1948 · Charters, declarations and treaties
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations
A declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly, setting out the rights that all human beings are said to share.
Why it matters
It is the starting point of modern international human-rights law and has been cited in many national constitutions.
Built on
1789
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
France
echoes its language of equality and dignity
1791
United States Bill of Rights
United States
includes protections found in earlier bills of rights
1945
Charter of the United Nations
International
was drawn up under the Charter's commitment to human rights
Went on to shape
1950 (in force 1953)
European Convention on Human Rights
Council of Europe
turned the Declaration's rights into binding treaty rules
1966 (in force 1976)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
International
made the Declaration's civil and political rights legally binding
1969 (in force 1978)
American Convention on Human Rights
The Americas
took the Declaration's list of rights
1981 (in force 1986)
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
Africa
took the Declaration's list of individual rights
1982
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canada
drew on its list of rights
Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 9 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.
TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.
