What are Rights? (preemptively split from The source of our rights (split from gun injury))

[ydoaPs]

To my "This shows that my rights do not come from government, but nature." Dimreepr replied

The reason people condemn North Korea is that their government does not respect natural human rights. Do you disagree with this?

Not in this case no. All human beings have natural human rights. Countries that to not recognize this fact are evil. Not mistaken but evil. That is why we condemn them. That is why we condemn ourselves when we also fall short. Do you not agree with this? Do you think human rights movements are misguided. It seems you must because you think human rights are simply the whim of government.

What, exactly, is a natural right? I'm not sure it even makes sense to talk about rights as anything other than a type of promise.

[zapatos]

I believe a 'right' is a human concept, and would not exist if not for humans. If a 'natural right' is supposed to come from outside the human mind, I would like to hear how natural rights are viewed by people who believe in them.

 

In addition, rights exist for some people but not for others. I say this because unless a right can be enforced for an individual, it does not exist for that individual. Rights may have been defined for all in the U.S. Constitution, but if I could not exercise them due to the color of my skin, how much money I had, or because I squat when I pee, then what you might call a 'right', I would call a waste of ink on paper.

[swansont]

In addition, rights exist for some people but not for others. I say this because unless a right can be enforced for an individual, it does not exist for that individual. Rights may have been defined for all in the U.S. Constitution, but if I could not exercise them due to the color of my skin, how much money I had, or because I squat when I pee, then what you might call a 'right', I would call a waste of ink on paper.

Or not defined, in some cases. Did natural law change in 1920, for example, when women were finally allowed to vote in the US? Of course not. It was an agreement of the people that this should happen.

[MonDie]

We speak of rights belonging to individuals, yet I cannot take my rights with me to Africa. A right is a type of agreement serving as part of a compromise. The subject of the right is promised that some favored circumstance, such as a freedom, power, or possession, will not incur interference from another restrained party, such as a government, or else that interference can be considered grounds for recourse, as when the restrained party is another citizen.