Culture and Ethics Resource Centre – Definitions
Defining Rights: A right is an entitlement to act or to have others act in a certain way. For example, if we say that we have a right to swim, then that means we’re entitled to be able to swim and that others shouldn’t try and stop us from swimming. Now obviously swimming isn’t a right, but it highlights the point :
If we’re using a ‘Rights’ approach to ethics we are taking the rights of the people affected by our actions/behaviour into consideration when determining what is ethical.
People often hear the word ‘Rights’ and think about their rights as a citizen i.e. those included in a constitution or other laws. While these are rights, it is important to understand that legal rights, those found in the laws of the land are not the same as moral and human rights. Moral Rights are rights which can be based on the special relationships and roles we have, or the circumstances we find ourselves in. For example: if I have agreed to vacuum your pool while you’re away on holiday, you have a right to expect me to do this. Other things which are often argued to be moral rights are rights to medical care, education, decent housing, work etc; although these are still widely debated. Even more important are the rights that we have that do not rest on special relationships, roles or situations. For example: Right to life, free speech, religious freedom etc. These rights are often referred to as Human Rights. We have them just because we’re human. There are four key factors of Human Rights:
They are universal; they apply to everyone, everywhere at all times.
They are equal rights; i.e. if free speech is a right, everyone has the right equally.
They are not transferable, nor can they be given up. i.e. when you’re arrested you often have a right to silence. You can chose to waive that right if you want, whereas with human rights you are unable to waive them.
They are natural rights; meaning no person or organisation bestows them on you, you have them because you’re human.
We should also point out that rights can fall into two groups: positive and negative. Negative rights mean people can’t interfere with your right to something i.e. you have a right to privacy and people should not stop you having it. Positive rights mean that someone has to provide us with certain things i.e. the right to education could be seen as a positive right. Also worth noting is that there is still much debate about whether certain rights should be seen as negative or positive and it is often the case that a right has elements of both.
Unlike Utilitarianism, Rights theory is focused on an individual’s rights, not the betterment of society. It is concerned with treating people as an ends, not a means to an end.
We can apply the Rights approach to ethics as follows: If we chose not to do something because it would infringe on another person’s ‘rights’, this would be an ethical act. Conversely, by ignoring people’s rights and behaving in ways which are contradictory to them we are behaving unethically.
A good starting point for understanding what we classify as Moral and Human Rights can be found in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Within this declaration there are 30 ‘articles’ with many additional with subheadings.
It should be noted that you can also make a case, separate to any current policy or declaration i.e. UN declaration, that certain Human/Moral Rights exist. Luckily for us though the UN declaration has done a lot of the ‘heavy-lifting’.
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