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,
  • 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

The Magna Carta (1215)

• 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

Petition of Right (1628)

• 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.