A: A right is something that someone cannot take away from you. If someone is denied a right there is a legal process to address it. “Human rights” are those rights that all people have just because they are human beings. Each place (province, country, group of countries, etc.) has its own human rights laws, so, from a legal perspective, what is a human right in one place may not be a human right in another place.
People will sometimes talk about rights that are not included in the law of a specific place, but that many people think should be included. For example, someone might say that people have a “right” to have shelter provided for them when they are very poor, especially in cold climates. In Alberta, there is no law that gives people a right to shelter or housing, so, if the Alberta government stopped proving emergency shelters for the homeless, they would not being doing anything illegal. However, many people think that the poor should have access to a warm place to sleep when it is very cold, so they will talk about a “right to shelter.” This is an appropriate way to use the term “human right” but you should keep this use separate from human rights within the context of the law. When someone or some organization denies you a right that is not included in the law and you don’t have a legal process to get a solution to the problem, you may have other ways of getting help. For example, you could get the public to pressure the government to have the laws changed.
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