Human rights, rights of a person, fundamental rights, constitutional and quazi-constitutional rights — there are many names and nuances, but the idea is the same.
Human and other rights
In a free and democratic society (which we aspire to be) certain individual rights are inalienable, precious, and protected by law. Rights to life, personal security, freedoms of conscience, religion, opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, peaceful enjoyment of property, dignity and honour, reputation and privacy, inviolability of home, protection against discrimination and harassment, access to justice, civil rights and so on.
Contradictions
Yet, when it comes to practice, certain contradictions appear. First, most of the rights are guaranteed “to the extent provided by law”, they should be exercised “in good faith” and not with an intent to harm someone or in an excessive and unreasonable manner. As you can see, questions come up as to what is the good measure of the rights and limitations — particularly when it comes to real facts of every specific situation.
To add to the complexity, rights often clash against each other. Freedom of expression is limited, for example, by a prohibition to demonstrate symbols of discrimination. It does not cover hate speech and, most commonly, goes against the right to reputation and privacy. Personal security and freedom right is limited not only by criminal law but also by certain administrative regulations and often goes against peaceful enjoyment of property. Same peaceful enjoyment right together with municipal regulations have a tendency to limit the freedom of peaceful assembly, and so forth.
So, what are your rights?
As it appears, it is not enough to know that you have rights. For practical purposes it is also important to know the limits — imposed by the others’ rights, public order and interests of society at large. And let’s not forget about material limits, like lack of certain resources, which might effectively bar many people from access to justice, for example.
A failure to consider those limitations is one of the reasons why good people find themselves in legal trouble while they honestly think they have the right to act the way they do. On the opposite side, sometimes good people do not exercise their rights because they are not sure what kind of a right they have.
As an obvious conclusion, in case of any doubt consulting a human rights lawyer seems to be a quite appropriate idea. As they say, the only right you really have is the one you can protect.
Allen Madelin Lawyers provide consultations and representation in civil litigation cases. In need, please contact us by phone: 1 514 904 4017 or by email: [email protected].
