Question

what is the relationship between rights and citizenship with example​

Answer 1

Rights -

All humans have certain rights. They possess these by virtue of being humans. These rights cannot be taken away at anytime—even with the ‘prior informed consent’ of the individual. Even an invading army has to ensure these rights of the ‘conquered’ people. This includes 20 litres of water per day, adequate sanitation, and security. Even criminals need to be ensured these rights.

The rights of citizenship must be seen within the context that all rights are indivisible and interdependent. Citizenship rights however, are only for ‘citizens’. They cannot be claimed by, for instance, refugees. There are three distinguishing factors of citizenship from human rights. The key citizenship rights are the rights to:

• Participate in government

• Dissent.

• Self-regulation and correction.

The core of human rights is ‘dignity for all at all times’, while for citizenship it is an acknowledgement of ‘agency’—of the ability to ‘act’, of ‘personhood’ or ‘adulthood’.

Citizens-

2.1 Participate in governmentOnly citizens have the right to elect and be elected. While even refugees can claim good governance as their right, it is only citizens who can claim participation in government as a right. The choice of government and representatives is intrinsic to participation. This means that in monarchies there are less citizens than in democracies. The more egalitarian the society, the more likely that there will be more citizens. With increasing cost of participation in elections, even democracies are restricting participation to only the wealthy.The right to information movement is one of the most prominent global movements for citizenship. The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, MKSS, of Rajasthan in North West India was able to force the government to share information with the people. The right to information has now become the right of all Indian citizens. Taking back the state from the government is the core of citizenship movements. It flows from the human right to ‘informed consent’.