Historical Definition of Human Rights Essay

Human rights are rights that an individual is entitled to by the virtue of being a human being. The fundamental assumption is that every person is a moral and rational being deserving to be treated with dignity. Numerous historical documentations have defined human rights, an aspect of human beings that is fundamental to their existence. According to Ishay, (2008), human rights are rights held by people simply because they are part of the human species. These are rights shared equally by everyone regardless of race, sex, nationality, or economic background. They are universal in content. However, despite them being universal, conflicting political traditions have elaborated different components of human rights or differed on which elements had priority. In this century, the manifold meanings of human rights reflect the process of historical continuity and change that helped shape their present substance and helped in the formation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948. This essay will discuss the definitions of human rights based on historical documentations.

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Originally, people gained rights through membership to a certain group such as a family. This changed in 539 BC after Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and freed all slaves allowing them to return home. He also gave the people the freedom to choose a religion of their own. He had his statements inscribed on a clay tablet called the Cyrus Cylinder, and this became the first human rights declaration in history. Since then, the idea of human rights spread across India, Greece, and Rome and has since made several advances to the current declaration in use today (Ishay, 2008). The most crucial advances include The Magna Carta in 1215 which gave people new rights and made the king subject to the law. The second is the Petition of Right in 1628. This was a documentation that set out the rights of the people. the third is the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 which declared the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Fourth is the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789. This was a document of France declaring that all citizens are equal under the law. Finally, the fifth is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. This is the first document that has the thirty rights to which every person is entitled. It is the document that is currently in use as a measure of human rights.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains thirty articles each outlining the standard by which each individual in the member state and those under their jurisdiction are measured with (Donnelly, 2013). The rights and freedoms outlined in the document range from the right to life and liberty, freedom from servitude or inhuman treatment, freedom of equality regardless of status, the freedom of movement and speech, as well as a warning that nothing contained in the declaration should be interpreted as giving a state or a person the right to conduct any activity aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set therein. The declaration also states that the rights and freedoms outlined therein are applicable to every human being in the member states and the countries under their jurisdiction, without distinction of any kind.

Conclusion

In summary, the history of human rights has evolved from partial rights for some to equal rights for all. With the UDHR, no person is above another in regard to human rights.

Works Cited

Donnelly, Jack. Universal human rights in theory and practice. Cornell University Press, 2013.

Ishay, Micheline. The history of human rights: From ancient times to the globalization era. Univ of California Press, 2008.