Libertarians and some political scientists make a distinction between negative and positive rights (not to be confused with the distinction between negative and positive liberties). According to this view, positive rights are those rights which permit or oblige action, whereas negative rights are those which permit or oblige inaction. These permissions or obligations may be of either a legal or moral character.

Likewise, the notion of positive and negative rights may be applied to either liberty rights or claim rights, either permitting one to act or refrain from acting, or obliging others to act or refrain from acting. However, this article and most literature discusses them as applied to the latter sense. To state the difference more formally: some party 'A' has a negative right to x against another party 'B' if and only if 'B' is prohibited from acting upon 'A' in some way regarding x; and likewise, 'A' has a positive right to x against 'B' if and only if 'B' is obliged to act upon 'A' in some way regarding x.

For example, if 'A' has a negative right to life against 'B', then 'B' is required to refrain from killing 'A'; while if 'A' has a positive right to life against 'B', then 'B' is required to act as necessary to preserve the life of 'A'. Rights considered negative rights may include civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, private property, freedom from violent crime, freedom of worship, habeas corpus, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and the right to bear arms. Rights considered positive rights may include other civil and political rights such as police protection of person and property and the right to counsel, as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as public education, health care, social security, and a minimum standard of living.

In the "three generations" account of human rights, negative rights are often associated with the first generation of rights, while positive rights are associated with the second and third generations. Under the theory of positive and negative rights, a negative right is a right not to be subjected to an action of another person or group. A government, for example, usually in the form of abuse or coercion.

A positive right is a right to be subjected to an action of another person or group. In theory, a negative right forbids others from acting against the right holder, while a positive right obligates others to act with respect to the right holder. In the framework of the Kantian categorical imperative, negative rights can be associated with perfect duties while positive rights can be connected to imperfect duties.

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