ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, duties have not been as systematically identified, defined and explicated as have rights, particularly at the international and regional levels. Rights theorists have not been as preoccupied with delineating the scope of duties which human beings owe to each other. This may be due in part to the inherent controversy and disagreement which would accompany such a task. One commentator has speculated that the lack of a comprehensive enumeration of human duties is attributable to 'the view of "rights" as all-important and providing for human needs, such that separate consideration of "duties" is unnecessary' .2 The view has also been ventured that a duty-based social order is inherently less subject to universalisation than a rights-based social order. The argument runs that the content of individual duties is very much the product of the religious, social and political culture in which a person lives, whereas the content of individual rights is less context-specific and therefore more amenable to formulation in the abstract.3 Be that as it may, this chapter will be devoted to illustrating that there are certain 'core' human duties which are universally recognised at the international, regional and national levels, regardless of culture or context. Indeed, the content of most of
thesedutiesisconsistentanduniform.Thefollowingindividualduties4willbe examinedinthischapter:
•thedutytoexercisehumanrightsresponsiblyandwithdueconsiderationfortherights ofothers;
•thedutytostriveforthepromotionandobservanceofhumanrights;
•thedutynottoinciteracialhatredandnotengageinpropaganda;
•thedutytosupportfamilymembers;
•thedutytowork;
•thedutytoacquireaneducation;
•thedutyofmilitaryservice;
•thedutyofnationalorpublicservice;
•thedutytoobeytheconstitutionandotherlaws;
•thedutytopaytaxes;
•thedutytovote;
•thedutytopreserveculturalvalues;
•thedutytocontributetosocialwelfare;
•thedutytosafeguardaparticularideology(particularlydemocracy).
