Historical Development of Human

Rights

Aligarh Muslim University

Faculty of Law
GCT I
Human Rights
Submitted to: Dr. Saim Farooqui
Author: Rajat Kumar Singh
Semester: IX sec: B
17BALLB 59
Group III
Enrollment No. – GI0465
Mail id: rajatkrsingh2311@gmail.com
Mob. No. 9568533357
Session-2021-22
 S. No. INDEX PageNo.

01. INTRODUCTION III

02. DEFINITION OF HUMAN RIGHTS III

03. BACKGROUND IV

04. ANCIENT HUMAN RIGHTS V

05. MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS V

06. INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE VI

07. CONSTITUTION OF INDIA AND HUMAAN RIGHTS VII

08. CONCLUSION VIII

INTRODUCTION
“Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the
relations within which these individuals stand”.
– Karl Marx

From birth till childhood; from childhood till maturity; from maturity till adulthood; from
adulthood till old-age; from old-age till death, every human exercise some basic rights to live
with dignity. Human beings are rational beings. By virtue of their humanity, they are entitled
to some rights that are necessary for their peaceful survival. To avoid conflicts in the social
environment, one needs to respect the life of others. To fulfil this objective, every human is
conferred with rights. These rights, in a layman language, are known as Human Rights.

Human Rights are commonly understood as “inalienable fundamental rights” to which a

person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being. Human Rights are
thus conceived as universal and egalitarian. At the international level human rights have
become a movement. It can be studied through many ways which is called as the
constituents of Human Rights. They may be civil rights, political, economic, cultural, social
rights.

They are also called somewhere Fundamental Rights. Being a humankind, one must have
some rights from birth and hence they are the birth rights of every human being. They are
also the rights of freedom to everyone irrespective of caste, creed, sex, region, colour,
profession, etc.

DEFINATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The concept of Human rights has, over the years, become a contentious issue in all countries
in the world. There are contentious issues arising from the definition of Human rights, the
methodologies of implementation of binding human Rights rules, acceptance of conventions
and declarations as binding on states and countries.

This has therefore called for a need to find a definition that fits Human rights in all spheres
including the universality of rights (as proposed and criticized), the issue of monitoring and
implementation mechanisms, and the hurdles faced in implementation.

A unique feature of human rights is that it is difficult to define but impossible to ignore.

 One definition is that Human rights belong to all people, or all people who
are competent to exercise them. In contrast, a right that only belongs to some people is
termed a "special" right.

 Human Rights are also defined as the rights people are entitled to simply because they
are human beings, irrespective of their citizenship, nationality, race, ethnicity,
language, sex, sexuality, or abilities; human rights become enforceable when they are
codified as conventions, covenants, or treaties, or as they become recognized
as customary international law.1

 Human rights are at times defined as the universal rights which every human being
 https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/human-rights
1
 should be entitled to enjoy and have protected.

 Human rights are standards that recognize and protect the dignity of all human beings.
Human rights govern how individual human beings live in society and with each other,
as well as their relationship with the State and the obligations that the State have
towards them.2

 “Rights are those conditions of social life without which no man can seek in general to
be himself at his best”.3

From the above definitions it can be inferred that Human Rights as a concept has the
following principles -

Universal and Interdependent and

inalienable indivisible

Equal and non- Entail both rights

discriminatory and obligations

BACKGROUND
The concept of human rights has existed under several names in European thought for many
centuries, at least since the time of King John of England. After the king violated several
ancient laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to
sign the Magna Carta, which enumerated a few what later, came to be thought of as human
rights. The political and religious traditions in other parts of the world also proclaimed what
have come to be called human rights, calling on rulers to rule justly and compassionately,
and delineating limits on their power over the lives, property, and activities of their citizens. 4

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, several philosophers proposed the concept of
"natural rights", rights belonging to a person by nature and because he was a human
being, not by virtue of his citizenship in a particular country or membership in a particular
religious or ethnic group.

The term natural rights eventually fell into disfavour, but the concept of universal rights
took root. Philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and Henry David Thoreau
expanded the concept. Thoreau is one of the first philosophers known to use the term,
"human

https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/what-are-human-rights
2

Prof. Herald Laski

3

Donnelly, J. (1986). International Human Rights: A Regime Analysis. International Organization, 40(3), 599–
4

642. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706821
rights", and did so in his treatise, “Civil Disobedience”5. This work has been extremely
influential on individuals as different as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther
King.

ANCIENT HUMAN RIGHTS

The roots of human rights can be traced to the Babylonian laws. The Babylonian King
Hammurabi issued a set of laws to his people called “Hammurabi’s Codes”6, which contained
fair wages, protection of property and charges against them to be proved at trial. Greek
philosopher Plato, Aristotle and Roman philosopher Cicero advocated the natural law,
naturalrights, and human rights.

The origin of human rights also can be credited to era of Renaissance Humanism in the early
modern period. Prior to this habeas corpus had been explained in the Magna Carta of 1215
A.D. The European wars of religion and the civil wars of 17th century England gave rise to the
philosophy of liberalism and belief in human rights became a central concern of European
intellectual culture during 18th century “Age of Enlightenment”. The idea of human rights
lay at the core of the American and French revolutions A.D.1776 & A.D.1789 respectively
which paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage. The World Wars of the 20th century
led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A declaration for religious tolerance on an egalitarian basis can be found in the “Edicts of
Ashoka”, which emphasise the importance of tolerance in public policy by the government.
The slaughter and capture of prisoners of war was also condemned by Ashoka.

According to historian John Esposito, Prophet Muhammad condemned female infanticide,

exploitation of poor, usury, murder, false contracts, and theft. He also incorporated Arabic
and Mosaic laws and customs of the time into his divine revelations. The Constitution of
Medina (Charter of Medina) established the security of the community, freedom of religion,
security of women.

MODERN HUMAN RIGHTS

The modern sense of human rights can be traced to Renaissance Europe and Protestant
Reformation, as also the disappearance of the feudal authoritarianism and religions
conservatism that dominated the Middle Ages.

According to Jack Donnelly, in the ancient world, “traditional societies typically have had
elaborate systems of duties….conceptions of justice, political legitimacy and human
flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, flourishing or well-being entirely
independent of human rights.”7

o The Magna Carta (1215) was related to General Charter of Rights.

o The Statue of Kalisz (1264) gave privileges to the Jewish minority in the Kingdom of

Professor Gerard Quinn, “Crossing Diverse Cultures”

5

https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
6

Donnelly, J. (2013). Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice. Cornell University Press.
7

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt1xx5q2
 Poland. In 1525.

o In Germany, the peasants put their “Twelve Articles” i.e. demands towards the “Swabian
League” in the German peasant’s war.

o In Britain in 1683, the English “Bill of Rights” or 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.

The next iteration of human rights can be traced back to the American Revolution of 1776
and the French Revolution of 1789 which lead to the adoption of the United States
Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen
respectively, both of which ultimately evolved into certain legal rights. Additionally, the
Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, encoded into law several fundamental civil rights and
civil freedoms. These were then followed by developments in philosophy of human rights by
philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and G.W.F Hegel during 18th and 19th
centuries.8

In the 19th century human rights became a central concern over the issue of 'slavey'. In
Britain, William Wilberforce worked towards it and the result was that Britain passed Slave
Trade Act, 1807 and Slavery Abolition Act, 1833. In America Northern States already
abolished slavery and Southern states did it later.

In the 20th century, many human rights movements in one form or another can be found.
For example, the labour unions and their rights for labour, the women's rights movements
and mostimportantly the civil rights movements in North America.

In Indian context Mahatma Gandhi's movement to free the natives and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s
movement of liberation of Depressed Classes within Hindu Community are also noteworthy.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE
The establishment of the “International Committee” of the Red Cross the 1864 Lieber Code
and the first of the "Geneva Conventions" in 1864 laid the foundations of "International
Humanitarian Law".

The huge losses of human life and gross abuses of human rights that took place during
World Wars developed the modern human rights instruments. The League of Nations was
established in 1919 and its goals included disarmament, preventive war through collective
security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy and
improving global welfare. Enshrined in its Charter was a mandate to promote many of the
rights later included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

At the 1945 Yalta Conference, the Allied Powers agreed to create a new body i.e., United
Nations was created which now uploads international humanitarian law and international
human rights law globally.

The term human rights came into use some time between Paine's "The Rights of Man" and William
8

LloydGarrison's 1831 writings in "The Liberator" in which he stated that he was trying to enlist his readers
in 'thegreat cause of human rights'.
CONSTITUTION OF INDIA & HUMAN RIGHTS
The Constitution of India is considered as the supreme law of the land. It was drafted by the
constituent assembly and adopted by the people on 26th November 1949 and came into
force on 26th January 1950. At the commencement of the Constitution, it consists of 395
Articles, 22 parts and 8 schedules. Currently, the constitution of India has 395 Articles, 22
Parts and 12 Schedules. The most important provisions of the Indian constitution are
fundamental rights from Article 14 to Article 31.

These rights are essential for the human being to live peacefully and with liberty in the
country. In Part IV the constitution of India provided directive principles of state policy for
the implementation of those human rights. The Constitution of India inserted several rights
for thebetterment of human beings such as Right to equality.
CONCLUSION
Human rights have a long historical heritage. The principal philosophical foundation of
humanrights is a belief in the existence of a form of justice valid for all peoples, everywhere.
In this form, the contemporary doctrine of human rights has come to occupy centre stage in
geo- political affairs. The language of human rights is understood and utilized by many
peoples in very diverse circumstances. Human rights have become indispensable to the
contemporary understanding of how human beings should be treated, by one another and
by national and international political bodies. Human rights are best thought of as potential
moral guarantees for each human being to lead a minimally good life. The extent to which
this aspiration has notbeen realized represents a gross failure by the contemporary world to
institute a morally compelling order based upon human rights. The philosophical basis of
human rights has been subjected to consistent criticism. While some aspects of the ensuing
debate between philosophical supporters and opponents of human rights remain
unresolved and, perhaps, irresolvable, the general case for human rights remains a morally
powerful one. Arguably, the most compelling motivation for the existence of human may
rest upon the exercise ofimagination.