Three generations of human rights
Topic: Political Theory: Freedom and Rights · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
In 1977 Karel Vasak sorted human rights into three "generations", linked to the slogan of the French Revolution:
- First generation: civil and political rights, such as speech and voting (Liberty).
- Second generation: economic, social and cultural rights, such as work and education (Equality).
- Third generation: collective rights, such as development, peace and a healthy environment (Fraternity, or solidarity).
Critics say the word "generations" wrongly suggests that some rights come first or matter more. The Vienna Declaration (1993) calls all rights indivisible and interdependent.
Example
In India, Part III (Arts. 19-22) mostly protects first-generation rights. The DPSP (Arts. 39, 41, 47) points to second-generation rights. The courts have read third-generation environmental rights into Art. 21 (Subhash Kumar, 1991).
Don't confuse with
- Negative and positive liberty: this is Berlin's split between "freedom from" and "freedom to". It is a theory of liberty, not a way of sorting rights by type and history.