Rights
 

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."


--Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence
 
Defining Rights
 
A right is not a concrete material or corporeal object that we can quantify or measure physically. It is a philosophical concept that exists in the mind but is lived out in concrete practical experiences among human beings and in relations with other things in the universe. The concept of right is multifaceted. There are natural rights, human rights, civil rights as well as animal rights which is a relatively more recent concept. For more on the multiple aspects of the concept of rights survey the literature that you will find on this website:
 
 
Natural Rights: These are inherent, universal rights that, it is held, human beings posses simply by virtue of their being human beings, as distinct from many other rights that are established through the enactment of law (although natural rights may also be legal rights). Traditionally, natural rights are said to include the right to life, to sustain and to protect life, the right to think and follow one's conscience and the right to own property.
   
But, Is there such a thing as a natural right? This is a question that has generated a lot of debate down through the centuries. The notion of natural rights is tied to natural law and the concept of natural law dates back to the ancient Greek philosophers who held that some laws are the underlying basis of all other laws because they inhere in nature, part of the endowment of nature itself.
 
It is in the same spirit that Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence stated,"We hold these truth to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...". These rights are natural because they issue from the very nature of humankind itself. For Jefferson, natural rights are necessary and indispensable for humankind to reach its goal, to attain the full potential for which he or she was made in the first place.
   
Those who argue against the existence of natural rights contend that: a) the idea that natural rights are "self-evident" may be going too far, jumping, so to say, from what is to what ought to be (the philosopher David Hume warned against this); b) the notion of "natural" requires a "higher authority" who endowed nature with these rights which also may be an unwarranted assumption.
   
This is a lively philosophical debate and for more information on it you can go to these two sites
 
 
 
Human Rights: These are rights that affirm and uphold the dignity and worth of the human person. Human rights include natural rights as fundamental rights which human beings have and to which they have a just claim. Some examples of human rights include freedom of speech, freedom of worship and of a peaceful assembly the right to a fair trial when charged with a crime, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity among others..
 
The concept of human rights differs greatly from natural rights since human rights are believed to be derived from human nature itself. Although human rights enjoy a wide acceptance as a principle, they, like natural rights, have generated a lot of debate down through the centuries.
 
Much of the debate surrounding natural rights is not about whether they exist or not. The contention comes in the area of the very nature of human rights, what are their ends and how exactly are these to be exercised or lived out in practical day-to-day terms. As Professor Emeritus Burns H. Weston puts it succinctly, the issues at stake are:
 

…whether human rights are to be viewed as divine, moral, or legal entitlements; whether they are to be validated by intuition, culture, custom, social contract theory, principles of distributive justice or as perquisites for happiness; whether they are to be understood as irrevocable or partially revocable; whether they are to be broad or limited and content...

--Encyclopædia Britannica

 
Weston identifies some of the common characteristics of human rights: the shaping and sharing of values by individuals and groups; pertaining to fundamental and essential goods; reflective of a wide range of values; the fact that there are limitations to human rights; and finally, that human rights are general and universal.
 
For more information on human rights go the home page of the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights at:
 
http://international.uiowa.edu/centers/human-rights/default.asp
 

Now please read the complete Encyclopædia Britannica entry on this site in a PDF at the Center for Human Rights written by Burns H. Weston:

http://international.uiowa.edu/centers/human-rights/resources/publications/recurrent.asp
 
 

Civil Rights: In broad terms, civil rights refer to those rights that belong to a person by virtue of being a citizen of a particular country. The laws of that country, therefore, provide these rights. These include the right to own property, to sue in court, to use public facilities that are provided for public use, etc. Civil rights ensure equal protection and opportunities under the law. Civil rights are guaranteed and protected by the laws of a particular state as in, for example, the United States Bill of Rights and the 13th and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution by Acts of Congress. Civil rights may include the rights to liberty, equality and varying forms of justice.
 
The need for civil rights is directly linked with the belief in the equality of all human beings irrespective of race, color, sex, cultural or religious background. Although the Declaration of Independence stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...," it was a culture which still discriminated against certain groups in the society such as women and blacks -- slavery was still legally permissible and women were not allowed to vote. These conditions led to the civil rights movements of the 1960s in which key players like, President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. featured prominently.
 
Animal Rights: The concept of animal rights came out of the realization that animals are not just there for the sake of human beings, but as sentient beings they exist on their own right and that their dignity must be respected and preserved. The concept of animal rights is sometimes discussed within the wider issue of environmental ethics which advocates the conservation of the earth's resources for a healthy environment and ecological wellness. Within this context, the issue of future generations and animals come into focus.
 
One of the originators of the animal rights movement was the applied ethicist Peter Singer. Read a recent article by Singer about the movement at:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16276
 
The philosophical basis for the concept of animal rights is that animals do not just exist to satisfy human ends, but have a reason to be on their own right; that animals have "moral standing." Therefore, some ethical considerations should be given them to protect them from exploitation and abuse. But, like other aspects of rights, the issue of animal rights is a hotly contested issue. On the proposing side are those who insist that animals be granted rights and moral status like humans, while on the opposing side are those who basically believe that animals are there to serve humankind's ends and should have no rights or moral status of their own outside of those of their owners. These points are elaborated upon at:
 
http://samvak.tripod.com/animal.html
http://www.naiaonline.org/body/articles/archives/animalrights.htm
 

Try to complete a crossword puzzle on animal rights provided by the Animal Liberation Front at:

http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Java/ALF2/Alf2.html
 
Using Rights  
 
The lead rights questions in a VCR analysis are:
 
  • What are the various RIGHTS of the stakeholders in the issue, problem, or dilemma?
  • What kind of RIGHTS are these?
  • Do any of them take priority over any others of them?
  • What are the correlative responsibilities and who has them?
 
Responsibilities and rights go hand-in-hand. Philosophers say that they are correlative concepts and that for any given responsibility there is a corresponding right that can be readily identified and vice-versa. For example, if I claim that I have the right to breath clean air, then the responsibility of those who manufacture goods is one to insure that the air is clean.
 
Rights also have a role to play in the defining of "professionalism." For example, many would claim that the right to health care is one that imposes itself upon health care professionals and limits their own right to make a profit on the delivery of health care. Also, professionals themselves can lay claim to several rights. The right to work in an autonomous fashion counts as a professional right, for example. These rights are often times spelled out by professional associations such as the American Medical Association.
 
What is interesting to ethicists is the number of occasions when the rights of professionals and the rights of those who seek those professional's services conflict in such a way that an ethical dilemma is the result. Then, we need to use our developed skills of ethical analysis to sort out these moral mazes. In our analysis of the ethical issues in professional life, then, we need to be sure to raise the question of rights as correlatives to responsibilities.
 
Exercise:
 
1) What is your thinking on the issue of whether or not there is such a thing as natural rights? What arguments would you offer for your position?
 
2) How can human rights considerations be assessed with respect to the detainees from the war on terror being held at Guantanamo Bay?
 
3) What kind of a right is the "right to privacy?" Under what conditions, if any, do you think that this right can or should be violated? What is your argument?
 
4) Should animals have rights of their own? How can we assess animal rights in the face of the fact animals are used for food, clothing, transportation and other basic needs?
 
More on Rights
 
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 
Here you will find the most comprehensive collection of translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948. Over 300 different language versions are available in HTML, PDF and graphical forms.
 
Go to: http://unicode.org/udhr/