What is A Right?

From, Anonymous

Everyone has rights. Babies have the right to a mother, criminal have the right to a lawyer and we all have the right to free speech (however not everywhere). We also should have the right to defend ourselves, even against the police. For example, I know a girl who was walking trough her town with a group of friends, when some Moroccan guys walked by. The Moroccan guys were calling one of Julia's (my friend) friends dirty names, which upset him. He attacked them and a fight started. When the police came, none of the Moroccan guys were arrested, but the Dutch friends were. When Julia said something about this to the police officer, he just said "Hou je bek, stomme trut.", which means something like "Shut up, you stupid girl." Afterwards she went to the police department and pressed charges against the police officer. Julia had the right to be treated respectfully and the right to press charges when this wasn't the case.

From, Ms. Independent

A right is something that every person has or at least should have. There are human rights which should be respected by everybody all over the world. Every single person should “have” these human rights.

Once there was a pedagogue, called Korczak, who wrote a book about children's rights. He said that every child has the right to its own death, that every child has the right to today’s day and the right to be as it is.

With the first right he equalizes the right to its own death with the right to risks since every risk can end in death. Because without taking any risks kids couldn’t make any experiences and therefore they couldn’t learn anything. If we try to protect children from death we don’t allow them to live properly.

Secondly he says that every child has the right to today’s day which means that every kid should get the possibility to pursue its needs in order to self-actualise. Children should be allowed to try things and to have the possibility to develop independently.

The third right mentioned in Korczaks book is every child’s right to be as it is. That means that no educator should try to influence a child because children should be able to make their own experiences in order to develop their personality and to learn for life.

With this definition, he wanted to show that every human (being) has the “full right” to his own life. One is responsible for his own life and can actually do with his life what he wants. Even if people take risks that helps them to develop and to learn things about their own lifes.

From, Slow Starter

People have different kind of rights. One is that American people are allowed to elect their president. Additionally, people in the West have the right to choose their wife/husband on their own.

As long as people have rights, they have duties. In Switzerland, people have sometimes the right to vote for a tax increase or decrease, but it’s their duty to pay taxes. Therefore, Swiss have the possibility to influence politics with their right to vote and they have to live with the consequences resulting of the vote.

From, Ms. (Im)Perfect

People in Asia, especially in North Korea can't choose what they want to read. The government makes the decision for them. They censor the news or books in order to keep the population calm. The government dies not want them to think critically. People are not allowed to read some books, because it could shoe them a different "world". Something they could better like than the status quo in North Korea. 

Unfortunately, all over the world people are not allowed to make their own choices. It's not only not making your own decisions, but to be yourself and to develop a personal view that isn't created by the government. The shame is that the government is treading their citizens in that way.

From, Alex K.

The first example that comes to my mind is human rights developed by the Geneva Convention. It says what rights every human being has, which means that you cannot prohibit it or prevent them from doing so. Unfortunately, there are several countries which do not care about human rights and treat their population very badly. People usually work and live under horrible conditions and cannot speak about it to anybody because they would then have to fear for their lives. In some countries people are killed when expressing their opinions, which would be two rights (which they are not given) at once: Firstly, they are not allowed to freely express their opinions and secondly, they do not have the right to a fair trial. 

A thing that rights have in common is that they distinct from a moral or ethical point of view. They usually just say what is right and what is wrong. However, not all the people have the same beliefs and therefore they have a different understanding of the rights everyone has. 

From, Hans Muller aka John Smith

What's really important and what I would like to state firstly is that without rules there are no rights

We live in a society full of rules which seem to be omnipresent.  This hasn't changed since the Stone Age. Even then they had certain primitive rules. Given this scenario of precedent rules, the individuals in this system have, therefore, some rights which are actions they're allowed to do.

A right is essential for a human being. Without rights, people wouldn't be able to fulfill basic needs, such as food, sleep, and water.  Consequently, the more rights an individual has, the more power he gains.