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In the 3rd century BC the Mauryan Empire of ancient India established unprecedented principles of civil rights under the reign of Ashoka the Great. After his brutal conquest of Kalinga in circa 265 BC, he felt remorse for what he had done, and as a result, he adopted Buddhism. From that point, Ashoka, who had been described as "the cruel Ashoka" eventually came to be known as "the pious Ashoka". During his reign, he pursued an official policy of nonviolence (ahimsa). The unnecessary slaughter or mutilation of animals was immediately abolished, such as sport hunting and branding. Ashoka also showed mercy to those imprisoned, allowing them outside one day each year, and offered the common citizen free education at universities. He treated his subjects as equals regardless of their religion, politics or caste, and constructed free hospitals for both humans and animals. Ashoka defined the main principles of nonviolence, tolerance of all sects and opinions, obedience to parents, respect for teachers and priests, being liberal towards friends, humane treatment of servants (slavery was non-existent in India at the time), and generosity towards all. These reforms are described in the Edicts of Ashoka.
Source: Wikipedia
Ur-Nammu, the king of Ur created what was arguably the first legal codex in ca. 2050 BC. Several other sets of laws were created in Mesopotamia including the Code of Hammurabi, (ca. 1780 BC) which is one of the best preserved examples of this type of document. It shows rules and punishments if those rules are broken on a variety of matters including women's rights, children's rights and slave rights.
Source: Wikipedia
Missing (1982): directed and written by Costa-Gavras and starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. Plot Summary: Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman, this is the story of an American father of conservative background who comes to a South American country to search for his missing son, a journalist. Ed joins with his daughter-in-law Beth, who like her husband is politically polarized from the father, in prying through the bureaucracy and dangerous political intrigue in search of their son and husband. Little by little, the father comes to realize that his own beloved government is not telling him the truth.
Source: IMDb
3: The term "third-generation human rights" remains largely unofficial, and thus houses an extremely broad spectrum of rights, including:
Group and collective rights
Right to self-determination
Right to economic and social development
Right to a healthy environment
Right to natural resources
Right to communicate
Right to participation in cultural heritage
Rights to intergenerational equity and sustainability
Source: Wikipedia
The Persian Empire (Iran) established unprecedented principles of human rights in the 6th century BC under the reign of Cyrus the Great. After his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the king issued the Cyrus Cylinder, discovered in 1879 and recognized by many today as the first human rights document. The cylinder declared that citizens of the empire would be allowed to practice their religious beliefs freely. The cylinder also abolished slavery, so all the palaces of the kings of Persia were built by paid workers in an era where slaves typically did such work. These two reforms were reflected in the biblical books of Chronicles and Ezra, which state that Cyrus released the followers of Judaism from slavery and allowed them to migrate back to their land. The cylinder now lies in the British Museum, and a replica is kept at the United Nations headquarters.
Source: Wikipedia
History Will Teach Us Nothing by Sting & Police
See lyrics
Amnesty International is an of:
Tyrannies' lamentation.
Nominate alien tyrants.
Nasty retention -- Animal!
Learnt a nation's enmity?
Source: Anagram Genius
Amnesty International was conceived by British lawyer Peter Benenson when, travelling to work one morning, he read of the plight of two Portuguese students, who had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for a remark made which was critical of the Portuguese government. Benenson, in consultation with other writers, academics and lawyers wrote to David Astor, editor of The Observer newspaper, who, on May 28, 1961, published Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners. The article brought the reader’s attention to those “imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government” or, put another way, to violations, by governments, of articles 18 and 19 of the UDHR. The article described these violations occurring, on a global scale, in the context of restrictions to press freedom, to political oppositions, to timely public trial before impartial courts, and to asylum. It also launched 'Appeal for Amnesty, 1961', the aim of which was to mobilize public opinion, quickly and widely, in defence of these individuals who Benenson named "Prisoners of Conscience". In the same year Benenson had a book published, persecution 1961, which detailed the cases of several prisoners of conscience.
Source: Wikipedia
You are a human being. You have rights inherent in that reality. You have dignity and worth that exists prior to law. (Lyn Beth Neylon)
Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself. (Robert Ingersoll)
No man is above the law and no man below it. (Theodore Roosevelt)
I have always claimed Americans didn't want a drink as bad as they wanted the right to take a drink if they did happen to want one. (Will Rogers)
Source: Quotegarden
Longest human chain: on December 11, 2004, over 5 million people joined hands to form a human chain, 1,050 km (652.4 miles) long from Teknaf to Tentulia, Bangladesh. The chain, organised by the Bangladesh Awami League (in opposition), was to protest against corruption and human rights abuses on the part of the government.
Source: Guinness World Records
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