Human Rights refers to the supposed “basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.”

Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience
and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
”The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

Liberty

Liberty, in modern time, is generally considered a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the ability to act according to his or her own will.

Individualist and liberal conceptions of liberty relate to the freedom of the individual from outside compulsion; A socialist perspective, on the other hand, associates liberty with equality in wealth.

John Stuart Mill, in his work, On Liberty, was the first to recognize the difference between liberty as the freedom to act and liberty as the absence of coercion. But Isaiah Berlin in his book, Two Concepts of Liberty, formally framed the differences between these two perspectives as the distinction between two opposite concepts of liberty: positive liberty and negative liberty.

Negative freedom – freedom from – refers to freedom from interference by other people “a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do”.

Positive freedom – freedom to- refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfil one’s own potential, which refers to freedom from restraint. Positive freedom, Fromm maintains, comes through the actualization of individuality in balance with the separation from the whole: solidarity with all men, united not by instinctual or predetermined ties, but on the basis of a freedom founded on reason.

Overall, it is important to understand these concepts when discussing liberty since they all represent little pieces of the greater puzzle known as freedom. In a philosophical sense, morality must supersede tyranny in any legitimate form of government. Otherwise, people are left with a societal system rooted in backwardness, disorder, and regression.

Freedoms

Political freedom

Political freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression. The members of a free society would have full dominion over their public and private lives.

Libertarianism (metaphysics)

It entails the belief that human beings possess free will, that free will is incompatible with determinism, and that determinism is false. Jean-Paul Sartre, for instance, famously claimed that humans are “condemned to be free” – because they always have a choice even an external authority can only threaten punishment after an action, not physically prevent a person from carrying out an action.

Determinism (also called antiserendipity)

It is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and behaviour, decision and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. In other words it says that claims that the future is pre-determined and freedom is an illusion.

The philosopher Isaiah Berlin drew an important distinction between “freedom from” (negative freedom – refers to freedom from interference by other people “a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindered to do what he hath the will to do”.) and “freedom to” (positive freedom – refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfil one’s own potential, which refers to freedom from restraint.

Positive freedom, Fromm maintains, comes through the actualization of individuality in balance with the separation from the whole: solidarity with all men, united not by instinctual or predetermined ties, but on the basis of a freedom founded on reason.). For example, freedom from oppression and freedom to develop one’s potential.

Freedom – in the context of internal control, freedom is also known as self-determination, individual sovereignty, or autonomy. Freedom can also signify inner autonomy, or mastery over one’s inner condition. This has several possible significances:

1. the ability to act in accordance with the dictates of reason;
2. the ability to act in accordance with one’s own true self or values;
3. the ability to act in accordance with universal values (such as the True and the Good);
4. the ability to act independently of both the dictates of reason and the urges of desires, i.e. arbitrarily (autonomously).

 

Anarchism

Anarchism (anar-kisim) (from Greek ἀν) (without) + ἄρχειν) (to rule) + ισμός) (from stem -ιζειν), “without archons”, “without rulers”) is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which reject compulsory government (the state) and support its elimination, often due to a wider rejection of involuntary or permanent authority. Anarchism is “the view that society can and should be organized without a coercive state.”

Anarcho-syndicalism

This school of thinking place greater focus on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits radical trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society, democratically self-managed by the workers.

Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism (also free-market anarchism) is “based on a belief in the freedom to own private property, a rejection of any form of governmental authority or intervention, and the upholding of the competitive free market as the main mechanism for social interaction”.

Anarcha-feminism

Anarcha-feminism is a synthesis of radical feminism and anarchism that views patriarchy (male domination over women) as a fundamental manifestation of involuntary hierarchy – to which anarchists are opposed.

Green anarchism

Green anarchism is a school of thought within anarchism which emphasizes natural environment.

Anarcho-primitivism

Anarcho-primitivism is a form of green anarchism that believes civilization and technology inevitably lead to inequality and are incompatible with anarchism and in effect must be abolished. Anarcho-primitivists often criticize traditional anarchism for supporting civilization and technology which Anarcho-primitivists believe are inherently based on domination and exploitation and instead advocate the process of rewilding or reconnecting with the natural environment.

Anarchist communism

Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective use of the means of production and direct democracy as the political organizational form, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation.

Freedom of Assembly

Freedom of assembly is the freedom to take part in any gatherings that one wishes. It is held to be a key right in liberal democracies, whereby citizens may gather and express their views without government restrictions.

Freedom of Association

Freedom of association is a human right and concept in constitutional law based on the premise that it is the right of adults to freely choose their associates for whatever purpose they see fit.

Freedom of Education

Freedom of education incorporates the right of any person to manage their own education, start a school, or to have access to the education of their choice without any constraints.

Freedom of Movement

Freedom of movement, mobility rights or the right to travel is a human rights and it asserts that a citizen of a state, in which that citizen is present, generally has the right to leave that state, travel wherever the citizen is welcome, and, with proper documentation, return to that state at any time; and also (of equal or greater importance) to travel to, reside in, and/or work in, any part of the state the citizen wishes without interference from the state.

Freedom of the Press

Freedom of the press is the guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news-gathering organizations (journalists), and their published reporting. It also extends to news gathering, and processes involved in obtaining information for public distribution. With respect to governmental information, a government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or secret and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest.

Freedom of Religion

Freedom of religion is the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It is generally recognized to also include the freedom to change religion or to not follow any religion.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is being able to speak freely without censorship. Article 19 – “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

Freedom of Thought

Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience and freedom of ideas) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others’ viewpoints.

Intellectual freedom

Intellectual freedom – Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Stochastic

Stochastic, from the Greek “Στόχος” which means “aim, guess”, means of, relating to, or characterized by conjecture and randomness.

A stochastic process is one whose behaviour is non-deterministic in that a state does not fully determine its next state. Stochastic crafts are complex systems whose practitioners, even if complete experts, cannot guarantee success.

Classical examples of this are medicine: a doctor can administer the same treatment to multiple patients suffering from the same symptoms, however, the patients may not all react to the treatment the same way. This makes medicine a stochastic process. Additional examples are warfare and rhetoric, where the successes and failures cannot be certainly predicted.

Economic freedom

This is the freedom to produce, trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force, fraud or theft. Economic freedom is embodied in the rule of law, property rights and freedom of contract, and characterized by external and internal openness of the markets, the protection of property rights and freedom of economic initiative.
Private property rights – secure system of private property rights is an essential part of economic freedom. That system is represented by two main rights, the right to control and benefit from property and the right to transfer property by voluntary means.
Freedom of contract – is the right to choose one’s contracting parties and to trade with them on any terms and conditions one sees fit. Contracts permit individuals to create their own enforceable legal rules, adapted to their unique situations. Parties decide whether contracts are profitable or fair, but once a contract is made they are obliged to fulfil its terms, even if they are going to sustain losses by doing so.“If there is one thing more than another public policy requires it is that men of full age and competent understanding shall have the utmost liberty of contracting, and that their contracts when entered into freely and voluntarily shall be held sacred and shall be enforced by courts of justice. Therefore, you have this paramount public policy to consider – that you are not lightly to interfere with this freedom of contract”.
Economic and political freedom – both include the freedom from coercion from other individuals and the government.

Freedom to the city

For the people – The Free status dates back to medieval times when city and town charters drew a distinction between freemen and vassals of a feudal Lord. As such, freemen actually pre-date ‘Boroughs’. Early Freedom of the Boroughs ceremonies had great importance in affirming that the recipient enjoyed privileges such as the right to trade and own property, and protection within the town.
Military units – Freedom of the City has a narrower definition: it is an award to local and foreign military units, giving them the right to march into the city “with drums beating, colours flying, and bayonets fixed”. To do so without the Freedom of the City would historically be regarded as an act of aggression.
Key to the City – is a similar award used in several countries, especially in the United States, to honour esteemed visitors, local residents, and organizations. This honour involves the ceremonial presentation of an ornamental key but carries no formal privileges or distinctions.

Right to food

Right to adequate food is a human right, inherent in all people, to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of people to which the consumer belongs, and which ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective fulfilling and dignified life free of fear.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes the “right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food”, as well as the “fundamental right to be free from hunger”.

Right to work

Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.