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

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

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, 3 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

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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.