Human Rights and Politics

Abstract

9.1.1 Human rights are moral not political rights. People not only can live, but historically have lived, together without formal political organisation: for example, in communities of food-gatherers, hunters and nomads. There are therefore no political rights which people have solely in virtue of being human, no political rights which belong to them at all times and in all places. Only when contextual interpretation requires it can any human right be a political right. Today, however, nearly all human communities are governed communities. They take the form of nation states, of which there are now more than 150. This political organisation of social life has implications for the contextual interpretation of human rights. To understand them, something must be said about the institution of government, and in particular about its moral basis.