A chara, – Joe Humphreys discussed the matter of human rights with Eric Heinze ("Why free speech should be the most highly valued human right", Unthinkable, April 14th).
He quotes Prof Heinze: “The idea is that a right has no meaning unless it is something that can be claimed. If it’s just something – whether it’s a fair trail, or food, or free education, healthcare, or exercise of religion – if it’s simply something we’re hoping and praying the government will come along and give us, you don’t need the concept of a right. It only becomes a right when the right-holder, all of us, can argue for it, claim it, argue about it, criticise the way it’s being delivered.”
It is strange that he does not refer to human rights which are antecedent to and independent of anything that “we’re hoping and praying the government will come along and give us.”
The Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10th, 1948) goes straight to this foundation: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
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Such rights, by definition, cannot be granted or withheld by any human authority. “It is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”
The working out of the expression and implementation of human rights is vital, and freedom of speech, as Prof Heinze says, is necessary for this; but not for the existence of the inalienable rights themselves. Without this foundation of inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family, all “rights” are subject to the vagaries of governments, individuals and societies.
As that preamble to the UN Declaration goes on to assert: “disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.”
Warfare in our many parts of our world today continues to outrage the conscience of mankind. – Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16
Sir, – Joe Humphreys in his Unthinkable column interviews Prof Eric Heinze, who links human rights to the primacy of free speech.
Essentially,he argues, there can be no such thing as a right unless there exists the freedom to claim it or argue for it.
I beg to differ and offer for example two exceptions. To my mind, a human right accrues to an individual simply by virtue of being born. One such human right is the right to life, another is the freedom from violence or threat of violence. It should go without saying and be universally accepted that both are inalienable human rights. One cannot argue for, indeed enjoy, other rights, including freedom of speech, unless these two rights are accepted as fundamental; no ifs, no buts, just ask the people of Ukraine. – Yours, etc,
JOHN McANDREW,
Moira,
Co Down.