What are human rights? Who confers them? Are they fixed and absolute, or do they change with changing circumstances over time?

I believe we have the right to survive as best we can, in competition with other species and with members of our own, on a playing field that is as level as we can make it. That’s about it. Anything else is up for negotiation.

Man-made laws can confer rights on a community, a nation or the whole of humanity. Those laws can be amended or replaced, responding to the tidal flows of history and ideas. Therefore the rights bestowed by them are fragile. It is imperative that we, the pawns on the human chessboard, stay vigilant for erosion of our rights; and energetic in adding to the list.