History of human rights

Article by Maureen Wayne

Although thoughts of rights and liberty have existed for much of human history, it is unclear to what degree such concepts can be described as “human rights” in the modern sense. The concept of rights certainly existed in pre-modern cultures; ancient philosophers such as Aristotle wrote extensively on the rights (to dikaion in ancient Greek, roughly a ‘just claim’) of citizens to property and participation in public affairs. But, neither the Greeks nor the Romans had any concept of universal human rights; slavery, for instance, was justified in both ancient and modern times as a natural condition.[7] Medieval charters of liberty such as the English Magna Carta were not charters of human rights, let alone general charters of rights: they instead constituted a form of limited political and legal agreement to address specific political circumstances, in the case of Magna Carta later being mythologized in the course of early modern debates about rights.[8]

The basis of most modern legal interpretations of human rights can be traced back to recent European history. The Twelve Articles (1525) are considered to be the first record of human rights in Europe. They were part of the peasants’ demands raised towards the Swabian League in the German Peasants’ War in Germany. In Spain in 1542 Bartolomé de Las Casas argued against Juan Gines de Sepúlveda in the well-known Valladolid debate, Sepúlveda mainted an Aristotelian view of humanity as divided into classes of different worth, while Las Casas argued in favor of equal rights to freedom of slavery for all humans regardless of race or religion. In Britain in 1683, the English Bill of Rights (or “An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown”) and the Scottish Claim of Right each made illegal a range of oppressive governmental actions. Two major revolutions occurred during the 18th century, in the United States (1776) and in

Filed: Humanities
tags: ancient greek, ancient philosophers, aristotelian view, aristotle, english bill of rights, european history, german peasants war, gines, governmental actions, History, history of human rights, Human, human history, human rights in europe, infrance, legal interpretations, magna carta, political circumstances, religion in britain, Rights, swabian league, universal human rights, valladolid