Librarians and Human Rights : Some Foundational Sources for Human Rights

Foundational Sources: Human Rights

Key Documents, in Chronological Order

Vedas (ca. 2000-1000 B.C.E.)

Mahony, William K. (1998). The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Holdrege, Barbara A. (1995). Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Analects of Confucius (ca. 479 B.C.E.-221 B.C.E.)

Confucius. (2005). The Analects of Confucius. Stilwell, KS: Digireads.com.

The Eight Beatitudes (Appx. AD 30)

from the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus Christ

The Qur’an (ca. 632)

Haleem, M.A.S. Abdel. (2004). The Qur’an: A New Translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. New York: Oxford University Press.

Magna Carta (1215)

Drew, Katherine Fischer. (2004). Magna Carta. Westport, CN: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Milton’s Areopagitica (1644)

Milton, John. (2004). Areopagitica. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC.

Locke’s Letter Concerning Tolerance and Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690)

Locke, John. (2004). A Letter Concerning Toleration. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, Inc.
Locke, John. (2003). The Second Treatise on Civil Government. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson Incorporated.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract (1761)

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, et. al. (2006). The Social Contract. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated.

Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man (1791-92)

Paine, Thomas. (2006). The Rights of Man. Teddington, UK: Echo Library.

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

Library of Congress. (2006). Declaration of Independence: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress).

Abigail Adams, “Remember the Ladies” (1789)

Massachusetts Historical Society. (2006). The Massachusetts Historical Society | The Adams Family Papers.

France: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)

Yale Law School. (2005). The Avalon Project: Declaration of the Rights of Man – 1789.

U.S. Bill of Rights (1789)

Library of Congress.

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)

Wollstonecraft, Mary. (2001). A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Madison, WI: Turtleback Books.

Kant’s Perpetual Peace (1797)

Kant, Immanuel. (1996). Perpetual Peace: A Philosophic Essay. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, Ltd.

Robert Owen’s New View of Society (1817)

Owen, Robert. (1991). A New View of Society. Oxford, England: Woodstock Books.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls” (1848)

Women's Rights National Historic Park Website.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau (1849)

Thoreau, Henry David. (2002). Civil Disobedience. New York: Book Surge, LLC.

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859)

Mill, John Stuart. (2004). On Liberty. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC.

Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited Peoples (1918)

Bryant, Louise. (1918). “Chapter IX: The Constituent Assembly – Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People.” Six Months in Red Russia. New York: George H. Doran Company.

International Labour Organization Constitution (1919)

International Labour Organization. (2006). About the ILO: Who we are: ILO Constitution.

International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (1921)

International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children. The American Journal of International Law, 18(3), Supplement: Official Documents, 130-137. (1924). [Available through JSTOR]

Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1924) League of Nations

University of Minnesota. Human Rights Library. (n.d.). Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child of 1924, adopted Sept. 26, 1924, League of Nations O.J. Spec. Supp. 21 at 43 (1924).

Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (1926)