RELG 370 Chapter reading: Reading Human Rights in Domestic Politics and Policy

• School: McGill University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELG 370
• Professor: Dan Cere

Document Summary

A claim to a human right is often issued in the form of a political demand. It can also be advanced as the justification for a public policy. The existence of a right is not only the rational basis of convincing justification for making a political demand or deciding public policy. Majority preference, economic efficiency, average welfare, cultural enrichment and national security may compete with rights. At least three different doctrines or ideologies of individual rights can be found in canadian political discourse. In the mainstream: individual rights have been claimed as traditional political and civil rights. Declaration of independence, political and civil rights have been held to belong to individuals as natural rights. Radical democrats and socialists have advocated a doctrine or human rights, based on developmental theory of human needs. There is the recognition and protection of individual rights made by british traders who moved to quebec in 1760.