Editing Rights (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of human rights}}
[[File:Magna Carta (British Library Cotton MS Augustus II.106).jpg|thumb|right|''[[Magna Carta]]'' or "The Great Charter" was one of England's first documents containing commitments by a [[monarch|king]] to his people to respect certain [[law|legal]] rights. It reduced the power of the monarch.]]

[[File:Declaration of Human Rights.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Picture of a painting; the painting is of a written declaration; there are two human images to the left and right; it says "Declaration des droits de l'homme" (declaration of the rights of man)|The [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] in 1789 in [[France]]]]

The specific enumeration of rights has differed greatly in different periods of history. In many cases, the system of rights promulgated by one group has come into sharp and bitter conflict with that of other groups. In the political sphere, a place in which rights have historically been an important issue, constitutional provisions of various states sometimes address the question of who has what legal rights.

Historically, many notions of rights were [[authoritarianism|authoritarian]] and [[hierarchy|hierarchical]], with different people granted different rights, and some having more rights than others. For instance, the right of a father to be respected by his son did not indicate a right of the son to receive something in return for that respect; and the [[divine right of kings]], which permitted absolute power over subjects, did not leave much possibility for many rights for the subjects themselves.<ref name=tws21decfrre>{{cite news
|title = Divine Right of Kings
|quote = [...] the idea that a king was sacred, appointed by God and above the judgment of earthly powers [...] was called the Divine Right of Kings and it entered so powerfully into British culture during the 17th century that it shaped the pomp and circumstance of the Stuart monarchs, imbued the writing of Shakespeare and provoked the political thinking of Milton and Locke.
|publisher = BBC
|date = 2007-10-11
|url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20071011.shtml
|access-date = 2009-12-21
}}
</ref>

In contrast, modern conceptions of rights have often emphasized [[liberty]] and [[egalitarianism|equality]] as among the most important aspects of rights, as was evident in the [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution|French]] revolutions.

Important documents in the [[political history]] of rights include:

* The [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]] of [[History of Iran|ancient Iran]] established unprecedented principles of [[human rights]] in the 6th century BC under [[Cyrus the Great]]. After his conquest of [[Babylon]] in 539 BC, the king issued the [[Cyrus cylinder]], discovered in 1879 and seen by some today as the first human rights document.<ref>{{Cite web|ref=UN-HumanRightsDay|url=https://www.un.org/events/humanrights/2008/history.shtml|title=The First Global Statement of the Inherent Dignity and Equality|publisher=United Nations|access-date=2010-09-13}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|ref=Lauren|last=Lauren|first=Paul Gordon|author-link=Paul Gordon Lauren|chapter=Philosophical Visions: Human Nature, Natural Law, and Natural Rights|title=The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|year=2003|isbn=0-8122-1854-X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Robertson |first1=Arthur Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/humanrightsinwor0000robe |title=Human rights in the world : an introduction to the study of the international protection of human rights |last2=Merrills |first2=J. G. |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-7190-4923-1 |location=Manchester |ref=Robertson-Merrills |url-access=registration}}</ref>
* The [[Constitution of Medina]] (622 AD; Arabia) instituted a number of rights for the Muslim, Jewish, camp followers and "believers" of Medina.<ref>[[Robert Bertram Serjeant|R. B. Serjeant]], ''The Sunnah Jami'ah, pacts with the Yathrib Jews, and the Tahrim of Yathrib: Analysis and translation of the documents comprised in the so-called "Constitution of Medina"''. ''[[Bulletin of the School of Oriental & African Studies|Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies]]'', University of London, Vol. 41, No. 1. (1978), p. 4.</ref>
* ''[[Magna Carta]]'' (1215; [[England]]) required the [[King of England]] to renounce certain rights and respect certain legal procedures, and to accept that the will of the king could be bound by [[English law|law]], after King John promised his barons he would follow the "law of the land". While ''Magna Carta'' was originally a set of rules that the king had to follow, and mainly protected the property of aristocratic landowners, today it is seen as the basis of certain rights for ordinary people, such as the right of due process.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lepore |first=Jill |date=2015-04-13 |title=The Myth of Magna Carta |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/20/the-rule-of-history |access-date=2024-02-10 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>
* The [[Declaration of Arbroath]] (1320; [[Scotland]]) established the right of the people to choose a head of state (see [[popular sovereignty]]).
* The [[Henrician Articles]] (1573; Poland-Lithuania) or King Henry's Articles were a permanent contract that stated the fundamental principles of governance and constitutional law in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, including the rights of the nobility to elect the king, to meet in parliament whose approval was required to levy taxes and declare war or peace, to religious liberty and the right to rebel in case the king transgressed against the laws of the republic or the rights of the nobility.
* The [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights]] (1689; England) declared that [[Englishmen]], as embodied by [[Parliament]], possess certain civil and political rights; the [[Claim of Right Act 1689|Claim of Right]] (1689; Scotland) was similar but distinct.
* The [[Virginia Declaration of Rights]] (1776) by [[George Mason]] declared the inherent natural rights and [[separation of powers]].
* The [[United States Declaration of Independence]] (1776) succinctly defined the rights of man as including, but not limited to, "[[Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness]]" which later influenced "{{Lang|fr|[[liberté, égalité, fraternité]]}}" (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dyck |first=Rand |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianpolitics0000dyck_m4n9 |title=Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches |publisher=[[Thomas Nelson (publisher)|Thomas Nelson]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-17-616792-9 |edition=3rd |author-link=Rand Dyck |url-access=registration}}</ref> The phrase can also be found in Chapter III, Article 13 of the 1947 [[Constitution of Japan]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1947con.html|title=1947 Japanese Constitution |work=Hanover Historical Texts Collection |publisher=Hanover College History Department }}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} and in President [[Ho Chi Minh]]'s 1945 declaration of independence of the [[Democratic Republic of Vietnam]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1945vietnam.html|title=Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, 1945 |website=Internet History Sourcebooks Project }}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}} An alternative phrase "life, liberty and property", is found in the [[Declaration of Colonial Rights]], a resolution of the [[First Continental Congress]]. Also, Article 3 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] reads, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person".
* The [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] (1789; France), one of the fundamental documents of the [[French Revolution]], defined a set of individual rights and collective rights of the people.
* The [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]] (1785; United States), written by [[Thomas Jefferson]] in 1779, was a document that asserted the right of man to form a personal relationship with God free from interference by the state.
* The [[United States Bill of Rights]] (1789–1791; United States), the first ten amendments of the [[United States Constitution]] specified rights of individuals in which government could not interfere, including the rights of free assembly, freedom of religion, trial by jury, and the right to keep and bear arms.
* The [[Constitution of 3rd May|Constitution of Poland-Lithuania]] (1791; Poland-Lithuania) was the first constitution in Europe, and second in the world. It built upon previous Polish law documents such as the Henrician Articles, as well as the US [[constitution]], and it too, specified many rights.
* The [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (1948) is an overarching set of standards by which governments, organisations and individuals would measure their behaviour towards each other.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} The preamble declares that the "...recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of [[Freedom (political)|freedom]], [[justice]] and [[peace]] in the world..."
* The [[European Convention on Human Rights]] (1950; Europe) was adopted under the auspices of the [[Council of Europe]] to protect [[human rights]] and fundamental freedoms.
* The [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]] (1966), a follow-up to the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], concerns [[civil and political rights]].
* The [[International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights]] (1966), another follow-up to the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], concerns [[economic, social and cultural rights]].
* The [[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]] (1982; Canada) was created to protect the rights of [[Canadians|Canadian]] citizens from actions and policies of all levels of government.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/learn-apprend.html|title=Learn about the Charter |work=Canada's System of Justice |date=2018-04-12|publisher=Department of Justice Canada |access-date=2019-02-02}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=February 2024}}
* The [[Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union]] (2000) is one of the most recent proposed [[legal instrument]]s concerning human rights.