Provisional Definition As a provisional starting point, human rights may, in a
more or less orthodox fashion, be defined as
- rights
- that every person has
- by virtue of merely existing and
- that aim to secure for such a person certain benefits that are of fundamental
importance to any human being.
Overview How did these human rights come about? Are they merely the product
of human rights treaties of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, or have they
been recognized over a longer period of time? The historical introduction to human
rights in Sect.12.2puts the idea of human rights into perspective. Afterwards
Sect.12.3, explains the functions that human rights fulfill in law and in the wider
political culture by distinguishing four different dimensions of human rights.
As rights, human rights conceptually require that there is a right holder, and one
of the first questions in connection with human rights is who theserights holders
are, as the concept “human being” involves certain complications and can be
understood by law in ways that are not always intuitive. This question will be
addressed in Sect.12.4.
Likewise rights impose duties on some other party who must respect and honor
the rights. Which institutions and persons owe these duties? Who are theduty
bearers? This question is the topic of Sect.12.5.1. The “vagueness” of the human
rights discourse in comparison to the usually more specific nature of behavior-
guiding rules will receive more attention here.
Rights are naturally rights to something. Section12.6deals with the issue of
what are the benefits or interests that human rights advance and protect. It describes
theobjectof human rights.
Human rights protect interests such as human life, absence of slavery, freedom
of movement, provision of health care and so on. Sometimes these interests conflict
with each other or with other social goals. This raises the question of the boundaries
of human rights. Do human rights always have the last word, or can they be
displaced by other considerations? This is the topic of Sect.12.7.
One thing that makes human rights different from what are merely interests of
human beings is that they are protected by law. The nature of this protection will be
discussed in Sect.12.8.
The chapter will be concluded in Sect.12.9.
12.2 The Historical Development of the Idea of Human Rights
We are all familiar with the idea of human rights. Upon hearing the phrase,
statements such as “Everyone has the right to freedom of speech” and “Nobody
should be discriminated against because of his race” spring to mind. Despite their
familiarity, these statements are the tip of the iceberg of a complex phenomenon
262 G. Arosemena