Hmmm........ interesting - the right to do whatever we want....
but that already exists. you DO have the right to do whatever you want - as long as you are super-rich. Laws don't apply to them. whatever they want, they take, with impunity.
9 times out of 10 to get super rich you have to be an arsehole, or be the child / grandchild of an arsehole. Nice guys don't get rich in business.
Your rights or lack of, matter not one whit t them. YOU don't matter to them. The ideal of being free to do whatever you want sounds nice when you are strong willed and powerful enough to stand up for yourself.
But what about the rest?
What about the weak?
What about the disabled?
What about the minorities?
Without human rights, without some sort of rule of law that prohibits their exploitation, they are simply slaves and fodder for those who are stronger.
The rules were not made up (in most cases) to infringe on YOU liberties. they exist to give others the liberties you already have.
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Well it's unsurprising they would get away with it. The whole of society is set up like a corporation. You have your police force, who enforce policy, for the CEO's who make the policy. No need for them to enforce it on themselves of course.
My point though, is that with human rights, there is always going to be a ton of rights that one doesn't have by omission. Because you can't write down every single thing that ought to be a human right.
With none at all, we would do the right thing because it's the right thing. And not because someone has told us what they think should and should not be the right thing.
You would do the right thing. I would do the right thing. We are nice people. But a lot of people are not nice. Without the rules they would prey upon us relentlessly. And then we would have to be not nice in order to survive.
I think it is the legal interpretation of human rights that is the problem.
As you say, the notion that this is the list of rights and that's all you get, is not helpful. but it does keep the lawyers in work.
The better vie is that those writes encoded into law are you basic human rights. These are the obvious rights, the ones that we thought of, the one that were relevant on the day they were encoded into law.
But they are not your only rights.
Your rights are also not given to you by the government, they exits because you exist. the government's job is to protect your rights, because the government's job is to care for its citizens.
I think most governments have forgotten that.