What is the distinction between positive rights and negative rights?
Talk about human rights is something that has evolved over time, particularly in the past 70 or so years. Since the creation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Right the idea of Positive and also Negative human rights has emerged it needs to be made clear how these two different types of human rights differ from each other. One way to contrast the two different types of rights would be the ‘the right too (positive) vs. freedom from (negative)’. These rights can also be seen as the ability to have the things that all human beings need to survive as well as having the right to be left alone to do the things that you want to do, and speak your mind at any place or forum that you wish to speak at. They are two very different concepts yet each can prevent the other from occurring in particular cases.
Positive rights are rights where people have the right to obtain particular things, or have access to things that are needed to survive. Some common examples of this would include healthcare, welfare payments or education as well as shelter and food. Positive rights are ones that must be acted upon and justified by an individual and not by a governing body, meaning that an individual must state claim to this right before they can have access to this right. Healthcare is a good example of a positive right. In Australia we have the Medicare system. This is a government funded program that provides subsidies for medical treatment to citizens and permanent residents of Australia. A person’s right to healthcare in practice can be demonstrated by a person that believes they require some type of medical procedure. Now in order for the patient to be able to retrieve a subsidy on they would have to justify this by being able to fulfil certain criteria in order to receive the healthcare. The person, or even perhaps the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of the person would have to earn below a certain amount...