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Basic rights; Civil liberties; Civil rights; Constitutional rights; Cultural rights; Fundamental freedoms; Peoples’ rights; Political rights; Privileges; Rights; Social rights

Definition

Human rights are the basic rights or individual freedoms one has simply because the person is a human being. They constitute individuals as a particular kind of political subject: free and equal rights-bearing citizens. Human rights declarations outline regulative rules and practices of how governments should treat citizens. They are like a forward-looking moral, economic, cultural, and political vision of a society. Human rights also characterize societies of a particular type by defining the requirements and limits of legitimate government (Rawls 1999; Donnelly 2013). These rights are equal, inalienable, and universal. That means all individuals should enjoy these civil liberties without distinction of any kind such as race/ethnicity, color, gender, language, religion, political, or other...

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Correspondence to Damian O. Odunze .

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Odunze, D.O. (2016). Human Rights in Africa. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2632-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2632-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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