History of Human Rights

 

History of Human Rights

1.       Cyrus Cylinder (539 BC)

·         recognized as the world’s first charter of human rights

·         an ancient clay cylinder, on which is written a declaration in Akkadian cuneiform script in the name of Persia's Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great

·         Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, freed the slaves, declared that all people had the right to choose their own religion, and established racial equality

·         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

2.       Magna Carta (1215)

·         King John of England (and his predecessors), the 3^rd of the Angevin Kings, ruled the kingdom using the principle of vis et voluntas, or "force and will", taking executive and sometimes arbitrary decisions, often justified on the basis that a king was above the law

·         In 1214, a mercenary army raised by King John was defeated by the French at the Battle of Bouvines in northern France. This army had been paid largely by the tax known as ‘scutage’, a payment made to the Crown in place of providing knights for military service, and the focus of much baronial discontent.

·         In 1215, John pledged to his barons that he would obey “the law of the land” when he affixed his seal to a charter that came to be called Magna Carta

·         Although Magna Carta contained 63 clauses when it was first granted, only three of those clauses remain part of English law. One defends the liberties and rights of the English Church, another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns and the third clause gave all free men the right to justice and a fair trial

·         Magna Carta has been taken as foundational to the rule of law, chiefly because in it King John promised that he would stop throwing people into dungeons whenever he wished, a provision that lies behind what is now known as due process of law and is understood not as a promise made by a king but as a right possessed by the people

·         “No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.”

3.       Petition of Right (1628)

·         Following a series of disputes with Parliament over granting taxes, in 1627 Charles I imposed "forced loans", and imprisoned those who refused to pay, without trial.

·         Parliament found this to be a violation of the spirit of the Magna Carta, which provided that the monarch could not levy taxes without common consent or imprison a free man without cause, and thus drafted the Petition to reclaim the rights of Parliament and of free men and to extract a recommitment from the crown to observe the rule of law.

·         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; and

(4)    Martial law may not be used in time of peace.

4.       1.       English Bill of Rights (1689)

·         The English Bill of Rights was an act signed into law in 1689 by William III and Mary II, who became co-rulers in England after the overthrow of King James II. The bill outlined specific constitutional and civil rights and ultimately gave Parliament power over the monarchy

·         The English Bill of Rights includes the following items:

(a)    A list of King James’ misdeeds

(b)   13 articles that outlined specific freedom

(c)    Confirmation that William and Mary were rightful successors to the throne of England

·         In general, the Bill of Rights limited the power of the monarchy, elevated the status of Parliament and outlined specific rights of individuals.

·         Some of the key liberties and concepts laid out in the articles include:

(a)    Freedom to elect members of Parliament, without the king or queen’s interference

(b)   Freedom of speech in parliament

(c)    Freedom from royal interference with the law

(d)   Freedom to petition the king

(e)   Freedom to bear arms for self-defense

(f)     Freedom from cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail

(g)    Freedom from taxation by royal prerogative, without the agreement of Parliament

(h)   Freedom of fines and forfeitures without a trial

(i)      Freedom from armies being raised during peacetimes

United States Declaration of Independence (1776)

·         On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of Independence as a formal explanation of why Congress had voted 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.

·         Substantially abandoning contention on the basis of the rights of Englishmen, the declaration put forth the more fundamental doctrines of natural rights and of government under social contract.

·         Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and the right of revolution.

5.       The Constitution of the United States of America (1787)

·         Signed on September 17, 1787, by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United States established America’s national government and fundamental laws, and guaranteed certain basic rights for its citizens

·         One of the key features in the Constitution, and one that would become a critical factor in the nineteenth century, is that the source of sovereignty, the source of the authority for the document, is the citizenry. “We the People of the United States” ordain and establish the Constitution. This is a direct link to the Declaration of Independence, which declared that governments derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.

6.       French 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.

·         The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) 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.”

7.       US Bill of Rights (1791)

·         In 1789, Madison, then a member of the newly established U.S. House of Representatives, introduced 19 amendments to the Constitution. On September 25, 1789, Congress adopted 12 of the amendments and sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of these amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified and became part of the Constitution on December 10, 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.

8.       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.

·         It defines "the basis on which rest the rules of international law for the protection of the victims of armed conflicts.

·         The main principles laid down in the Convention and maintained by the later Geneva Conventions are:

(a)    relief to the wounded without any distinction as to nationality;

(b)   neutrality (inviolability) of medical personnel and medical establishments and units; and

(c)    respect for and marking of medical personnel transports and equipment with the distinctive sign of the red cross on a white background

9.       The United Nations (1945)

·         The traumatic events of the Second World War brought home that human rights are not always universally respected. The extermination of almost 17 million people during the Holocaust, including 6 million Jews, horrified the entire world. After the war, governments worldwide made a concerted effort to foster international peace and prevent conflict. This resulted in the establishment of the United Nations in June 1945.

·         In April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco for the United Nations Conference on International Organization with the goal to fashion an international body to promote peace and prevent future wars.

·         The Charter of the United Nations was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, and came into force on 24 October 1945.

·         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.”

10.   The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

·         In 1948, representatives from the 50 member states of the United Nations came together under the guidance of Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States 1933-1945) to devise a list of all the human rights that everybody across the world should enjoy.

·         On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations announced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) - 30 rights and freedoms that belong to all of us. Seven decades on and the rights they included continue to form the basis for all international human rights law.

·         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 UDHR marked an important shift by daring to say that all human beings are free and equal, regardless of colour, creed or religion. For the first time, a global agreement put human beings, not power politics, at the heart of its agenda.

·         The 30 rights and freedoms set out in the UDHR include the right to asylum, the right to freedom from torture, the right to free speech and the right to education. It includes civil and political rights, like the right to life, liberty, free speech and privacy. It also includes economic, social and cultural rights, like the right to social security, health and education.

·         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.