Rights of Man

The “Rights of Man” (often rendered simply as “The Rights”) refers to the Enlightenment concept of natural human rights—as articulated in documents like the 1789 French Declaration—that established Man, rather than God or history, as the source of law and political legitimacy. These rights were proclaimed as universal in principle but in practice were enforced only as national rights.

Claims that use this term

• The Rights of Man were only ever enforced as national rights, not universal ones
• The Rights of Man made Man, not God or history, the source of law.
• The Rights of Man grounded law in Man as its own source.
• The Rights of Man were grounded in a supposed human nature rather than history