“When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to tyranny.”
Samuel Adams2
Personal liberty has been always held as the most sacra sanctum right in the history of humankind. The struggle for freedom or abolition of slavery or abolition of any kind of oppression has been the main objective of the majority of the human race throughout the glob which has witnessed conflicts and faced wars. All one needs is personal liberty. Life without personal liberty makes no sense or makes life like animal existence. Perhaps, that is the reason why most of the legal systems including
India have placed right to life and personal liberty together. Such an important right has been in question or is undervalued in few legal systems taking away or curtailing personal liberty viś a viś right to life itself. Indian legal system too has come into conflicts when it comes to deal with preventive detention and personal liberty. These are not only the conflicts between Art. 21 and Art. 22 of the Indian Constitution, but also the conflicting contrary to the values or principles of human rights.
Personal liberty under international law
The provisions of personal liberty under international law are not new, although they are not produced in the documentary form, the struggle for personal liberty has originated with the origin of the civilization itself. It was after witnessing two world wars, that the international community came ahead with the Charter of the United Nations and later on the General Assembly of the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948. Article 3 of the UDHR states, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” This has been given a wider recognition by the member States with the adoption of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under Art.4. There are various international conventions and treaties that have been adopted by the international community especially to establish peace and harmony; peace and harmony are the two factors which are very much necessary for enforcing the right to liberty and right to life.
Personal liberty as the principle of human rights
Taking a fair look at the various principles or values of human rights, one can realize that the principles of human rights have undergone change for ages as the human species go on developing. However, two of its principles never underwent any change, namely, a) Universal order governing all men and b) Inalienable rights of the individual. These are nothing but the right to equality and the doctrine of basic structure or fundamental rights. Among the very many rights envisaged as
fundamental rights the prime most rights which include almost all other rights are the right to life and personal liberty. Both these rights have evolved from the values of human rights philosophy. These rights have never undergone change in the past; they are well placed in most of the legal systems today and perhaps, they will continue to be the basic rights in future too.
