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Illustration: Young person wearing jumper with hood and backpackHuman rights can be traced back through many centuries of history.

Use the Human Rights Timeline below to learn more about how concepts of human rights have developed.

You can also access the text only version of the timeline.

Please note that the timeline below includes links to external websites. These links have been included for your information. Report broken links to: education@humanrights.gov.au

Jump to:
[Early Civilization] [1200 - 300 BCE] [Greek city-states] [500 BCE] [27 BCE - 476 CE] [40 - 100 CE] [476 – 1453] [1215] [1492 – 1537] [1583 -1645] [1628] [1648] [1689] [1776] [1789] [1791] [1815] [1833] [1841] [1848] [1863] [1885] [1890] [1893] [1901] [1902] [1907] [1914] [1919] [1920] [1926] [1930] [1933-1939] [1939] [1939-1945] [1941] [1942] [1945] [1946] [1948] [1949] [1951] [1953] [1958] [1961] [1962] [1965] [1966] [1967] [1973] [1975] [1976] [1979] [1981] [1984] [1986] [1989] [1990] [1992] [1993] [1994 – 2005] [1994] [1995] [1998] [2002] [2004] [2005]

Early Civilization

Codes associated with rulers such as Menes, Hammurabi, Draco, Solon and Manu outline standards of conduct for their societies, which existed within limited territorial jurisdictions. The Code of Hammurabi, written on clay tablet, outlines punishment based on 'an eye for an eye'.

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1200 - 300 BCE

The scriptures of the ancient Israelites also form the basis of Christian and Muslim thinking. The Ten Commandments outline respect for life and for the property of others. The principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty and the tradition of granting asylum originate in Jewish law.

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Greek city-states

Political rights - and duties - are conferred upon free male citizens.

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500 BCE

Confucian teaching develops based on 'jen' or benevolence and respect for other people.

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27 BCE - 476 CE

Roman Empire develops natural law and the rights of citizens.

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40 - 100 CE

The Christian New Testament teaches equality before God: 'In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female'.

Followers were urged to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and forgive their enemies.

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476 – 1453

Medieval Christian theology holds that infidels and barbarians are not entitled to humanistic considerations.

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1215

Britain 's King John is forced by his lords to sign the Magna Carta acknowledging that free men are entitled to judgment by their peers and that even a sovereign is not above the law.

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1492 – 1537

Colonisation of Western Hemisphere culminates in massacre of the Incas by the Spanish Conquistadors causing some Christian theologians to challenge the means employed to enforce God's laws.

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1583 - 1645

Hugo Grotius, Dutch jurist credited with the birth of international law, speaks of brotherhood of humankind and the need to treat all people fairly.

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1628

British Petition of Rights is adopted.

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1648

Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War, which splits Germany into hostile religious camps. Europe reorganizes into a society of nation states.

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1689

British Bill of Rights is adopted which ensures that royalty can not override laws created by a freely-elected Parliament; John Locke sets forth the notion of natural rights of life, liberty and property.

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1776

US Declaration of Independence proclaims that 'all men are created equal' and endowed with certain inalienable rights. Thomas Jefferson was strongly influenced by Locke and French philosophers such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau.

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1789

French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is adopted.

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1791

U.S. Bill of Rights incorporates notions of freedom of speech, press, and fair trial into the new U.S. Constitution.

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1815

The Congress of Vienna is held by states that defeated Napoleon. International concern for human rights is demonstrated for first time in modern history. Freedom of religion is proclaimed, civil and political rights discussed, slave trade condemned.

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1833

Great Britain passes Abolition Act, ending slavery in the British Empire .

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1841

Russia , France , Prussia , Austria and Great Britain sign the Treaty of London abolishing slavery.

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1848

Some 200 women and men meet in Seneca Falls, New York, to draft a "bill of rights" outlining the social, civil and religious rights of women.

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1863

On January 1, United States President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that ‘all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States [are] forever free.'

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1885

Berlin Conference on Africa passes antislavery act.

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1890

Brussels Conference passes antislavery act.

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1893

Women in New Zealand are given the vote - the first in the world.

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1901

The Commonwealth of Australia is established. Because a Bill of Rights is not part of the Australian Constitution, protection of human rights is left to state and federal parliaments, not the courts. The White Australia Policy is established.

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1902

Women are entitled to vote and stand for election in the first federal election.

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1907

In Australia, the Harvester Judgment establishes the basic wage.

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1914

The Great War begins. With new weapons, civilian populations become victims of expanded warfare. As a reaction, a new sense of international morality begins to emerge.

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1919

At end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles requires that Kaiser Franz Josef be placed on trial for a ‘supreme offense against international morality and the sanctity of treaties'. He escapes but for the first time in history nations seriously consider imposing criminal penalties on heads of state for violations of fundamental human rights. At Versailles, other treaties stress minorities' rights, including right to life, liberty, freedom of religion, right to nationality of the state of residence, complete equality with other nationals of the same state, and exercise of civil and political rights.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is established to advocate human rights represented in labour law, encompassing concerns such as employment discrimination, forced labour and worker safety.

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1920

League of Nations Covenant requires members to ‘endeavour to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labour for men, women and children', ‘secure just treatment of the native inhabitants of territories under their control', and ‘take measures for the prevention and control of disease'.

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1926

Geneva Conference passes Slavery Convention.

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1930

Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (ILO) is adopted.

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1933-1939

A series of discriminatory laws are passed in Germany (the ‘Laws of April' and the ‘Nuremberg Laws') which progressively exclude people of Jewish ancestry from employment, education, housing, healthcare, marriages of their choice, pension entitlements, professions such as law and medicine, and public places such as theatres, cinemas and vacation resorts. Physically and mentally disabled people are murdered by gas, lethal injection and forced starvation.

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1939

Germany invades Poland thus beginning the Second World War.

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1939-1945

During World War II, six million European Jews are exterminated by Hitler's Nazi regime. Millions of other civilians (gypsies, communists, Soviet POWs, Poles, Ukrainians, people with disabilities, unionists, ‘habitual' criminals, socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Free Masons, vagrants and beggars) are forced into concentration camps, subjected to ‘medical' experiments, starved, brutalised and murdered.

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1941

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a speech before the United States Congress, identifies Four Freedoms as essential for all people: freedom of speech and religion, freedom from want and fear.

President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill adopt the Atlantic Charter, in which they state their hope, among other things, "that all men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from want and fear".

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1942

Following the attack on the United States by Japan on 7 December 1941, the US government forcibly moves some 120,000 Japanese-Americans from the western United States to detention camps; their detention lasts three years. Some 40 years later, the government acknowledges the injustice of its actions with payments to Japanese-Americans of that era who are still living.

Rene Cassin of France urges that an international court be created to punish those guilty of war crimes.

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1945

The United Nations (UN) is established. Its Charter states that one of its main purposes is the promotion and encouragement of ‘respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion'. Unlike the League of Nations Covenant, the Charter underscores the principle of individual human rights.

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1946

The Commission on Human Rights is established by the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

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1948

On 10 December the UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the primary international articulation of the fundamental and inalienable rights of all members of the human family and the first comprehensive statement of nations as to the specific rights and freedoms of all people.

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (UN) is adopted.

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1949

Convention on the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining (ILO) is adopted.

Geneva Conventions provide standards for more humane treatment for prisoners of war, the wounded and civilians. Statute of Council of Europe asserts that human rights and fundamental freedoms are the basis of the emerging European system.

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1951

Convention on the Status of Refugees (UN) is adopted.

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1953

European Commission on Human Rights and Court of Human Rights are created; Convention on Political Rights of Women (UN) is adopted.

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1958

Convention Concerning Discrimination in Employment and Occupation (ILO) is adopted.

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1961

Amnesty International established in Great Britain .

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1962

In Australia, the Commonwealth Electoral Act was amended to grant all Aborigines the right to vote in federal elections. Enrolment was voluntary but, once enrolled, voting was compulsory. Despite this amendment it was illegal under Commonwealth legislation to encourage Aborigines to enrol to vote.

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1965

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN) is adopted.

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1966

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN) are adopted and opened for signature. Together these documents further developed rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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1967

Over 90 per cent of Australians vote for constitutional changes to ensure full participation and equal treatment for Indigenous Australians. The referendum gives the Commonwealth Parliament the power to make special laws for Aboriginal Australians.

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1973

International Convention on Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (UN) is adopted.

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1975

In Australia , the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 comes into force.

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1976

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enter into force after ratification by the required number of UN member States.

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1979

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN) is adopted.

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1981

In Australia, the Human Rights Commission Act 1981 is enacted, which establishes the national Human Rights Commission.

Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance Based on Religion or Belief was adopted after nearly 20 years of drafting (UN).

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1984

Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN) is adopted.

In Australia , the Sex Discrimination Act comes into force.

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1986

Declaration on the Right to Development (UN) is adopted.

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In Australia , the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act is enacted. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is established and replaces the existing Human Rights Commission.

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1989

Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN) and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, are adopted.

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1990

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (UN) is adopted.

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1992

In Australia , the Disability Discrimination Act comes into force.

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1993

Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia is established to prosecute persons responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes since 1991. These trials represent the first international war crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg Trials following WWII.

Vienna Declaration and Program of Action adopted by 185 nations at the Second World Conference on Human Rights. It is the most comprehensive consensus affirmation of the universality of human rights. The United Nations General Assembly creates the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In Australia , the Office of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner is created to monitor the human rights of Indigenous Australians.

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1994 – 2005

UN Decade for Human Rights Education is declared.

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1994

Emergency session of the Commission on Human Rights convenes to respond to genocide in Rwanda.

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1995

Beijing Declaration at the World Conference on Women declares ‘women's rights are human rights'. The Platform for Action adopted at the conference contains dozens of references to human rights pertaining to women.

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1998

50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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2002

The International Criminal Court is established to try individuals responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and other serious breaches of human rights.

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Illustation: Young Person with hand in back pocket2004

In Australia , the Age Discrimination Act comes into force.

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2005

60th anniversary of the United Nations.

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Also available: The Bringing them home Timeline, which provides an overview of Indigenous history in Australia, with a particular focus on the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.