GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF GENERATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

Human rights are considered in the doctrine of constitutional law as an important element of the legal status of an individual. The increasing attention of society to the problems of human rights, associated, among other things, with the widespread use of natural legal understanding as a type of legal understanding, determines the need for their systematization and classification. In this regard, the concept of generations of human rights proposed by Karel Vasak is interesting. The article characterizes three «classical» generations of human rights, the allocation of which is based on the generational approach, at the same time reflecting the dichotomies known within other classifications. The issues of genesis, that is, origin, and evolution, that is, further development, freedom rights (personal and political rights), equality rights (social, economic and cultural rights) and solidarity rights (collective rights) are raised. The characteristics of human rights of the first generation are given as negative, individual and national, human rights of the second generation as positive, individual and national, human rights of the third generation as positive, collective and international. In the course of the study, it is noted that at the present stage, the boundaries between human rights groups are often blurred. The main approaches to the identification of «new» generations of human rights based on the substantive and generational aspects of classification are formulated. The fourth generation of human rights, including informational and somatic rights, is characterized. It is suggested that with the progress of social and scientific and technological progress, it is possible both to expand the scope and content of the concept of human rights of the fourth generation, and to allocate new generations of human rights.