The History of Human Rights

By Jiwon Hwang

Earth is inhabited by more than 7 billion people who all were born with human rights that

have to be protected. Everyone agrees that human rights should be enforced, but most people

do not know where it came from and how it started.

The United Nations believes that the origin of human rights is 539 BC. When Cyrus the Great

conquered Babylon, he declared that people all have the right to choose their religion and

freed slaves. He then recorded this on a clay cylinder which in fact inspired the first four

clauses of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This concept spread out to Greek and

Roman civilizations which led to the Magna Carta in 1215. It introduced a more modern form

of human rights to people and diminished the power of the king which is why experts view it

as the start of modern democracy as well.

In the 17 th to 18 th century, philosophers, especially John Locke, developed the notion of

natural rights claiming that all people naturally have the right to be free and equal. Later these

concepts were introduced in several novels enabling more people to understand human rights.

This led to perhaps one of the most important events in the history of democracy and human

rights: the French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

The French revolution triggered the concept that all people, not only French, are equally

subject to human civil rights. This theory was then developed by John Stuart Mill and Hegel

who expanded the theme of universality. A century later, the International Committee of the

Red Cross and the Geneva Convention was founded, contributing to the formation of the

international humanitarian law.

The concept of human rights kept improving until it met its peak in 1945 when the United

Nations was born. The UN was established after World War II ended in order to prevent

future wars and maintain world peace, and enhance human rights. In 1948, the UN made the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights to promote economic, social, and civil human rights.

According to OHCHR(Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights),

human rights are “rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of

residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status.”

Here are some major articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 1: We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas and we

should all be treated the same way.

Article 2: The rights in the UDHR belong to everyone, no matter who we are, where

we’re from, or whatever we believe.

Article 3: We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.

Article 18: Everyone has the freedom to think or believe what they want, including

the right to religious belief. We have the right to change our beliefs or religion at any

time, and the right to publicly or privately practice our chosen religion, alone or with

others.

Article 30: No government, group or individual should act in a way that would

destroy the rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The declaration urges all countries that are part of the United Nations to enforce human

rights, but it is impossible to force governments to do so. Thus, many countries suffer from

the violation of human rights to this day. Human rights has been a major issue in human

history for more than 2 millennia and has developed along with humanity. However, there are

some major ongoing issues about human rights. It hasn’t been long since women were

officially allowed to participate in elections, and people are killing each other simply because

they do not have the same religious beliefs. Racism is also a dilemma that hasn’t been solved

for centuries.

However, people now realize what human rights abuse can do to our society and are starting

to take action. In the US, the death of George Floyd inspired many people around the globe to

fight for black lives which led to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. Non-governmental

organizations work to solve child labour problems in Pakistan and Somalia. Governments

around the world cooperate with each other to help refugees find new homes. Human rights

violations have existed ever since humanity began, and will exist as long as humans live on

Earth. The difference we are making is that people are starting to step up for people of

different races, genders, or religions to protect human rights, which, furthermore, means that we are a

step closer to world peace.