The article analyzes the key historical stages of the formation of human rights. It is determined that each person has a certain spectrum of a priori rights. And today, most democratic countries in the world are striving to ensure that these rights are not only formal but also implemented in practical terms. That is why the last half of the XX century marked the emergence of international recognition of human rights. The author of the article also believes that the mechanisms of ensuring, guaranteeing or observing rights in society begin with its high moral standard, where the person does not infringe the rights of other individuals, or even in the event of such an attack, will consciously follow the punishment provided by the state. In this article, the term human rights was deliberately used, since the author considers it more justified in this context, given that it is a more general category that covers "human and civil rights and freedoms". In other cases, such phrases may be used as "human rights" or "fundamental, fundamental or fundamental rights." Both of these terms have the right to exist and each of them is found in separate European documents. Separately, the article explores the distinction between law and freedom, which is a separate argument to the emergence of a cumulative category, which may include rights and freedoms. Another argument in favor of this opinion, the author calls the possibility of the existence of not only human rights, but also non-human rights, in particular, it is about the rights of animals.