conventions - noting what countries have ratified them, and what countries have made reservations to some of their articles (you can find most human rights treaties at Finally, you can read the academic literature on human rights or, eventually, consult this newsletter.
