What are your intrinsic human rights?
A lot of the time in my work with clients, we have to get back to the fundamentals. We explore things like roles, expectations, boundaries, needs, communication, and basic rights. Somewhere along the way, I found a very helpful list of intrinsic human rights in the book “The Narcissist in Your Life” by Julie L. Hall:
You have the right to your own thoughts and beliefs.
You have the right to disagree with others.
You have the right not to share your thoughts.
You have the right to express yourself freely.
You have the right to love and not love whom you wish.
You have the right to your own feelings.
You have the right not to feel what others feel or want you to feel.
You have the right to equal treatment.
You have the right to respectful treatment.
You have the right to advocate for your needs.
You have the right to advocate for your loved ones’ needs.
You have the right to privacy and dignity.
You have the right to protect and defend yourself against attack.
You have the right to equal legal protection.
You have the right to personal safety and security. ***
*Julie L. Hall notes that these are adapted from the United Nations, General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Adopted the 10th December 1948 in Plenary Session by the General Assembly of the United Nations, UNESCO, 1948.
Take note especially of #10. This is where I find a lot of people stuck. And oftentimes, there is work to be done around figuring out what your needs actually are first, before we can identify ways in which you can advocate for them.
Which of these rights stands out to you most?
***List of rights is from: Hall, J. L. (2019). The narcissist in your life: Recognizing the patterns and learning to break free. Da Capo Lifelong Books/Hachette Book Group.
