Sri Lanka: Is Right to Property a Human Right?
The property rights of business, industries and of entrepreneur nature are considered essential in the present-day society and in economies. It is true that any attempt to make haphazard abolition or containment of such private property would invite disaster like in Pol Pot’s Cambodia. This was also the case during the forced collectivization efforts in the Soviet Union.
(February 11, 2017, Sydney, Sri Lanka Guardian) Is right to property a human right? I really doubt it, in its unqualified and undefined terms. It is extremely controversial. This question has become important in the context that the Sub-Committee on Fundamental Rights on Constitutional Reforms has proposed it to be included in a new constitution. In human rights, there are still areas which are controversial, and the ‘right to property’ is one of them. The important thing is to consider ‘human rights’ as an evolving conception and not to take anything as God given (even there is one or several!) or dogmatic.
