What Are Unalienable Rights? Understanding Your Natural Rights

What Are Unalienable Rights? Understanding Your Natural Rights

Unalienable rights are rights understood as inherent to human beings rather than simply privileges given by another individual. The concept has played an important role in ideas surrounding liberty, individual rights, government and the rule of law.

Throughout history, natural-rights principles have influenced some of the world's most significant declarations concerning freedom and human rights.

What Does "Unalienable Rights" Mean?

The idea of unalienable rights is closely connected with natural rights — rights considered inherent to an individual.

Perhaps the most famous use of the term appears in the United States Declaration of Independence of 1776.

The Declaration states that individuals possess certain "unalienable Rights" and identifies among them:

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It goes on to connect the purpose of government with securing these rights and states that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

What Are Examples of Fundamental Rights?

Ideas surrounding fundamental rights extend into many areas of human life, including:

- Life and liberty

- Privacy and family life

- Property

- Freedom of expression

- Freedom of religion and conscience

- Peaceful assembly

- Equality

- Security of the individual

- Fair and lawful hearings

- Presumption of innocence

These principles concern both personal freedom and the protections individuals should have when dealing with authority.

Life, Liberty and Security

The protection of life and liberty remains central to modern statements of human rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, states that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Article 3 recognises the right to life, liberty and security of the individual.

The Declaration also addresses protections concerning arbitrary arrest and detention, equality before the law and the right to a fair and public hearing.

Privacy and Property

Individual rights also extend to an individual's private life and property.

The UDHR states that no one should be subjected to arbitrary interference with their privacy, family, home or correspondence.

Property rights have also historically formed an important part of discussions surrounding individual liberty and the relationship between individuals and authority.

Presumption of Innocence and a Fair Hearing

Another important principle is that a person accused of an crime should be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.

The UDHR also recognises the right to a fair and public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal.

These principles place lawful procedures between an accusation and the loss of an individual's liberty or rights.

Freedom of Expression, Belief and Assembly

Fundamental rights are not limited to physical liberty.

Freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression and peaceful assembly are also recognised within modern human-rights principles.

These freedoms allow individuals to hold beliefs, express ideas and peacefully associate with others without arbitrary interference.

Rights and the Rule of Law

Rights and the rule of law are closely connected.

The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.

The principle is significant because recognising a right is only part of the picture. Systems of law and justice also provide mechanisms through which recognised rights and freedoms can be protected.

Why Are Unalienable Rights Important?

The concept of unalienable rights places the individual at the centre of important questions about liberty, authority and government.

From the natural-rights language found in the Declaration of Independence to the international human-rights principles expressed in the UDHR, the underlying idea has continued to influence how societies understand freedom, dignity, equality and individual rights.

Understanding these principles provides an important foundation for exploring Common Law, consent, lawful authority and the historical development of individual rights.