I may respect (and I do) your right to own a firearm of your choice, or I might respect your right (and I do) to injest substances of your choosing, but that does not mean the 'state' does. Thus if a right only has abstract meaning, it for all practical purposes has no meaning.
I define Rights as that which makes a man independent; the things that give a man Free Will, the things that define Freedom. Rights are an intristic characteristic of all men.
An example of that is the Right of Self-defense. Even if everyone in your culture agree that no one should use violence to defend themselves, even if you believe that yourself, when that guy starts choking the life out of you, you're still going to grab that rock and hit him as hard as you can. It's instinctive, intrinsic, Right, that you defend yourself.
The Right of Property can be demonstrated by watching a baby with a toy. Take that toy from him, and he'll yell "MINE!!" It's instinctive, behavior not learned, an actual part of all of us, the knowledge that what I'm holding is mine.
The Right of Privacy too is instinctive. Men instinctively protect what they own, and themselves, from those who might take what is ours. That's what Privacy is; the protection of knowledge, property, and personal health or well-being. Privacy is just the application of Property and Self-defense; Privacy is fear, combined with the fact that others might take what you have if they find out about it, or use it to hurt you. Fear is instinctive, too.
No matter what laws your culture makes, no matter your religion, no matter how well you're trained to deny those instincts, those Rights will still be there.
Rights are a part of us, and cannot be legislated away.