Ignoring Property Rights is Unwise

I wanted to point out an oversight of the "core" documents: recognition of property rights. Beitz seems to view this oversight as relatively inconsequential, he dedicates only a sentence of discussion to this point, writing, "The only significant reduction in scope concerns the right to own property: vaguely acknowledged in the declaration (art.17), it is missing altogether from both covenants." (28). To separate property rights from protection of human rights more generally, however, seems unwise. When we think about many of the rights encapsulated in human rights, protection of property rights is essential to their protection. Take one of the lesser human rights, the right to a economic system that serves one's needs. If property rights are not protected, incentives for investment are harmed, the possibility of the formation of extractive economic institutions is heightened, and individuals are distinctly harmed day in and day out through the fear that their property rights are not ensured. My intention in highlighting the lack of discussion of property rights is not to point out that any of the other rights in the "core" documents are not worthy of being protected, but that many of them are only able to be protected by a system that protects property rights. Thus, property rights are the basis for those rights, and more discussion of the role of property rights and their relation to human rights is warranted, as well as their inclusion in documentation of human rights.