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.