Categories of Rights

Human rights can be grouped into following categories:

- Civil Human Rights

- Political Human Rights

- Economic Human Rights

- Social and Cultural Human Rights

- Development Oriented Human Rights

1. In the era of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the civil and political rights, were strengthened which assured civil and political liberties. The Civil and Political Human Rights are collectively known as ‘Liberty Oriented Human Rights’ because they provide, protect and guarantee individual liberty to an individual against the State and its agencies. Liberty rights also referred to as Blue Rights are the First Generation of Human Rights.

2. In the twentieth century, economic, social and cultural rights and the rights of minorities as well developed. The intent of these rights to promote the economic and social security through economic and social upliftment of the weaker sections of the society. These rights are essential for dignity of personhood as well as for the full and free development of human personality in all possible directions. These rights guarantee a minimum of economic welfare of the masses and their basic material needs, recognized by the society as essential to cultured living.

The economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights of the minorities are together called the “Security Oriented Human Rights” because these rights jointly provide and guarantee the essential security in the life of an individual. In the absence of these rights, the very existence of human beings would be in danger. These are also known as the “Second Generation of Human Rights”. They are also called as Red Rights or also as positive rights. These rights along with the Civil and Political Rights were declared by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later were recognized by the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in December 1966.

3. The Development Oriented Human Rights were originated in the late twentieth century. These rights empower an individual to partake in the process of overall development and include environmental rights that enable an individual to enjoy the absolutely resources of nature, such as air, water, food and natural resources, free from pollution and contamination. These are known as the Third Generation of Human Rights or Green Rights. They are also called as Solidarity Rights, because their implementation depends upon international cooperation.

Solidarity rights have immense importance in developing countries, because these countries want the creation of an international order that will guarantee to them the right to development, the right to disaster relief assistance, the right to peace and the right to good government.

Brian Orend, a Canadian philosopher, in his Human Rights: Concept and Context, develops this idea in the direction of human rights as follows: To respect human beings as an end is to respect their interests in being protected against grievous harm.

Orend lists five vital needs that, he claims, are common to all human beings. If these needs were not met at a basic level, we could not function as rational beings. They are security, subsistence, freedom, equality, and recognition. It would be interesting to compare this list with Martha Nussbaum's list of basic capabilities in her account of the things to which human rights entitle us.