The Age of Enlightenment and the Rise of Industrialisation

The age of enlightenment and the rise of industrialization and the working class is decisive in the development of human rights.

Where the power of rulers previously had been allencompassing the right to individual freedom and participation in political life is being increasingly recognized in the 18th century. Central documents are the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789). 

The main tenets of the two declarations are liberty and equality before the law, which also permeates concurrent constitutions of several European states, together with other fundamental democratic concepts such as the freedom of expression and the freedom to organise, the right to own private property, and the right to privacy.

This type of rights represents a dimension of rights called civil and political rights, which focuses on liberty and political participation and thus on the states obligation to refrain from abuse of power against the individual. In the 19th century firstly the slave trade and then slavery was abolished in most corners of the world including in the British empire (1833), Denmark (1847), Russia (1861), the Netherlands (1863), and the United States (1865).

The increased industrialisation in the beginning of the 20^th century and the raise of the working class and trade union movements brought an increased focus on a dimension of rights called social, economic, and cultural rights. This was a push for the right to protection in the field of work and unemployment and the government’s responsibility to protect and provide for their citizens in terms of e.g. education and public health. These ideas become part of several constitutions drafted around 1900. At the same time equal rights for women also came in focus with women’s suffrage introduced in New Zealand (1893) and later in countries as Netherlands and Russia (1917), United States (1920), and the United Kingdom (1928).