Buddhist Precepts and the Corresponding Human Rights

This article explores the correspondence between the Buddhist moral code of the five precepts (pañcasīla) and the modern framework of human rights. While the five precepts are traditionally conceived as personal ethical commitments within the Buddhist path, they also embody core values aligned with universal human rights, including the right to life, property, dignity, fidelity, and safety. Drawing upon primary Pāli sources and contemporary scholarship, this study analyzes each precept in relation to a specific human right, elaborates on their underlying virtues such as ahiṃsā (non-harming) and sīla (ethical discipline), and discusses whether these ethical guidelines can serve as an alternative or complementary foundation to human rights discourse. Further, it engages with Buddhist perspectives on whether human rights are natural or conventional, investigates interpretive disagreements among scholars such as Damien Keown, Phra Payutto, and Somparn Promta, and reflects on the practical application of these ethics in Buddhist-majority societies. The paper concludes that the five precepts, while religious in origin, offer significant ethical resources for grounding human dignity and moral responsibility in the broader human rights paradigm.