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Rights

Rights are legal or moral entitlements or permissions. Rights are of vital importance in theories of justice and deontology|deontological ethics. The contemporary notion of rights is universalist and egalitarianism|egalitarian. Equal rights are granted to all people. By contrast, most historical notions of rights were authoritarianism|authoritarian and hierarchy|hierarchical, with different people being granted different rights, and some having more rights than others. For instance, the rights of a father to be respected by his son did not indicate a duty upon the father to return that respect, and the divine right of kings to hold absolute power over their subjects did not leave room for many rights to be granted to the subjects themselves. Conversely, modern conceptions of rights often emphasize liberty as among the most important of rights, though conceptions of liberty (e.g. positive liberty|positive vs negative liberty|negative) frequently differ. The specific enumeration of rights accorded to people has historically differed greatly across space and time, and in many cases, the view of rights held by one group can come into sharp and bitter conflict with the view of rights held by another group. (For instance, compare Manifest destiny with Trail of Tears.) At present the question of who has what rights is normally addressed by the constitutions of the respective nations (in the case of legal rights) or a particular philosophical theory (in the case of natural rights).

Theoretical distinctions

There are numerous different theoretical distinctions in accordance with which rights may be classified.
- '''Natural and legal rights''' - Rights may be considered to be either of a purely moral or ethical character, as in the idea of natural rights, which holds that we obtain certain rights from nature that cannot be legitimately modified by any legislative authority; or they may be considered to be of an artificial, man-made character, as in the idea of legal rights, which are arbitrary human constructs, created by legislative authority and always subject to change.
- '''Claim rights and liberty rights''' - A liberty right grants permission, whereas a claim right grants an entitlement. As entitlements, claim rights serve as rules of interaction between people, as they entail constraints and obligations upon the actions of other individuals or groups (e.g. if a person has a right to life, others cannot have the liberty to kill that person). As permissions, liberty rights are also known simply as liberties, but are still frequently referred to as rights (e.g. "I have a right to do x" often means "I am permitted to do x"), though some deny that such usage is proper.
- '''Negative and positive rights''' - Negative rights require inaction on the part of others (in the sense of rights as claims or entitlements), or permit inaction (in the sense of rights as liberties or permissions). Conversely, positive rights require action on the part of others (in the sense of rights as claims or entitlements) or permit action (in the sense of rights as liberties or permissions).
- '''Individual rights and group rights''' - Individual rights are rights pertaining to individual people regardless of their membership within a group, while group rights are held by an ensemble of people collectively or by the members of a group of people who have a certain characteristic in common. In some cases there can be tension between individual and group rights. Other distinctions between rights draw more on historical association or family resemblance than on such precise philosophical distinctions. These include the distinction between '''civil and political rights''' and '''economic, social and cultural rights''', between which the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are often divided. Another conception of rights groups them into '''three generations of human rights|three generations'''. These distinctions have much overlap with that between negative and positive rights, as well as between individual rights and group rights, but these groupings are not entirely coextensive.

Areas of concern

Rights about particular issues, or the rights of particular groups, are often areas of special concern. Issues of concern include labor rights, LGBT social movements|LGBT rights, reproductive rights, disability rights, patient rights and prisoners' rights. With increasing monitoring and the information society, digital rights|information rights, such as the right to privacy are becoming more important. Groups whose rights are of particular concern include animal rights|animals, and amongst human rights|humans, groups such as children's rights and youth rights, Parents' rights movement|parents (both mothers' rights|mothers and fathers' rights movement|fathers), and men's rights|men and women's rights|women.

Important documents

- The Magna Carta (1215; England) required the monarch|King of England to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures, and to accept that the will of the king could be bound by law.
- The Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights (1689; England) declared that Englishmen, as embodied by Parliament, possess certain civil and political rights; the Claim of Right Act 1689|Claim of Right (1689; Scotland) was similar but distinct.
- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789; France) was one of the fundamental documents of the French Revolution, defining a set of individual rights and collective rights of the people.
- The United States Bill of Rights (1789/1791; United States), the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution, was another influential document.
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is an over-arching set of standards by which governments, organisations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other. The preamble declares that the "...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of Freedom (political)|freedom, justice and peace in the world..."
- The European Convention on Human Rights (1950; Europe) was adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) is a follow-up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concerning civil and political rights.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) is another follow-up to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concerning economic, social and cultural rights.
- The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982; Canada) was created to protect the rights of Canada|Canadian citizens from actions and policies of all levels of government.
- The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000) is one of the most recent legal instruments concerning human rights.