Timothy Sandefur reminds us that property is a human right in his “Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America” which contains the following passage:
Thomas Jefferson rephrased the classic [John] Lockean trinity, 
‘life,liberty, and property,’ as ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was making clear that the fundamental rights of mankind include the right to use one’s liberty in pursuit of one’s own goals and that property rights are a manifestation of the fundamental right of liberty. According to Jefferson, ‘[T]he first principal of association’ is ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’ Life, liberty, and property are essentially the same idea seen from three different time perspectives: the present tense of self-ownership is the right to life; the future tense is the right to liberty, the right to act in the future; and the past tense of self-ownership is the right to property, the right to keep the fruits of our self-investment. As Madison summed it up, ‘The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right.’”
Sandefur at 55, footnotes omitted, emphasis added.
Natural rights are rights that predate the formation of any government or citizenship. At the time of drafting the Declaration of Independence “these truths” were deemed to be self-evident that we were endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – or life, liberty and property as described by John Locke, and in the Virginia Declaration of Rights.
Timothy Sandefur's "Cornerstone of Liberty" is excellent, readable, and a vital reference for everyone interested in the origin and protection of human rights.
