Human Rights

History of Human Rights

Recognition of the importance of human rights began early in history through philosophical and religious teachings. Aristotle postulated a natural moral order that transcends sociohistorical context to apply universally to everyone. The Roman Stoics similarly advanced a natural and universal code that counseled living in harmony with the divine order. In the 17th century, philosopher John Locke presented the concept that, long before and irrespective of state acknowledgment, all people possessed natural rights. These natural rights to life, liberty, and property stemmed from natural law, under which all people owed a duty of self-preservation to God. The 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant posited that morally autonomous and rational people will act according to a self-imposed categorical imperative. This categorical imperative denotes the moral autonomy and equality of all rational beings and forms the basis for laws established by such individuals. These rights-based philosophies were complementary to the religious ideologies of human worth.

Many religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, have principles relating to the responsibility or duty toward others, as well as on human dignity. Tenets of human rights can be found in various religious teachings. For example, the Bible quotes Jesus as saying, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31). The Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a, says, “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor.” Chaitanya, a Hindu philosopher, believed that the only caste was that of humanity. The Qur'an also recognizes one common humanity: “God knows best about your belief, and you are equal to one another, as far as belief is concerned” (4:25).

Beginning in the 13th century, countries began adopting legal instruments to protect certain rights and limit the government's power. The Magna Carta (1215) represented an early effort to establish restrictions on the English government's authority and set forth important concepts of due process. Other instruments soon followed that protected the rights to be free from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and to freedom of speech and prohibited cruel or unusual punishments. For example, the 1776 Declaration of Independence asserted the equality of all men and their inalienable rights, including “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” The French Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) established the rights to liberty, security, and due process, to possess property, and to have freedom of expression, as well as equality before the law.

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