possessed prior to and independent of any formal recognition of their existence by governments, law courts or international bodies. These were natural rights, rights one possessed simply by dint of being human. Such rights were thought part of each individual's natural legacy, their human nature. This is why the political philosopher John Locke(1632-1704) justified the existence of certain rights on the basis of their having supposedly existed in humanity's original state. of nature', that situation prior to any social organization having evolved or developed. To