The term 'collective rights' refers to rights which are held and exercised by all the people collectively, or by specific subsets of the people. They stand in contrast to
individual rights which are held only by individuals. This category of rights is large and heterogeneous: it includes the purported right of
trade unions to
bargain collectively, the right to bring
class-action suits
[1], and most prominently the right to
democratic self determination, the
freedom to roam, and the
right of revolution. Debatably the
civil right to keep and bear firearms in the United States is also a collective right.
[2],
This is a controversial topic, particularly where claims to collective rights conflict with the claims of
individual rights. It is very much an open question whether collective rights ought to be considered legitimate at all, and, if so, how these collective rights are best balanced with individual rights.
In
1948 the
United Nations General Assembly's
Universal Declaration of Human Rights was endorsed by many modern nation-states. With the exception of the 'right to self-determination', all rights specified were based on the individual.
Collective rights are associated with
third-generation rights.
References
1. Kymlicka Will. 1995. ''Multicultural Citizenship'' Oxford: University Press, p.45, pp.34-35
2. Summary of Second Amendment Case Law - Federal Cases accessed 6/3/07 http://www.lcav.org/content/secondamendment.asp
See also
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Diaspora politics
★
Identity politics
★
Self-determination
★
Group rights