A Brief History of Human Rights Regulation

A brief history of human rights regulation

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 did not emerge from a vacuum. It was presented as the latest in a series of acts, covenants and declarations aimed at securing certain rights for citizens in various countries. These acts, covenants and declarations — which are usually traced back to the English Magna Carta of 1215 have almost always emerged as strategic responses to social and political upheaval. The Magna Carta was signed by King John merely to serve as a pact between the king and his unhappy barons, and was not in any respect intended to serve as a declaration of rights for all citizens, but its very necessity reflected the uncertainty of the times. The English Bill of Rights of 1688—89 — which was the first document to use the language of �rights’ and which introduced the system of free elections — was merely intended to ensure that royal absolutism was firmly dissolved