The evolution of human rights

Human rights experts agree that human rights concepts such as dignity and peaceful co-existence can be traced far back in time. According to experts, more recent, and international, human rights are at least a couple of centuries old.

The infancy of human rights

The earliest of the modern human rights arise during the Enlightenment. One of the first and most significant records is the United States Declaration of Independence, which was signed in 1776, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted in 1789.

The main tenets of the two declarations are liberty and equality in law. Both tenets, together with other fundamental democratic concepts such as freedom of expression and freedom to organise, the right to own private property and the right to privacy, are inscribed in the constitutions of several European states. Experts refer to this period as 'first-generation' human rights.

Although all human beings are now defined as being equal, their equality is relative, since some are more equal than others. The non-existent human rights of the American slaves are a salient example of this. Women's exclusion from voting is also indicative of the room for improvement in the first generation.

Second-generation human rights are born out of the principles of the first generation, but are influenced largely by wider societal progress. With migration from rural to urban areas, the need arises for a welfare safety net in the event of sickness or unemployment. In this struggle, the emergent labour movement takes the lead. The movement campaigns for states to assume responsibility for safeguarding the people's basic economic and social rights. The struggle is won, and the rights are gradually enacted in the statues of the majority of European countries in the late 1800s.

International and Danish legislation

The First and Second World Wars demonstrate only too clearly that human rights are not inalienable. In 1945 a number of countries come together to create the United Nations. The objective for the UN is to ensure lasting peace between foreign states. But the UN also campaigns to safeguard the fundamental human rights of the individual, and to protect individuals against abuses. As part of this movement, in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration blazes a trail for further resolutions, declarations and laws.

In 1950, the Council of Europe adopts the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This comes into force in 1953 and is incorporated into Danish law in 1992.

In 1987, Denmark establishes the Danish Centre for Human Rights, which in 2002 is renamed the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Today, the Institute is one of many national human rights institutions worldwide.

The UN General Assembly establishes the UN Human Rights Council by the adoption of a resolution on 15 March 2006, thereby according formal status to human rights within the UN.

The most recent UN treaty is from 2008, when the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Disability Convention) came into force.