Human Rights and Values
Rights
Rights
Human rights are the rights to which each individual is entitled. These include right to life, freedom of speech, privacy, having a home, being protected from abuse and following their own culture and religion.
Civil rights are those of a particular community, country or state. These include the right to vote, right to certain benefits and right to be represented in court.
Moral rights do not have the same amount of legal force behind them as civil and human rights. These depend on the goodwill of people to recognise and support them, and include the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
Rights
Legal and Civil Rights are considered (along with independence, choice and inclusion) as one of the four key principles at the core of the Government's proposals in the 'Valuing People' strategy document of 2001. Legal and civil rights help in eradicating discrimination in society, but as we know just because rights are stated does not mean that these rights are necessarily received or achieved. However, when things go wrong, legislation provides a means to challenge decisions.
For the individual, if they are seen as being different they are at risk of being treated differently, particularly as a result of the unconscious attitudes and expectations of others. The history for people who have a learning disability is that they have been at risk of discrimination because of their intellectual disability, possible physical disability, and the way they behave and talk.
Human Rights
Human rights are those which all people have a right to. They define the basic freedoms all people should expect as members of society. Human rights can include things like right to life, freedom of speech, privacy, having a home, being protected from abuse, following their own culture, religious freedom etc. Various human rights have now become formalised and have resulted in the Human Rights Act 1998 which came into force in October 2000. This piece of legislation adopts the European Convention on Human Rights into British law and has 18 articles which detail rights and freedoms e.g.
Article - 8: Right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence. Article - 12: Right to marry. Article - 14: Prohibition of discrimination.
Case law will eventually build up precedent and interpretation around how the various articles will come to be viewed, but such was the expected impact of this legislation the Government set aside an extra £60 million a year for court and legal aid costs.
Another European Community initiative, proclaimed and signed in December 2000, is the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Community. It is not law but European Institutions are expected to respect the charter. The rights of all European citizens are divided into six sections: dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, citizen rights and justice. They are based on the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised by the European Convention of Human Rights 1953. Chapter three of the charter recognises the right to equality by a non-discrimination clause based on grounds such as sex, race, age, national minority, sexual orientation and disability. Other parts of the charter refer to the right to lead a life of dignity and independence and to participate in a social and cultural life.
Civil rights
Civil rights are another form of rights. They relate to those which are ascribed to people by virtue of living in a particular community, country or state. Examples would be the right to vote, right to certain state benefits, right to be represented in court etc. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 details the civil rights which are afforded to disabled people in society to end discrimination in such areas as employment, access to goods and facilities and buying and renting property and land. The Race Relations Acts 1976 and 2000 and the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 are other examples of civil rights. Human rights and civil rights can clearly intertwine at times.
It may be that certain citizen rights are lost if someone breaks the law.
Moral Rights
There are some other rights which we might also consider important. We could call these moral rights. Generally these rights may not have the same amount of legal force behind them as those previously mentioned. They perhaps depend more on the goodwill and nature of people to recognise and support them, e.g. the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
