Additional resources
Chapter 7 
The nature and development of human rights
Domestic documents and
treaties
Magna Carta (1215) (UK)
The Magna Carta is a document that certain rebellious nobles
forced King John of England to sign in 1215, limiting the king’s
power in a number of ways. The king promised that there would
be no interference from the king in the running of the Church, that
no new taxes would be imposed without agreement, that no free
man would be imprisoned without a trial, that all free men could
travel anywhere they wished, and that towns would keep all the
privileges that they had built up over the years.
Habeas Corpus Act 1679 (UK)
The Habeas Corpus Act declared that the lawfulness of detention
must be tested quickly by the courts. This means that people could
not be held indefinitely without being charged or facing trial.
English Bill of Rights (1688) (UK)
The English Bill of Rights was part of the agreement for reinstating
the monarchy in England after the popular overthrow and
expulsion (from England) of King James II in 1688. In his place,
William of Orange and his wife, Mary, were invited to take the
throne of England on the condition that William agree to a bill
of rights. This was to prevent a return to the anti‐parliament
policies of James II and two earlier kings: Charles I and Charles
II. The English Bill of Rights forbade the king from raising an
army or levying taxes without the consent of parliament. It also
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guaranteed freedom of speech for those who spoke in parliament
and ensured that no one would be imprisoned without trial. This
represented an important transfer of power from the monarchy to
parliament.
United States Declaration of
Independence (1776)
The US Declaration of Independence was really a declaration
of war against the repressive British Government. The most
important statement in the declaration, which was primarily
written by political philosopher Thomas Jefferson, was that ‘all
men are created equal’. The foundation of this declaration is the
concept that rights are seen to exist because we all think and feel
them. In other words, all citizens are entitled to basic rights and
freedoms. Furthermore, they should be entitled to fight in order
to preserve these rights. In short, the Declaration of Independence
stipulated that we do not have to be told that we have the right to
freedom – instead, we believe it instinctively.
United States Constitution (1787)
After winning the War of Independence (1776–83) against Britain,
a constitution was written by the newly independent government
of what would become the United States. The Constitution created
a federal union of the existing 13 states. This union came into
existence in 1789 and was called the United States of America.
What was then a novel idea was contained in the Constitution:
the separation of powers of the three branches of governement:
legislative, executive and judicial. The concept originated from
the thinking of the French philosopher Montesquieu and was
designed to prevent any branch of government from becoming
too powerful.
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United States Bill of Rights (1789)
The US Bill of Rights is in fact the original 10 amendments to the
US Constitution. Due to concern that the new Constitution did
not provide safeguards against a future government violating
the rights of its citizens, it was amended. These 10 amendments
included such rights as the freedom of assembly, speech, religion
and the press.
The Fifth Amendment may be familiar to students. Part of this
amendment states that a defendant should not be compelled to
take the stand in a court case and, in so doing, be a witness against
themselves. This is popularly referred to as ‘taking the Fifth’.
Another part of the US Bill of Rights that may be known to
students is the Second Amendment, which states: ‘A well regulated
Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right
of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed’. The
original intention of this amendment was to prevent any future
government from becoming too powerful and taking away the
rights of its citizens by allowing the population to arm itself. Today,
however, the ‘right of the people to keep and bear arms’ is used
by powerful US pro‐gun lobby groups, such as the National Rifle
Association (NRA), to oppose limitations on the right of citizens to
own or use guns.
Since 1791 another 17 amendments have been added to the
Constitution.
One of the most famous amendments is the Thirteenth
Amendment, which brought about the abolition of slavery after
the Civil War in 1865.
Another interesting amendment was the Eighteenth
Amendment. Passed in 1919, it forbade the sale of alcohol in the
United States. However, it is now generally agreed that this legal
attempt to discourage the use of alcohol backfired, and in fact
encouraged the growth of organised crime. In 1933, the Twenty‐
first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.
In 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment was passed. It prohibits
denying any person the right to vote on the basis of their gender –
paving the way for women being granted the vote.
Many of the rights enshrined in the US Bill of Rights are based
on the principles of the historic documents discussed above, from
the Magna Carta onwards. Therefore, the US Bill of Rights is viewed
as a significant landmark in the development of human rights.
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It represents the most advanced thinking in the area of human
rights up to that time in history. The US Bill of Rights has become
the cornerstone of the US legal system, and has heavily influenced
later human rights documents all round the world.
Declaration of the Rights of Man
(1789) (France)
In 1789, after the French Revolution, the French National Assembly
proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man. This declaration is
similar to the US Bill of Rights. In 1791, some of the rights from this
declaration were written into the short‐lived French Constitution.
However, many of the freedoms stated in the Declaration of the
Rights of Man were violated in the chaos of the revolutionary
years that followed and were curtailed under the rule of Napoleon
Bonaparte (1799–1812). Nevertheless, the ideas contained in
this French document spread to the European states that were
conquered by the French during Bonaparte’s rule and served to
inspire their own political progress and sense of nationalism.
Four Freedoms Speech (1941) (US)
This speech was given to Congress by US President Franklin
Roosevelt on 6 January 1941. World War II had been raging in
Europe for nearly one and a half years and it looked as if Hitler’s
dream of conquering all Europe to form a Third Reich would come
about. At this stage the United States was not at war. Despite the
fact that President Roosevelt felt that military force was now the
only way to stop Nazi aggression, the US Congress would not
allow the United States to join in the war. It was in this context that
Roosevelt made this speech, in which he laid down the values that
the world should hold dear. These values were incorporated in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) seven years later:
££ freedom of speech
££ freedom of belief
££ freedom from want
££ freedom from fear.
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International documents
and treaties
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
In 1919, the countries that emerged victorious from World War I
held a peace conference at Versailles in France. The result was the
establishment, for the first time in history, of a world body with the
primary aim of preventing war – the League of Nations.
This focus on prevention of war can now be described as a
collective right to peace. When the treaty was signed, the concept
of individual human rights was still in its infancy. The framers of
the League of Nations were more focused on the rights of states
and peoples to be able to rule themselves free from the threat
of oppression by more powerful states. This is now called the
collective right to self‐determination. Concern for the right to
self‐determination did not extend beyond the continent of Europe.
In other words, the countries that signed the Treaty of Versailles
were not very interested in self-determination for those peoples of
Africa, Asia and the Pacific who lived in the colonies ruled by the
imperial powers of Europe.
League of Nations (1920)
The main aim of the League of Nations was the prevention of
war. The League upheld the notion that all states have the right
not to be threatened or attacked. All member nations pledged
to stick by the principle of collective security, which meant that
all members would protect any country that was being attacked
by an aggressor. However, it was the League’s dramatic failure on
this very point that led to its being discredited and ignored by the
international community. In the 1930s, the League was ineffective
in preventing the aggression by Germany, Japan and Italy against
weaker nations, which ultimately led to the outbreak of World War
II in 1939. The League of Nations was formally dissolved in 1946.
Atlantic Charter (1941)
In August 1941, President Roosevelt of the United States and Prime
Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain signed an agreement,
known as the Atlantic Charter, designed to act as a blueprint for
the world after World War II. At this time, the United States was still
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not part of the war. Britain was under threat of being invaded by
Germany, which had conquered most of Europe over the previous
two years. Roosevelt and Churchill placed issues of human security
at the forefront of plans for a postwar peace, stating that:
££ territorial changes should only occur with the ‘freely expressed
wishes of the people’
££ the ‘right of all peoples to choose the form of government
under which they live’ should be respected, so that
££ ‘all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from
fear and want’.
The Atlantic Charter was the first official step in the process of
the creation of an international organisation to guarantee peace
and security. On 1 January 1942, little more than three weeks after
Pearl Harbor, the Atlantic Charter was endorsed by the ‘Declaration
of the United Nations’ by the United States, Britain, the Soviet
Union and 22 other nations that had joined the war against Hitler
and his allies. This declaration pledged the signature countries to
use their full resources against the Axis Powers and to agree not to
make a separate peace.
Some commentators argue that the Atlantic Charter was a
visionary document which laid the foundations of the United
Nations, the European Union, NATO, the UDHR and all human
rights treaties.
The two treaties examined below were written at about the
same time as the Universal Declararion of Human Rights (UDHR).
They have a different origin from the UDHR, but overlap in their
concerns for the welfare of all human beings.
Genocide Convention (1948)
The Genocide Convention was adopted by the UN General
Assembly in 1948 and came into force in 1951. The main reason for
the drafting of this Convention was the widespread condemnation
of the war crimes perpetrated against the Jews in the
concentration camps of Nazi Germany – particularly information
that became available at the trials of the Nazi leaders in the case
USA, France, UK, and USSR v Hermann Goering et al. (1945–46
IMT, Nuremberg).
This declaration has been described as the ‘high‐water mark’
for human rights because it was the first time in history that
genocide was officially made a crime. The treaty was developed
at around the same time as the UDHR, though by a separate
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committee and with no collusion between the two committees. It
differs from the UDHR in that it is the first piece of hard law drawn
Review 7.10
up by the United Nations. This means that, theoretically, it can be 1 How did the Magna Carta, the Habeas Corpus Act and
enforced. English Bill of Rights limit the sovereign’s power?
Although the Genocide Convention was effective in securing
2 What introductory statement in the US Declaration of
nearly universal condemnation of genocide, it failed to motivate
Independence is mirrored in Article 1 of the UDHR?
politicians and diplomats to take concrete measures to ensure that
3 What amendment in the US Bill of Rights is referred to
these crimes could not occur in the future. Also, by the time the
repeatedly by the US pro‐gun lobby today?
Convention was written, the Cold War was just beginning. During
4 What postwar international organisations, treaties or
the Cold War (1947–91) there was very little cooperation between
documents did the Atlantic Charter lay the foundations
the superpowers – including taking steps to give enforceable
for?
powers to the Genocide Convention. It was not until the creation
of the International Criminal Court in 2002 that the Genocide 5 What area of international law do the Geneva
Convention was made legally enforceable. Conventions belong to?
6 How has the Genocide Convention been strengthened
in recent years?
Geneva Conventions (1949)
Another major development in human rights that has its origins
in the 19th century was the establishment of laws of war. Jus in
bello is Latin for ‘law in war’. These laws define the conduct and
responsibilities of warring states in terms of treatment of non‐
combatants and civilians in wartime. Examples of the laws of war
include not firing on someone who is carrying a white flag and
not attacking a building, truck or ship with a red cross on it. Henry
Dunant, who founded the organisation that was to become the
Red Cross, in 1863, played a pioneering role in the establishment of
the rules of war.
The Red Cross was one of the first global NGOs to be formed.
Not only did the Red Cross pioneer humanitarian work to alleviate
the suffering of wounded soldiers and prisoners of war, it also
championed the development of rules of war, which today we
refer to as international humanitarian law.
The Red Cross sponsored an international conference in
St Petersburg in 1868 and the resulting convention outlawed
the use of exploding bullets and poison gas. There was further
development of the rules of war at the Hague Conferences of
1899 and 1907. International humanitarian law was also furthered
by the Geneva Conventions of 1864, 1906, 1929 and 1949. All the
decisions of the earlier conferences were ratified in 1949 and are
now simply called the Geneva Conventions.
Nearly all states of the world today are signatories to the four
treaties that make up the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and to the
three additional protocols to the Geneva Conventions that were
added in 1977.

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