Rights are embodiments of liberties and freedom and are fundamental for individuals to live together. Throughout history, explorations, Magna Carta, revolutions, social classes and political influencers aroused the concept of rights. Rights have been declared through various institutions such as the UN, UE and also in American Declaration of Independence, or local constitutions, all of which emphasize freedom and equality in rights. As Mill (1865) states “The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs.”, one can say that rights, not only natural but also political, juridical, economical and ethical forms, are both to give us freedom and to restrict; furthermore, higher institutions and states are needed for regulation.

The concept of rights is central to politics; because politics, which could be defined as power struggles between individuals and institutions, is related to humanities and takes individuals as center. Over the years, political influencers such as Locke, Marx and various others and their ideologies worked on human self-interest, right to vote, public services, democracies, parliamentary means, social justice, regulations, economic and political stability and welfare state systems by positioning individuals as the core, bringing rights as an issue and linking it to equality and justice in their ideologies and political movements. Yet, how far these ideologies and efforts have gone from theory can be discussed. In theory, Article 2 from the UN Declaration states that rights are for everybody “without distinction”; yet in practice, this could be only regarded as a theory because there is no absolute implementation of rights due to different political systems, ideologies, different paces of development and economies.

Although politics already includes humanities, inequality as a problem also remarks rights and relates it to freedom, justice and positions rights in the center of political ideologies. Inequalities are strived to be enhanced by democracy, in which minorities have an effect, with the right of expression and vote. Nevertheless, there are also authoritarian states where democracy is limited or which do not implement rights in every case or do only in their favour. One can understand that not the notion of rights but its implementation is quite controversial.

Moreover, not only authoritarian states’ approach but also developed countries’ interventions in underdeveloped countries, which are said to bring peace and give people their rights, could be an example. Also, uprisings in the world in the past 10 years take freedom and therefore rights as centre. As some of the solutions, democracy and social policies prove to enhance social inequalities; yet because development is not the same within every country, and also every part of the county, they still are not enough.

In conclusion, as discussed above, politics takes the concept of right as centre; because, rights are for individuals and individuals are the subject of politics. Thus, saying that politics will always be in our lives no matter whether we are aware or not and the concept of rights will be shaped according to that would not be wrong.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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