11/10/2019 History of Natural Law & Basic Freedoms, Cyrus the Great: United for Human Rights

WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS? Browse All

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The Cyrus Cylinder (539 B.C.)

In 539 B.C., the armies of Cyrus the Great, the first

king of ancient Persia, conquered the city of
Babylon. But it was his next actions that marked a
major advance for Man. He freed the slaves,
The decrees Cyrus made on declared that all people had the right to choose
human rights were inscribed in their own religion, and established racial equality.
the Akkadian language on a These and other decrees were recorded on a
baked-clay cylinder.
baked-clay cylinder in the Akkadian language with
cuneiform script.

Known today as the Cyrus Cylinder, this ancient record has now been recognized as
the world’s first charter of human rights. It is translated into all six official
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languages of the United Nations and its provisions parallel the first four Articles of

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the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Spread of Human Rights

From Babylon, the idea of human rights spread

quickly to India, Greece and eventually Rome.
There the concept of “natural law” arose, in
observation of the fact that people tended to
follow certain unwritten laws in the course of life,
and Roman law was based on rational ideas
derived from the nature of things.

Documents asserting individual rights, such as the

Cyrus the Great, the first king of
Magna Carta (1215), the Petition of Right (1628), Persia, freed the slaves of
the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration Babylon, 539 B.C.
of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789), and
the US Bill of Rights (1791) are the written precursors to many of today’s human
rights documents.

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