HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONCEPT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

concern with human

Even though the origin of human rights is ancient, the international
rights may be said to be of comparatively recent origin. The United Nations Charter marks the advent
of systematic human rights protection within the International system.
The idea of human rights is as old as humanity, its systematic proclamation and declaration
are more recent.

The origin of human rights can be traced back to the times of ancient Greeks. The fact
that human rights are recognized as natural rights of man is illustrated by a Greek play
"Antigone". In this play, Sophocles describes that Antigone's brother, while he was
rebelling against the king, was killed and his burial was prohibited by the King Creon. In
disobedience of the order Antigone buried her brother. When she was arrested for
violating the order she pleaded that she had acted in accordance with the 'immutable,
unwritten laws of heaven' which even the king could not override.

The world's first bill of human rights was discovered on a clay tablet dating
back from the
reign of Cyrus the Great (555- 529 BC).
The documents which form the historical foundation of modern human
are the English Bilof Rights (16881 the American Declaration of rights jurisprudence
French Declaration of Rights of Man (1789),The legai process in thelndenendence (1776) and thd
universality of human rights
effectively commenced with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 (UDHR).
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Class -LLB (HONS.) IV SEM. Subject -Human Rights

In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first king of ancient Persia, conquered the ciy
Babylon. But it was his next actions that marked a maior advance for man. He freed the slaves,
declared that all people had the right to ch00se their own religion, and established racial equailty.
witn
These and other decrees were recorded on a baked-clay cvlinder in the Akkadian language
cuneiform script. Known today as the 'Cyrus Cvlinder,this ancient record has now been recognzeu a
of the Unnteu
the world's first charter of human rights. It is translated into all six official languagesHuman Rights.
Nations and its provisions parallel the first four Articies of the Universal Declaration of
The Spread of Human Rights - From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread quicky to India, Greece
gbservation of the fact that people
and eventually Rome. There the concept of "natural law arose, in was based on rational
tended to follow certain unwritten laws in the course of life, and
ideas derived from the nature of things.
Right
as the Magnatata (1215), the Petition ofCitizen
Documents asserting individual rights, such
Deciasatiai of the Rights of Man and of the
(1628), the US Constitution (1787), the French preçuísors to many of today's human rights
(1789), and the US Billof Rights (1791) are the written
documents.

THE MAGNA CARTA (1215)

on the
Carta, or "Great Charter" was arguably the most significant early influence
English-speaking
The Magna of constitutional law today in the
extensive historical process that led to the rule
world. by which
of arcient laws and customs
in25. after King John of England vialated átonumbèr signthe Magna Carta, which enumerates what
subjects forced him
England hakbeen governed, his
rights, Among them was the right of the church to be free from
human
Jater came to he thought of as rights af all free citizens to own and inherit property and to be
aOVermenta interference, the to choose not
taxes. It estabiished the right of widows who owned propertyalso contained
protected from excessive pricrples af tue process and equality before the law. It
to remarry, and established ofjcial iaconduct Widely viewed as one ofwas the most important
provisions forbidding bribery aro
democracy, the Magna Carta a crucial turning
dvelopmetit of modern
legal documents in the
establish reedom.
point in the struggle to
(16281
THE PETITION OF RIGHT
development of human rights was the Petition of Right.
in the civil liberties.
The next recorded milestone Parliament and sent to Charles I as a statement ofgovernment to
1628 by the English foreign policy had caused his
produced in finance the king's unpopular economy measure. Arbitrary
arrest
Refusal by Parliament to houses as an hostility to
loans and toquarter troops in subjects produced in Parliament a violent
eyact forced opposing these policies had
and imprisonment forVilliers, the Duke of Buckingham.
Charles and to George Coke, was based upon earlier statutes and charters and
Right, initiated by Sir Edward
of
The Petition
asserted four principles: