People say “I have a right to that” about many things: a seat they paid for, their own opinions, a fair trial, clean water. Before asking which rights humans have, it helps to ask what kind of thing a right is.

Rights and duties

At its simplest, a right is a justified claim that someone else must respect. If you have a right not to be assaulted, everyone else has a duty not to assault you. If you have a right to be repaid a loan, the borrower has a duty to repay. Rights and duties come in pairs: to say someone has a right is to say someone else owes them something, even if only to leave them alone.

This pairing explains why rights are powerful. A right is not a favor or a hope. It means the person holding it can demand something, and that failing to provide it is a wrong done to that person, not just a missed chance to be kind.

Hohfeld's four kinds of rights

In 1913, the American legal scholar Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld pointed out that the single word “right” covers four different relationships. In simple terms:

• Claim: you are owed something, and someone else has a duty to you. (The lender's right to be repaid.)
• Liberty (Hohfeld said “privilege”): you are free to do something, and no one has a claim that you not do it. (Your liberty to walk in a public park.)
• Power: you can change rights and duties, your own or others'. (Your power to make a will or sign a contract.)
• Immunity: someone else lacks the power to change your rights. (A constitutional protection that a legislature cannot take away by ordinary law.)

Most real rights are bundles of these. Freedom of speech, for example, includes a liberty to speak, a claim that the government not punish you for it, and an immunity against laws that would abolish it.

Negative and positive rights

Another common distinction is between:

• Negative rights: rights to be left alone, which mainly require others to hold back. The right not to be tortured and freedom of religion are classic examples.
• Positive rights: rights to receive something, which require others to act or provide. Rights to education, health care or a fair trial (which needs courts and lawyers) are examples.

Some thinkers argue that only negative rights are true rights, since they can always be respected at once by everyone simply not acting. Others reply that the line is blurry: even protecting negative rights takes police, courts and money. Today many scholars speak of three kinds of duty attached to every human right: to respect it (not violate it), to protect it (stop others from violating it) and to fulfil it (take steps so people can actually enjoy it).

Legal, moral and human rights

A legal right exists because a particular legal system recognizes it. A moral right exists, if it does, whether or not any law recognizes it. Human rights are understood as moral rights that every person holds simply because they are human, regardless of nationality, sex, race, religion or status. They are said to be universal (held by everyone) and inalienable (they cannot be sold, given away or simply removed). Much of human rights work consists of turning these moral claims into legal rights that can actually be enforced.

Worked example: one right, several relationships

Take a simple case. Maya rents an apartment under a one-year lease. What rights does she have, in Hohfeld's terms?

• Claim: the landlord has a duty to let her live there undisturbed and to keep the heating working. If he does not, he wrongs her.
• Liberty: she is free to paint the bedroom (if the lease allows), invite friends over, or leave the lights on. The landlord has no claim that she not do these things.
• Power: she can sublet the apartment (if allowed), which creates new rights and duties between herself and a subtenant.
• Immunity: the landlord cannot cancel her lease at will in the middle of the year; he lacks that power over her.

Now think about a broader, human rights version: a right to adequate housing (UDHR Article 25). Who owes the duty here? Not one landlord, but the state. Using the three duties: the state must respect the right (not bulldoze homes without due process), protect it (stop landlords from illegal evictions), and fulfil it (take steps, over time, so people can find decent housing).

The exercise shows why debates about rights so often go in circles. People arguing “housing is a right” and “housing is not a right” may mean different things: one may be thinking of protection from arbitrary eviction, the other of a guarantee of a free home. Asking which relationship and which duty is meant often clears up the disagreement.