Shattuck On Liberty

One of the most prominent human rights is the right to life, liberty, and personal security. This essay is going to analyze specifically on the role of the right to “liberty” with a global perspective. Most people may associate liberty as freedom. Charles E. Shattuck analyzed and defines the meaning of liberty on a more in depth scale. Shattuck wrote, “ The word " liberty," used in its broadest and most general sense, means and includes all those great rights, remedies, and guarantees which a human being has in a given state of society or under a given government” (Shattuck, 1891, p. 361). It should be noted that the meaning of liberty can and is applied differently throughout global struggles with human rights. First and foremost, it should be noted that the right to have liberty could be defined as a negative right. Isaiah Berlin has explained,

How high liberty ranks on the global agenda could be argued; however, it seems that one could strongly argue that liberty plays a role within many of the human rights issues and violations that people are fighting to overcome. Liberty plays a role within issues concerning child soldiers, human trafficking, women’s rights, slave labor, refugees, terrorism, and ETC. Many of these issues have been discussed recently regarding conflicts in Syria, leading many refugees to seek freedom and safety. Another recent example of the right to liberty gaining traction is the attention that was brought to Joseph Kony and his utilization and treatment of child soldiers. It’s examples such as these current events that prove that the varied concepts and meanings of liberty are relative within many different human rights violations. Thus, many of the causes that are highly ranked on the global agenda involve the right to liberty in a myriad of