Basic Conceptions of Human Rights (Excerpt)

In this article, we present several outlooks on the definition of human rights and describe different basic conceptions of human rights. We also deal with their normative nature and the basic questions of interpretation.

The full text of the article is available in Slovak.

Summary

Human rights are certain rights belonging to all human beings without exception There is no exact definition of human rights, nor a comprehensive list of them. Several conceptions were developed, often overlapping or one following from another; we have described some of them.

The international conception of human rights is mainly based on the documents of the United Nations. The European conception of human rights follows from the international conception and adds and specifies some rights. The Slovak conception of human rights follows from the European conception and further specifies some rights.

Out of these three conceptions (international, European, Slovak), we can extrapolate a general conception of human rights, a set of basic principles, out of which other conceptions may be derived.

The enshrining of a certain conception of human rights in a particular legal documents is, however, not the last step. All conceptions have to be interpreted to find out whether, in a particular case, human rights were violated or not. When interpreting human rights, they are viewed as principles to be balanced, because individual rights are often in conflict.

References

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