The first generation consists of civil and political rights, mainly based on natural rights philosophy of the eighteenthcentury thinkers such as Locke and Rousseau. The second generation consists of economic, social and cultural rights, which were propagated and recognized after the advent of socialism in the twentieth century. The emphasis in both has been on the individual’s rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which is the embodiment of the rights of both
these generations, attaches equal importance to
political and economic rights and consider them
as interdependent. However, in the 1970s, a “third
generation” rights emerged with the predominant
support of the developing countries. In contrast to
the individual’s rights (i.e., the first two generations
rights), these are collective or group rights such
as the right to development, right to healthy
human environment, right to peace, and right to
self-determination. They are enshrined in the 1986
Declaration on the Right to Development.