Human Rights

Historical Evolution of Human Rights

All men and women are equal partners in a society. They live and grow up here. Members of a society depend upon one another. All activities of men and women, big or small, revolve round this societal system. As a matter of fact, all human beings are members of the same species. They are equal in so far as their rights and dignity are concerned. They are motivated with reason and conscience. The concept of Human Rights has emerged out of mankind's reasoning and conscience.

The first version of human rights theory assumed that God was the source of human rights. It is the classical theory of Natural Right. Every human being had certain rights, which were derived from nature and not from the government or its laws. The historical background of human rights can be traced even from the Vedic times, Babylonian Laws, Magna Carta, Virginia Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. During the World Wars, several nations suffered serious set backs and human sufferings and miseries taught the humanity of the world the importance of basic human rights. In the Greek period, there was no concept of human rights as it was then considered natural to have fundamental social difference among people. Natural inequality was forwarded for justifying social political inequalities. For this reason slavery was justified as a natural and just institution.

The concept of human rights started developing in the thirteenth century. In 1215, the concept of human rights first came into existence, when the rebellion of feudal bottoms against King John of England brought about the proclamation of Magna Carta. The other important events in the history of human rights are Habeas Corpus Act and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in 1715. Human right is the product of the liberal political thought of post seventeenth century. The Habeas Corpus Act (1674), American Declaration of Independence (1746), American Bill of...