History of Human
Rights
PREPARED BY: ISMAEL ABOUI BUCHANAN
WHAT ARE HUMAN
RIGHTS?
Human Rights Defined
Human: noun
A member of the Homo sapiens species; a man, woman or child;
a person.
Rights: noun
Things to which you are entitled or allowed; freedoms that are
guaranteed.
Human Rights: noun
The rights you have simply because you are human.
Human Rights Defined
Human rights are based on the principle of respect for the
individual.
Their fundamental assumption is that each person is a moral and
rational being who deserves to be treated with dignity. They are
called human rights because they are universal.
Whereas nations or specialized groups enjoy specific rights that
apply only to them, human rights are the rights to which
everyone is entitled—no matter who they are or where they
live—simply because they are alive.
Yet many people, when asked to name their rights, will list only
freedom of speech and belief and perhaps one or two others.
Human Rights Defined
In ages past, there were no human rights. Then the idea emerged
that people should have certain freedoms.
And that idea, in the wake of World War II, resulted finally in the
document called the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the thirty rights to which all people are entitled.
However, when did Human Rights start?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMAN
RIGHTS
The Cyrus Cylinder (539 B.C.)
In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king
of ancient Persia, conquered the city of Babylon.
But it was his next actions that marked a major advance for
Man. He freed the slaves, declared that all people had the
right to choose their own religion, and established racial
equality.
These and other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay
cylinder in the Akkadian language with cuneiform script.
The Cyrus Cylinder (539 B.C.)
The decrees Cyrus made
on human rights were
inscribed in the Akkadian Cyrus the Great, the first
language on a baked-clay king of Persia, freed the
cylinder. slaves of Babylon, 539 B.C.
The Cyrus Cylinder (539 B.C.)
Known today as the Cyrus Cylinder, this ancient record
has now been recognized as the world’s first charter of
human rights.
It is translated into all six official languages of the United
Nations and its provisions parallel the first four Articles
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Spread of Human Rights
From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quickly to
India, Greece and eventually Rome.
There the concept of “natural law” arose, in observation
of the fact that people tended to follow certain unwritten
laws in the course of life, and Roman law was based on
rational ideas derived from the nature of things.
Documents asserting individual rights, such as the Magna
Carta (1215), the Petition of Right (1628), the US
Constitution (1787), the French Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and the US
Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of
today’s human rights documents.
Take Note of these:
Magna Carta (1215)
the Petition of Right (1628)
the US Constitution (1787)
the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen (1789)
US Bill of Rights (1791)
The Magna Carta (1215)
The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the
most significant early influence on the extensive historical
process that led to the rule of constitutional law today in
the English-speaking world.
In 1215, after King John of England violated a number of
ancient laws and customs by which England had been
governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna
Carta, which enumerates what later came to be thought of
as human rights.
Widely viewed as one of the most important legal
documents in the development of modern democracy, the
Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle to
establish freedom.
The Magna Carta
(1215)
Magna Carta, or
“Great Charter,”
signed by the King
of England in 1215,
was a turning point
in human rights.
Petition of Right (1628)
The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights
was the Petition of Right, produced in 1628 by the English
Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil liberties.
The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based
upon earlier statutes and charters and asserted four principles:
1. No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament
2. No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown
(reaffirmation of the right of habeas corpus)
3. No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry
4. Martial law may not be used in time of peace
Petition of Right
(1628)
In 1628 the
English
Parliament sent
this statement of
civil liberties to
King Charles I.
United States Declaration of
Independence (1776)
On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the
Declaration of Independence.
Its primary author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration
as a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to
declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year
after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and as 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.
United States
Declaration of
Independence
(1776)
In 1776, Thomas
Jefferson penned
the American
Declaration of
Independence.
United States Declaration of
Independence (1776)
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 the United
States of America (1787)
Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the
Constitution of the United States of America 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 of
the US Constitution
protects basic
freedoms of United
States citizens.
Bill of Rights (1791)
The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of
Rights—came into effect on December 15, 1791, limiting
the powers of the federal government of the United States
and protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and
visitors in American territory.
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.
Declaration of the Rights of
Man and of the Citizen (1789)
In 1789 the people of France brought about the abolishment of
the absolute monarchy and set the stage for the establishment of
the first French Republic.
Just six weeks after the storming of the Bastille, and barely three
weeks after the abolition of feudalism, 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.”
Declaration of the
Rights of Man and
of the
Citizen (1789)
Following the French
Revolution in 1789, the
Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen
granted specific
freedoms from
oppression, as an
“expression of the
general will.”
The First Geneva Convention
(1864)
In 1864, sixteen European countries and several American
states attended a conference in Geneva, at the invitation of
the Swiss Federal Council, on the initiative of the Geneva
Committee.
The diplomatic conference was held for the purpose of
adopting a convention for the treatment of wounded
soldiers in combat.
The main principles laid down in the Convention and
maintained by the later Geneva Conventions provided for
the obligation to extend care without discrimination to
wounded and sick military personnel and respect for and
marking of medical personnel transports and equipment
with the distinctive sign of the red cross on a white
background.
The First Geneva
Convention (1864)
The original
document from the
first Geneva
Convention in 1864
provided for care to
wounded soldiers.
The United Nations (1945)
World War II had raged from 1939 to 1945, and as the end
drew near, cities throughout Europe and Asia lay in
smoldering ruins. Millions of people were dead, millions
more were homeless or starving.
Millions of people were dead, millions more were homeless
or starving.
Russian forces were closing in on the remnants of German
resistance in Germany’s bombed-out capital of Berlin.
In the Pacific, US Marines were still battling entrenched
Japanese forces on such islands as Okinawa.
The United
Nations (1945)
Fifty nations met
in San Francisco in
1945 and formed
the United
Nations to protect
and promote
peace.
The United Nations (1945)
In April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco full
of optimism and hope.
The goal of the United Nations Conference on International
Organization was to fashion an international body to promote peace
and prevent future wars.
The ideals of the organization were stated in the preamble to its
proposed charter:
“We the peoples of the United Nations are determined
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of
war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold
sorrow to mankind.”
The Charter of the new United Nations organization went into effect
on October 24, 1945, a date that is celebrated each year as United
Nations Day.
The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)
By 1948, the United Nations’ new Human Rights Commission had
captured the world’s attention.
Under the dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt—
President Franklin Roosevelt’s widow, a human rights champion
in her own right and the United States delegate to the UN—the
Commission set out to draft the document that became the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Roosevelt, credited with its inspiration, referred to the
Declaration as the international Magna Carta for
all mankind. It was adopted by the United Nations on
December 10, 1948.
The Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights
(1948)
The Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights has
inspired a number of
other human rights
laws and treaties
throughout the
world.
The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)
In its preamble and in Article 1, the Declaration unequivocally
proclaims the inherent rights of all human beings:
“Disregard and contempt for human rights
have resulted in barbarous acts which have
outraged the conscience of mankind, and the
advent of a world in which human beings shall
enjoy freedom of speech and belief and
freedom from fear and want has been
proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the
common people...All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights.”
The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (1948)
The Member States of the United Nations pledged to work
together to promote the thirty Articles of human
rights that, for the first time in history, had been
assembled and codified into a single document.
In consequence, many of these rights, in various forms, are
today part of the constitutional laws of democratic nations.
“ The rights of every man are
diminished when the rights
”
of one man are threatened.
― JOHN F. KENNEDY
FIN
Reference
http://www.humanrights.com
/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/cyrus-cylinder.html
http://www.humanrights.com
/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/magna-carta.html
http://www.humanrights.com
/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/declaration-of-
independence.html
http://www.humanrights.com
/what-are-human-rights/brief-history/the-united-nations.html
