While belief in the sanctity of human life has ancient precedents in many religions of the world, the foundations of modern human rights began during the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period. The European wars of religion and the civil wars of seventeenth-century Kingdom of England gave rise to the philosophy of liberalism and belief in natural rights became a central concern of European intellectual culture during the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment. These ideas lay at the core of the American and French Revolutions
which occurred toward the end of that century. Democratic evolution
through the nineteenth century paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage in the twentieth century. Two world wars led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The post-war era saw movements arising from specific groups experiencing a shortfall in their rights, such as feminism and the civil rights of African Americans. The human rights movements of members of the Soviet bloc emerged in the 1970s along with workers' rights movements in the West. The movements quickly jelled as social activism and political rhetoric in many nations put human rights high on the world agenda. By the 21st century, historian Samuel Moyn has argued, the human rights movement expanded beyond its original anti-totalitarianism to include numerous causes involving humanitarianism and social and economic development in the Developing World.
The history of human rights has been complex. Many established rights for instance would be replaced by other systems which deviate from their original western design. Stable institutions may be uprooted such as in cases of conflict such as war and terrorism or a change in culture.
The post-war era saw movements arising from specific groups experiencing a shortfall in their rights, such as feminism and the civil rights of African Americans. The human rights movements of members of the Soviet bloc emerged in the 1970s along with workers' rights movements in the West. The movements quickly jelled as social activism and political rhetoric in many nations put human rights high on the world agenda. By the 21st century, historian Samuel Moyn has argued, the human rights movement expanded beyond its original anti-totalitarianism to include numerous causes involving humanitarianism and social and economic development in the Developing World.
The history of human rights has been complex. Many established rights for instance would be replaced by other systems which deviate from their original western design. Stable institutions may be uprooted such as in cases of conflict such as war and terrorism or a change in culture.
Ancient and pre-modern eras
Some notions of righteousness present in ancient law and religion are sometimes retrospectively included under the term "human rights". While Enlightenment philosophers suggest a secular social contract between the rulers and the ruled, ancient traditions derived similar conclusions from notions of divine law, and, in Hellenistic philosophy, natural law. Samuel Moyn suggests that the concept of human rights is intertwined with the modern sense of citizenship, which did not emerge until the past few hundred years.
Nonetheless, relevant examples exist in the Ancient and pre-modern
eras, although Ancient peoples did not have the same modern-day
conception of universal human rights.[5]
Ancient West Asia
An inscription of the Code of Hammurabi.
The reforms of Urukagina of Lagash,
the earliest known legal code (ca. 2350 BC), is often thought to be an
early example of reform. Professor Norman Yoffee wrote that after Igor M. Diakonoff
"most interpreters consider that Urukagina, himself not of the ruling
dynasty at Lagash, was no reformer at all. Indeed, by attempting to curb
the encroachment of a secular authority at the expense of temple
prerogatives, he was, if a modern term must be applied, a reactionary." Author Marilyn French
wrote that the discovery of penalties for adultery for women but not
for men represents "the first written evidence of the degradation of
women". The oldest legal codex extant today is the Neo-Sumerian Code of Ur-Nammu (ca. 2050 BC). Several other sets of laws were also issued in Mesopotamia, including the Code of Hammurabi
(ca. 1780 BC), one of the most famous examples of this type of
document. It shows rules, and punishments if those rules are broken, on a
variety of matters, including women's rights, men's rights, children's rights and slave rights.
Africa
The Northeast African civilization of Ancient Egypt supported basic human rights. For example, Pharaoh Bocchoris (725-720 BC) promoted individual rights, suppressed imprisonment for debt, and reformed laws relating to the transferral of property.
Antiquity
Some historians suggest that the Achaemenid Persian Empire of ancient Iran established unprecedented principles of human rights in the 6th century BC under Cyrus the Great. After his conquest of the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 BC, the king issued the Cyrus cylinder, discovered in 1879 and seen by some today as the first human rights document. The cylinder has been linked by some commentators to the decrees of Cyrus recorded in the Books of Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Ezra, which state that Cyrus allowed (at least some of) the Jews to return to their homeland from their Babylonian Captivity. Additionally it stated the freedom to practice one's faith without persecution and forced conversions.
In opposition to the above viewpoint, the interpretation of the Cylinder as a "charter
of human rights" has been dismissed by other historians and
characterized by some others as political propaganda devised by the
Pahlavi regime. The German historian Josef Wiesehöfer
argues that the image of "Cyrus as a champion of the UN human rights
policy ... is just as much a phantom as the humane and enlightened Shah
of Persia", while historian Elton L. Daniel has described such an interpretation as "rather anachronistic" and tendentious. The cylinder now lies in the British Museum, and a replica is kept at the United Nations Headquarters.
Many thinkers point to the concept of citizenship beginning in the early poleis of ancient Greece, where all free citizens had the right to speak and vote in the political assembly.
The Twelve Tables Law established the principle "Privilegia ne irroganto", which literally means "privileges shall not be imposed".
The Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, who ruled from 268 to 232 BCE, established the largest empire in South Asia. Following the reportedly destructive Kalinga War, Ashoka adopted Buddhism and abandoned an expansionist policy in favor of humanitarian reforms. The Edicts of Ashoka were erected throughout his empire, containing the 'Law of Piety'.
These laws prohibited religious discrimination, and cruelty against both humans and animals. The Edicts emphasize the importance of tolerance in public policy by the government. The slaughter or capture of prisoners of war was also condemned by Ashoka. Some sources claim that slavery was also non-existent in ancient India. Others state, however, that slavery existed in ancient India, where it is recorded in the Sanskrit Laws of Manu of the 1st century BC.
In ancient Rome a ius or jus was a right which a citizen was due simply by dint of his citizenship. The concept of a Roman ius is a precursor to a right as conceived in the Western European tradition. The word "justice" is derived from ius.
The coining of the word 'Human rights' can be attributed to Tertullian in his letter To Scapula where is he wrote about the religious freedom in Roman Empire. He equated 'fundamental human rights' as a 'privilege of nature' in this letter.
Early Islamic Caliphate
Historians generally agree that Muhammad preached against what he saw as the social evils of his day, and that Islamic social reforms in areas such as social security, family structure, slavery, and the rights of women and ethnic minorities were intended to improve on what was present in existing Arab society at the time. For example, according to Bernard Lewis, Islam "from the first denounced aristocratic privilege, rejected hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents." John Esposito sees Muhammad as a reformer who condemned practices of the pagan Arabs such as female infanticide, exploitation of the poor, usury, murder, false contracts, and theft. Bernard Lewis believes that the egalitarian nature of Islam "represented a very considerable advance on the practice of both the Greco-Roman and the ancient Persian world." Muhammed also incorporated Arabic and Mosaic laws and customs of the time into his divine revelations.
The Constitution of Medina, also known as the Charter of Medina, was drafted by Muhammad
in 622. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of
the significant tribes and families of Yathrib (later known as Medina), including Muslims, Jews, and pagans. The document was drawn up with the explicit concern of bringing to an
end the bitter intertribal fighting between the clans of the Aws (Aus) and Khazraj
within Medina. To this effect it instituted a number of rights and
responsibilities for the Muslim, Jewish and pagan communities of Medina
bringing them within the fold of one community-the Ummah.
If the prisoners were in the custody of a person, then the responsibility was on the individual.
Lewis states that Islam brought two major changes to ancient slavery
which were to have far-reaching consequences. "One of these was the
presumption of freedom; the other, the ban on the enslavement of free
persons except in strictly defined circumstances," Lewis continues. The
position of the Arabian slave was "enormously improved": the Arabian
slave "was now no longer merely a chattel but was also a human being
with a certain religious and hence a social status and with certain quasi-legal rights."
Esposito states that reforms in women's rights affected marriage, divorce and inheritance. Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures, including the West, until centuries later. The Oxford Dictionary of Islam states that the general improvement of the status of Arab women included prohibition of female infanticide and recognizing women's full personhood. "The dowry,
previously regarded as a bride-price paid to the father, became a
nuptial gift retained by the wife as part of her personal property." Under Islamic law, marriage was no longer viewed as a "status" but rather as a "contract", in which the woman's consent was imperative. "Women were given inheritance rights in a patriarchal society that had previously restricted inheritance to male relatives." Annemarie Schimmel
states that "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic
legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at
least according to the letter of the law, to administer the wealth she
has brought into the family or has earned by her own work." William Montgomery Watt states that Muhammad, in the historical context of his time, can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women's rights and improved things considerably. Watt explains: "At the time Islam began, the conditions of women were terrible—they had no right to own property,
were supposed to be the property of the man, and if the man died
everything went to his sons." Muhammad, however, by "instituting rights
of property ownership, inheritance, education and divorce, gave women
certain basic safeguards." Haddad and Esposito state that "Muhammad granted women rights and privileges in the sphere of family life, marriage, education, and economic endeavors, rights that help improve women's status in society."
However, other writers have argued that women before Islam were more
liberated drawing most often on the first marriage of Muhammad and that
of Muhammad's parents, but also on other points such as worship of
female idols at Mecca.
Sociologist Robert Bellah (Beyond belief)
argues that Islam in its 7th-century origins was, for its time and
place, "remarkably modern...in the high degree of commitment,
involvement, and participation expected from the rank-and-file members
of the community." This is because, he argues, that Islam emphasized
the equality of all Muslims, where leadership positions were open to
all. Dale Eickelman writes that Bellah suggests "the early Islamic
community placed a particular value on individuals, as opposed to
collective or group responsibility."
Early Islamic law's principles concerning military conduct and the treatment of prisoners of war under the early Caliphate are considered precursors to international humanitarian law.
The many requirements on how prisoners of war should be treated
included, for example, providing shelter, food and clothing, respecting
their cultures, and preventing any acts of execution, rape or revenge.
Some of these principles were not codified in Western international law until modern times.
Islamic law under the early Caliphate institutionalised humanitarian
limitations on military conduct, including attempts to limit the
severity of war, guidelines for ceasing hostilities, distinguishing
between civilians and combatants, preventing unnecessary destruction,
and caring for the sick and wounded.
Middle Ages
.jpg)
Magna Carta was written in 1215.
Magna Carta is an English charter originally issued in 1215 which influenced the development of the common law and many later constitutional documents, such as the 1689 English Bill of Rights, the 1789 United States Constitution, and the 1791 United States Bill of Rights.
Magna Carta was originally written because of disagreements between Pope Innocent III, King John and the English barons about the rights of the King. Magna Carta
required the King to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal
procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It
explicitly protected certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free
or fettered—most notably the writ of habeas corpus, allowing appeal against unlawful imprisonment.
For modern times, the most enduring legacy of Magna Carta is considered the right of habeas corpus. This right arises from what are now known as clauses 36, 38, 39, and 40 of the 1215 Magna Carta. Magna Carta also included the right to due process:
No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land. We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.
— Clause XXIX of Magna Carta
The statute of Kalisz (1264), bestowed privileges to the Jewish minority in the Kingdom of Poland such as protection from discrimination and hate speech.
At the Council of Constance (1414-1418), scholar and jurist Pawel Wlodkowic delivered an address from his Tractatus de potestate papae et imperatoris respectu infidelium
("Treatise on the Power of the Pope and the Emperor Respecting
Infidels") in which he advocated the peaceful coexistence of Christians
and pagans, making him a precursor of religious tolerance in Europe.
Early modern period and modern foundations
United States Declaration of Independence ratified by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776
Age of Discovery, early modern period and Age of Enlightenment
The conquest of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries by Spain, during the Age of Discovery, resulted in vigorous debate about human rights in Colonial Spanish America. This led to the issuance of the Laws of Burgos by Ferdinand the Catholic on behalf of his daughter, Joanna of Castile. Fray Antonio de Montesinos, a Friar of the Dominican Order at the Island of Hispaniola, delivered a sermon on December 21, 1511, which was attended by Bartolomé de las Casas.
It is believed that reports from the Dominicans in Hispaniola motivated
the Spanish Crown to act. The sermon, known as the Christmas Sermon,
gave way to further debates from 1550-51 between Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda at Valladolid. Among the provisions of the Laws of Burgos were child labor; women's rights; wages; suitable accommodations; and rest/vacation, among others.
Several 17th- and 18th-century European philosophers, most notably John Locke, developed the concept of natural rights, the notion that people are naturally free and equal. Though Locke believed natural rights were derived from divinity since humans were creations of God,
his ideas were important in the development of the modern notion of
rights. Lockean natural rights did not rely on citizenship nor any law
of the state, nor were they necessarily limited to one particular
ethnic, cultural or religious group. Around the same time, in 1689, the English Bill of Rights was created which asserted some basic human rights, most famously freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.
In the 1700s, the novel became a popular form of entertainment. Popular novels, such as Julie, or the New Heloise by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson, laid a foundation for popular acceptance of human rights by making readers empathize with characters unlike themselves.
Two major revolutions occurred during the 18th century in the United States (1776) and in France (1789). The Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 sets up a number of fundamental rights and freedoms. The later United States Declaration of Independence
includes concepts of natural rights and famously states "that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness". Similarly, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
defines a set of individual and collective rights of the people. These
are, in the document, held to be universal—not only to French citizens
but to all men without exception.
19th century to World War I
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789
Philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and Hegel expanded on the theme of universality during the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 1831 William Lloyd Garrison wrote in The Liberator newspaper that he was trying to enlist his readers in "the great cause of human rights" so the term human rights may have come into use sometime between Paine's The Rights of Man and Garrison's publication. In 1849, a contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, wrote about human rights in his treatise On the Duty of Civil Disobedience which was later influential on human rights and civil rights thinkers. United States Supreme Court Justice David Davis, in his 1867 opinion for Ex parte Milligan,
wrote: "By the protection of the law, human rights are secured;
withdraw that protection and they are at the mercy of wicked rulers or
the clamor of an excited people."
Many groups and movements have managed to achieve profound social
changes over the course of the 20th century in the name of human
rights. In Western Europe and North America, labour unions brought about laws granting workers the right to strike, establishing minimum work conditions and forbidding or regulating child labour. The women's rights movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote. National liberation movements in many countries succeeded in driving out colonial powers. One of the most influential was Mahatma Gandhi's movement to free his native India from British rule. Movements by long-oppressed racial and religious minorities succeeded in many parts of the world, among them the civil rights movement, and more recent diverse identity politics movements, on behalf of women and minorities in the United States.
The foundation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the 1864 Lieber Code and the first of the Geneva Conventions in 1864 laid the foundations of international humanitarian law, to be further developed following the two World Wars.
Pope Leo XIII's Apostolic Exhortation Rerum Novarum in 1891 marked the official beginning of Catholic Social Teaching.
The document was principally concerned with discussing workers'
rights, property rights, and citizens' rights against State intrusion.
From that time forward, popes (and Vatican II) would release apostolic exhortations and encyclicals on topics that touched on human rights more and more frequently.
Between World War I and World War II
The League of Nations was established in 1919 at the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles following the end of World War I.
The League's goals included disarmament, preventing war through
collective security, settling disputes between countries through
negotiation, diplomacy and improving global welfare. Enshrined in its
Charter was a mandate to promote many of the rights which were later
included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The League of Nations had mandates to support many of the former
colonies of the Western European colonial powers during their transition
from colony to independent state.
Established as an agency of the League of Nations, and now part of United Nations, the International Labour Organization also had a mandate to promote and safeguard certain of the rights later included in the UDHR:
the primary goal of the ILO today is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
— Report by the Director General for the International Labour Conference 87th Session
Modern human rights movement
After World War II
Rights in War and the Geneva Conventions
Original Geneva Convention in 1864
Progression of Geneva Conventions from 1864 to 1949
The Geneva Conventions came into being between 1864 and 1949 as a result of efforts by Henry Dunant, the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The conventions safeguard the human rights of individuals involved in conflict, and follow on from the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, the international community's first attempt to define laws of war.
Despite first being framed before World War II, the conventions were
revised as a result of World War II and readopted by the international
community in 1949.
The Geneva Conventions are:
- The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field was adopted in 1864. It was significantly revised and replaced by the 1906 version, the 1929 version, and later the First Geneva Convention of 1949.
- The Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea was adopted in 1906. It was significantly revised and replaced by the Second Geneva Convention of 1949.
- The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was adopted in 1929. It was significantly revised and replaced by the Third Geneva Convention of 1949.
- The Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War was adopted in 1949.
In addition, there are three additional amendment protocols to the Geneva Convention:
- Protocol I (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts.
- Protocol II (1977): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts.
- Protocol III (2005): Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem.
All four conventions were last revised and ratified in 1949, based on
previous revisions and partly on some of the 1907 Hague Conventions.
Later, conferences have added provisions prohibiting certain methods of
warfare and addressing issues of civil wars. Nearly all 200 countries
of the world are "signatory" nations, in that they have ratified these
conventions. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the controlling body of the Geneva conventions.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
.jpg)
"It is not a treaty...[In the future, it] may well become the international Magna Carta." Eleanor Roosevelt with the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1949
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a non-binding declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, partly in response to the barbarism of World War II.
The Declaration urges member nations to promote a number of human,
civil, economic and social rights, asserting these rights are part of
the "foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world".
...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world
— Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was framed by members of the Human Rights Commission, with Eleanor Roosevelt
as Chair, who began to discuss an "International Bill of Rights" in
1947. The members of the Commission did not immediately agree on the
form of such a bill of rights, and whether, or how, it should be
enforced. The Commission proceeded to frame the UDHR and accompanying
treaties, but the UDHR quickly became the priority. Canadian law professor John Humphrey and French lawyer Rene Cassin
were responsible for much of the cross-national research and the
structure of the document respectively, where the articles of the
declaration were interpretative of the general principle of the
preamble. The document was structured by Cassin to include the basic
principles of dignity, liberty, equality and brotherhood in the first
two articles, followed successively by rights pertaining to individuals;
rights of individuals in relation to each other and to groups;
spiritual, public and political rights; and economic, social and
cultural rights. The final three articles place, according to Cassin,
rights in the context of limits, duties and the social and political
order in which they are to be realized.
Humphrey and Cassin intended the rights in the UDHR to be legally
enforceable through some means, as is reflected in the third clause of
the preamble:
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.
— Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Some of the Declaration was researched and written by a committee of
international experts on human rights, including representatives from
all continents and all major religions, and drawing on consultation with
leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi. The inclusion of both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights was predicated on the assumption that basic human rights are
indivisible and that the different types of rights listed are
inextricably linked. Though this principle was not opposed by any member
states at the time of adoption (the declaration was adopted
unanimously, with the abstention of the Soviet Bloc, Apartheid South Africa and Saudi Arabia), this principle was later subject to significant challenges.
Peace on Earth
In 1963, two years after the completion of the Berlin Wall and just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Pope John XXIII released the Encyclical Pacem in terris. In paragraphs 11–27, the document lays out an enormous list of human rights, including:
- "a right to his good name"
- "a right to freedom in investigating the truth"
- "a wage ... in accordance with the precepts with justice"
- "when there are just reasons in favor of it,.. to emigrate to other countries and take up residence there."
Pacem in terris was enormously influential, leading to a United
National conference on the Encyclical two years later and to many of the
teachings of the Second Vatican Council.
Late 20th century
We have already found a
high degree of personal liberty, and we are now struggling to enhance
equality of opportunity. Our commitment to human rights must be
absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful must
not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced.
Jimmy Carter Inaugural Address.
According to historian Samuel Moyn the next major landmark in human rights happened in the 1970s. Human right was included in point VII of Helsinki Accords, which was signed in 1975 by thirty-five states, including the United States, Canada, and all European states except Albania and Andorra.
During his inaugural speech in 1977, the 39th President of United States Jimmy Carter made human rights a pillar of United States foreign policy. Human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International later won Nobel Peace Prize also in 1977. Carter, who was instrumental in Camp David accord
peace treaty would himself later won Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 "for his
decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international
conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote
economic and social development".
