A Timeline of Human Rights
(Under Construction)
3rd Century BC
Stoicism develops "law of nature"
Stoicism was a philosophical school founded in Athens in the 3rd century BC. The Stoics’ ideas on the law of nature morphed and evolved to influence the modern understanding of human rights.
jus gentium of Roman law
Roman law draws on the Stoics’ concept of a natural law, common to all people, in its jus gentium (international law)
1139
Second Lateran Council Limits Crossbows
The council forbid crossbows in wars between Christians; this is arguably the first international law limiting inhumane conduct in war.
1215
June 15
Magna Carta
Founding document of English liberty, signed by King John under pressure from his noblemen.
1648
January 30
Peace of Westphalia
Ends Thirty Years War, brings protection of German religious minorities, entrenches nation state sovereignty.
1649
January
Trial of Charles I
England’s House of Commons put the king on trial for subverting the kingdom’s fundamental laws and making war on the people.
1651
Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan
He would have scoffed at the idea of human rights, but Hobbes’ contribution to its development was the idea that political power derives from people.
1679
Habeas corpus act in Britain
First codification of the law by which prisoners may test the legality of their detention.
1689
English Bill of Rights
Result of the long struggle between parliament and Stuart Kings, it stated that Englishmen possessed certain inviolable civil and political rights.
1690
Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
Locke argues that democracy and the rule of law are the natural state for human society.
1764
On Crimes and Punishments by Cesare Beccaria
The Italian writer offers a highly influential argument against the effectiveness of torture and one of the first recorded arguments against capital punishment.
1776
American Declaration of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
1789
French Revolution and The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
Defines immutable individual and collective rights of the French people.
1790
Edmund Burke decries the French Revolution and argues against natural rights
Burke blasted the French Revolution and stirred a debate over natural rights. The most famous and influential reactions were Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man and Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Man
1792
United States Passes Alien Tort Claim Act
As interpreted 190 years later in Filartiga v. Pena-Irala, this law allows any person who has been a victim of any crime that violates international law to sue for damages in the United States, provided the accused perpatrator is in the US.
1803
Marbury v. Madison
US Supreme Court asserts power to review laws and determine whether they conform to the constitution. This establishes the practice of judicial review.
1807
March 25
The British empire abolishes the slave trade
Under great pressure from civil society organizations, the Parliament bans British ships from participating in the trade.
1843
Jeremy Bentham dismisses natural rights as "nonsense upon stilts"
Writing in the essay “Anarchical Fallacies,” the arch utilitarian smacks down the idea that rights can exist outside the law. Later thinkers, including most famously the Bentham protege John Stuart Mill, sought to argue for liberty on purely utilitarian grounds.
1844
Karl Marx's "On the Jewish Question"
The essay stablishes cynicism of natural rights in the Marxist tradition.
1863
January 1
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation
The proclamation only declared free the slaves who were living in Confederate states. And since the president actually had no authority over those states, the proclamation immediately freed no one. But it did signal that an end of slavery was now a Union war aim.
April 24
Lieber Code, a field manual of war law
Signed by President Lincoln during the American Civil War, it was the law that expressly forbade killing prisoners of war.
1864
August 22
First Geneva Convention adopted
An outgrowth of the same meetings that had created the International Red Cross, the Convention established the first rules guaranteeing neutrality and protection for wounded soldiers, field medical personnel, and specific humanitarian institutions during armed conflict.
1868
November 12
St. Petersburg Declaration
The first formal agreement prohibiting the use of certain weapons in war; specifically, it outlawed bullets designed to explode on impact.
1881
Berlin Conference on Africa
King Leopold of Belgium was effectively granted the Congo as a personal fiefdom; 14 signatory countries agreed they could control any area they colonized, setting of the “scramble for Africa;” and a internationl ban on slavery was signed.
1898
April 22
US goes to war with Spain
The reason for the war, ostensibly, is Spain’s oppression of Cuba.
1899
May 18
First Hague Convention Signed
26 nations convened by Russia’s Nicholas II for the purpose of limiting arms and promoting peace.
1900
US Supreme Court Decision in The Paquette Habana
Writing for the majority, US Supreme Court Justice Gray stated that, “International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction…”
1904
December 6
US President Theodore Roosevelt declares the right of humanitarian intervention
State of the Union Address: “There must be no effort made to remove the mote from our brother’s eye if we refuse to remove the beam from our own. But in extreme cases action may be justifiable and proper.”
1907
October 8
Second Hague Convention Signed
Expanded on the first convention to include further rules on naval warfare.
1919
June 28
League of Nations created by Treaty of Versailles
Is missions included disarmament, preventing war, settling disputes, and improving global welfare. The Permanent Court of International Justice was established by the League in 1922.
1921-1923
Leipzig Trials
The Treaty of Versailles called for the trial of Kaiser and hundreds of others charged with war crimes. After delays and compromises, only 12 were ultimately prosecuted—in German courts where lawyers and judges were reluctant participants—and few were convicted and given light sentences.
1923
February
Draft Rules of Aerial Warfare, The Hague
The agreement to confine aerial bombing to military targets remained unratified by any country. It’s doubtful that enforcement would have been more successful than the 1907 agreement had been at limiting naval bombardment. A 1938 League of Nations resolution against aerial bombing was passed by the league assembly.
1925
June 17
Third Geneva Convention
GCIII deals primarily with the treatment of prisoners of war. Its other provisions include a ban on the use of poison gasses in warfare.
Slavery Convention
States party decided upon concrete rules for banning slavery and the slave trade. Further clarified in a 1956 supplementary convention.
1928
August 27
Kellog-Briand Pact
A treaty “providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy.” This it certainly did not achieve, but it was arguably significant for later developments in international law. Technically, it remains in force.
1933
January 30
Hitler seizes power in Germany
It is on this date that Hitler is appointed Chancellor. He consolidates power over the next month, and is finally granted full dictatorial authority in the Enabling Act of March 4, 1933. The first anti-Jewish action is the boycott of business that began on April 1, 1933.
August
The Moscow show trials begin
A travesty of justice, the trials, which ran through 1938, were used by Stalin to arrest and execute almost every important living Bolshevik from the Revolution.
1937
Draft Convention for the Prosecution and Punishment of Terrorism
The League of Nations’ abortive attempt to define and limit terrorism.
1939
September 1
World War II
The worst conflagration in global history, it encompassed the Holocaust and ultimately resulted in an estimated 62,000,000 deaths.
1940
H.G. Wells and the Sankey Declaration of the Rights of Man
Writing with fellow British socialists, he asked society to consider the goals for which it was fighting and demanded that universal human rights be top on the list. His work had a profound impact.
1941
January 6
Roosevelt delivers "Four Freedoms" speech
Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of Religion; Freedom from Want; Freedom from Fear. The Four Freedoms were expanded on in FDR’s Second Bill of Rights
1944
July 24
First concentration camp entered by Allied troops
It had been largely abandonded, with a hasty attempt to disguise its purpose, when Soviet troops entered the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin.
1945
June 26
United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco
Building on the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, 50 national delegates gathered beginning in April 1945 to draft and then sign the charter. It came into force October 24, 1945, when it had been ratified by all members of the security council and a majority of other signatories.
August 6
Hiroshima bombed by Americans
An estimated 80,000 civilians died and the city was heavily damaged. The American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are commonly believed to be the major factor leading to the surrender of the Imperial government six days after the second bombing.
August 8
Nuremburg Charter Proclaimed
The International Military Tribunal was founded by the allies to try the defeated German leaders for war crimes. The Tribunal’s judgment was delivered September 30, 1945.
1946
February
in Re Yamashita decision delivered by US Supreme Court
Establishing the Yamashita Standard, the court said that military commanders are responsible for the behavior of their subordinates.
January 19
International Military Tribunal for the Far East: The Tokyo Trials
The The Tokyo Charter was based on the Nuremberg Charter. All 25 Japanese defendants were found guilty; sevent were sentenced to hang; 16 were given life sentences; and two were given shorter sentences.
1948
South African Apartheid
Although racist policy had been in place for years, 1948 saw a ratcheting up that is recognized as the beginning of Apartheid.
April
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
First international agreement on human rights.
December 10
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted by UN General Assembly, meeting in Paris.
December 11
Genocide Convention
Genocide Convention adopted by UN General Assembly.
1949
August 1949
Fourth Geneva Convention
GCIV ensures the protection of civillians who are “in the hands” of the enemy.
December 15
Corfu Channel Case
The first case decided by the ICJ, it was important in establishing state responsibility for endangering human life.
1950
November 4
European Convention on Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights is adopted in Rome by the Council of Europe.
1951
July 28
Refugee Convention adopted
The convention defines who is a refugee and sets rules for seeking and granting asylum. Initially pertaining only to European refugees in the wake of World War II, it was expanded by a 1967 protocol.
1953
June 19, 1953
Rosenbergs executed in United States
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only Americans executed for espionage during the Cold War. The trial was highly controversial.
1954
November 1
Algerian War of Independence
FLN launched coordinated guerilla attacks on this date, sparking a struggle that lasted until 1962 and included violent atrocities on both sides.
1956
November 4
Soviets crush Hungarian Revolution
The revolution involved protests by hundreds of thousands of citizens and culminated in Hungary’s announced intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets sent 150,000 troops.
2960
March 26
Sharpeville massacre
Sixty-nine were killed and 180 were injured as South African police opened fire on a group of black protestors.
1960
May 2
Adolf Eichmann captured
Israeli secret agents apprehended the “architect of the Holocaust” in Argentina, where he was living under an assumed name.
1961
May 28
Amnesty International created
British lawyer Peter Benenson on this day published an article appealing for amnesty for two Portugese students who had been arrested for drinking a toast to freedom. The article sparked the start of AI.
August 13
Construction begins on Berlin Wall
East Germany built the Berliner Mauer in order to stop massive emmigration.
October 15
Cuban Missile Crisis
On this date the United States discovered that Soviet missiles were under Construction in Cuba. The resulting two-week crisis was the closest the world came to nuclear war.
1964
July 31
Gulf of Tonkin Incident
President Johnson announced that two US gunboats were subject to unprovoked attacks. In fact, only one boat, which had been involved in fighting, was attacked by the Vietnamese. The partially fabricated event led to increased US involvement in the Vietnam War.
1965
December 21
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
A subject on which both sides in the Cold War could agree, the treaty received the necessary signatures and entered into force in a short three years.
1966
December 16
Twin Covenants: Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Adopted by the UN on this date, the covenants were a compromise between Western countries’ emphasis on first generation rights and Communist countries’ emphasis on second generation rights.
1968
May 13
Tehran Proclamation
On occassion of the 20th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration, the UN declared 1968 the Year of Human Rights and reaffirmed human rights committments at a conference in Tehran. In the short term, Cold War politics made the new declaration meaningless.
August 20
USSR invades Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring)
A period of liberalization that had begun in Czechoslovakia in January 1968 was crushed by Soviet troops.
November 26
Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations
Signatories agree that the passage of time cannot remove the duty to punish war crimes and crimes against humanity.
1969
November 22
American Convention on Human Rights
Superseding the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the convention entered into force on July 18, 1978. The USA has never signed the convention.
1970
October 24
UN Friendly Relations Resolution
A blow to the idea that human rights supersede state sovereignty, the resolution stated flatly that, “No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State.”
1973
September 11
Pinochet siezes power in Chile
Pinochet’s army stormed the presidential palace and overthrew the freely elected government of socialist Salvador Allende. The United States supported Pinochet, even as his regime embarked on a campaign of authoritarian brutality.
November 30
International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
Sponsored by the USSR, the convention called for individual responsibility for Apartheid.
December 3
UN adopts principles for cooperation in punishment of crimes against humanity
Further confirmed states’ duty to punish crimes against humanity.
1975
August 1
Helsinki Accords
Canada, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the countries of Europe agreed on the protection of basic freedoms. The NGO Helsinki Watch was created to monitor compliance with the accords.
December 9
UN Declaration Against Torture
The declaration was adopted largely as a reaction to the regime of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
1976
March 24
Military junta seizes power in Argentina
The military overthrew the authoritarian regime of Isabel Peron, during a time of mounting terrorist attacks, and instituted a ruthless regime that was responsible for an estimated 9,000 to 30,000 “disappearences.”
1977
UN Human Rights Committee founded
A quasi-judicial body that studies reports issued by states parties, and in some cases individuals, and issues general comments on countries’ human rights performance.
June 8
Geneva Convention Protocols I and II
The 1977 Protocols reiterate the rules of warfare and seek to expand protection to victims of non-international conflicts. They have not been widely ratified and some have argued that they are ineffectual or even counterproductive.
October 13
Charter 77 launched in Prague
Citing their country’s commitment to the Twin Covenants and the Helsinki Accords, Czech intellectuals including Vaclav Havel founded the organization to speak out for human rights.
1979
December 18
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
CEDAW was adopted by the UN General Assembly as an international bill of rights for women. It came into force on September 3, 1981. The United States has never ratified the convention.
1980
June 1
CNN begins broadcasting
The development of international satellite news broadcasting was heralded as method to bring public attention to human rights violations.
June 30
Filártiga v. Peña-Irala
A landmark case that set the precedent for U.S. courts to hear law suits against non-U.S. citizens for acts violating international law committed outside the U.S., provided both parties are within the United States when the suit is filed.
1984
Nicaragua v. United States
Nicaragua brought suit against the United States in the ICJ for support of the Contra rebels. The United States ultimately withdrew from case rather than accept judgment.
ECOSOC "Safeguards" guaranteeing rights of those facing the death penalty
Set limits on the uses of the death penalty in those countries where it had not already been abolished.
December 10
UN Convention Against Torture adopted
UNCAT It created the UN Committee Against Torture, with (limited) power to investigate charges of torture.
1986
December 4
Declaration on the Right to Development
Declaring that all people have a right to contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural, and political development.
1987
July 4
Klaus Barbie sentenced to life in prison
The SS and Gestapo leader operated in Lyon during World War II; he worked for the CIA and British intelligence during the 1950s before fleeing to Bolivia, from where he was extradited in 1983.
1988
March 17
Halabja poison gas attack
During the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussein deployed poison gas against Kurdish citizens of his own country. An estimated 8,000 were killed during the most awful single incident of Kurdish suppression.
April 18
John Demjanjuk found guilty in Israeli court
The controversial conviction of Demjanjuk, accused of committing atrocities in a Nazi death camp, was overturned on appeal.
July 29
Velasquez Rodriquez Case
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights decided that Honduras was guilty of failing to protect the civil rights of its citizens when the Hunduran military “disappeared” Rodriguez and then cleared itself of charges.
1989
November 20
Convention on the Rights of the Child
Soon signed by every country except the United States and Somalia, the convention states that the best interests of the child must be the primary consideration in all public and private actions concerning children.
2002
July 1
International Criminal Court jurisdiction begins
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished.