The two hottest issues that is topmost on the agenda of
states whether on the domestic or on the international scene as of the present
are human rights and the question of environment.
Human rights, because without human rights, man is nothing
but a slave to the society.
Issues relating to human rights have since the end of the
cold war regained ascendancy in international fora and discourse.
The subject is even more pertinent to Nigeria and indeed
Africa as a whole where misrule and repression accompanied by gross human right
violations have become an intractable problem over the decades.
In this post, you should be able to define and explain the term Human Right, identify the various philosophies that led to the concept of Human Right and distinguish between the various generations of human rights.
Definition of Human Rights
Various definitions of
human rights abounds, some rather, too narrow and inadequate, others open-ended
and imprecise for easy comprehension.
According to Professor Osita Eze, “Human right represents
demands or claims which individuals or group make on society, some of which are
protected by Law, while others remain aspirations to be attained in future.
Simply put, Human Rights are inherent in man; they arise from
the very nature of man as social animal. They are those rights which all human
beings enjoy by virtue, of their humanity, whether black, white, yellow, malay or
red, the deprivation of which would constitute a grave affront to one’s natural
sense of justice.
Human rights themselves are not a new phenomenon or a new
morality. They have a history dated back to antiquity. The rights of man as
expression of political philosophy may be traceable to the writings of early
naturalists.
Thomas Paine, Hobbes, John Tocke, Baron de Montesquieu, Jean
Jacques Rousseau and Williams Kant to mention a few. There were the times when
the writings of publicist had great impact on law and the society within which
the law operated.
According to these philosophers, every individual within
society possesses certain rights which are inherent and which cannot be
wantonly taken away and for which man is beholden to no human authority.
That the major reason for individuals coming together to form
a government is to enable these rights to be protected and fostered. Social
contract, to which is traceable the origin of society itself is based on the
concept of natural law to the effect that certain principles of justice are
natural, that is, rational and unalterable and that the rights conferred by
natural law are something to which every human being is entitled by virtual of
the fact of being human and rational.
Based on this philosophy, man has over the centuries
struggled and got human Rights or their understanding of them, enshrined in the
constitutions and political traditions of their various societies.
As Frederick Douglas aptly put it, “Power concedes nothing
without demand. It never did and it never will."
Many examples of the outcome of these struggles have
undoubtedly influenced later Constitutional and legal development all over the
world - the great Magna Carta of England (1215), the United States Declaration
of Independence (1776), the French Declaration of the Rights of man and the
citizen (1789), and the American Bills of Rights of 1791 etc.
Apart from individual
struggles, the world community as a whole has in recent times drawn attention,
in important declarations, to the universality of human rights and adopted a
number of durable conventions in which these declarations have been enshrined.
The first in the series was the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948). This is a declaratory statement of those basic inalienable
and inviolable rights, though mainly of civil and political nature, to which
men are entitled. International Covenant and Civil and Political Right (1966)
including its optional protocols; International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural rights, The European Convention for the Protection of Human rights
and Fundamental Freedom (1950); the inter-America Convention on Human Rights
(1970) and the African charter on Human Rights (1981).
Classification of Rights
The Concept of Generation
Since 1997, when Karel Vasak introduced the concept of
generations into the corpus of human rights discourse, the debate has taken
many forms and shapes.
Vasak traced the developments of human rights and concluded
that, basically, rights are three generations.
The first he called iberte
(Liberty) i.e Civil and Political Rights, the second he termed egalite (equality), which relates to
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the third he termed fratenite (solidarity), refereeing to
those rights that are held by the collectives in other words, “ group or
people’s right. These classifications, sometimes described by a colour scheme
of “blue” “red” and “green,” are based on three different philosophies.
Each generation has its destructive characteristic but it
suffices to note that the first generation rights are negative rights or
immunity claims in citizen towards the state, in the sense that they limit the
power of a government and protect people’s rights against its power. They
relate to the sanctity of the individual and his rights within the
socio-political milieu in which he is located.
They imply that no government or society should act against
individuals in certain ways that would deprive them of inherent political or
personal rights, such as the rights to life, liberty, and security of person,
freedom of speech, press, assembly and religion.
Second Generation Rights
The second generation rights are claims to social equality
consisting of economic, social and cultural rights. They are positive rights in
that they enhance the power of government to do something to the person to
enable her or him in some ways. They are generally interpreted as programmatic
clauses, obligating governments and legislature to pursue social policies, but
do not create individual claims. They require the affirmative action of
government for the implementation.
Also read: 13 Functions of Law in Society
Unlike the first two generation rights which focus largely on
individuals, the third generation rights include the rights of people and
groups. It has received increasing rhetorical affirmation at the international
level though “only the people’s rights to self-determination and to disposal of
natural wealth, included in the international covenants have received
authoritative acceptance in international law.
Other group rights include “the right to development, the
right to peace, the right to environment, the right to ownership of the common
heritage of mankind, and the right to communication.
Read on: Definition, History, Types, Characteristics and Facts of Democracy
Conclusion on introduction to Human Rights and Civil Liberties
Human Rights is a universal concept. It is an inherent right
which no law can invalidate. This unit highlighted the definition and the different
struggles by individual communities, group and the United Nations to make it a
universal phenomenon.
In this post, you have learnt about
• The history of the evolution of Human Rights
• The definition of human rights
• The periodialisation of Human Rights
• The universality of
Human Rights
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