Mary Chloe M.
Jaucian
Meaning, Demand, and Source of
Human Rights
MEANING OF HUMAN RIGHTS
 Traditionally defined as titles or claims
to certain material and spiritual goods,
or to have access to such goods in order
for the human person to live a dignified
life.
 Human right is referred to the natural
human rights, meaning, that we have
rights solely because we are humans.
 Human rights are not given to us by
society. Instead, they are what society
has to respect, promote, and protect.
 Human rights are the concrete
manifestation and consequences of
human dignity. Since everyone shares
the same dignity, obviously the right
that we need to protect, respect, and
promote belongs to all. Therefore, we
have a moral obligation to recognize
and respect the same universal rights
and contribute to the establishment of
harmony so that everyone will live
freely and live life to the fullest.
DEMAND FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
 Social duties are implied in our human
rights.
 “The integral promotion of every
category of human rights is the true
guarantee of full respect for each
individual right.”
SOURCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
 The ultimate source of human rights is
not found in the mere will of human
beings, in the reality of the state, in
public powers, but in man himself and
in God his Creator.
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 These rights are UNIVERSAL,
INVIOLABLE, and INALIENABLE
TYPES OF HUMAN RIGHTS
(As identified by St. John Paul II)
To have a background of human rights is
important in developing critical understanding
and sensitivity to our social situation.
PERSONAL RIGHTS
1. Right to life
 This is the most fundamental right.
 The right to life is the primary
condition of all other human rights for
the obvious reason that only when a
persons are alive can they exercise
their other rights and thereby
accomplish their mission.
 This right means first of all the
preservation of life; it means resisting
any unjust aggression that either
directly or indirectly puts human life in
danger.
 It includes the right to basic necessities
in life: food, shelter, clothing, sufficient
health care, rest, and leisure.
2. Right to One’s Person
 We have a right over our own bodies
and bodily faculties and energies. God
created us as embodied-spirits to
enable us to carry out our task in our
physical world.
 The right to one’s person justifies self-
defense and the right to free
movement and to the inviolability of
one’s home, which serves as an
extension of one’s self.
Mary Chloe M. Jaucian
3. Right to One’s Personality
 Persons have a right to develop their
own individual character.
 The at this time, though it is
incomplete and not yet permanent,
influences the moral choices you make,
while the actions and choices you
make now influence the kind of
character you are developing.
RELIGIOUS AND MORAL RIGHTS
1. Right to Education
• It is our right to avail of all possible
means and opportunities to help us
develop physically, intellectually,
spiritually and socially.
• Education starts from birth. Right from
our mother’s womb, we have the right
to be nourished, protected, and taken
care of until we grow up and become
capable of standing on our own feet.
• From a network of human
relationships from our family, school,
Church, and society- we gain
knowledge and skills to survive and
live a decent life.
• The right to education refers to both
formal and informal schooling
• It covers right and duty of parents to
educate their children and provide
moral formation and sound guidance
as long as they can afford it.
• This is right to education includes the
responsibility of the children to make
the most of their learning
opportunities. They are obliged to
listen to their parents, elders, and
authorities; study well; chose the right
company; and acquire the necessary
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skills and knowledge to become better
persons.
2. Right to Conscience
 When it comes to making moral
decision, all human person have the
right to act in accordance with their
conscience.
 A person of good conscience is
somebody who knows what is
objectively good and evil, and has the
courage to do and defend what is right,
and correct what is wrong.
 It is both our duty and right to educate
our conscience correctly and follow it
all the time.
3. Right to Religion
 Insofar as persons are bound to seek
the truth and accordingly worship the
Creator, they have the natural right to
relate God and to freely express and
develop this relationship within the
teachings and practices of their chosen
religion.
 Human persons have the right to
exercise their freedom of religion both
and privately (in the sacredness of
their intimate relation with God) and
publicly, with their community (in the
exercise of community worship as well
as charitable service and other social
aspects of their religion) as long as
they do not impinge on similar rights
of others.
SOCIAL RIGHTS
1. Right to Honor/Respect
• Honor refers to the credibility and
esteem human persons enjoy in the
society.
• False testimony, and other insults, like
slander, libel, calumny, detraction, and
other remarks or acts that rob the
Mary Chloe M. Jaucian
human persons of their good name in
society violate the right to
honor/respect
• When this right is violated, some just
restitution can be demanded to
restore the communal respect due the
victims.
2. Right to Free Expression/Freedom of
Speech
 The right to free expression and the
right to assembly are the key elements
of a free society.
 Without these rights we could well
have a dictatorship with all other rights
suppressed.
 Since we are created by God with
intellect and will, we should never be
dominated or manipulated by anyone
or by any state.
 We have the right to freely express
ourselves, what we think is true, both
in spoken and written words, as
individuals and/or as groups.
 We have the right to voice to our
leaders and administrators our views
and feelings about how they should
govern us.
 This right is definitely not without
limitations. No one can use freedom of
speech as a license to destroy the
name of others.
 This right, in other words, obliges us to
speak the truth at the right time, in the
proper way.
3. Right to Organize
 Just like the right to free expression,
the right to organize is an essential
ingredient of a free society.
 Human persons have the right to form
associations with common objectives,
whether they are religious, civic,
economic, social, or political.
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 But this right should not be used for
pushing one’s personal political
agenda to the detriment of the
common good.
ECONOMIC RIGHTS
1. Right to Livelihood
 It is primarily through work that
human persons gain the means to
satisfy their essential needs in life.
 It is the right and duty of every person
to work and earn a living in the form of
wages, salaries, benefits, and profit.
2. Right to Property
 To own something, especially as the
fruit of sweat and hard work, is
undoubtedly an expression of human
dignity.
 The right to property is the right to
exclusive control of one’s own
possessions.
 Control here means the right to
acquire, use, consume, and dispose of
one’s property within the bounds of
the law.
VOCATION RIGHTS
1. Right to Choose One’s Way of Life
 All human persons have the right to
choose their career, vocation, and
status in life.
 Whatever you want to be in the future,
this right requires you to consider two
things. One is what can give you a real
sense of fulfillment. The other is how
you can be of service to the
community.
2. Right to Marriage
This refers to the right of every person to seek
partner in life and enter a union with the
chosen person, as long as the act is within the
grounds of the law of the state and the
dictates of the natural law.