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Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of society and the state.

Civil rights generally include ensuring peoples' physical and mental integrity, life, and safety, protection from discrimination, the right to privacy, the freedom of thought, speech, religion, press, assembly, and movement.

Political rights include natural justice (procedural fairness) in law, such as the rights of the accused, including the right to a fair trial; due process; the right to seek redress or a legal remedy; and rights of participation in civil society and politics such as freedom of association, the right to assemble, the right to petition, the right of self-defense, and the right to vote. These rights also must follow the legal norm as in they must have the force of law and fit into the system of administrative justice. A key feature in modern society is that the more a state can guarantee political rights of citizens the better the states relations are with its citizens.

Civil and political rights form the original and main part of international human rights. They comprise the first portion of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with economic, social, and cultural rights comprising the second portion). The theory of three generations of human rights considers this group of rights to be "first-generation rights", and the theory of negative and positive rights considers them to be generally negative rights.

History

The phrase "civil rights" is a translation of Latin jus civis (right of the citizen). Roman citizens could be either free (libertas) or servile (servitus), but they all had rights in law. After the Edict of Milan in 313, these rights included the freedom of religion; however, in 380, the Edict of Thessalonica required all subjects of the Roman Empire to profess Nicene Christianity. Roman legal doctrine was lost during the Middle Ages, but claims of universal rights could still be made based on Christian doctrine. According to the leaders of Kett's Rebellion (1549), "all bond men may be made free, for God made all free with his precious blood-shedding."

In the 17th century, English common law judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishmen had historically enjoyed such rights. The Parliament of England adopted the English Bill of Rights in 1689. It was one of the influences drawn on by George Mason and James Madison when drafting the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776. The Virginia declaration heavily influenced the U.S. Bill of Rights (1789).

The removal by legislation of a civil right constitutes a "civil disability". In early 19th century Britain, the phrase "civil rights" most commonly referred to the issue of such legal discrimination against Catholics. In the House of Commons, support for civil rights was divided, with many politicians agreeing with the existing civil disabilities of Catholics. The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 restored their civil rights.

In the United States, the term civil rights has been associated with the civil rights movement (1954–1968), which fought against racism. The movement also fought segregation and Jim Crow laws and this fight took place in the streets, in public places, in government, and in the courts including the Supreme Court. The civil rights movement was also not the only movement fighting for civil rights as The Black Panthers were also a group focused on fighting racism and Jim Crow.

Other things that civil rights have been associated with are not just race but also rights of Transgender and other LGBTQ individuals. These have been fights over sexuality instead of race and focused around whether these individuals may access certain spaces like bathrooms according to their sexual identity or biological sex. Gavin Grimm's fight in Virginia over whether he could use the bathroom of his choice is a well known case in these civil right fights.

Another issue in civil rights has been the issue with police brutality in certain communities especially minority communities. This has been seen as another way for minority groups to be oppressed and their rights infringed upon. Outrage has also been a massive result of incidents caught on tape of police abusing and in some cases causing the deaths of people from minority groups such as African Americans. That is why to address the issue has been accountability to police engaging in such conduct as a way to deter other officers from committing similar actions.

Protection of rights

T. H. Marshall notes that civil rights were among the first to be recognized and codified, followed later by political rights and still later by social rights. In many countries, they are constitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined in international human rights instruments, such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Civil and political rights need not be codified to be protected. However, most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil and political rights. Civil rights are considered to be natural rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his A Summary View of the Rights of British America that "a free people their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

The question of to whom civil and political rights apply is a subject of controversy. Although in many countries citizens are considered to have greater protections against infringement of rights than non-citizens, civil and political rights are generally considered to be universal rights that apply to all persons. One thing to mention is that if individuals have fewer political rights than are they more likely to commit political violence such as in countries where individual rights are highly restricted. That is why it is important for countries to protect the political rights of all citizens including minority groups. This extends to racial, ethnic, tribal, and religious groups. By granting them the same rights it helps reduce the risk of political violence breaking out.

According to political scientist Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr., analyzing the causes of and lack of protection from human rights abuses in the Global South should be focusing on the interactions of domestic and international factors—an important perspective that has usually been systematically neglected in the social science literature.

Other rights

Custom also plays a role. Implied or unenumerated rights are rights that courts may find to exist even though not expressly guaranteed by written law or custom; one example is the right to privacy in the United States, and the Ninth Amendment explicitly shows that other rights are also protected.

The United States Declaration of Independence states that people have unalienable rights including "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness". It is considered by some that the sole purpose of government is the protection of life, liberty , and property.

Some thinkers have argued that the concepts of self-ownership and cognitive liberty affirm rights to choose the food one eats, the medicine one takes, and the habit one indulges.

Social movements for civil rights

Civil rights guarantee equal protection under the law. When civil and political rights are not guaranteed to all as part of equal protection of laws, or when such guarantees exist on paper but are not respected in practice, opposition, legal action and even social unrest may ensue.

Civil rights movements in the United States gathered steam by 1848 with such documents as the Declaration of Sentiment. Consciously modeled after the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments became the founding document of the American women's movement, and it was adopted at the Seneca Falls Convention, July 19 and 20, 1848.

Worldwide, several political movements for equality before the law occurred between approximately 1950 and 1980. These movements had a legal and constitutional aspect, and resulted in much law-making at both national and international levels. They also had an activist side, particularly in situations where violations of rights were widespread. Movements with the proclaimed aim of securing observance of civil and political rights included:

• the civil rights movement in the United States, where rights of black citizens had been violated;
• the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, formed in 1967 following failures in this province of the United Kingdom to respect the Roman Catholic minority's rights; and
• movements in many Communist countries, such as the Prague Spring and Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia and the uprisings in Hungary.

Most civil rights movements relied on the technique of civil resistance, using nonviolent methods to achieve their aims. In some countries, struggles for civil rights were accompanied, or followed, by civil unrest and even armed rebellion. While civil rights movements over the last sixty years have resulted in an extension of civil and political rights, the process was long and tenuous in many countries, and many of these movements did not achieve or fully achieve their objectives.

Problems and analysis

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Questions about civil and political rights have frequently emerged. For example, to what extent should the government intervene to protect individuals from infringement on their rights by other individuals, or from corporations—e.g., in what way should employment discrimination in the private sector be dealt with?

Political theory deals with civil and political rights. Robert Nozick and John Rawls expressed competing visions in Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia and Rawls' A Theory of Justice. Other influential authors in the area include Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, and Jean Edward Smith.

First-generation rights

First-generation rights, often called "blue" rights, deal essentially with liberty and participation in political life. They are fundamentally civil and political in nature, as well as strongly individualistic: They serve negatively to protect the individual from excesses of the state. First-generation rights include, among other things, freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, (in some countries) the right to keep and bear arms, freedom of religion, freedom from discrimination, and voting rights. They were pioneered in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century during the Age of Enlightenment. Political theories associated with the English, American, and French revolutions were codified in the English Bill of Rights in 1689 (a restatement of Rights of Englishmen, some dating back to Magna Carta in 1215) and more fully in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789 and the United States Bill of Rights in 1791.

They were enshrined at the global level and given status in international law first by Articles 3 to 21 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In Europe, they were enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights in 1953.

Civil and political rights organizations

The examples and perspective in this section deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this section, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new section, as appropriate. (June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

There are current organizations that exist to protect people's civil and political rights in case they are infringed upon. The ACLU, founded in 1920, is a well-known non-profit organization that helps to preserve freedom of speech and works to change policy. Another organization is the NAACP, founded in 1909, which focuses on protecting the civil rights of minorities. The NRA is a civil rights group founded in 1871 that primarily focuses on protecting the right to bear arms. These organizations serve a variety of causes, one being the AFL–CIO, which is America's union that represent the working-class people nationwide.

See also

• Civics
• Civil liberties
• Discrimination
• List of civil rights leaders
• Political equality
• Repression

References

1. Fokina, Anastasiia O.; Yushchyk, Oleksii O.; Kunenko, Iryna S.; Ryndiuk, Vira I.; Machuska, Iryna B. (2023-12-30). "Normative determination of guarantees of political rights in the sphere of administrative justice" (PDF). Revista Amazonia Investiga. 12 (72): 246–253. doi:10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.22. ISSN 2322-6307.
2. A useful survey is Paul Sieghart, The Lawful Rights of Mankind: An Introduction to the International Legal Code of Human Rights, Oxford University Press, 1985.
3. Mears, T. Lambert, Analysis of M. Ortolan's Institutes of Justinian, Including the History and, p. 75.
4. Fahlbusch, Erwin and Geoffrey William Bromiley, The encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 4, p. 703.
5. "Human Rights: 1500–1760 – Background". Nationalarchives.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 2020-08-07. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
6. "Bill of Rights: The 1st Ten Amendments". Bill of Rights Institute. Archived from the original on 12 November 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
7. "The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829". www.princeton.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-01-25. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
8. "Civil Rights Movement: Timeline, Key Events & Leaders". History. 2024-01-22. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2024-01-25.
9. "A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States: The Black Panther Party This guide focuses on the civil rights that various groups have fought for within the United States". Retrieved September 19, 2024.
10. Rand, Erin J. (2024-01-02). ""The Rosa Parks of the trans bathroom debate": Gavin Grimm and the racialization of transgender civil rights". Quarterly Journal of Speech. 110 (1): 51–73. doi:10.1080/00335630.2023.2259963. ISSN 0033-5630.
11. Clifton, Michael-James; Rab, Suzanne; Scorey KC, David, eds. (2024). Building Bridges in European and Human Rights Law: Essays in Honour and Memory of Paul Heim CMG (1 ed.). Hart Publishing. doi:10.5040/9781509952618.0015. ISBN 978-1-5099-5261-8.
12. Piazza, James (2024-04-02). "Intolerance of non-Muslim political rights and engagement in political violence: a study of public opinion in 11 Arab countries". Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression. 16 (2): 212–226. doi:10.1080/19434472.2022.2061570. ISSN 1943-4472.
13. Dr. Ghulam Mustafa ,Tooba Ahmad ,Muhammad Arslan (2021-09-27). "AN ANALYSIS OF FAMILY LAWS OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN". Pakistan Journal of International Affairs. 4 (3). doi:10.52337/pjia.v4i3.239. ISSN 2664-360X.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. Regilme, Salvador Santino F. Jr. (3 October 2014). "The Social Science of Human Rights: The Need for a 'Second Image Reversed'?". Third World Quarterly. 35 (8): 1390–1405. doi:10.1080/01436597.2014.946255. S2CID 143449409.
15. House Bill 4 Archived 2012-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
16. Robert Book (March 23, 2012). "The Real Broccoli Mandate". Forbes. Archived from the original on March 28, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
17. Meredith Bragg & Nick Gillspie (June 21, 2013). "Cheese Lovers Fight Idiotic FDA Ban on Mimolette Cheese!". Reason. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
18. Jessica Flanigan (July 26, 2012). "Three arguments against prescription requirements". Journal of Medical Ethics. 38 (10): 579–586. doi:10.1136/medethics-2011-100240. PMID 22844026. Archived from the original on December 25, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
19. Kerry Howley (August 1, 2005). "Self-Medicating in Burma: Pharmaceutical freedom in an outpost of tyranny". Reason. Archived from the original on April 29, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
20. Daniel Schorn (February 11, 2009). "Prisoner Of Pain". 60 Minutes. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
21. Emily Dufton (Mar 28, 2012). "The War on Drugs: Should It Be Your Right to Use Narcotics?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on February 19, 2019. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
22. Doug Bandow (2012). "From Fighting the Drug War to Protecting the Right to Use Drugs – Recognizing a Forgotten Liberty" (PDF). Towards a Worldwide Index of Human Freedom. Chapter 10. Fraser Institute. pp. 253–280. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-24.
23. Thomas Szasz (1992). Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market. Praeger. ISBN 9780815603337.
24. "Signatures to the Seneca Falls Convention 'Declaration of Sentiments'". American History Online, Facts On File, Inc.
25. Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn. "Declaration of Rights and Sentiments". Encyclopedia of Women's History in America, 2nd ed. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000. American History Online.
26. Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present Archived 2023-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, 2009. Includes chapters by specialists on the various movements.
27. Domaradzki, Spasimir; Khvostova, Margaryta; Pupovac, David (2019-12-01). "Karel Vasak's Generations of Rights and the Contemporary Human Rights Discourse". Human Rights Review. 20 (4): 423–443. doi:10.1007/s12142-019-00565-x. ISSN 1874-6306.
28. "Types and Generations of Human Rights". faculty.chass.ncsu.edu. Archived from the original on 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
29. "About the ACLU". American Civil Liberties Union. Archived from the original on 2021-01-25. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
30. "Civil Rights Organizations". The Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Archived from the original on 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2020-10-26.

External links

• Resources in your library
• Resources in other libraries

• Altman, Andrew. "Civil Rights". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Global Freedom Struggle ~ an online multimedia encyclopedia presented by the King Institute at Stanford University, includes information on over 1000 civil rights movement figures, events and organizations
• Encyclopædia Britannica: Article on Civil Rights Movement
• The History Channel: Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights: Beyond Black & White – slideshow by Life magazine
• Civil rights during the Eisenhower Administration, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• Arnold, Eric K. "The BLM Effect: Hashtags, History and Race." Race, Poverty & the Environment, vol. 21, no. 2, 2017, pp. 8–15. JSTOR, The BLM Effect: Hashtags, History and Race. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
• Estes, Carroll L. "Women's Rights, Women's Status, Women's Resistance in the Age of Trump." Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, vol. 41, no. 4, 2017, pp. 36–44. JSTOR, Women's Rights, Women's Status, Women's Resistance in the Age of Trump. Accessed 11 Apr. 2023.
• Reckoning with 1898 in a 21st Century Civil Rights Movement
• Be Nice. Project

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