History Main / InhumanableAlienRights

** Because Humans have been subjugated and treated horribly by aliens in the past, they had a policy which stated that hostile species be suppressed, though that was later bastardized to a general zero-tolerance policy. The anthropocentric Imperium of Man, as a rule of thumb, will work to actively work to exterminate aliens. As a few notable alien species have proven, if they may prove to be useful to the Imperium through any unique talents (like the Jokaero), then agents of the Imperium will try to subjugate and exploit them instead.

* The G1 ''[[ComicBook/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' comic practically takes this to HumansAreTheRealMonsters level: The government organisation Triple I and the RAAT military group they sponsor treat all giant robots as a menace, resulting in them firing on any Autobot they see without provocation, capturing and dissecting them, and ultimately trying to execute a group of captured Autobots in retribution for a Decepticon attack. (Their bodies are crushed but the one man in the organisation who's twigged they're on different sides saves their brain modules.)

** ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'': Subverted when the conscientious Sam Vimes insists on going through proper police procedure, including asking the creature whether it is resisting arrest, before shooting a crazy werewolf. The ethics of killing "monsters" that are also sentient creatures in the Discworld is dealt with in several of its books. For instance, Granny Weatherwax insists on having an anthropomorphic wolf given a proper burial after it is killed at its own request. The BigBad is bringing FairyTales to life. In the fairy tale, the Big Bad Wolf behaves like a human, but it's okay to kill him like a wolf. By burying him as if he were human, Granny is fighting the story. So Pratchett was playing with how the story of ''Little Red Riding Hood'' is an example of this trope.

** The Imperium also has a varying level of tolerance of {{Mutant}}s that varies world-to-world, ranging from second-class citizens to "kill on sight". Any that tolerates the Mutants probably will use them as a source of disposable labor in harsh conditions and next to no pay. Humanity also tend to look down on [[HumanSubspecies Abhumans]], but they tend to be lucky enough to run their own worlds (if they're smart enough to do so) and can serve in the military.

* Creator/CharlesStross plays with this a fair amount. In ''Literature/TheJenniferMorgue'', it's a reasonably major plot point that the CIA doesn't consider anyone with demonic ancestry to be legally human. Early in ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'', the main character delivers an impassioned (and eventually mostly successful) plea for the rights of digitally uploaded personalities.

* In ''Literature/{{Aeon 14}}'', the Phobos Accords provide for the civil rights of sapient {{AI}}s, and additionally dictate rules on their creation and upbringing as well as creating a separate legal system to prosecute {{AI}}s that commit crimes. [[spoiler:Unfortunately the partial collapse of civilization in the TimeSkip after book three causes the Accords to be abandoned.]]

* In Canada, believe it or not, there is actual case law about this. In an Ontario Superior Court case named ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joly_v_Pelletier Joly v. Pelletier]]'', Joly sued a wide variety of private, government, and foreign parties for discriminating against him on the grounds that he was a Martian. In an admirably deadpan decision, the judge ruled that, since only persons and corporations have standing to sue, and a person is "an individual human being," then, since Joly's whole argument was that he wasn't a human being, his suit had to fail. As a result, there is actual legal precedent that extraterrestrials have no standing to sue... at least in Ontario.

An extra-terrestrial, a vampire, a mythical or magical being, or maybe even a [[HalfHumanHybrid half-human being]] or a person who transforms into a monster or has somehow gained superpowers runs the risk of being found out. If the general public discovers their true nature, they [[TheyWouldCutYouUp could be dissected in a lab]] or suffer some equally unpleasant fate. Mind you, as sapient beings who look (and possibly are) quite human, they still should enjoy some basic civil rights (even if they aren't documented citizens; not even the most extreme [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Minuteman Militia]] member has suggested dissecting illegal aliens). However, this does not stop the government from wanting to imprison the being (without trial, naturally) and use them as subjects in endless (probably painful) experiments.

* [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Devils]], [[ArtificialHybrid friends, and hybrids]] in ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' are repeatedly stated to have no rights, so Public Safety is free to [[JoinOrDie employ them under threat of death]]. Quanxi even takes a mission to hunt Denji under the promise of the government giving her fiend [[{{Polyamory}} girlfriends]] full human rights and a formal education.

* ''{{Manga/Ajin}}'' is pretty much this and the obvious reaction by the oppressed parties that would follow.

** Some Muslims scholars from the Shafiʽi school, later joined by the Hanafi school, held ''waqf'' was actually owned by Allah upon its consecration.

* In some places, alive persons could be declarated to be civilly dead, as a result of penal convictions, religious profession in a monastery or any condition which could make participation to civil life impossible. [[https://ccresourcecenter.org/2018/06/07/civil-death-lives/ Even today]], Rhode Island and New York allow for civil death for life convicts.

* ''Film/{{Splash}}'': Semi-justified in that Madison didn't know her rights in the first place. The scientist who was after her could well be arrested for stalking, among other things.

* Literature/KittyNorville is kidnapped so that the kidnappers can ''televise themselves'' forcing her to turn into a werewolf on ''live television.'' They even allow her to do a piece for the camera first. They think they'll get away with it because they'll be revealing her [[SuperPoweredEvilSide true demonic nature]]. The sight of a terrified wolf cowering away from the silver-painted walls of her cell [[KickTheDog doesn't do them any PR favors]].

* Subverted in Patricia Brigg's ''Literature/MercyThompson'' series: as technology reaches the point where it's starting to expose supernatural beings to possible exposure and/or experimentation, the fae, and later werewolves, voluntarily 'expose' themselves to the public. The respective leaders of these supernatural cultures enacted very precise public-relations plans for revealing themselves in a manner designed to maximally protect their rights and safety.

A subtrope of FantasticLegalWeirdness, WhatMeasureIsANonHuman, and ''usually''[[note]]Obviously, legal problems are easily fixed, but often no one ever bothers or sometimes even ''wants'' to do it.[[/note]] HollywoodLaw. Overlaps with TheyWouldCutYouUp. See also ZombieAdvocate, when a character advocates for the rights of non-humans.

** In one episode, the Doctor had written a novel and submitted a draft, pre-editing, that the publisher thought was delightfully salacious in the way it seemed to impugn the Voyager crew, and promptly started distributing. The Doctor sued to have it stopped; the publisher argued he couldn't sue because he wasn't a person. TheFederation quite sensibly has no desire to extend suffrage to an easily-replicated computer program that can be given whatever personality, desires and values the programmer wants it to have (not to mention have it's Ethics directory deleted with a push of a button). For what it's worth, the final decision is a bit of a subversion of the usual outcome: the court decides that the Doctor is not legally a "person". However, in an instance of a MeaninglessVillainVictory, the court decides that while he does not qualify as a "person", he does qualify as an "artist", and therefore is granted ownership rights to his holonovel anyway.

[[folder:Roleplay]]
* In the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', this issue has given rise to differing policies among earth's governments. Given the revelation that a city of civilized, urbane, sentient apes exists in Africa, and the fact that tens of thousands of extraterrestrials were stranded on earth after an invasion in 1985, most of the "First World" countries have declared such beings as "people", and thus grant them full "human" rights. Other governments (most notably the People's Republic of China, several of the more conservative Muslim countries, and (strangely) Finland) have adamantly refused to do the same. Sentient machines, meanwhile, do not legally enjoy any such rights anywhere in the world (though in practice, some countries, like the US and Great Britain, tend to grant such beings those rights ''anyway''.)
[[/folder]]

** ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': Subverted when the conscientious Sam Vimes insists on going through proper police procedure, including asking the creature whether it is resisting arrest, before shooting a crazy werewolf. The ethics of killing "monsters" that are also sentient creatures in the Discworld is dealt with in several of its books. For instance, Granny Weatherwax insists on having an anthropomorphic wolf given a proper burial after it is killed at its own request. The BigBad is bringing FairyTales to life. In the fairy tale, the Big Bad Wolf behaves like a human, but it's okay to kill him like a wolf. By burying him as if he were human, Granny is fighting the story. So Pratchett was playing with how the story of ''Little Red Riding Hood'' is an example of this trope.
** And of course there's Carrot, whose freeing of Dorfl started the golems' own peaceful self-liberation, and who once arrested a dragon. The golems are an interesting subversion in how the police behave. Vimes at one point is asked to arrest Dorfl for committing a murder which the golem was confessing to, but he knew was innocent. To get out of this, he deliberately invokes this trope, pointing out that, legally, golems aren't people and thus can't murder anyone, and if anything it's the golem's owner who's the murderer. The owner attempts to abandon his ownership of the golem, at which point Carrot points out he can't do that because it's littering. Carrot then buys Dorfl for a dollar and gives him to himself. Besides, if he owns the golem, which has no personhood, he should be liable for any crimes it commits. However, this exact predicament was avoided in RealLife by the law treating slaves or indentured servants as freemen if they did anything wrong. Of course, Golems have [[RestrainingBolt no choice]] but to obey their masters, whereas human slaves can choose to do otherwise, although this will often have painful consequences.

** A large part of ''Discworld/{{Snuff}}'' is about whether Goblins should have rights and be protected by law. Regardless of prejudice against them by pretty much every other race on Discworld, when a crime is committed against them, such as the brutal murder of a young female as in the book, Vimes takes their side. [[spoiler:In the end, Lady Sybil Vimes successfully lobbies the major governments of the Disc to pass laws granting full rights to goblins, but the murderer still cannot be prosecuted because killing goblins wasn't a crime at the time of the murder. Vimes' retainer takes care of that detail with a VigilanteExecution.]]

** And of course there's Carrot, whose freeing of Dorfl started the golems' own peaceful self-liberation, and who once arrested a dragon. The golems are an interesting subversion in how the police behave. Vimes at one point is asked to arrest Dorfl for committing a murder which the golem was confessing to, but he knew was innocent. To get out of this, he deliberately invokes this trope, pointing out that, legally, golems aren't people and thus can't murder anyone, and if anything it's the golem's owner who's the murderer. The owner attempts to abandon his ownership of the golem, at which point Carrot points out he can't do that because it's [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments littering]]. Carrot then buys Dorfl for a dollar and gives him to himself. Besides, if he owns the golem, which has no personhood, he should be liable for any crimes it commits. However, this exact predicament was avoided in RealLife by the law treating slaves or indentured servants as freemen if they did anything wrong. Of course, Golems have [[RestrainingBolt no choice]] but to obey their masters, whereas human slaves can choose to do otherwise, although this will often have painful consequences.

* Brazil, which has a big U.F.O culture, has declared that any extra terrestrials landing in Brazil would be given full human rights.