Kinds of rights and responsibilities

Kinds of rights:

• Political rights give citizens equality before law and the right to take part in politics: to vote, contest elections, and form or join parties. They are supplemented by civil liberties: a free and fair trial, freedom to express one's views, and the right to protest and dissent. Together, political rights and civil liberties form the basis of democratic government: they make government accountable and let everyone influence its decisions.
• Economic rights: political participation means little to a person living on the pavement who cannot meet basic needs of food, shelter, clothing and health. So democracies increasingly recognise economic rights: an adequate wage and reasonable working conditions, housing and medical care for low-income citizens in some countries, a minimum income for the unemployed in others. India introduced a rural employment guarantee scheme among other measures.
• Cultural rights: such as the right to primary education in one's mother tongue, and to set up institutions for teaching one's language and culture.
• The list keeps growing, though some rights, primarily life, liberty, equal treatment and political participation, are treated as basic and given priority.

Rights and responsibilities. Rights place obligations not only on the state but on each of us:

• Protect the common good. Rights make us think beyond our own needs: protecting the ozone layer, reducing air and water pollution, keeping green cover, preventing deforestation, maintaining ecological balance, for ourselves and for future generations.
• Respect others' rights. If I claim freedom of expression, I must grant it to others; if I want no one to interfere in my choice of clothes or music, I must not interfere in theirs. My rights are limited by the principle of equal rights for all: in exercising mine, I cannot deprive others of theirs.
• Balance rights in conflict. My freedom of expression lets me take photographs, but photographing someone in their home without consent and posting it online would violate their right to privacy.
• Be vigilant about limits placed on rights. Many governments restrict civil liberties for national security. But at what point do security measures themselves threaten rights: arrest on mere suspicion, intercepting mail, tapping phones, torture to extract confessions? The test is whether a person poses an imminent threat; even arrested persons must have legal counsel and a hearing before a magistrate. Such powers can be misused and governments can turn authoritarian.

Rights are never absolute, but we must stay vigilant in protecting our rights and those of others, because they form the basis of a democratic society.

Example (new): a group may put up posters for its cause in public spaces, but not paste them over a neighbour's shop sign; its freedom of expression is limited by the neighbour's equal rights.