Human rights are also called natural rights. They belong to people because they are human beings. People are entitled to them regardless of where they live, their class, race, sex, age, and so on. There are many international documents that deal with human rights, for example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which have been signed by many countries with different social, political and economic systems.

Most people would support human rights that are based on basic values, such as respect for human life and human dignity. But not all people agree on the interpretation of such rights and how they should be put into practice. There is also debate about which human rights are most important and which are less important. The Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution contains the human rights that will be protected in South Africa.

Legal Rights and Moral Rights

Legal rights are rights laid down in laws which are made by parliament and they may give people certain rights. For example, it was once a legal right to own slaves because there were laws that allowed this, even though it went against the human rights of the people who were slaves.

There are also moral rights. For example, people over a certain age may have a legal right to drink alcohol, but others may believe that they do not have a moral right to do so. Different people have different ideas of what is moral and what isn’t moral. Some communities may practice moral codes that go beyond what the law says.