mjhjmtu

What would be best "human rights" word equivalent for all intelligent beings, including humans, demi-humans, and other intelligent life forms?

Example of demi-humans are Lizard folk, Cat people, etc.

Intelligent meaning they can read & write and understand law.

Denizen rights, Person rights, Personal rights, Individual rights, citizen rights.

Perhaps the most similar is Person rights because in some fields like anthropology the word person is used as distinct from human to mean a thinking being whose interests need to be taken into account (which includes humans, of course, but also might include spirits, animals, or even plants, objects and physical phenomena).

Of course, Human rights are called Human rights for a range of historical and accidental reasons, not exactly that people sat down and came up with the best term that they could. There could be a particular historical (in your world) reason why the name of a movement for certain groups of rights would have a particular name. They could be called Delhi Rights because the first international treaty on them was signed in Delhi. They could be called international rights or transcendent rights, or global rights because of the desire for them to operate in all places for all people. They could be called Universal rights, they could be called all rights. They could be named after a person, country, or region where they were argued for first (or loudest). Or they could be named for the way they were formulated: declared rights, or formal rights, or enumerated rights, or agreed rights.

If you want to get away from the individualist framework of contemporary western human rights discourse, you could call them community rights or collective rights. You could also phrase (and frame) them as 'freedoms' or 'expectations' or 'safeties' or 'standards' rather than 'rights'. The sky is the limit!

One solution could be to simply say "sapient rights". "Being rights" could also work, but it is a bit too general.

Sophont rights is another option.

This one has the advantage of being well known in the SF genre already.

Sophont Rights (in the Eldraeverse)

Universal Declaration of Sophont Rights

Guarantees of Sophont Rights

Pulsar Strike by Cyrus Bortel

Traveller News Service

How about "Intelligent being rights" ?

KISS

Wouldn't a world with multiple sentient species have a simple term for all of them, something a bouncer in a bar could apply and not just a philosopher? Introduce that word early on in your story or game.

You define intelligent as being able to read and write and to follow the law. Does that mean stereotypical orcs are outlaws in civilized lands?

• 
  Citizen's rights is not quite right because they would cover non-citizen foreigners. You'd have to find a new word for citizenship-derived rights.


• 
  Civil rights are somewhat distinct from human rights in our world, but the word is recognizable to readers.


• If you use people's rights you define only those law-abiding races as people. That might be desirable in your setting.


• Perhaps use "folk" as a shorthand for "civilized folks" and thus folk rights.