The Ten Commandments [UP]
The Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament by Christians) relates the story of ancient Israel , and in it are abundant inferences about human rights. The Ten Commandments, by the prohibition of murder and theft, give implicit recognition of the right to life and property. This recognition is considerably broadened by later elaboration of the laws and by the passionate discourses on justice by such prophets as Amos.
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1215 AD Magna Carta [UP]
Individual freedom can survive only under a system of law by which both the sovereign and the governed are bound. Such a system of fundamental laws, whether written or embodied in tradition, is known as a constitution. The idea of government limited by law received effective expression for the first time in the Magna Carta (1215), which checked the power of the English king. The Magna Carta did not stem from democratic or egalitarian beliefs; rather, it was a treaty between king and nobility that defined their relationship and laid the basis for the concept that the ruler was subject to the law rather than above it. |
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The development of constitutional government [UP]
It was slowed by the persistence of the ideas of absolutism, the belief that all political power should be in the hands of one individual, and divine right, which held that kings derived their power from—and were only accountable to—God. The reigns of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs in England were marked by fierce conflicts between the Crown and Parliament. The modern development of the human-rights concept began during the late Middle Ages in the period called the Renaissance, when resistance to political and economic tyranny began to surface in Europe . It was during the 17th and 18th centuries, a period called the Enlightenment, that specific attention was drawn by scientific discoveries to the workings of natural law. This, in turn, seemed to imply the existence of natural rights with which the state should not be allowed to interfere.
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American and French revolutions [UP]
By the time of the American and French revolutions, a complete turnaround had taken place in the relationship of governments to human rights. The point of view elaborated by the American Founding Fathers, as well as by the French revolutionaries, is that government's purpose is to protect and defend rights, not to dispense or exploit them. James Madison went so far as to assert that a man is said to have a right to his property, he may equally be said to have a property in his rights.And further, is instituted to protect property of every sort.The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (France, 1789) states that, are born and remain free and equal in rights,and aim of every political association is the preservation of the natural and inprescriptible rights of man. . Constitution formally established libertarian principles as a foundation of modern democracy. |
Bill of Rights [UP]
The civil rights and liberties of U.S. citizens are embodied in the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religious exercise as well as separation of church and state (see Speech, Freedom of; Press, Freedom of the; Freedom of Religion). The 4th Amendment protects the privacy and security of the home and personal effects and prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The 5th through 8th amendments protect persons accused of crime; they guarantee, for example, the right to trial by jury, the right to confront hostile witnesses and to have legal counsel, and the privilege of not testifying against oneself. The 5th Amendment also contains the general guarantee that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law (see Due Process of Law). Originally these amendments were binding only on the federal government. However, decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States have established that the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment (ratified in 1868) applies many of the guarantees in the Bill of Rights to actions by state and local governments. |
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