THREE GENERATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS The division of human rights into three generations was initially proposed in 1979 by the French jurist Karel Vasak at the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. His division follows the three great watchwords of the French Revolution:
1. Liberté, 2. Égalité & 3. Fraternité . FIRST-GENERATION HUMAN RIGHTS
deal essentially with liberty. They are fundamentally civil and political in nature and serve to protect the individual from excesses of the state. Firstgeneration rights include, inter alia, freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, and freedom of religion. First generation rights are therefore mostly negative rights. They were first enshrined at the global level by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights & are rights from certain things, usually freedoms from abuse or coercion by others, as opposed to positive rights which are the rights or guarantees to certain to certain things. One example of a negative right is the 1st Amendmant of the consitution of the USA, which prevents free speech from being reduced by laws. Other negative rights include
The right to security in private property,
freedom of speech,
freedom of the press,
freedom of religion,
the right to bear arms,
freedom from violent crime and
freedom from involuntary servitude.
SECOND-GENERATION HUMAN RIGHTS
are related to equality. They are fundamentally social, economic, and cultural in nature. In social terms, they ensure different members of the citizenry equal conditions and treatment. They also grant people the right to work and to be employed, thus securing the ability of the individual to support a family. They are mostly positive rights, representing things that the State is required to provide to the people under its jurisdiction. Positive rights are rights or guarantees to certain things, as opposed to
negative rights which are the rights from certain things, usually freedoms from abuse or coercion by others. For example, a right to an education is a positive right because education must be provided by a series of positive actions by others. A school system, teachers and materials must be actively provided in order for such a right to be fulfilled. The right to be secure in one's home, however, is a negative right. In order for it to be fulfilled, others need take no particular action but merely refrain from certain actions, specifically trespassing or breaking into the home in question. Different political philosophies have different opinions concerning positive and negative rights. Under socialism and social democracy, positive rights are considered an essential part of the social or governmental contract: something that society promises to all its members. Under these philosophies there need be no particular distinction between positive or negative rights, rather they tend to be all listed together. Many positive rights are economic in nature: they involve the rights-holder being assured of the provision of some economic good such as housing, a job, a
pension, or medicine. Under most systems of social democracy, these are provided under some manner of public welfare system, in which public funds are used to establish public housing, works programs, social security, and the like. THIRD-GENERATION HUMAN RIGHTS
focus essentially on fraternity and, in generic terms, can be seen as rights of solidarity. They cover group and collective rights: the right to self-
determination, to economic and social development, and to participate in the common heritage of mankind. the question is that how we can get the yhereshhold toward realism apart from idiolodies in determining the third generetion of human rights
