The following has been reproduced, with kind permission, from the United Nation's Development Program (UNDP)
Human Development Report, 20001 and shows some of the major events in
recent history with relation to human rights issues. The report continues to go on to show that despite these
many achievements, we still have a long way to go to effectively help realize human rights and improve human
development.
The Ongoing Global Struggle for Human Rights
Struggles and historical events
Conferences, documents and declarations
Institutions
THROUGH THE 17TH CENTURY
Many religious texts emphasize the importance of equality, dignity and responsibility to help others
Over 3,000 years ago Hindu Vedas, Agamas and Upanishads; Judaic text the Torah
2,500 years ago Buddhist Tripitaka and A guttara-Nikaya and Confucianist Analects, Doctrine of the Mean and Great Learning
2,000 years ago Christian New Testament, and 600 years later, Islamic Qur'an
Codes of conduct-Menes, Asoka, Hammurabi, Draco, Cyrus, Moses, Solo and Manu
1215 Magna Carta signed, acknowledging that even a sovereign is not above the law
1625 Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius credited with birth of international law
1690 John Locke develops idea of natural rights in Second Treatise of Government
18TH-19TH CENTURIES
1789 The French Revolution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
1815 Slave revolts in Latin America and in France
1830s Movements for social and economic rights - Ramakrishna in India, religious movements in the West
1840 In Ireland the Chartist Movement demands universal suffrage and rights for workers and poor people
1847 Liberian Revolution
1861 Liberation from serfdom in Russia
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1860s In Iran Mirza Fath Ali Akhundzade and in China Tan Sitong argue for gender equality
1860s Rosa Guerra's periodical La Camelia champions equality for women throughout Latin America
1860s In Japan Toshiko Kishida publishes an essay, I Tell You, My Fellow Sisters
1860-80 More than 50 bilateral treaties on abolition of the slave trade, in all regions
1809 Ombudsman institution established in Sweden
1815 Committee on the International Slave Trade Issue, at the Congress of Vienna
1839 Antislavery Society in Britain, followed in 1860s by Confederacao Abolicionista in Brazil
1863 International Committee of the Red Cross
1864 International Working Men's Association
1898 League of Human Rights, an NGO, in response to the Dreyfus Affair
THE 20TH CENTURY 1900-29
1900-15 Colonized peoples rise up against imperialism in Asia and Africa
1905 Workers movements in Europe, India and the US; in Moscow 300,000 workers demonstrate
1910 Peasants mobilize for land rights in Mexico
1914-18 First World War
1914 onward Independence movements and riots in Europe, Africa and Asia
1915 Massacres of Armenians by the Turks
1917 Russian Revolution
1919 Widespread protests against the exclusion of racial equality from the Covenant of the League of Nations
1920s Campaigns for women's rights to contraceptive in formation by Ellen Key, Margaret Sanger, Shizue Ishimoto
1920s General strikes and armed conflict between workers and owners in industrialized world
1900 First Pan-African Congress in London
1906 International convention prohibitinng night work for women in industrial employment
1907 Central American Peace Conference provides for aliens' right to appeal to courts where they reside
1916 Self-determination addressed in Lenin's Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
1918 Self-determination addressed in Wilson's Fourteen Points
1919 Versailles Treaty stresses right to self-determination and minority rights
1919 Pan-African Congress demands right to self-determination in colonial possessions
1923 Fifth Conference of the American Republics, in Santiago, Chile, addresses women's rights
1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child
1924 US Congress approves Snyder Act, granting all Native Americans full citizenship
1926 Geneva Conference adopts Slavery Convention
1902 International Alliance for Suffrage and equal Citizenship
1905 Trade unions form international federations
1910 International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
1919 League of Nations and Court of International Justice
1919 International Labour Organization (ILO), to advocate human rights embodied in labour law
1919 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
1919 NGOs devoted to women's rights start addressing children's rights; Save the Children (UK)
1922 Fourteen National human rights leagues establish International Federation of Human Rights Leagues
1920s National Congress of British West Africa in Accra, to promote self-determination
1925 Representatives of eight developing countries found Coloured International to end racial discrimination
1928 Inter-American Commission on Women, to ensure recognition of women's civil and political rights
1930-49
1930 In India Gandhi leads hundreds on long march to Dandi to protest salt tax
1939-45 Hitler's Nazi regime kills 6 million Jews and forces into concentration camps and murders Gypsies, Communists, labour unionists, Poles, Ukrainia s, Kurds, Armenia s, disabled people, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals
1942 René Cassin of France urges creation of a international court to punish war crimes
1942 US government interns some 120,000 Japanese-Americans during Second World War
1942-45 Antifascist struggles in many European countries
1949 Chinese Revolution
1930 ILO Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour
1933 International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age
1941 US President Roosevelt identifies four essential freedoms - of speech and religion, from want and fear
1945 UN Charter, emphasizing human rights
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1948 ILO Convention on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize
1949 ILO Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining
1933 Refugee Organization
1935-36 International Penal and Penitentiary Commission, to promote basic rights of prisoners
1945 Nuremberg and Tokyo trials
1945 United Nations
1946 UN Commission on Human Rights
1948 Organization of American States
1949 Council of Europe
1950-59
1950s National liberation wars and revolts in Asia; some African countries gain independence
1955 Political and civil rights movement in US; Martin Luther King Jr. leads the Montgomery bus boycott (381 days)
1950 European Convention on Human Rights
1951 ILO Equal Retribution Convention
1957 ILO Convention Concerning Abolition of Forced Labour
1958 ILO Convention Concerning Discrimination in Employment and Occupation
1950 ILO fact-finding commission deals with violations of trade union rights
1951 ILO Committee on Freedom of Association
1954 European Commission of Human Rights
1959 European Court of Human Rights
1960-69
1960s In Africa 17 countries secure right to self-determination, as do countries elsewhere
1962 National Farm Workers (United Farm Workers of America) organizes to protect migrant workers in US
1960s-70s Feminist movements demand equality
1965 UN International Convention on the limitation of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
1966 UN International Convention on Civil and Political Rights
1966 UN International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
1968 First World Conference on Huma Rights, in Tehran
1960 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights holds its first session
1961 Amnesty International
1963 Organization of African Unity
1967 Pontifical Commission for International Justice and Peace
1970-79
1970s Human rights issues attract broad attention - apartheid in South Africa, treatment of Palestinians in occupied territories, torture of political opponents in Chile, "dirty war" in Argentina, genocide in Cambodia
1970s People protest against Arab-Israeli conflict, Viet Nam war and Nigeria-Biafra civil war
1976 Amnesty International wins Nobel Peace prize
1973 UN International Convention on Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
1973 ILO Minimum Age Convention
1974 World Food Conference in Rome
1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
1970 First commissions on peace and justice in Paraguay and Brazil
1978 Helsinki Watch (Human Rights Watch)
1979 Inter-American Court of Human Rights
1980-89
1980s Latin American dictatorships end - in Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay
1988 In the Philippines peaceful People's Power Movement overthrows Marcos dictatorship
1989 Tiananmen Square
1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall
1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
1984 UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development
1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
1983 Arab Organization for Human Rights
1985 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
1988 Africa Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
1990-2000
1990s Democracy spreads across Africa; Nelso Mandela released from prison and elected president of South Africa
1990s Ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, and genocide and massive human rights violations in Rwanda
1998 Spain initiates extradition proceedings against General Pinochet of Chile
1999 Doctors without Borders wins Nobel Peace prize
2000 Court in Senegal charges former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre with "torture and barbarity"
1990-96 Global UN conferences and summits on the issues of children, education, environment and development, human rights, population, women, social development and human settlements
1998 Rome statute for establishing International Criminal Court
1999 CEDAW Optional Protocol for Individual Complaints
1999 ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
1992 First Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) High Commissioner for National Minorities
1993 First UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, appointed at the Vienna Conference
1993-94 International criminal tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda
1995 South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission
1995-99 Ten countries launch national plans of action for the protection and promotion of human rights
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