   rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory. rights are of essential importance in such disciplines as law and ethics, especially theories of justice and deontology. rights are often considered fundamental to civilization, being regarded as established pillars of society and culture,un udhr preamble: "whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." and the history of social conflicts can be found in the history of each right and its development. according to the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, "rights structure the form of governments, the content of laws, and the shape of morality as it is currently perceived." ==definitional issues==  there is considerable disagreement about what is meant precisely by the term rights. it has been used by different groups and thinkers for different purposes, with different and sometimes opposing definitions, and the precise definition of this principle, beyond having something to do with normative rules of some sort or another, is controversial. one way to get an idea of the multiple understandings and senses of the term is to consider different ways it is used. many diverse things are claimed as rights: {{cquote|a right to life, a right to choose; a right to vote, to work, to strike; a right to one phone call, to dissolve parliament, to operate a forklift, to asylum, to equal treatment before the law, to feel proud of what one has done; a right to exist, to sentence an offender to death, to launch a nuclear first strike, to carry a concealed weapon, to a distinct genetic identity; a right to believe one's own eyes, to pronounce the couple husband and wife, to be left alone, to go to hell in one's own way.{{cite news |title = stanford encyclopedia of philosophy |quote = rights dominate most modern understandings of what actions are proper and which institutions are just. rights structure the forms of our governments, the contents of our laws, and the shape of morality as we perceive it. to accept a set of rights is to approve a distribution of freedom and authority, and so to end
Concepts_in_ethics Law Libertarian_theory Rights Social_concepts