Social Rights Are Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Rights Are Human Rights - Essay Example Human rights are defined as the rights that a human has as a result of being a human. This follows that every human being has an inherent authority over human rights. Human rights cannot be divided whether they are civil or political; for example the right to live, no discrimination before the law and freedom of speech and expression. Similarly, economic, social and cultural rights cannot be divided either. However these rights are interrelated and dependent on each other. This follows that progress in one right has an influence on the other and withdrawal of one impact the other (United Nations Human Rights, 2011). Whelan and Donnelly (2007) argue that Western countries have advocated economic and social rights strongly and consistently over the period of time, leading to the post-World War era as we know now. However most analysts are of the perspective that political and civil rights have been given preponderance over social rights. McNally (2006) observes that the global corporat e agenda is a representation of the trend towards commodification that has led to the promotion of capitalism since its advent, highlighting the greater importance being given to political rights. Human rights encompass a range of freedoms and rights, of which economic, social and cultural rights form a part of. The human rights definition that follows does imply the notion of protecting social rights and laws and regulations are meant to safeguard the basic and vital â€Å"needs of the human person and his/her dignity in times of peace and war† (Kalin, Muller & Wyttenbach, 2004). However human rights do not grant equal importance to the rights that they compromise of. It is argued that social rights are not given the same status by human rights as it gives to civil and political rights. According to Vierdag (1978), civil and political rights have always been considered as absolute and immediate compared to economic, social and cultural rights, which are considered programmat ic and to be recognized over the period of time. This will form the core of the argument in this paper and will focus on the status of social, civil and political rights in the context of human rights. When taking human rights as a collective concept, it can be appreciated that human rights have developed and evolved throughout the course of history. This has led to the division of human rights into three generations. Kalin, Muller and Wyttenbach (2004) observe that the pattern and process of the evolution of human rights is manifested in their structure. The Human rights that are represented and divested in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be classified into several generations; this classification is based on the historical origin of each generation. Commonly human rights are divided into three main generations. The first generation consists of civil and political rights and the second generation refers to economic, social and cultural rights. The third generation com promises of collective rights or solidarity rights. The division of human rights into further generations creates a difference in the level of importance attached to each. This paper will delve into the details of the first two generations. Civil and political