The covenant stated that when people can enjoy their civil and political rights, only then can the ideal of civil and political freedom and freedom from fear and want be achieved as is in accordance with the universal declaration of human rights. These rights guarantee to protect citizens from the abuse of state power.
Civil and political rights were
Welfare rights are the additional rights that are given to citizens of the state in addition to the ‘fundamental’ civil and political rights. These include equality and nondiscrimination for women and minorities, access to employment opportunities, fair pay, safe and healthy working conditions, the right to form trade unions and bargain collectively, social security, an adequate standard of living (covering adequate food, clothing, and housing), health care, and education. This category also includes duties of the state such as: to secure full employment for all people of working age, to provide adequate standards of living and education to all citizens, to rapidly develop the country, to distribute the social product equitably, to eliminate economic and social privilege and disparity, to ensure social security and welfare, to develop the culture and languages of ethnic groups, to protect the environment, to safeguard the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the country and to promote international peace and co-operation.
In today’s era, with globalization becoming the norm, the December 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations has taken on an even greater prominence. They are viewed as a set of norms or standards, which are globally accepted and form an important aspect of our relations as individuals, collective members of groups or trade unions, associations or even among nations. Human rights can be judged as moral and/or legal rights.
The Human Rights Act 1998 is pertinent in this context as this act sets out to give a stronger impression of the rights that have been guaranteed to members of the state in the European Convention of Human Rights. Here the convention rights refer to the rights and the fundamental freedoms set out in Articles 2 to 12 and Article 14 of the convention. It also includes articles 1 to 3 of the first protocol and articles 1 and 2 of the sixth protocol, as read in the background of articles 16 and 18 of the convention.
In context of the modern day era, the welfare rights are losing their value as rights and are viewed as merely ‘claims’ or ‘expectations.’ This can be accounted for because of the following facts. Firstly, welfare rights are not seen as truly serving the fundamental interests. Secondly, welfare rights are very burdensome on governments and taxpayers; that is, they require a lot of finance and resources to be maintained. And finally, welfare rights are not feasible in the less-developed countries or in the developing countries. For instance, take the example of India. How can job security and employment be provided to a nation of more than a billion people!!! And in nations, where resources and finances are scarce, it is next to impossible to guarantee fair pay to the employed section of the population. This does not mean to say that the welfare rights pose unreasonable demands. In an ideal situation, each of those rights would be highly credited. It is just that in the context of real life, where only a fraction of the world’s nations are fully developed, can such rights of citizens be fulfilled.
