A positive right is an obligation by others to provide some benefit to the rights holder. A right is a correlative of a wrong, so if one has a right to something it means that it is wrong or unlawful for others to negate that right or to not provide some benefit.
In contrast, a negative right is an obligation by others to avoid negating some actions and properties of the rights holders. The right to practice one’s religion is a negative right, since this means that it is wrong or unlawful for others to prevent such practice. A positive right obliges others to provide benefits, while a negative right only obliges others to avoid interfering with someone’s liberty. Global justice clearly requires basic negative rights such as the right to not be restricted in the peaceful and honest practice of religion. The extent to which global justice requires positive or negative rights depends on one’s theory of moral rights.
Rights can be contractual, legal, or moral. Contracts usually create...
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Foldvary, F.E. (2011). Positive Rights. In: Chatterjee, D.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9160-5_359
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