Human Rights Nature, Concept, Origin and Development

The Philosophical or theoretical approach:

The Philosophical or theoretical approach has been categorized in five more theories to explain the rights of man. These are

a) The Natural Rights Theory:

According to this theory the Human Rights are inherent in the very nature of human being. Human person posses these rights because of the very fact that it is a person, a whole, a master, a master of itself and of its acts by natural law[^3] . Therefore, the growth of concept of the ‘Rights of Man’ has been closely associated with the traditional natural law theories, as a matter of fact the notion of individual rights has never been projected as a special feature in these theories, and Law as such implies both duties and rights[^4] . As such, duties and rights are co-related with each other. D. D. Raphael has rightly observed that,

“The rights are rights against other people, and the duties are duties to other people. Thus a system of natural law, a system of duties which all men have to others, is at the same time a system of rights which all men have against others[^5] .

b). The legal right Theory:

The natural rights theory has been criticized by many scholars, and in turn advocates in favour of the legal rights theory. According to this theory, the rights are the creation of state. As such, they are neither absolute nor inherent in the nature of man. All rights such as right to life, liberty or property are artificially created by the law of the land[^6] . These fundamental rights are the right of self preservation, which can be protected by state only in better manner than by any other means[^7] . This theory extended that these rights can be recognized by the state only for its enforcement, and if state can not recognize it, it can not be enforced[^8] .

c). The Historical theory of Rights:

The historical theory maintains that the rights are the creation of historical process.  A long standing custom in the course of time concretize in the specific form of right. Ritchie’s comments in this context, that, “ those rights which people think they ought to have are just those rights which they have been accustom to have , or which  they have a ‘tradition’ (whatever true or false) of having once possessed. Custom is primitive law[^9] .

d). The social welfare theory of rights:

This theory is also known as the Social Expediency theory. The advocates of this theory are of the opinion that law, custom and natural rights, all are conditioned by social expediency[^10] . The social welfare theory has played important role in the development of number of human rights. As such, large number of social rights and economic rights has been incorporated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[^11] .