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timeline contains the dates of some major advances that have been made
by the human race in the area of human rights and human dignity. This
history has been a very rocky one. Many rights were granted throughout
the centuries after long and hard struggle, only to be taken away again
during periods of intolerance. The pledge to work for a better world is rooted in the struggle of different societies and in the action they took to establish human rights. Many people still regard ancient Greece and Rome (both slave owning societies) as the sole sources of all the democratic principles that are valued in the Western world. However other societies, before them and since, have also made significant contributions to the development of the principle of human rights and to democratic ideals. Perhaps the earliest expression of the attempt to establish human rights is to be found in the Code of Hammurabi (Hammurapi) in Babylonia in 1700 BCE. This earliest recorded Code of Laws contained clauses which sought to protect the individual against the arbitrary use of power, and the weak from the strong. In retrospect, it is important to note that many of the landmark declarations listed here did not always include all human beings. Minority groups such as women, blacks, Jews and gays have often been excluded from the human rights granted to others. For instance, the US Declaration of Independence of 1776 did not extend human rights to slaves. The act of parliament that abolished slavery in Britain and the Empire did not passed until 1833. In the United States, the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves of the South did not occur until 1863. Women in Britain did not have the right to vote until the Representation of the People Act in 1928. In Germany this took place in 1918 and in Austria in 1919. It is also important to note that major strides towards human rights took place outside of the Western Hemisphere. For instance, long before women could vote in Europe and the United States the women of the Iroqouis tribe in North America had voting rights. We examine here the most positive accomplishments of individuals, cultures, religions and nations across the time span of the last 2500 years. 5th Century BCE: Sophocles's Antigone elevated individual human conscience above the law and introduced a new dimension to the notion of law, touching on the rights of the individual. 4th century BCE: Plato developed the notion of justice and his pupil, Aristotle, the idea of equity. 3rd century BCE: Meng-Tsu examined the question of whether the individual was less important than the king. A century later Sien-Tsu said what made society possible were the rights of the individual. 3rd century: Senecca affirmed the sanctity of human life 5th century: Christianity proclaimed that all people were equal in the sight of the creator, and St Augustine elevated justice above the law, in the name of freedom of conscience. The Q'Uran claimed that to be human is to merit unconditional respect. 1215: The Magna Carta was the true pre-cursor of all modern human rights declarations, by guaranteeing the rights and liberties of the individual, the protection of the rights of the innocent, in granting freedom of movement, and of natural justice. Articles 39 and 40 of the Magna Carta state: Article 39: No free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimized, neither will we attack him or send any one to attack him, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or judgement of the law of the land Article 40: To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice. Appr. 1600: Five separate Iroquois tribes (who call themselves the Haudenosaunee) decided to band together in order to better protect themselves and to end the bloodshed between them. They entered into a peace treaty and created a Confederacy. These tribes were the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and the Oneidas (the Tuscarora later joined this nation). This treaty led to what is considered to be one of the world's first democracies. Each tribe had one vote in the decision-making process. Their form of government served as one of the models for the present day system of US government. 1689: The Bill of Rights in England was the basis of the English constitution and represented victory over absolutism of the Stuart monarchs and established the rights of parliament and of the citizens. It also achieved some power sharing between the monarch and property owners in England. French philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau assumed that there was an agreement between the governed and those who ruled them. This contract sets out the rights and duties of each. 1776: The U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaimed that "all men are created equal". It is declared that there are certain inalienable rights, among which are life and liberty. Governments are seen as being instituted to guarantee those rights and to ensure the well being of their peoples, as well as ruling with the consent of the people. In the 18th century, the philosophers of the enlightenment reinforced these ideas, in trying to found societies based on democratic principles, which guaranteed equality, before the law, to their citizens. They also introduced the concept of an independent judiciary. All these principles were developed in the interests of allowing people to develop their full potential. 1789: At Versailles in France 1789 a national constitution was established. This was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It defined natural rights that are inalienable and sacrosanct, the most precious of these being liberty, for example: Article 1) Human beings are born free, equal and have rights Article 2 )The duty of all political associations was to preserve the natural rights of people, the rights of liberty and property, security and the right to resist oppression The emphasis was on political and civil rights. 1791: The U.S. Bill of Rights incorporated the ideas of freedom of speech, press and a fair trial. The Bill of Rights was added to the new U.S. Constitution. Thomas Paine wrote The Rights of Man, based on democratic principles and the ideas of the French Revolution. Edmund Burke stated that ignorance, neglect and contempt for human rights were the sole causes of human misery. 1791: France grants citizenship to the Jews. The Jews of the Netherlands receive citizenship shortly thereafter in 1796. Citizenship for Jews in other countries follows: Prussia in 1812; Denmark in 1814; Greece in 1830; Belgium in 1831; Hungary in 1867; Sweden in 1870; Switzerland in 1874. 1815: The nations that defeated Napoleon meet in Vienna. Strong statements are made against slavery and there is an emphasis on protecting human rights such as the freedom of religion. 1833: Great Britain passes the Abolition Act, ending slavery throughout the British Empire. 1863: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln frees all slaves in the United States with his Emancipation Proclamation. 1885: The Berlin Conference on Africa passes an antislavery act 1890: The Brussels Conference passes an antislavery act 1893: Women are given the right to vote in New Zealand. This is the first time that women are given the right to vote in a "Western Democracy". Also in this year, Matilda Josyln Gage, an American woman famous for fighting for women's rights, decided to become an Iroquois (native American tribe). She was arrested in the United States in the same year for voting in a school board election. As an Iroquois she had full voting rights. 1902: Women are given the right to vote in federal elections in Australia. 1919: After the First World War (then claimed to be "the war to end all wars") the Treaty of Versailles is signed. For the first time the international community considers holding heads of state accountable for human rights violations. Other treaties at Versailles stress minority rights. 1946: Nuremberg trials take place in Nuremberg, Germany to prosecute Nazi war criminals. The following charges are brought against the defendants: (1) crimes against peace; (2) war crimes; (3) crimes against humanity; and (4) conspiracy to commit any of the aforementioned crimes. 1948: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is signed. Following the Holocaust of the Jews, the genocide of the Gypsies and other acts of barbarism by the Nazis in the Second World War, the conscience of humankind was moved so profoundly that the United Nations Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Right to Self-determination of the Colonial Peoples. They laid down the principles of moral, social and political faith, which place all the people of the world in the human family. Added to this is the hope of a universal order, in which the rights and duties of all were clearly stated. Brief Summary of Provisions: General principles of liberty and equality Articles 1-2 Personal Rights and liberty Articles 3-11 Fundamental, Intellectual and spiritual liberty, political rights Articles 12-17 Economic, social and cultural rights Articles 18-27 Link between individual and social rights Articles 28-30 Karl Marx thought that the right of the individual to own property and to enjoy and dispose of it as he/she wished, had the effect of limiting the freedom of others. On the basis of his ideas and those of Lenin, the Russian Revolution established a society which gave priority to collective socio-economic rights at the expense of those of the individual. 1949: Geneva Convention sets standards for more humane treatment of prisoners of war, those who are wounded and civilians. 1961: Amnesty International is established in Great Britain. 1965: U.N. International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination is adopted. 1981: Signing of the African Charter on the Rights of Man and of the People 1989: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990: UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their families is adopted. 1994: The UN Decade for Human Rights is declared. 1998: A treaty is signed in Rome to establish the International Court of Justice. |
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