A Brief History Of Human Rights

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,
- established racial equality
These and other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay cylinder in the Akkadian language with cuneiform script.
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

Known as The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter”.
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.
- Among them was
- the right of the church to be free from governmental interference
- the rights of all free citizens to own and inherit property
- protected from excessive taxes
- established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to remarry
- established principles of due process and equality before the law
- It also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct
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 next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the Petition of Rights, produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement of civil liberties.
Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to
- exact forced loans
- quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economic measure
Arbitrary arrest and imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
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 the consent of Parliament
- No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of the right of habeas corpus)
- No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry
- Martial law may not be used in a time of peace.