I.

COURSE CODE/TITTLE: CA103 – THERAPEUTIC MODALITIES

II. SUBJECT MATTER:

Chapter 1 Time –Frame

History of human rights March 8-19, 2021

III. COURSE OUTCOMES:

1. To summarize the history of human rights in connection with law enforcement

and criminal justice.
2. To define human rights.
3. To identify the basic characteristics of human rights.

IV. ENGAGEMENT

WHAT IS HUMAN RIGHTS?

Human rights are basic rights that fundamentally and inherently belong to
each individual. Human rights are freedoms established by custom or
international agreement that impose standards of conduct on all nations. Human
rights are distinct from civil liberties, which are freedoms established by the law
of a particular state and applied by that state in its own jurisdiction. Specific
human rights include the right to personal liberty and Due Process of Law; to
freedom of thought, expression, religion, organization, and movement; to
freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, age, language, and
sex; to basic education; to employment; and to property. Human rights laws have
been defined by international conventions, by treaties, and by organizations,
particularly the United Nations.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Human rights are inalienable.
This means that you cannot lose them, because they are linked to the very fact of
human existence, they are inherent to all human beings. In particular
circumstances some – though not all – may be suspended or restricted. For
example, if someone is found guilty of a crime, his or her liberty can be taken
away; or in times of national emergency, a government may declare this publicly
 and then derogate from some rights, for example in imposing a curfew restricting
freedom of movement.
2. Human rights are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.
This means that different human rights are intrinsically connected and cannot be
viewed in isolation from each other. The enjoyment of one right depends on the
enjoyment of many other rights and no one right is more important than the rest.
3. Human rights are universal.
This means that they apply equally to all people everywhere in the world, and
with no time limit. Every individual is entitled to enjoy his or her human rights
without distinction of "race" or ethnic background, colour, sex, sexual orientation,
disability, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin,
birth or other status.

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, declared that all people had the right to
choose their own religion, and established racial equality. These and other
decrees were recorded on a 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 languages of the United Nations and its provisions parallel the first
four Articles of 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 Magna Carta (1215), the
Petition of Right (1628), the US Constitution (1787), the French Declaration 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.
 The Magna Carta (1215)

The Magna Carta, or “Great Charter,” was arguably the most significant
early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of
 constitutional law today in the English-speaking world. In 1215, after King John of
England violated a number of ancient laws and customs by which England had
been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which
enumerates what later came to be thought of as human rights. Among them was
the right of the church to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all
free citizens to own and inherit property and to be protected from excessive
taxes. It established the right of widows who owned property to choose not to
remarry, and established principles of due process and equality before the law. It
also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official misconduct. Widely
viewed as one of the most important legal documents in the development of
modern democracy, the Magna Carta was a crucial turning point in the struggle
to establish freedom.

 Petition of Right (1628)

The next recorded milestone in the development of human rights was the
Petition of Right, produced in 1628 by the English Parliament and sent to Charles
I as a statement of civil liberties. Refusal by Parliament to finance the king’s
unpopular foreign policy had caused his government to exact forced loans and to
quarter troops in subjects’ houses as an economy measure. Arbitrary arrest and
imprisonment for opposing these policies had produced in Parliament a violent
hostility to Charles and to George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham.
The Petition of Right, initiated by Sir Edward Coke, was based upon
earlier statutes and charters and asserted four principles:
(1) No taxes may be levied without consent of Parliament,
(2) No subject may be imprisoned without cause shown (reaffirmation of
the right of habeas corpus),
(3) No soldiers may be quartered upon the citizenry, and
(4) Martial law may not be used in time of peace.

United States Declaration of Independence (1776)

On July 4, 1776, the United States Congress approved the Declaration of
Independence. Its primary author, Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Declaration as a
formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare
independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War, and as a statement announcing that the thirteen
American Colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. Congress issued
the Declaration of Independence in several forms. It was initially published as a
printed broadsheet that was widely distributed and read to the public.
Philosophically, the Declaration stressed two themes: individual rights and the
right of revolution. These ideas became widely held by Americans and spread
internationally as well, influencing in particular the French Revolution.
 The Constitution of the United States of America (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791)

Written during the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, the Constitution of the United
States of America is the fundamental law of the US federal system of
government and the landmark document of the Western world. It is the oldest
written national constitution in use and defines the principal organs of
government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution—the Bill of Rights—came into effect
on December 15, 1791, limiting the powers of the federal government of the
United States and protecting the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors in
American territory.
The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to
keep and bear arms, the freedom of assembly and the freedom to petition. It also
prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment and
compelled self-incrimination. Among the legal protections it affords, the Bill of
Rights prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of
religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life,
liberty or property without due process of law. In federal criminal cases it requires
indictment by a grand jury for any capital offense, or infamous crime, guarantees
a speedy public trial with an impartial jury in the district in which the crime
occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen (1789) In 1789 the people of France brought about the abolishment of
the absolute monarchy and set the stage for the establishment of the first French
Republic. Just six weeks after the storming of the Bastille, and barely three
weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen was adopted by the National Constituent Assembly as the first step
toward writing a constitution for the Republic of France. The Declaration
proclaims that all citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of “liberty, property,
security, and resistance to oppression.” It argues that the need for law derives
from the fact that “...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those
borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same
rights.” Thus, the Declaration sees law as an “expression of the general will,“
intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid “only actions harmful to
the society.”
 The First Geneva Convention (1864) - In 1864, sixteen European countries and
several American states attended a conference in Geneva, at the invitation of the
Swiss Federal Council, on the initiative of the Geneva Committee. The diplomatic
conference was held for the purpose of adopting a convention for the treatment
of wounded soldiers in combat. - The main principles laid down in the Convention
and maintained by the later Geneva Conventions provided for the obligation to
extend care without discrimination to wounded and sick military personnel and
respect for and marking of medical personnel transports and equipment with the
distinctive sign of the red cross on a white background. - World War II had raged
from 1939 to 1945, and as the end drew near, cities throughout Europe and Asia
lay in smoldering ruins. Millions of people were dead, millions more were
homeless or starving. Russian forces were closing in on the remnants of German
resistance in Germany’s bombed-out capital of Berlin. In the Pacific, US Marines
were still battling entrenched Japanese forces on such islands as Okinawa. - In
April 1945, delegates from fifty countries met in San Francisco full of optimism
and hope. The goal of the United Nations Conference on International
Organization was to fashion an international body to promote peace and prevent
future wars. The ideals of the organization were stated in the preamble to its
proposed charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations are determined to save
succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has
brought untold sorrow to mankind.” - The Charter of the new United Nations
organization went into effect on October 24, 1945, a date that is celebrated each
year as United Nations Day.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) - By 1948, the United Nations’
new Human Rights Commission had captured the world’s attention. Under the
dynamic chairmanship of Eleanor Roosevelt— President Franklin Roosevelt’s
widow, a human rights champion in her own right