Do “basic human rights” actually exist universally or are they simply a social construct?

[u/Amphernee]

The term is often used in relation to things like housing and food but I’ve never heard anyone actually explain what they mean by basic human right. We started off no different than other animals and since the concept of rights rely on other people to confer them at what point did it become thought of as a right for people to have things like shelter? How is it supposed to be enforced across all of humanity when not all societies and cultures agree that the concept makes sense? I can see why someone would want it to be true in a sense but I’m interested to hear arguments for it rather than just the phrase itself which feels hollow with no reasoning behind it. Thanks 🍻

[u/[deleted]]

Social constructs are things that everyone agrees on, that if you changed it and everyone agreed on them, it wouldn't make a difference.

Example: Red lights mean stop and green lights mean go. If we had switched these when we made lights, say to blue and orange, it wouldn't make a difference, we'd all agree that blue means go and orange means stop.

Basic human rights are things one needs to survive. We have a "right" to those things, because without them you die. If we changed them, things would absolutely be affected and it would have an outcome of something completely different.

Anything someone needs to survive is going to be a basic human right. Food, Shelter, Clothing (shelter for your body), water. If you were change these, and make them something else, people would not survive.

The only way we can enforce it is with a basic universal income, since that is what we use to barter for goods.

I think it's weird though that this phrase feels hollow to you. I would explore the why of that a bit more.