Human Rights, What Are They Really?

HUMAN RIGHTS

What Are They Really?

By

Robert Stephen Higgins

Bradich Books ∙ Canada

Copyright

Published by Bradich Books, Guelph, Ontario, Canada http:// www.bradichbooks.com

Copyright © 2008 by Robert Stephen Higgins

All rights reserved except that excerpts of up to 100 words may be freely quoted in any publication provided that this source is clearly stated.

Cover design by Infinite Images, Guelph, Ontario

Cover composite photo construction by Infinite Images and the author. Copyright on constituent images is held by Bradich Books or Big Stock Photo, Inc. or iStock International Inc. or suppliers to them.

Interior design by Conceptual Design, Johannesburg, South Africa

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Higgins, Robert Stephen, 1941 -

Human rights: what are they really? / by Robert Stephen Higgins

Includes bibliographic references.

ISBN 978-0-9810631-1-9

1. Human rights- Philosophy. 2. Human rights I. Title

JC585.H54 2008 323 C2008-906007-5

To order a printed copy of Human Rights, What Are They Really? go to http://truehumanrights.com

Printed in Canada

E-book edition

DEDICATION

Dedicated to the loving memory of my parents, Clara and Bernie, who were the first to believe in me, and to my dear wife Ivanka, whose love and support has always been there.

PROMISE

To all those who feel uncertain about their status in this world of powerful organizations and institutions this book will bring clarity. To those who feel cheated by the unjust distribution of wealth this book will bring hope. To those who are confused by the rhetoric on human rights this book will speak the truth.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1 PROGRESS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Historical Development

Perspectives

2 THEORY

Natural Rights

Ownership of Oneself

Ownership of Property

Ownership of Animals

Collective Ownership

Disregard of Human Rights

3 IMPLICATIONS

Personal Security and Responsibility

Freedom of Association and Group Rights

Security of Property

Control of Animals

Land and Other Natural Resources

Practice of Religion

Education

Business and Commerce

Role of Government

4 FALSE NOTIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Need Generates a Right

All People Are Equal

Precedent Sets a Right

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights

5 IMPLEMENTATION

Rights to be Implemented

Political Constitution

Legislation

Alternative Domains

Business Operation

Education

6 OPPOSING FORCES

The Power Game

Greed and Capitalism

Extreme Tribalism

Social Idealism

7 A TOTAL VIEW

Attitudes

A Nation Based on Natural Rights

The Way Ahead

SUPPLEMENT

Human Rights Theory

Applied to Current Issues

Same Sex Marriage

Adoption of Children

Abortion

Circumcision

Capital Punishment

Aboriginal Land Treaties

Disintegration of States

Interference in States

Conquest of States

World Poverty

APPENDIX:

Summary of Rights under the Sankey Declaration

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

END NOTES

PREFACE

When I was a boy in elementary school something happened to me that brought into play the matter of human rights. It was a warm spring afternoon and my Grade 6 teacher had put the normal lessons away, as she did periodically, to read to us a part of Mark Twain’s novel Tom Sawyer. This was an event eagerly awaited by the whole class and their most fervent hope was that there be no interruption. There was, however, when the teacher asked me to remove my sweater. While it was in fact warm enough to do so, even with some of the windows open, I had a problem. There was a large image on the back of my short sleeve shirt that I was embarrassed to reveal to the class. So I refused to remove my sweater. The teacher proclaimed that she would not proceed with the reading until the sweater was removed. During the 15 minutes of complete silence that followed, I had to wrestle with the question of who had the right to control my sweater on my body. This involved an analysis of the school system I was in and, in particular, the limits of the teacher’s power over me. Feeling that I had a personal reason to keep my sweater on and that that was sufficient, I resolved to await the day’s end before removing it. The teacher, however, decided to end the crisis by calling a recess to the schoolyard where I defended my position to classmates by contending that the decision about my sweater was mine alone.

Through my adult life I have been conscious of a border between my natural rights as a person and the power of governments and other organizations over me. Regrettably, there has been systematic operation by both over that border. This has included the aggravating inclination to tell me what to think on certain general issues such as what rights a person has. As I see it, rolling back this incursion requires a clear, unequivocal definition of universal and permanent human rights that marks the ground where governments and other organizations may not tread. This book is my endeavour to do that.

Robert Stephen Higgins, March 2005

INTRODUCTION

For a person to have security and liberty in his/her life there must be rights that apply to the individual. As well, the other members of the community and the government must respect these rights. Without commonly accepted rights and the means to enforce them there is no system of defence against the appetites of the strong, the will of the majority or the overreaching ambitions of leaders. Some groups of people would be especially vulnerable: women in some countries, members of visible, ethnic or religious minorities, homosexuals, and the powerless. The defence by rights depends on the identification of true basic rights. Mixing in a false right results in limited energy and resources being wastefully employed and, more importantly, usually results in real rights being trampled. This book presents a theory of true fundamental rights and identifies false rights that are being harmfully implemented. It argues that identifying true rights involves more than one’s moral or social inclinations; it involves reason and analysis if the crucial requirements of permanent truth and universality are to be satisfied.

The first issue is, What is a right? In this book at least it means a mandatory reason for supplying something to the right-holder, with this reason being based on an unassailable principle or definite contract. The right addresses someone who is capable of supplying the something. Therefore, there are three necessary elements of a right:

• A right-holder (i.e., the subject of the right)

• Person/people who are addressed by the right

• Some specific obligation placed on the person/people addressed with respect to the right-holder

If any of the elements are missing in the statement of a right, then the right is invalid or empty of force. For example, the claim that a person has a right to work is empty because it is entirely speculative as to whom the right addresses and what their obligation is.

It is also important to include any conditions or qualifications in the statement of the right so that it is absolute, not conditional, because conditions dilute the force of the right. For example, it might be stated that a person walking past a movie theatre has a right to enter the theatre. If the person tried to exercise that right she would probably feel a tap on her shoulder and hear a request for a ticket. Properly stated, a person who purchases a ticket at a movie theatre has the right to attend the performance covered by the ticket. If these rules of stating rights are followed, and care is taken to express them accurately, then many unnecessary arguments over a questionable right will be avoided.

The import of a right is that it is a definite cause for action or inaction toward the right-holder and its effect is emphatically in the here and now. It is not like an exhortation that something should be done (or not done). Movement on that basis would require a consensus among those called upon to endorse and contribute to action. They would refer to their chosen morality or ethics, practical considerations, wants and fears, including their fear of change. Rights, on the other hand, are based on previously accepted principles and obligations, are clear and unequivocal, and are absolutely compelling. Rights have the power to support the security and dignity of every individual in the community, generate resistance and retribution when transgressed, and keep greater power at bay. In the case of a serious breach, a right can justify the use of compulsion and force. For example, an apprehended thief can be compelled to return to the owner what was stolen, and a person who is under physical assault may use as much force as necessary to repel the attacker.

The use of compulsion and force, however, is normally reserved for governments in the enforcement of their laws. In respectable political systems some laws are supposed to protect the rights of all individuals, while the remainder of the laws are not to conflict with fundamental rights. Even in this proper mode of governance, as well as the abusive regimes that are too common, the government retains unilateral power to compel the citizen and use force against him/her. There is the potential in this for the government to disrespect and possibly harm people in their person, possessions, or prospects. While most citizens of the world are relatively comfortable with the power of governments over them, in some countries the mentioned potential is an actuality, demonstrating that the idea of government abuse is not just a theoretical one. For this reason, it is vitally important that governments operate from a base in true human rights. The critical question then is What are true human rights? The answer depends on the reply to the more basic question of where human rights come from.

The candidate sources for human rights can be divided into two basic groups:

1) A source external to man. This could be God (for those who believe in Him) or the foundational patterns of nature.

2) Humanity itself, meaning that fundamental rights are conceived by people for their purposes, more or less in the way that the rules of the road were created. Their purpose could be to put or hold in place a benevolent society, a religious society or some other society based on a political, social or economic model.

Sources (1) and (2) support two schools of thought on where human rights come from and therefore what they are. If the reader has ever wondered why everyone in the world does not just accept the current doctrine of rights and get on with it, it is because there is no singular theory of rights… at least, not yet. This will not be apparent from witnessing political discussions, following reports from the news media, or reading popular books on human rights. So far in the twenty-first century school (2) dominates. Ideas