What are Human Rights?

Abstract

There is no universally accepted classification scheme for human rights. It is reasonable to distinguish, however, between two categories of rights: civil and political rights; and economic, social, and cultural rights. The former includes the historic “rights of man”, such as the rights to life and liberty; the latter includes a number of rights which have come into prominence in more recent years. such as the rights to work and social security. The American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which proclaims the human rights which ought to be respected by the American states, makes no formal distinction between the two bodies of rights. However, for reasons which will become apparent, we shall make such a distinction in this chapter.