Abstract

FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Abhayachandran K

Volume: 2 Issue: 4 2012

Abstract:

As social animals, humans are endowed with natural or inalienable rights from the very beginning of their life. In a country where the Constitution is the supreme law, if some human rights are included in the Constitution with the protection of special rights, they are called fundamental rights and take precedence over ordinary laws. That is, some human rights and fundamental freedoms are included in the Constitution to place them above ordinary laws. As the Supreme Court observed, all states, whether democratic or authoritarian, purport to govern for the welfare of the people. What distinguishes a democratic State from a totalitarian one is that a free democratic State respects certain basic human rights or fundamental rights and endeavours to achieve its objectives through the discipline of fundamental freedoms. Hence, modern constitutions enshrine certain basic human rights as fundamental for citizens, and no authority can violate or abrogate such rights without valid reasons. Enshrining such rights in the Constitution and for their protection and development are the result of various struggles, sufferings, and protections organised and participated in by human beings. The history of human rights development in England has one of the longest traditions in the world, including and stemming from the Magna Carta of 1215, the Bill of Rights of 1689 and the Human Rights Act of 1998. Magna Carta, 1215 is the first written document relating to the fundamental rights of citizens. 1689 the Bill of Rights was written, consolidating the English people’s important rights and liberties.

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