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US GOVERNMENT EHS

Student’s Name: Pavlos Tsitsipas

EXCELL HIGH SCHOOL

Course: 22/23 U.S. Government EHS

Professor: Ms Perez

28 December, 2022

Title: An underlying principle of the United States Constitution is the protection of people’s natural rights.

Explain the concept of natural rights. Choose two Amendments and explain how they help protect people’s

natural rights.
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According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, the UN Universal Declaration of

Human Rights, by itself, is “not a treaty or a legally binding document but it has influenced the

creation of legally binding treaties internationally, thereby are rights we have simply because we

exist as human beings - not granted by any state, but inherent to us all, regardless of nationality,

sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status.”

As philosopher Locke has stated, natural rights are the rights that all human beings in the state of

nature, before the creation of civil or political society. “Every man,” Locke wrote, “has a property

in his own person, along with the products of his labor and that which he mixes with his labor”.

According to the textbook of Excel High School US Government /Chapter 2.9 one of the

prominent figures that played an important role in Human Rights was George Mason. Along with

his contribution he achieved to create a declaration of human rights in order to serve, secure and

protect the lives of American citizens from any offensively assertive government.

However, in order to protect the civil liberties and human rights of citizens the government-

imposed limits on a national level as to safeguard their rights. The first amendment was introduced

as where” Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free

exercise that protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the

Government for a redress of grievances”.

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In the long run, the governments Committee streamlined Madison’s draft, giving it the form of

the current Ninth Amendment according to Randy Barnett as it states that : “The enumeration in

this Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the

people.” Therefore, the aforementioned Ninth Amendment provides a totally different view of

protection of human rights. It proposes that these human rights are “certain rights” subjected as

mentioned above by the “enumeration in the Constitution.” Moreover, these human rights that are

spelled out in the Bill of Rights, serve as positive natural rights of the original guarantee of jury

trials in criminal cases, thus “even in the case of violation of these rights would result in an

improper way of effectuating an enumerated power, the government may not infringe or abridge

them”.

Finally, according to textbook of Excel High School US Government /Chapter 2.9 Human rights

are one of the most important core values of American politics, along with the Declaration of

Independence and the Constitution, human rights is there to protect and define the American

political system and the government's relationship to its citizens.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Excel High School. (2022). United States Government.

https://exceleducation.instructure.com/courses/2501/pages/2-dot-9-freedoms-and-rights-

guaranteed-by-the-bill-of-rights?module_item_id=189768

Locke John. 1975. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Nidditch Peter. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Randy E. Barnett, The Ninth Amendment: It Means What It Says, 85 TEXAS L. REV. 1, 2 (2006)

UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III)

https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3712c.html