Characteristics of human rights
1. Human Rights are Inalienable: Human rights are deliberated on an individual due to the very nature of his existence. They are innate in all individuals irrespective of their caste, creed, religion, sex and nationality. Human rights are conferred to an individual even after his death. The different rituals in different religions bear testimony to this fact.
2. Human Rights are essential and necessary: Human rights are needed to maintain the moral, physical, social and spiritual welfare of an individual. Human rights are also essential as they provide suitable conditions for material and moral upliftment of the people.
3. Human Rights are associated with human dignity: To treat another individual with dignity regardless of the fact that the person is a male or female, rich or poor is concerned with human dignity.
4. Human Rights are Irrevocable: Human rights are irrevocable as they cannot be taken away by any power or authority because these rights originate with the social nature of man in the society of human beings and they belong to a person simply because he is a human being. As such human rights have similarities to moral rights.
5. Human Rights are essential for the fulfilment of purpose of life: Human life has a purpose. The phrase “human right” is applied to those conditions which are essential for the fulfilment of this purpose. No government has the power to curtail or take away the rights which are sacrosanct, inviolable and immutable.
6. Human Rights are Universal: Human rights are not a domination of any privileged class of people. Human rights are universal in nature, without consideration and without exception. The values such as divinity, dignity and equality which form the basis of these rights are inherent in human nature.
7. Human Rights are never absolute: Man is a social animal and he lives in a civic society, which always put certain limitations on the enjoyment of his rights and freedoms. Human rights as such are those limited powers or claims, which are contributory to the common good and which are recognized and guaranteed by the State, through its laws to the individuals. As such each right has certain limitations.
8. Human Rights are Dynamic: Human rights are not stationary, they are dynamic. Human rights go on expanding with socio-eco-cultural and political developments within the State. Judges have to construe laws in such ways as are in tune with the changed social values.
9. Rights as limits to state power: Human rights infer that every individual has legitimate claims upon his or her society for certain freedom and benefits. So human rights limit the state’s power. These may be in the form of negative restrictions, on the powers of the State, from violating the inalienable freedoms of the individuals, or in the nature of demands on the State, i.e. positive obligations of the State.
Principles of human rights:
- Universality
- Inviolable
- Inalienable
- Indivisible
- Interdependent
- Inter-related
- Universality
- Inviolable
- Inalienable
- Indivisible
- Interdependent
- Inter-related
- Equality
- Non-discriminatory
Positive Rights:
Positive rights, initially proposed in 1979 by the Czech jurist Karel Vasak, may include other civil and political rights such as police protection of person and property and the right to counsel, as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as food, housing, public education, employment, national security, military, health care, social security, internet access, and a minimum standard of living.
Negative Rights:
Negative rights are an absolute right whose slightest violation breaks this right. Right not be tortured. Duty bearer has to refrain.
Distinctions between Negative and Positive Rights:
Many writers distinguish between negative rights and positive rights.
Negative rights would correspond to duties of forbearance: If X has a negative right to V, then others have a non-interference duty in relation to X's enjoyment of V.
Positive rights would correspond to duties of assistance: If X has a positive right to V, then others (perhaps government) have a (positive) duty to provide X with V.
It can also be used to defend securing for human beings what they need in order to functional as rational beings.