Which term refers to rights that are inherent and universal?

Which term refers to rights that are inherent and universal?

• A. Civil Rights
• B. Political Rights
• C. Economic Rights
• D. Natural Rights

Answer: (D)

Rights that belong to every person by nature and cannot be given or taken away by governments are natural rights. This makes them universal—they apply to all humans regardless of where they live or what laws exist. Civil rights, by contrast, are protections and privileges granted and enforced by a government within a country; political rights concern the ability to participate in government; economic rights relate to access to resources and economic opportunity as shaped by policy. The idea of natural rights, especially as discussed by Enlightenment thinkers and echoed in the French Revolution through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, frames these universal rights as inherent to human beings rather than created by laws.

Rights that belong to every person by nature and cannot be given or taken away by governments are natural rights. This makes them universal—they apply to all humans regardless of where they live or what laws exist. Civil rights, by contrast, are protections and privileges granted and enforced by a government within a country; political rights concern the ability to participate in government; economic rights relate to access to resources and economic opportunity as shaped by policy. The idea of natural rights, especially as discussed by Enlightenment thinkers and echoed in the French Revolution through the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, frames these universal rights as inherent to human beings rather than created by laws.