History of Human Rights

1. History of Human Rights

HISTORY OF HUMAN
RIGHTS

2. Precursors of 20th Century Human Rights Documents

PRECURSORS OF 20TH CENTURY HUMAN
RIGHTS DOCUMENTS
Cyrus Cylinder (539)
Magna Charta Libertatum (1215)
Petition of Right (1628)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen (1789)
The Bill of Rights (1791)
The Magna Carta, the American Declaration of Independence, The Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen ,and Bill of Rights, inspired in large part the 1948
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

3. Cyrus Cylinder

CYRUS CYLINDER
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 Babylon 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.

4.

5. Magna Charta Libertatum (1215)

MAGNA CHARTA LIBERTATUM (1215)
Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin
for "the Great Charter of the Liberties")
is a charter agreed to by King John of
England at Runnymede, near Windsor,
on 15 June 1215.

6.

Magna Carta still forms an important symbol of liberty today, often cited by
politicians and campaigners, and is held in great respect by the British and
American legal communities, Lord Denning describing it as "the greatest
constitutional document of all times – the foundation of the freedom of the
individual against the arbitrary authority of the despot".

7. Petition of Right (1628)

PETITION OF RIGHT (1628)

8. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)

THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN
AND OF THE CITIZEN (1789)
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen (French: Déclaration des
droits de l'homme et du citoyen), passed
by France's National Constituent
Assembly in August 1789, is a
fundamental document of the French
Revolution and in the history of human
and civil rights.

9. Universal Declaration of Human Rights

UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
On December 10 1948, the countries belonging to the United Nations, or UN,signed 
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 At that time there were fifty-eight nations belonging to the UN.
 Today, there are one hundred and ninetyone  nations that belong to the United Nations.
 That is most of the nations in the world

10.

“We stand today at the threshold of a great event both in the life of the United
Nations and in the life of mankind. This declaration may well become the
international Magna Carta for all men everywhere”.