RIGHTS

I.Importance of Rights

• Humans have become increasingly aware of their individuality and need for necessary claims for development.
• These natural claims evolved into recognized as rights, reflecting the human desire for equal rights and freedoms.
• The American Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen in the 18th century reflected
this desire.

Definition

• Rights are conditions of social life that enable individuals to realize their best self.
• These conditions are essential for a life of respect, dignity, and a civilized, happy, and productive living.

Role of the State

• A good and democratic state is one that grants and guarantees all civil, political, and economic rights essential for every person.
• A state that denies or limits these rights is seen as an authoritarian or totalitarian state.

Citizenship and Rights

• Citizenship is the bond of rights and duties between the State and its citizens.
• Each citizen of the state enjoys several rights and enjoins several corresponding duties.

Understanding the Nature of Rights

II.NATURE OF RIGHTS

• Rights exist in society as products of social living.

• They are individual claims for societal development.
• They are recognized as common claims of all people.
• Rights are reasonable, rational, and essential claims made by people.
• Rights cannot be exercised against society.
• Rights are used for self-development and promotion of social good.
• Rights are equally available to all people.
• Rights content changes over time.
• Rights are not absolute but bear limitations for maintaining public health, security, order, and morality.
• Rights are inseparably bound with duties.
• Rights need enforcement to become available to the people.

Negative and Positive Narrations of Rights

• Negative Rights: Rights and freedoms that the state cannot restraining or limiting.
• Positive Rights: Rights that the state must take positive decisions for securing.
• All rights are rights with equal status and worth.

Derogable and Non-Derogable Rights

• Derogable Rights: Rights that can be suspended or limited during a national emergency.
• Non-derogable Rights: Rights that cannot be suspended or curtailed even during an emergency.
• Examples include right to life, right against torture, right against slavery, right not to be held guilty of any criminal offence, right not
to be awarded a penalty heavier than the one applicable at the time of the crime, right not to be imprisoned on the ground of
inability to fulfill a contractual obligation, right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law, and right to freedom of
thought, conscience, and religion.
III. CATEGORIES OF RIGHTS OF CITIZENS OF A STATE: CIVIL, POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC

RIGHTS OF CITIZENS

Civil Rights

• Right to Life: Basic civil right, ensuring safety for individuals and society.
• Right to Family Life: Recognized as vital for human race continuation. State laws can address issues like bigamy, polygamy,
polyandry, marriage, divorce, property, rights of family members, succession, custody of children.
• Right to Education: Essential for participation in society and government. State laws provide every opportunity for citizens to get
education.
• Right to Personal Freedom: Essential for mental and physical growth. Freedom can be enjoyed in accordance with state laws and
societal interests.
• Right to Religious Freedom: State does not impose any religion on citizens. Citizens are free to adopt any religion and establish
their religious institutions.
• Right to Freedom of Thought and Expression: Essential for personality development.
• Right to Freedom of Movement: Citizens have the right to move freely throughout the country and go abroad.
• Right to Press: Citizens have the right to have their views printed in newspapers and periodicals.
• Right to Equality: No discrimination based on religion, language, caste, sex, color, etc.
• Right to Justice: Saves the weak and the poor. People have the right to go to court for securing justice.
• Right to Form Associations: Individuals can form various associations for their social, economic, political, and cultural needs.
• Right to Cultural Freedom: Citizens can develop their languages, customs, folkways, literatures, and traditions.
• Right to Contract: Enables citizens to freely enter into contracts with others.

Social and Economic Rights

• Social and Economic rights are fundamental to meeting basic human needs like food, clothing, shelter, water, and social equality.
• These rights are based on human dignity, equality, and freedom, irrespective of ethnicity, language, culture, religion, creed, sex,
and residence.
• Key rights include:
- The right to an adequate standard of living, including food, water, clothing, and housing.
- The right to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health.
- The right to education and effective free participation in society.
- The right to form and manage social, cultural, and economic associations, organizations, cooperative societies, interest groups,
trade unions, and social-service groups.
- The right to work is essential for proper living and fulfilling various needs.
- The modern state sets fixed work hours per day.
- The right to adequate wages is a natural corollary of the right to adequate wages.
- The right to property is as natural to man as family.
- The right to rest and leisure is essential for health protection.
- In a modern welfare state, citizens enjoy the right to economic and social security.

Political Rights

• Right to Vote: Every adult citizen has the right to vote, allowing them to elect their government.
• Right to Get Elected: Citizens can be elected to any public office, including legislatures, corporations, municipal committees, or
Panchayats.
• Right to Hold Public Office: Citizens can hold public offices post-election, with qualifications fixed.
• Right to Petition: Citizens can petition for redress of grievances.
• Right to Form Political Parties: People can form political parties and participate in the political process.
• Right to Criticise: Citizens can criticize government policies, making the government responsible.
• Right to Resist the Government: Citizens can resist the government if it fails to protect their interests, but it must be peaceful and
constitutional.
Relation B/W Civil, Pol, Eco Rights

• Civil, political, and economic rights overlap, including freedom of speech, assembly, processions, and association formation.
• Work and property rights are also considered civil and economic rights.
• These rights are interrelated and interdependent, with the state granting and guaranteeing essential rights for individual and
societal development.
• Fundamental rights, or basic rights, are granted and guaranteed by the state's constitution.

Theories of Rights: Natural Rights and Human Rights

IV. Theory of Rights

1.Natural Rights

• The theory of natural rights, proposed by scholars in the 17th and 18th centuries, asserts that individuals possess inherent rights
derived from nature.
• Locke's theory of natural rights, which emphasizes the right to life, liberty, and property, is the oldest theory of rights.
• The theory asserts that rights are inherent, inalienable, fundamental, absolute, equal, and sacred, and are self-evident and
independent of society and state.

John Locke's Theory

• Locke, an English political thinker, defended the natural rights of man, describing them as rights based on natural reason.
• He emphasized the natural rights of life, liberty, and property, and argued that the state came into existence through a social
contract.
• Locke's ideas were based on the concept of Natural Rights, which was widely accepted as the ideology of
individualism/liberalism.

Critical Evaluation of the Theory of Natural Rights

• Critics argue that the theory is neither historical nor rational, based on faith and emotional imagination rather than reason.
• The theory is ambiguous, providing no generally accepted list of natural rights.
• It is accused of defining rights of liberty and equality as absolute natural rights, and fails to define the limits of rights.
• The theory does not give importance to duties, as they are essential for the enjoyment of rights.
• The theory places rights above society and state, denying the existence of rights outside the state.

The theory can only be accepted if rights are essential, natural, and ideal conditions for human life, dignity, and development.

2.Moral Rights

• Moral rights are based on human consciousness and moral force, backed by goodness and justice.
• They are not backed by law and can't be enforced by the state.
• They include rules of good conduct, courtesy, and good behavior.
• They are moral claims, not legal rights.

The Moral Theory of Rights:

• Advocates for the existence of fundamental moral values common to all humans.
• Rights are claims deemed necessary and natural for each human being.
• Rights are the standard for evaluating the actions of the state and public authorities.
• Failure to maintain rights or prevent violations reduces the legitimacy of the state and its public authorities.
• Success in protecting and promoting human rights increases the legitimacy of the state and its importance in the world.

Critiques of Moral Theory:

• Critics argue that the theory is abstract and idealistic, failing to project it as a pragmatic theory of human development.
• They also overlook the importance of enforcement of rights by the State and international humanitarian law regime.

3.Legal Rights

• Legal rights are recognized and enforced by the state, protected by the state.
• Violation of these rights is punishable by law.
• Legal rights are equal to all citizens, with no discrimination.

Theory of Legal Rights

• Advocates that all rights flow from law, the command of the sovereign authority of the state.
• Rights are the creations of the law of the state, granted and protected by law.
• Advocates like Hobbes, Hume, Bentham, and Austin advocated that rights are the creation of the state.

Civil Rights and Political Rights

• Civil rights provide opportunities for an individual to lead a civilized social life.
• Political rights enable citizens to participate actively in the political process.
• Social economic rights provide economic security to the people.

Constitutional Rights
• In every democratic state, people enjoy all civil, political, social, and economic rights.

V.RIGHTS & DUTIES

Understanding Rights and Duties

• Rights and duties are interconnected, with rights and duties being two sides of the same coin.
• Duties are obligations that dictate what a person should or should not do.
• Every right in society involves a corresponding duty towards others.

Types of Duties
• Moral Duties: Obligations based on moral grounds, such as obeying elders, respecting cultural traditions, and speaking the truth.
• Legal Duties: Defined and enforced by law, including obeying laws, paying taxes, respecting state symbols, and not damaging
public property.
• Fundamental or constitutional duties: Defined and prescribed by the state's constitution, with violations punishable under the law.
• Political Duties: Political obligations of citizens, such as exercising their right to vote.
• Political rights are designed to secure people's free participation in the political process.
• Political duties may or may not be legally enforced, but they are usually not.
• Enlightened citizenship involves habitual performance of one's duties, with citizens of developed democracies voluntarily
performing their political duties.

Relationship Between Rights and Duties

• Rights and duties are interrelated and interdependent, with no right without corresponding duty.
• Rights and duties are closely related and cannot be separated.
• A citizen's right to life is a duty to not expose his life to dangers and respect others' life.
• The right to life is a duty to others, as it is the duty of others to respect his life and not cause harm.
• Rights of a citizen also imply Duties for them, as they are not monopolies of a single individual.
• It is the duty of each citizen to use their rights for the welfare of society as a whole.
• Duty towards the state is also a duty, as the state protects and enforces rights.
• Every citizen has both Rights and Duties, and the use of Rights essentially involves the performance of duties.