ACTIVIST and politician Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (who became the first president of South Africa) once remarked, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.”
Indeed, it is a universally accepted notion that everyone has human rights. But not everyone gets to use them; and that might be because they’re living with poverty, violence or injustice. (Hall and Bryan, 2021)
The phrase “human rights”
What do we understand by the phrase “human rights”? Is there a singular definition of human rights?
According to our Supreme Court, the phrase “human rights” is so generic a term that any attempt to define it could at best be described as inconclusive. (Simon, Jr. vs. Commission on Human Rights, G.R. No. 100150, January 5, 1994)
In a symposium on human rights sponsored by the University of the Philippines in 1977, the participants—when asked the question “what do you understand by human rights?”—gave varied answers, such as: (1) Human rights are the basic rights which are inherent in man by virtue of his humanity. They are the same in all parts of the world…; (2) Human rights include civil rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property; freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, academic freedom, and the rights of the accused to due process of law…; (3) Human rights are rights that pertain to man simply because he is human… (Simon, Jr. vs. Commission on Human Rights)
However, despite the lack of consensus, some commonly accepted postulates (about the nature of human rights) can assist in the task of defining human rights. These include: (1) Regardless of their ultimate origin or justification, human rights are understood to represent both individual and group demands for political power, wealth, enlightenment, and other cherished values or capabilities; (2) Human rights are commonly assumed to refer, in some vague sense, to “fundamental,” as distinct from “nonessential,” claims or “goods”; (3) Human rights refer to a wide continuum of claims, ranging from the most justiciable (or enforceable) to the most aspirational; (4) Most assertions of human rights—though arguably not all (freedom from slavery, genocide, or torture are notable exceptions)—are qualified by the limitation that the rights of individuals or groups in particular instances are restricted as much as is necessary to secure the comparable rights of others and the aggregate common interest; (5) If a right is determined to be a human right, it is understood to be quintessentially general or universal in character, in some sense equally possessed by all human beings everywhere, including in certain instances even the unborn. (Burns H. Weston, https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-rights/Human-rights-in-the-Arab-world)
Characteristics of human rights
Human rights are: (1) universal and inalienable; (2) indivisible; and (3) interdependent and interrelated.
All people everywhere in the world are entitled to human rights. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
Moreover, all human rights have equal status, and cannot be positioned in a hierarchical order. Denial of one right invariably impedes the enjoyment of other rights. (www.unfpa.org) Each one contributes to the realization of a person’s human dignity through the satisfaction of his or her developmental, physical, psychological and spiritual needs. The fulfilment of one right often depends, wholly or in part, upon the fulfilment of others. (Ibid.)
