Curated atlas · Social Justice

History of Human Rights

Eight centuries of humanity's struggle to define and protect fundamental rights — from medieval charters to international declarations and ongoing movements.

790 years

790 blocks

32 events

6 stages

1 block = 1 year · 1 row = 50 years790y · 790 blocks

1210

1460

1710

1960

Stages

Timeline ledger

Chronicle

32 events · 6 stages

Medieval charters & precedents

468y

1210 → 1678

Magna Carta sealed

1215

Petition of Right

1628

Enlightenment & revolutionary rights

136y

1679 → 1815

Habeas Corpus Act

1679

English Bill of Rights

1689

Locke publishes Two Treatises of Government

1689

US Declaration of Independence

1776

Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

1789

US Bill of Rights ratified

1791

Declaration of the Rights of Woman

1791

Haitian independence

1804

Abolition & suffrage movements

113y

1807 → 1920

Britain abolishes the slave trade

1807

Slavery abolished in British Empire

1833

Seneca Falls Convention

1848

Emancipation Proclamation

1863

First Geneva Convention

1864

13th Amendment abolishes slavery in the US

1865

New Zealand: first country to grant women suffrage

1893

International Labour Organization founded

1919

19th Amendment — US women win the vote

1920

International human rights law

31y

1945 → 1976

Nuremberg Principles established

1946

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1948

UN Genocide Convention

1948

European Convention on Human Rights

1950

Brown v. Board of Education

1954

Modern rights movements

45y

1955 → 2000

US Civil Rights Act

1964

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

1966

Global codification & treaties

28y

1979 → 2007

CEDAW — Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

1979

Convention on the Rights of the Child

1989

Vienna Declaration on Human Rights

1993

End of apartheid in South Africa

1994

International Criminal Court established

1998

UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

2007

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