Editing Individual and group rights (section)

{{Short description|Notion of rights of individuals and collective rights}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}
{{Rights|Distinctions}}
'''Individual rights''', also known as '''natural rights''', are [[rights]] held by individuals by virtue of being human. Some theists believe individual rights are bestowed by [[God]]. An individual right is a moral claim to freedom of action.<ref name="TaraSmith 2012">{{Cite web|author=Tara Smith|title=Moral rights and political freedom|url=https://archive.org/details/moralrightspolit0000smit/page/n3/mode/2up|website=archive.org|date=1995 |language=en}}</ref>

'''Group rights''', also known as '''collective rights''', are [[rights]] held by a group as a whole rather than individually by its members.<ref name="SEP">{{cite web|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-group/ |title=Group Rights (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) |publisher=Plato.stanford.edu |date=2008-09-22 |access-date=2015-03-30}}</ref> In contrast, '''individual rights''' are rights held by [[Individuality|individual people]]; even if they are group-differentiated, which most rights are, they remain individual rights if the right-holders are the individuals themselves.<ref name="Jones 2010">{{harvp|Jones|2010|p=39ss}}</ref>{{confusing-inline|date=December 2024}}

Individual rights and group rights are often incompatible. An appeal to group rights is often used to promote violation of individual rights. Historically, group rights have been used both to infringe upon and to facilitate individual rights, and the concept remains controversial.<ref name="Bisaz 2012">{{harvp|Bisaz|2012|pp=7–12}}</ref>