What is the right to life
Right to life
What is the right to life
The right to life is defined as the right that every human being has not to be deprived of life and dignity in any way, that is, it is the universal right to live one's own life.
The right to life is enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promulgated in 1948, which states that:
Every individual has the right to life, liberty and security.
States and various social institutions are supposed to have the duty to protect, respect and guarantee the lives of human beings in all circumstances. This is not limited only to preventing death and murder, but to promoting optimal conditions for the development of a dignified life.
By virtue of this, any deliberate attempt to harm, injure or deprive a person of life is considered a violation of the right to life.
The right to life has inspired and founded most of the world's international treaties and constitutions since its promulgation, as it has diverse implications. Between them:
- the right of freedom;
- the right to security;
- the right to survival and
- the right to full development .
Among some concrete examples of protection of the right to life we can mention:
- Abolition of the death penalty;
- Laws for the protection of citizens, especially the most vulnerable:
- Laws for the protection of children and adolescents:
- Laws for the protection of women;
- Right to asylum (for refugees).
Importance of the right to life
Philosophical, sociological, anthropological, ethical, biological, political and religious principles are recognized around the justification of the right to life (life as a sacred gift).
However, the initial spirit that accompanied the formulation of the right to life in 1948 was to contain and put an end to the repression and abuse of the state and governmental apparatus against the life of civilians, which had reached monstrous levels in the Second World War.
Both the Holocaust and other disasters of the war highlighted the urgent need to protect people from the death penalty and extermination policies pursued by governments.
Thus, the right to life becomes a fundamental and indispensable condition for the enjoyment of freedom, security and full development of the person in an environment of social guarantees.
The right to life and the death penalty
The right to life, as we have seen, was born to put a stop to the death penalty. Currently, there is significant tension around the existence of the death penalty in some countries, even in some subscribed to human rights. In this sense, human rights defenders continue to fight for the elimination of the death penalty, understanding it as a violation of the universality of the right to life.
The right to life and the right to be born
For a sector of society, human life begins from conception. For this reason, for this sector the right to life begins with the defense of the right to be born. Religions have been particularly belligerent on this issue, consistently opposing the legalization of abortion.
Another sector of society considers that human life only begins from a certain level of development of the fetus or from birth. In this way, they conceive that abortion does not represent a violation of the right to life since the subject would not exist until having reached a certain fetal development or until the end of delivery.
The right to life, armed conflict and social insecurity
The right to life is particularly violated by social insecurity (common underworld or organized underworld) as well as by different armed conflicts . These situations generate important migratory mobilizations of people who seek to protect their lives and that of their loved ones, which are called refugees .
The governments that subscribe to human rights must have adequate policies for the care and protection of these social groups.
In this case, a concrete example of the defense and protection of the right to life is that the legislation contemplates the right to asylum and subsidiary protection .
The right to life and the environment
The climatic changes that the world is facing today constitute, in themselves, a threat to the right to life of future generations. This premise drives the work of an important part of the world's environmental organizations.