We made this really beautiful timeline about the history of human rights.
It starts at Magna Carta, 800 years ago, and takes you through the key events in the history of human rights. We had a lot of fun making it, deciding what was in and what was out. Obviously, there wasn’t room for everything, but we’re happy to take comments on how to improve it.
There are some subtle features in there, like the lines and dotted lines which represent the influence and the development of different articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. And can you spot the man bun?
The timeline is here. It’s lovely. Go now. But if you want more…
Below is a list of sources if you are interested in going further than the bitesize information on the timeline.
- 1215 Magna Carta – 1297 enactment still on statute books here
- 1591 Akbar’s Pronouncement
- 1689 English Bill of Rights
- 1772 Somersett v Stewart – EachOther covered this as a Human Rights Story
- 1776 American Declaration of Independence
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man
- 1791 American Bill of Rights
- 1807 Abolition of the slave trade
- 1871 UK legalises trade unions
- 1918 Women’s suffrage
- 1932 Equal Franchise Act
- 1941 Four Freedoms Speech
- 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Full text
- 1950 European Convention on Human Rights – Full text, EachOther summary
- 1965 Race Relations Act
- 1966 UK right of individual petition to ECtHR
- 1967 Sexual Offences Act
- 1973 UK joins EU
- 1975 Sex Discrimination Act
- 1976 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, full Text
- 1976 International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights, Full text
- 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Full text
- 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
- 1998 Human Rights Act, Full text
- 2010 Equality Act
- 2014 Same sex marriage
