DefinePK

Abstract

The defense of human rights has dramatically changed ever since Universal declaration of human rights of 1948. Separately defined as three generations, the first two, civil and political rights, and the economic, social, and cultural rights are well-established in the international legal instruments and national constitutions. The third generation, commonly referred to as the solidarity rights, includes new collective rights like right to development, right to healthy environment and right to cultural identity. These rights address the interdependence in the world and the common problems experienced by human typical of humans that cuts across nations.
This paper discusses the legal background, political meaning as well as the normative dimension of third generation human rights. It claims that these rights are progressively established in soft law instruments, statements and constitutional principles in certain jurisdictions but such rights are not sustained fully enforceable under the binding international law. Besides critiquing the major factors contributing to the necessity of raising Third generation rights as obligatory in place of being ideals, the research evaluates the issues of environmental depletion, cultural homogenization, and inequality in development as the three important issues forcing the raising of the rights advocated. Moreover, it also questions the problem of collective enforcement, the trade-off between universality and cultural specificity as well as the incapability of existing legal systems to defend the environmental and developmental-threated communities.
Relying on the latest trends, such as the fact that the UN General Assembly recognized the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in 2022, the study points out that third generation rights are no longer marginal but primary to sustainability and dignity of the human race throughout the 21st century. In a doctrinal and comparative critical analysis, the paper will look at the evolution of the path of these rights, the institutional reaction to their demands and the kind of global consensus on the significance of these rights emerging currently. It ends up with a suggestion on the necessity of a bold legal codification, multilateral assistance and international solidarity in order to grasp the full potential of third generation human rights in the current international legal perspectives.
Key Words: Third generation rights, Solidarity Rights, Right to Development, Healthy environment, Cultural Identity, International Human Rights Law, Environmental Justice, Global Inequality, Legal Codification.