A historical perspective on human rights
Most scholars consider the Magna Charta (Latin for “Great Charter”), signed in England in 1215, to be the forerunner of legal guarantees that exist today. King John of England, under strong pressure from the rebellious nobles, granted all English freemen certain rights “for themselves and their heirs… forever.” At that time in history, very few people in England were considered free men, but it was a step in the right direction. Before Magna Carta, any provision for human rights was at the behest of the occasional benign ruler of the earth.
More often than not, rulers were prone to oppressing their people using arbitrary authority that was only challenged when others wanted to seize the same powers. Peasants’ efforts to gain more economic freedom were mercilessly suppressed. To this day, in many countries, people who openly criticize government policy are jailed or executed.
When the American colonists began their fight for freedom, they really only wanted the same basic rights as the English that they thought had been guaranteed to them since 1689. Only after repeated attempts to assert themselves were rebuked did they proclaim independence, keeping in the process that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, which among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
The purpose of government is to “secure these rights.” Thomas Jefferson wrote. His description of basic rights and the superior source of it contained a concept that had existed since the days of ancient Greece and Rome: that of natural law superior to any law devised by mankind. A country founded on those basic principles might be expected to write them into its basic laws, and it did. From the beginning of its history as a nation, the supreme law of the United States has been its Constitution, not the authority of any one person.
Shortly after American independence was achieved, it was France’s turn. While England and her American colonies had spent two centuries experimenting with democratic government, France clung to the old ways, retaining one of the most authoritarian monarchies in the world. When change came to France after 1789, it was sudden and violent. Although France went through various upheavals in the 1790s, until the republic was overthrown by Napoleon in the early 1800s, it maintained a “declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen,” which spelled out the equal right of people to determine their own government. It also affirmed some of the same guarantees given to US citizens, such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to own property.
Fast forward to the 20th century. After World War II, a number of people attempted to set the human race once and for all on a course that would guarantee all men their Human Rights. They first founded the United Nations in an effort to create a forum where different countries could resolve their differences. The people who created the UN knew that Human Rights were an essential element of world peace and commissioned a commission under the supervision of Eleanor Roosevelt to produce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When it was ratified, it contained 30 provisions that all governments would share in common. Member nations readily subscribed to it.
It would be a mistake to dismiss the human rights movement that emerged after World War II by pointing to all too frequent instances of human rights violations. There have been many triumphs when men have stood up for their human rights. For example, racial minorities in the United States through the leadership of Martin Luther King and others gained considerable respect for their rights, an example that is repeated in other parts of the world. The colonial empires that divided the world in 1948 and denied the right of self-determination to millions have shrunk considerably, beginning with India under the leadership of Gandhi.
However, the question remains: how do human rights become a reality for all? Part of the answer is that an understanding of human rights must permeate our culture. Youth for Human Rights International provides educational materials in the world’s major languages so that all peoples can have access to knowledge of their basic Human Rights, and there is a positive path towards a world that recognizes the dignity of all humanity.