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My home state has a "Charter of Rights and Responsibilities". It's a pretty reasonable attempt at providing legislative protection of a number of civil and political (i.e., first generation) rights (a sort of "Bill of Rights", if you will), and includes review of legislation for consistency with the Charter (albeit with an at times flawed review process that seems to be undertaken by politicians or public servants without reference to experts, such as those who live with discrimination: as this has resulted in a major adverse impact on my life [and may force me to change jobs against my will], I'm particularly annoyed at this, and ), an organisation with educative and other duties and a separate organisation for complaints, and regular review of the basic legislation.
My major criticism of the Charter is the inclusion of "Responsibilities" - something I suspect was done to get the neoliberals and their ilk of similar mind on side.
I do not have a responsibility to do something to get or keep the right not to be tortured.
I do not have to prove I am responsible enough to have earned the right to live, and neither do I have to justify my right to be recognised and equal before the law.
These rights are inviolabilities of the person: they are inherent, and I have them simply by the fact of existing.
Other rights are not in the same category. For example, the rights to liberty and movement are subject to my being a law-abiding person.
Other rights apply only to specific people - for instance, cultural rights belong to cultures, and others cannot claim them. I cannot, for example, claim to have any access to indigenous rights (one of my sisters possibly could, as she was married to an indigenous man who she lived with for long enough to have a child, but I had no connection with that - she is in my birth family, and I didn't find her until long after her husband had passed away and she had moved back to the east coast).
There is another possibility here: the inclusion of "responsibilities" may be referring to the responsibilities that these rights impose on organisations. That interpretation I agree with :)
