A Probe into the Justification for the Illusive Pursuit of Positive and Negative Human Rights Separately
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66563/ftmcs627Abstract
As Peter Ala Adjetey argues in “Economic and Social Rights and Their Relationship with Political and Civil Rights” (1993-1995) 19 Rev Ghana L 182, civil and political rights are often regarded as negative rights since they impose limitations on governments and non-state actors. Economic, social, and cultural rights on the other hand are positive rights because they confer positive terms for their fulfillment and states must take positive action to the maximum extent possible to ensure their development and enjoyment. The state must not interfere with negative rights but must take all necessary steps to progressively advance positive rights and assist its citizens in realizing them. But are these rights distinguishable? Can one be achieved in the shadow of the other, or is it indeed vain to pursue one divorced from the other as has been argued by some scholars? The mirage of fulfilment of these rights singularly is what this paper endeavours to bring to shore while highlighting the benefits of a unison pursuit. Without the effective realization of civil and political rights; economic, social, and cultural rights may not be fully achieved and vice versa.
This paper particularly looks into the differences between civil and political rights vis a vis economic and socio-cultural rights and the reasons behind the negative and positive steps towards their fulfilment, the reasons for their division, the measures that states are required to take to ensure their fulfilment, the challenges faced in the achievement or process of promotion of these rights, and how these rights relate to each other using secondary data compiled from online databases, books, journals, and other secondary sources. The data has been analysed by descriptive analysis among other tools and findings are herein elucidated.
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