The document discusses the origin and development of human rights. It describes how the concept of human rights originated from documents like the Magna Carta in 1215 and the French Declaration of Rights of Man in 1789. It then outlines the evolution of human rights in three phases - ancient age, medieval age, and modern age. Key documents that advanced human rights in each phase are mentioned, culminating in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The document also discusses different generations of human rights and features of human rights like universality and equality.

1. z
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
HUMAN RIGHTS
UNIT - 1

2. z
Concepts under UNIT - 1
▪ Meaning of Human Rights
▪ Origin of Human Rights
▪ Evolution of Human Rights
▪ Generations of Human Rights

3. z
Meaning of HR
Meaning:
▪ Human Rights are the basic rights and freedomsthat
belong to every person in the world, from birth until death.
▪ These are inherited by birth itself.
▪ These rights are essential for protection and maintenance
of dignity of individuals.
▪ Some times, these rights can be restricted.
▪ For example: National Emergency

4. z
Definition of Human Rights
▪ According to Section 2(d) of the Protection of Human
RightsAct,1993 :
Human Rights means the right relating to life, liberty,equality
and dignity of individual guaranteed by the constitutionor embodied
in international Covenants and enforceable by Courts in India.

5. z
Object of Human Rights
▪ To protect Human Being
▪ To develop individual self respect
▪ To value human dignity
▪ To promote Social Justice and friendship among people and
nations

6. z
Sources of Human Rights
▪ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
▪ International treaties and covenants
▪ International customs
▪ Judicial Decisions
▪ Official Documents

7. z
Kinds of Human Rights
▪ Civil and Political Rights:
These rights are originated in 13th century from Magna Carta.
Eg: Right to life, Right to Privacy,etc.
▪ Economic and Social Rights:
These rights are originated from Russian Revolution of 1917 and Paris Peace Conference of
1919
Eg: Right to Food,Clothes , Shelter etc.
▪ Collective Rights:
These rights related to group of individuals
Eg: Right to Development, Right to safe environment, etc.

8. z
Origin of Human Rights
▪ The main conceptof Human rights origin is from Magna Carta, Bill of Rights and French declaration.
▪ Magna Carta,1215:
Magna Carta also known as Great charter. It is a charter of rights agreed by England King John on 15th June
1215 to make peace betweenking and group of barons. It promisedthe protectionof church rights. It was
drafted by StephenLangton.
▪ Petition of Rights, 1628:
It is an English Constitutional Documentand tell about the specificindividual protections against the state.
▪ Bill of Rights, 1689:
It is a LandmarkAct in the Constitutional law of England that set out certain basic civil rights. It limits the power
of Monarch and set out the rights of Parliament, Free Elections,Freedom of speechin Parliamnent etc.

9. z
Continue..
▪ Virginia Declaration ,1776:
This declaration specified a no.of fundamental rights of man. These rights affirmed that all men are by nature
equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights.
Bill of Rights of USA, 1787:
It is a first ten amendments of United States Constitution. After the efforts of representative of James Madison
proposal amendments were accepted by the parliament and incorporated into the main body of the Constitution.
It was takes earlier documents of Virginia Declaration,Magna Carta and England Bill of Rights.It specifies the
no.of fundamental rights of a man.
▪ French Declaration, 1789:
It was inspired by the American Declaration of Independence , the newly formed
National Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the rights of men and citizen.

10. z
Salient Features of Human Rights
The following are the features of Human Rights.
Inherent :
▪ Human Rights are inherent and natural.
▪ None acquires it by any specialquality of reputation.
▪ These rights are entitled by born.
Not Exchangeable:
▪ Human rights can’t be handed over,exchanged or transferred.
▪ It is excessive to all people in the world.
▪ It could neither be given away,nor could be stolen.

11. z
Continue…
Universality:
▪ Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set
forth in UDHR Declaration, 1948.
Equality:
▪ Human Rights refer to equal enjoyment of opportunities
and resources to all.
▪ Justice, Rule of Law and Indiscrimination are the
philosophy of human rights.

12. z
Evolution or History of Human Rights
The chronological evolution or history of human rights can be looked at
from three phases according to the development and recognition. The
following are:
▪ Ancient Age
Cyrus Cylinder
Babylonian Laws
▪ Medieval Age
Magna Carta

13. z
Continue…
▪ ModernAge
Petition of Rights
Bill of Rights,1689
Virginia Declaration
Bill of Rights, 1787
French Declaration
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

14. z
Ancient Age
Cyrus Cylinder:
▪ Cyrus the Great is a Persian King.
▪ He is from 6th
century BC.
▪ This is the 1st
documentto talks about the rights of a humans.
▪ It was discovered in 1879 in ruins of Babylon in Mesopotamia.
▪ It contains some of the principles as a declaration to the people who lived in his kingdom.
▪ He wrote those rights in a Clay Cylinder with a script of Akkadian Cuneiform.So that we called it as a
Cyrus Cylinder.
▪ This is now in a British Museum.

15. z

16. z
Continue…
Babylonian Laws:
▪ These laws are given by the Babylonian King Hammurabi to his
people who lived in his kingdom.
▪ He is 6th king of the 1st dynasty of Babylon.
▪ These laws are called as a Hammurabi’s code.
▪ These are taken from the cyrus cylinder declaration.
▪ This code is now in the Louvre Museum located in
Paris,France.

17. z

18. z
Medieval Age
Magna Carta,1215:
▪ The most important step of middle age to promote human
rights was taken by ‘Magna Carta’.
▪ It was a Constitutional Charter adopted by the King John
in 15th June 1215 AD
▪ It was drafted by Stephen Langton and the charter talks
about the peace between the king and the rebel barons.
▪ This is the first written document by which liberty of people
were guaranteed.

19. z

20. z
Modern Age
In the beginning stage of Modern age, the practice of human rights had been
developed in England.
Petition of Rights,1628:
▪ After ‘ Magna Carta’ an important step was taken by the parliament
through adopting the Perition of Rights.
▪ In 1627, Charles -1 imposed forced loans and imprisoned the people who
refused to pay the loans without trials.
▪ The Parliament sent the statement of civil liberties to Charles- 1.
▪ It is a English Constitutional Document and tell about specific individual
protection rights against the state.

21. z
Continue…
Bill of Rights, 1689:
▪ It is a Landmark Act in the Constitutional law of England that set
out certain basic civil rights.
▪ It limits the power of Monarch and set out the rights of
parliament, Free Elections, Freedom of speech in Paeliamnent
etc.
Virginia Declaration, 1776:
▪ It was drafted in 1776 to proclaim the inherent rights of men.
▪ It was drafted by George Mason and adopted by the Fifth
Virginia Convention at Williamsburg.
▪ This convention declared Virginia is an Independent state and
produced its first constitution.

22. z

23. z
Continue…
Bill of Rights of USA,1787:
▪ The Constitution of USA has first 10 amendments and after the
efforts of representative of James Madison.
▪ The proposed amendments are incorporated into main body of
Constitution and it specified a no.of fundamental rights of man.
▪ It was taken earlier documents especially Virginia Declaration,
Magna Carta and English Bill of Rights.

24. z
Continue…
French Declaration, 1789:
▪ French was a newly formed country and it was
inspired by the American Declaration of
Independence.
▪ The newly formed national assembly proclaimed the
Declaration of the rights of men and citizen draft
prepared by the Marquis Lafayette.

25. z

26. z
Continue…
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),1948:
▪ It came into existence in 10th December 1948.
▪ It is a historical documents that was adopted by United Nations General
Assembly.
▪ UDHR is a milestone document in the evolution of human rights.
▪ It enshrine the rights and freedoms of all human beings.
▪ It sets out for the first time that fundamental human rights to be
universally protected.
▪ It consists of preamble and 30 articles setting forth the basic human
rights without any discrimination.

27. z

28. z
Generations of Human Rights
Human Rights have three generations are as follows:
First Generation:
▪ Civil and Political Rights
▪ These are adopted by the GeneralAssemblyon 16th
December1966.
▪ Eg: Right to life, Freedom from slavery, Right to liberty,etc
Second Generation:
▪ Economic ,Socialand Cultural Rights
▪ These are adopted by the GeneralAssemblyon December16,1966.
▪ Eg: Right to work, Right to education, Freedom from hunger, etc.

29. z
Third Generation:
▪ Collective Rights
▪ These are also called as group rights.
▪ These rights were introduced by the Karl Vasek.
Eg: Right to Development, Right to self discrimination,etc.

30. z
Sovereignty
▪ Sovereignty is a political concept that refers to
dominant power or Supreme authority.
▪ In monarchy,supreme power resides in the king or a
queen (crown)
▪ In modern democracies, sovereignty power rests with
the people and is exercised through representing
bodies such as parliament, state assembly

31. z
Democracy:
▪ The term derived from Greek word ‘demokratia’.
▪ Democracy has two terms. ‘ demo’ means people and ‘cracy‘
means rule
▪ Democracy means people’s rule.
▪ The common form of today’s democracy is a representative
democracy.

32. z
Elections:
▪ Elections were conducted since vedic period. In this period, the
Rajas were elected through ganas. The decision of the ganas
were final.
▪ In chola period, the elections were done through palm leaves
and mud pots. This system is called as ‘ Kudavolai System’.
▪ In modern age, adult suffrage was came into existence.

33. z
Suffrage:
▪ Means right to vote.
▪ It is granted to qualifying citizens once they have reaching to the
voting age.
▪ All over the Europe and USA ,women and poor have had to fight
for participation in elections. Finally the American women got the
right to vote in 1920 and UK women in 1928.
▪ After that Universal Adult franchise ,all people had a rote to vote.

34. z
Sovereignty vs Human Rights
▪ Sovereignty is a given by he people whereas human rights are
inherited by birth itself.
▪ Sovereignty can greatly hinder global enforcement and
implementation of human rights wheareas human rights create
conditions to every individual to develop their personality in
fullest extent.

35. z
Human Rights vs Fundamental Rights
▪ Human rights are basic rights whereas Fundamental rights are
guaranteed by the Constitution.
▪ All fundamental rights are human rights but not all human rights
are fundamental rights.
▪ Human Rights are concerned with the all human being of the
world but fundamental rights are related between one state and
their citizens. There are differ from country to country.

36. z
Human right is a legal right
▪ Legal right is a right which is recognized and protected by the legal system.
▪ Legal rights have two important essential elements. Those are
1. Holder of the Right
2. Person bound by the duty.
▪ Rights and duties are correlative. i.e., a person cannot have a right without
a corresponding duty.
▪ According to the Declaration of Human Rights Defenders adopted by the
General Assembly of UN on 9th December, 1988 under Article 2 Para 1 that
each state has the prime responsibility and duty to protect, promote and
implement all human rights by adopting necessary measures.