Human rights

Topic: Political Theory: Freedom and Rights · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Rights"

Meaning

Human rights are rights every person has simply because they are human. They do not depend on birth, wealth or citizenship. They rest on three beliefs: each person is unique, each person is equally valuable, and no one is born to serve others.

They matter because they set the minimum conditions for a life of dignity that every state must respect. Today they also form the moral base for the UDHR and for how Indian courts read Article 21.

Explanation

Where the idea came from: natural rights to human rights

• Natural law: rules believed to be laid down by nature or God, not by any ruler. These rules are higher than the laws a state makes.
• Natural rights (17th and 18th centuries) came from natural law.
• People are born with them. Governments do not grant them, so rulers cannot take them away.
• John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, 1689) named three natural rights: life, liberty and property [5][6].

• People must obey a government only while it protects these rights. A ruler who violates them can rightly be overthrown [5][6].

• Use against arbitrary power (power used at a ruler's whim, without law):

• US Declaration of Independence: adopted on 4 July 1776 by the Second Continental Congress. Thomas Jefferson changed Locke's "property" to "the pursuit of happiness" [7][8].

• French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789): issued against royal absolutism (rule by a king with unlimited power).

• Why the name changed:

• Many people today doubt that natural law exists.
• So "human rights" replaced "natural rights".
• The source moved from nature or God to human reasoning and agreement. Human rights are guarantees people arrive at together for a minimally good life. They are not gifts from nature.

The grounds: dignity and well-being

• A right is a justified claim that society accepts as legitimate. Others are bound to respect it, so it is more than a wish.
• NCERT gives two grounds:
• Dignity and self-respect: livelihood gives a person economic independence, so they are not at someone else's mercy. Expression lets people be creative and take part in democratic debate.

• Well-being: education builds reason and helps people make informed choices.

• Every human needs these conditions, so the rights are universal: they belong to everyone.

• Kant's idea of dignity (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785):
• Everything has either a price (it can be replaced, like a pen or a car) or a dignity (it is above all price).
• Only human beings have dignity. They are valuable in themselves, not because they are useful to someone.

• So even people who are poor, uneducated, powerless, dishonest or immoral deserve a minimum of dignity. Nobody has to earn it.

• Moral conception of rights (rights come from what we owe every person as a moral being):

• Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Never treat a person merely as a means to your own ends. Every person is an end in themselves.
• Categorical imperative: Kant's rule to act only on a maxim (a personal rule) that you could will to become a universal law for everyone.

Key features and limits

• Inalienable: these rights cannot be taken away, and a person cannot give them up even by choice.
• UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights): adopted by the UN General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 through Resolution 217 A [2].
• Its Preamble opens with "inherent dignity" and "equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" [2].
• Art. 1: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." [2]
• Art. 3: the right to life, liberty and security of person. This echoes Locke, with "security" in place of "property" [2].

• Art. 4: bans slavery and servitude in all forms [2].

• Limit: harm. Nothing that harms oneself or others can be claimed as a right.

• Taking prohibited drugs harms the user.

• Smoking in public harms bystanders through second-hand smoke.

• A growing list. New threats and new claims keep widening the circle of right-holders.

• Claims are now made for children, the unborn and animals.
• Rights of nature: in 2017 the Uttarakhand High Court ordered that the Ganga and Yamuna be treated as legal persons (bodies the law treats like a person, with rights and duties). The Supreme Court stayed (put on hold) the order the same year.

In the Constitution and practice

• Preamble: the goal of Fraternity is "assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation". This is the human-rights value of dignity written into the Constitution.
• Part III (Fundamental Rights): turns many human-rights claims into rights the courts can enforce. It mixes both ideas. The rights are written into law, but courts read them in the light of inherent dignity.
• Article 21 (no person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law). The Supreme Court reads "life" as life with dignity:
• Francis Coralie Mullin v. Administrator, UT of Delhi (1981): the right to life means the right to live with human dignity, not mere animal existence.

• Common Cause v. Union of India (2018), a five-judge Constitution Bench:

  • The "right to live with dignity" includes the "right to die with dignity" [3][4].
  • Passive euthanasia (withdrawing or withholding treatment so that natural death follows) is legal. It rests on liberty, dignity and privacy [4].
  • Advance Medical Directives (living wills: written instructions, made in advance, about refusing future treatment if you can no longer decide) are valid [4].
  • The Court laid down guidelines for carrying out living wills and for withdrawing treatment [4].
  • It allowed letting the natural process of death conclude (passive euthanasia). It did not allow extinguishing life (active euthanasia) [4].

• Against hierarchy: the idea that no person is a mere means to others' ends has been a rallying point against hierarchies of race, caste, religion and gender.

Don't confuse with

• Natural rights: these rest on natural law (nature or God). Human rights rest on human reasoning and agreement. The modern term replaced the older one because fewer people now believe in natural law.
• Fundamental Rights: these are rights written into India's Constitution (Part III) and enforced by courts. Human rights belong to every person everywhere just for being human, whether or not a law lists them.
• Personal wants: wanting to skip the school uniform, stay out late, smoke anywhere or take drugs is not a right. A claim becomes a right only when society sees it as reasonable and good for everyone, and when it harms no one.
• Citizens' rights: these depend on membership of a state. Human rights do not depend on citizenship, birth or wealth.

Prelims Hooks

• UDHR: adopted 10 December 1948, Paris, UNGA Resolution 217 A. Its Preamble opens with "inherent dignity" and "equal and inalienable rights" [2].
• UDHR Art. 1 → "born free and equal in dignity and rights". Art. 3 → life, liberty and security of person. Art. 4 → no slavery or servitude [2].
• Locke's three natural rights: life, liberty and property. The US Declaration (4 July 1776) replaced property with "the pursuit of happiness" [7][8]. The French Declaration: 1789.
• Kant, Groundwork (1785): everything has a price (it can be replaced) or a dignity (it is above all price). Only humans have dignity.
• Case–principle pairs: Francis Coralie Mullin (1981) → Art. 21 includes the right to live with human dignity. Common Cause (2018) → right to die with dignity, with passive euthanasia and living wills valid [3][4].
• Trap: the Uttarakhand HC's 2017 order making the Ganga and Yamuna legal persons was stayed by the Supreme Court. It is not the law in force.

Mains Points

• Where rights come from decides how strong they are.
• Natural-rights theory placed rights above the state. This justified the revolutions of 1776 and 1789.
• Human-rights theory grounds rights in shared human agreement. That makes them universal, but critics say they then depend on a consensus that can shift.

• India's Part III blends the two: rights are written into law, and Art. 21 is read through inherent dignity (Francis Coralie Mullin, 1981; Common Cause, 2018) [3][4].

• The circle of right-holders keeps growing.

• Claims for children, the unborn, animals and rivers extend moral concern to those who cannot speak for themselves.

• The stay on the Ganga–Yamuna order shows the practical limits. Who sues for a river, and who answers for harm it causes?

• Rights versus overall welfare (GS-II/GS-IV).

• In Kant's view, rights are firm limits that no welfare calculation can override. Forced labour stays banned even if it would raise output.
• Utilitarianism (the greatest happiness of the greatest number) lets rights give way to the total good. The risk is that the majority sacrifices a minority.
• Policy has to balance the two, as with public-health limits on smoking.

Related concepts

• Rights
• Natural law
• Natural rights
• Inalienable rights
• Kant's idea of human dignity
• Moral conception of rights

Read more

• What rights are and where they come from