Can communal goods be human rights?

There is talk today of a ‘new generation’ of human rights. An idea which was associated in the first instance with civil and political liberties (‘first generation’ rights), and which was used after the Second World War to express popular aspirations to economic and social well-being (‘second generation’ rights), is now being invoked as a vehicle for claims about the importance of the environment, peace, and economic development, particularly in the Third World. No one doubts that these are worthy aims. But instead of merely saying that Third World countries need to develop their economies, instead of saying simply that peace is essential in a nuclear world, and that we must maintain and respect the eco-systems on which human life depends, the proclamation is being made that these are human rights —things to which people are entitled in the same way that they are entitled to democratic freedom or the right not to be tortured.