Page 18 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

1. Rights were often limited to certain groups, like male citizens or nobles.

2. They combined law, ethics, and religion to define proper treatment of individuals.

3. Early laws focused on justice, property, and protection from abuse, rather than universal
freedoms.

4. These foundations provided the intellectual and legal basis for modern universal human

rights.

1.3.2 Modern Era and Enlightenment

The Modern Era and the Enlightenment marked a turning point in the development of human

rights. During the 17th and 18th centuries, thinkers and philosophers emphasized reason,

individual liberty, and the inherent rights of human beings.

They argued that all people are born free and equal and that governments exist to protect these
rights rather than to dominate or oppress.

Philosophers like John Locke, Montesquieu, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau contributed significantly

to these ideas, promoting concepts such as natural rights, separation of powers, and social
contracts.

Their writings inspired major political changes, including the American Declaration of

Independence in 1776, which asserted that all men are created equal with unalienable rights such

as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen in 1789, which proclaimed liberty, equality, and fraternity as fundamental principles.

The Enlightenment era emphasized that the protection of human rights is not granted by rulers

but is inherent to every individual, laying the intellectual foundations for modern human rights

and democracy.

16 Academic Year 2025/2026