Guarantees of rights

Civil and political rights were among the first to be recognized and codified. In many countries, they areconstitutional rights and are included in a bill of rights or similar document. They are also defined ininternational human rights instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights andInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Civil and political rights need not be codified to be protected, although most democracies worldwide do have formal written guarantees of civil and political rights. Civil rights are often considered to be natural rights. Thomas Jefferson wrote in his 1774 A Summary View of the Rights of British America that "a free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate."

Custom also plays a role. Implied rights are rights that courts may find to exist even though not expressly guaranteed by written law or custom; one example is the right to privacy in the United States.

The question of who civil and political rights apply to is a subject of controversy. In many countries,citizens have greater protections against infringement of rights than non-citizens; at the same time, civil and political rights are considered to be universal rights that apply to all persons.

When civil and political rights are not guaranteed to all as part of equal protection of laws, social unrestmay ensure. Civil rights movements over the last 60 years have resulted in an extension of civil and political rights.