Human rights and Islam Part two

Human rights and Islam  

The modern concept of human rights can be traced back to the Renaissance(14th to 17th centuries) of Europe and the Protestant Reformation which witnessed a decline of the feudal authoritarianism and religious conservativism that prevailed in the Middle Ages. While some theories claim that human rights evolved simultaneously with the European secularization of Judeo-Christian ethics during the early Modern period, the popular view claims that the concept of human rights developed slowly in the West.

16th–19th century

The term “Human Rights”, eventually surfaced during the seventeenth to eighteenth century. The earliest concepts of human rights have their roots in the theory of natural rights originating from the Natural Law. The doctrine of Natural Law advocated that the human affairs should be governed by ethical principles that are intrinsic in a human and can be deduced through reason. The idea of universal rights was introduced by Spanish clerics like Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolome de Las Casas. The Valladolid Debate (1550–1551) was the first known moral discourse in European history to discuss the rights and treatment of the natives by colonizers. Juan Genes de Sepulveda, held an Aristotelian view of humanity divided into different ranks. He rejected Las Casas’ argument in favor of equal rights to freedom for all humans regardless of race or religion. 17th-century English philosopher John Locke defined natural rights as "life, liberty, and estate", and argued that such fundamental rights could not be surrendered. In Britain in 1689, the “English Bill of Rights” and the “Scottish Claim of Right”  defied oppressive governmental actions. Two major revolutions of the 18th century, in the United States (1776) and in France (1789), lead  to the United States Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.  Both declarations reinforced a set of human rights. Likewise, the “Virginia Declaration of Rights” (1776) embraced a number of fundamental civil rights. The American Declaration of Independence stated:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The concept of human rights was further developed by philosophers like Thomas Paine<ref>Thomas Paine: Thomas Paine was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist and revolutionary</ref>, John Stuart Mill  and G.W.F. Hegel  in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Struggle continues

 A number of reformers, like a  British Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, worked towards the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and abolition of slavery. This rule was implemented across the British Empire through the Slave Trade Act 1807. The law was enforced internationally by the Royal Navy under treaties that Britain negotiated with other nations and also through the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. In the United States, all the northern states abolished the institution of slavery between 1777 and 1804. A conflict over the expansion of slavery to new territories instigated the American Civil War  and the secession of southern states. Soon after the war, the reconstruction period witnessed several amendments in the United States Constitution. The 13th amendment banned slavery, the 14th amendment ensured full citizenship and civil rights to all people born in the United States, and the 15th amendment granted voting rights to the African Americans.
Many groups and movements achieved commendable results during the 20th century in a struggle for human rights. In Europe and North America, labor unions  initiated innovative rulings granting the workers a right to strike. Work conditions and the issue of child labor were revised. Movements for women’s rights successfully gained voting rights for women. National liberation movements in many countries succeeded in expelling colonial powers. Mahatma Gandhi's  movement to free his native India from British rule was one of the many prominent developments of the era . Movements by racial and religious minorities like Civil Rights Movement succeeded in many parts of the world. The establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the 1864 Lieber Code Geneva Conventions: The Geneva Convention (1929) was signed at Geneva, July 27, 1929 in 1864 laid the foundations of International humanitarian law, which was further  developed  after the two World Wars.