Origin and Development of Human
Rights
By-ABDUR RAHAMAN S A
The Ancient Notion of Human Rights
• Prior to Greek Period –
• One of the first examples of a codification of laws that contain references to
individual rights is the tablet of Hammurabi.
• The tablet was created by the Sumerian king Hammurabi about 4000 years ago.
• While considered barbaric by today's standards, the system of 282 laws created
a precedent for a legal system.
• This kind of precedent and legally binding document protects the people from
arbitrary prosecution and punishment.
• The problems with Hammurabi's code were it held no protection on more
abstract ideas such as race, religion, beliefs, and individual freedoms.
Greek Period
• It was in ancient Greece where the concept of human rights began to take
a greater meaning than the prevention of arbitrary persecution.
• Greeks were the first profounder of natural law principles.
• They gave a conception of universal law for all mankind under which all
men are equal and which is binding on all people.
• The world’s first bill of human rights was discovered on a clay tablet
dating back from the reign of Cyrus the Great (555- 529 BC).
• That’s why the roots for the protection of the rights of a man may be
traced as far back as in the Babylonian Laws.
Roman Period
• where the Roman jurists believed that natural rights belonged to every person,
whether they were a Roman citizen or not.
• They classified the law of Rome into three broad categories namely; Jus Civile , Jus
Genitum and Jus Naturale .
• The first two were the law of the land based on the third concept (Jus Naturale) which
embody the principles of natural law, though not enforceable in the court directly.
• The origin of the concept of human rights are usually agreed to be formed in the
Greco-Roman natural law doctrines of “Stoicism”, which held that a universal force
pervades all creation and that human conduct should therefore be judged according
to the law of nature
Medieval Age
• Human Rights were further promoted in the form of natural law
in the middle ages.
• It was St. Thomas Aquinas who made a classic attempt to
harmonise the teachings of the Church with those of natural laws.
• He distinguished between four kinds of law in his “Summa
Theology”.
• He observed that the law of nature is the discovery of eternal law
through reason and reason is the manifestation of religion.
• Documents asserting individual rights, such as
The Magna carta (1215)
• In 1215, after King John , England violated a
number of ancient laws and customs, his subjects
forced them to sign the Magna Carta
• In that the right of the church to be free from
governmental interference, the rights of all free
citizens to own and inherit property and to be
protected from excessive taxes.
• It established the right of widows who owned
The Petition of Rights (1628)
• The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was
based upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four
principles:
• No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament,
• No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown
• No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and
• Martial law may not be used in time of peace.
United states declaration of
Independence (1776)
• It is a statement announcing that the thirteen American Colonies were no
longer a part of the British Empire.
• Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was
initially published as a printed broadsheet that was widely distributed and
read to the public.
• Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and
the right of revolution.
• These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread internationally
as well, influencing in particular the French Revolution.
The Constitution of United States of America (1978)
• It is the fundamental law of the US federal system of government and the
landmark document of the Western world.
• It is the oldest written national constitution in use and defines the
principal organs of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights
of citizens.
Bill of Rights (1791)
• The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep
and bear arms, the freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition.
• It also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment and
compelled self-incrimination.
• Among the legal protections it affords, the Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from
making any law respecting establishment of religion and prohibits the federal
government from depriving any person of life, liberty or property without due
process of law.
• In federal criminal cases it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital offense,
or infamous crime, guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury in the
district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizen (1789)
• the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted by the National
Constituent Assembly as the first step toward writing a constitution for the Republic of
France.
• The Declaration proclaims that all citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty,
property, security, and resistance to oppression.” It argues that the need for law
derives from the fact that “...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only
those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these
same rights.” Thus, the Declaration sees law as an “expression of the general will,
“intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid “only actions harmful to the
society.”
THANK YOU
