Collective rights are held by a group, rather than any one individual. They have typically been a focus of indigenous peoples and other groups whose rights are threatened by an individualistic, capitalist system. For example, much of the "Third World" (now Global South) organizing in the 1980s and 1990s focused on collective rights and finding ways to enforce those rights in addition to the more widely-recognized individual rights. Some examples include:
The right to speak one's native language and educate children in that language; the right to cultural preservation
The rights of indigenous peoples to land and resources held collectively, and the right to pass land and resources down through the generations
Environmental rights to clean air, water, and land
The right to national self-determination
The right to development
The right to autonomous self-government for minority groups
The right to restitution for lands stolen from the collective
Collective rights are held by a group, rather than any one individual. They have typically been a focus of indigenous peoples and other groups whose rights are threatened by an individualistic, capitalist system. For example, much of the "Third World" (now Global South) organizing in the 1980s and 1990s focused on collective rights and finding ways to enforce those rights in addition to the more widely-recognized individual rights.
