A human as a right holder of human rights

The basic question of the concept of human rights is who actually has human rights. In other words, who is the human subject as the bearer of human rights and whose rights should be protected? The basic answer is people: they possess human rights simply because they are humans. But the notion of "person" or "people" as the bearer of human rights has changed significantly in the history of the development of the human rights concept. Entire groups by racial, gender, age and other criteria were refused to have human rights "by default" for a long time. In the period of antiquity, the bearer of human rights is an exceptionally free adult man living in a polis and satisfying other conditions, including doing military service and owing property. In the Age of the Enlightenment, the idea of a universal equality of everybody appears and is affirmed. However, along with this, slavery continues to exist, and no one seriously discusses issues concerning the possible equality, for example, between men and women. Children and many other social groups cannot realise human rights. In the mid-20th century, after World War II, a new stage in the development of the concept of human rights begins. In this time, the list of rights and the number of their bearers increase. The ideas of a universal equality are reflected in international documents binding for all countries. The rights of women, children, disabled people, etc. are described separately. However, the problem of the actual implementation of equality in rights is still far from being fully resolved. There are new challenges. One of the topical questions is when exactly a human becomes a human, in particular, whether the unborn have rights. From his decision The policy in the field of abortion depends on the answer to this question. Can animals have the same rights as humans? Should human rights be granted to robots? Thus, the issue of who the bearer of human rights is is still topical nowadays.

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