 Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen: Revolutionary patriotism borrows familiar iconography of the Ten Commandments. Wikisource has original text related to this article: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: La Déclaration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen) is one of the fundamental documents of the French Revolution, defining a set of individual rights and collective rights of all of the estates as one. Influenced by the doctrine of natural rights, these rights are universal: they are supposed to be valid in all times and places, pertaining to human nature itself. The last article of the Declaration was adopted on 26 August 1789[1], by the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante), as the first step toward writing a constitution. While it set forth fundamental rights, not only for French citizens but for all men without exception, it did not make any statement about the status of women, nor did it explicitly address slavery. It is, however, considered to be a precursor to international human rights instruments: Download high resolution version (476x604, 46 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
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The French Revolution (1789–1815) was a period of political and social upheaval in the political history of France and Europe as a whole, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on...
Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
For other uses, see Human nature (disambiguation). ...
is the 238th day of the year (239th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1789 (MDCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ...
The National Constituent Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale constituante) was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. ...
International human rights instruments can be classified into two categories: declarations, adopted by bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly, which are not legally binding although they may be politically so; and conventions, which are legally binding instruments concluded under international law. ...
- "First Article – Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility."
The principles set forth in the declaration are of constitutional value in present-day French law and may be used to oppose legislation or other government activities.
Adoption of the declaration
Among the drafters were Marquis de Lafayette (with assistance by Ben Franklin); it was intended as part of a transition from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Many of the principles laid down in the declaration directly oppose the institutions and usages of the ancien régime of pre-revolutionary France. France soon became a republic, but this document remained fundamental. Marie-Joseph-Paul-Roch-Yves-Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette (September 6, 1757 – May 20, 1834), was a French aristocrat most famous for his participation in the American Revolutionary War and early French Revolution. ...
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin Dr. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706–April 17, 1790) was an American journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. ...
Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the monarch has the power to rule his or her land or country and its citizens freely, with no laws or legally-organized direct opposition in force. ...
Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: A constitutional monarchy is a form of government established under a constitutional system which acknowledges an elected or hereditary monarch as head of state, as opposed to an absolute monarchy, where the monarch is not bound by a...
Ancien Régime, a French term meaning Former Regime, but rendered in English as Old Rule, Old Order, or simply Old Regime, refers primarily to the aristocratic social and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. ...
Look up republic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
The concepts set forth in the declaration come from the philosophical and political principles of the Age of Enlightenment, such as individualism, the social contract as theorised by the English Thomas Hobbes and adopted to the French by Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the separation of powers espoused by the baron de Montesquieu. As can be seen in the texts, the French declaration is heavily influenced by the declarations of human rights contained in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776) of which the delegates were fully aware.[2] Moreover, the declaration was checked by Thomas Jefferson, the author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, then the U.S. ambassador in Paris, before its acceptance. Lafayette and some other main characters of the revolution had already fought in the American Revolution. The Enlightenment (French: ; German: ; Italian: ; Portuguese: ) was an eighteenth century movement in European and American philosophy — some classifications also include 17th century philosophy (usually called the Age of Reason). ...
Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ...
John Lockes writings on the Social Contract were particularly influential among the American Founding Fathers. ...
Hobbes redirects here. ...
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 - July 2, 1778) was a Swiss-French philosopher, writer, political theorist, and self-taught composer of The Age of Enlightenment Biography of Rousseau The tomb of Rousseau in the crypt of the Panthéon, Paris Rousseau was born in Geneva, Switzerland...
The Politics series Politics Portal This box: Separation of powers is a term coined by French political Enlightenment thinker Baron de Montesquieu[1][2], is a model for the governance of democratic states. ...
Montesquieu redirects here. ...
U.S. Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is a document in which the Thirteen Colonies declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so. ...
is the 185th day of the year (186th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
For other uses, see 1776 (disambiguation). ...
Thomas Jefferson (13 April 1743 N.S.–4 July 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–09), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. ...
John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia The American Revolution refers to the period during the last half of the 18th century in which the Thirteen...
Substance of the declaration This statement of principles contained the kernel of a much more radical re-ordering of society than had yet taken place. A mere six weeks after the storming of the Bastille and barely three weeks after the abolition of feudalism, the Declaration put forward a doctrine of popular sovereignty and equal opportunity: Combatants French government Parisian militia (predecessor of Frances National Guard) Commanders Bernard-René de Launay †Prince de Lambesc Camille Desmoulins Strength 114 soldiers, 30 artillery pieces 600 - 1,000 insurgents Casualties 1 (6 or possibly 8 killed after surrender) 98 The Storming of the Bastille in Paris occurred on...
The French Revolution was a period in the history of France covering the years 1789 to 1799, in which republicans overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church perforce underwent radical restructuring. ...
Pooybuttpular sovereignty is the doctrine that the state is created by and therefore subject to the will of its people, who are the source of all political power. ...
Equal opportunity is a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which people are not excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment, or health care, on the basis of immutable traits. ...
- "(From Article III) – The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it."
This contrasts with the pre-revolutionary situation in France, where the political doctrine of the monarchy found the source of law in the divine right of kings. “Sovereign†redirects here. ...
The Divine Right of Kings is a European political and religious doctrine of political absolutism. ...
- (From Article VI) – "All the citizens, being equal in [the eyes of the law], are equally admissible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents."
Again, this strikingly contrasts with the pre-revolutionary division of French society in three estates (the clergy, the aristocracy, and the rest of the populace, known as the Third Estate), where the first two estates had special rights. Specifically, it contradicts the idea of people being born into a nobility or other special class of the population, and enjoying (or being deprived of) special rights for this reason. The Estates-General (or States-General) of 1789 (French: Les États-Généraux de 1789) was the first meeting since 1614 of the French Estates-General, a general assembly consisting of representatives from all but the poorest segment of the French citizenry. ...
Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ...
Aristocrat redirects here. ...
In France of the ancien régime and the age of the French Revolution, the term Third Estate (tiers état) indicated the generality of people which were not part of the clergy (the First Estate) nor of the nobility (the Second Estate). ...
All citizens are to be guaranteed the rights of "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression". The Declaration argues that the need for law derives from the fact that "...the exercise of the natural rights of each man has only those borders which assure other members of the society the enjoyment of these same rights". Thus, the declaration sees law as an "expression of the general will", intended to promote this equality of rights and to forbid "only actions harmful to the society". The general will, first enunciated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is a concept in political philosophy referring to the desire or interest of a people as a whole. ...
The Declaration also put forward several provisions similar to those in the United States Constitution (1787) and the United States Bill of Rights (1789, and adopted at approximately the same time as the Declaration). Like the U.S. Constitution, it discusses the need to provide for the common defense and states some broad principles of taxation, especially equality before taxation (a striking difference from the pre-revolutionary era, when the Church and the nobility were exempted from most taxes). It also specifies a public right to an accounting from public agents as to how they have discharged the public trust. Wikisource has original text related to this article: The United States Constitution The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...
The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ...
Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. ...
The declaration prohibits ex post facto application of criminal law and proclaims the presumption of innocence, prohibiting undue duress to the suspect. In pre-revolutionary France, while technically one was considered guilty only after having been sentenced by the appropriate authorities, the royal courts, known as parlements, made ample use of torture to extract confessions, and gave few rights to the defense — ergo, it would have been very likely that one would have been convicted and sentenced, if one had been suspected. An ex post facto law (Latin for from a thing done afterward), also known as a retrospective law, is a law that is retroactive, i. ...
Presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern nations. ...
This article is for the Ancien Régime institution. ...
For other uses, see Torture (disambiguation). ...
It provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and a slightly weaker guarantee of freedom of religion — "provided that [...the] manifestation [...of their religious opinions] does not trouble the public order established by the law". It asserts the rights of property, while reserving a public right of eminent domain: This article is about the general concept. ...
Freedom of the Press (or Press Freedom) is the guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extended to members of news gathering organizations, and their published reporting. ...
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen guarantees freedom of religion, as long as religious activities do not infringe on public order in ways detrimental to society. ...
Eminent domain (United States), compulsory purchase (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Australia) or expropriation (Canada, South Africa) in common law legal systems is the inherent power of the state to seize a citizens private property, expropriate property, or rights in property, without the owner...
- "(From Article XVII) - Property being an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of private usage, if it is not when the public necessity, legally noted, evidently requires it, and under the condition of a just and prior indemnity [that is, compensation]."
The Declaration is largely individualistic, not addressing freedom of assembly or liberty of association. These principles did acquire a constitutional value, from the provisions of the Constitution of the French Fourth Republic, under which, unlike at the time of the Revolution, they were understood to extend to women and various ethnic groups. Individualism is a political and social philosophy that emphasizes individual liberty, belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. ...
Group of women holding placards with political activist slogans: know your courts - study your politicians, Liberty in law, Law makers must not be law breakers, and character in candidates photo 1920 Freedom of assembly is the freedom to associate with, or organize any groups, gatherings, clubs, or organizations that one...
Freedom of association is a Constitutional (legal) concept based on the premise that it is the right of free adults to mutually choose their associates for whatever purpose they see fit. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
Those left out of the Declaration The Declaration, as originally understood, recognized most rights as only belonging to males; many rights were not shared with women. The declaration did not revoke the institution of slavery. This article is about the Male sex. ...
Sometime after The March on Versailles on 5 October 1789, the women of France presented the Women's Petition to the National Assembly in which they proposed a decree giving women equality. The Declaration's failure to include women was also objected to by Olympe de Gouges in her 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. Women were finally given these rights with the adoption of the 1946 Constitution of the French Fourth Republic. Map of the Palace at the outbreak of the French Revolution The Kings bedchamber, where the family hid at Versailles The March on Versailles was an event in the French Revolution. ...
For other uses, see 5th October (Serbia). ...
Year 1789 (MDCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar). ...
This petition was produced during the French Revolution and presented to the French National Assembly in November 1789 after The Womens March on Versailles on October 5, 1789, proposing a decree by the National Assembly to give women equality. ...
Olympe de Gouges (born Marie Gouze; December 31, 1745, – November 3, 1793) was a playwright and journalist whose feminist writings reached a large audience. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
Similarly, despite the lack of explicit mention of slavery in the Declaration, the slave revolt on Saint-Domingue that became the Haitian Revolution took inspiration from its words, as discussed in C.L.R. James' history of the Haitian Revolution, The Black Jacobins. Saint-Domingue was a French colony from 1697 to 1804 that is today the independent nation of Haiti. ...
Combatants Haiti France Commanders Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines Charles Leclerc, vicomte de Rochambeau, Napoleon Bonaparte Strength Regular army: <55,000, Volunteers: <100,000 Regular army: 60,000, 86 warships and frigates Casualties Military deaths: unknown, Civilian deaths: <100,000 Military deaths: 57,000 (37,000 combat; 20,000 yellow...
Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, and a prominent socialist theorist and writer. ...
The Black Jacobins is a historical account of the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803 written by the Anglo-Trinidadian writer and historian C.L.R. James in 1938. ...
Effect today According to the preamble of the Constitution of the French Fifth Republic (adopted on 4 October 1958, and the current constitution as of 2007), the principles set forth in the Declaration have constitutional value. Many laws and regulations have been cancelled because they did not comply with those principles as interpreted by the Constitutional Council of France or the Conseil d'État ("Council of State"). Look up Preamble in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
The current Constitution of France was adopted on October 4, 1958, and has been amended 17 times, most recently on March 28, 2003. ...
is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Jan. ...
2007 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
A republican guard giving directions to visitors at the front entrance of the Constitutional Council The Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. ...
In France, the Conseil dÉtat (English: Council of State and sometimes Counsel of State) is an organ of the French national government. ...
Many of the principles in the 1789 declaration have far-reaching implications nowadays:
- Taxation legislation or practices that seem to make some unwarranted difference between citizens are struck down as anticonstitutional.
- Suggestions of positive discrimination on ethnic grounds are rejected because they infringe on the principle of equality, since they would establish categories of people that would, by birth, enjoy greater rights.
The declaration has also influenced and inspired rights-based liberal democracy throughout the world. It was translated as soon as 1793-94 by Colombian Antonio Nariño, who published it despite the Inquisition and was imprisoned ten years for it. In 2003, the document was listed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Affirmative action (US English), or positive discrimination (British English), is a policy or a program providing advantages for people of a minority group who are seen to have traditionally been discriminated against. ...
In jurisprudence and law, a right is the legal or moral entitlement to do or refrain from doing something or to obtain or refrain from obtaining an action, thing or recognition in civil society. ...
Liberal democracy is a form of government. ...
Antonio Nariño was a precursor and one of the early political and military leaders of the independence movement in Colombia, then known as New Granada. ...
This article is about the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church. ...
Map showing the distribution of documentary heritages by State Parties as of 2005. ...
See also Moral universalism is a moral view, often related to humanist philosophy, which claims that the fundamental basis for a universalist ethic—universally applicable to all humanity—can be derived or inferred from what is common among existing moral codes. ...
In France, the country is often called the patrie des droits de lHomme (human rights homeland), mostly ironically by persons who complain about a perceived violation of theses rights. ...
Natural law or the law of nature (Latin: lex naturalis) is an ethical theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. ...
For other uses, see Universalism (disambiguation). ...
This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...
Compare to other bills of rights English Bill of Rights (1689). ...
Wikisource has original text related to this article: Claim of Right The Claim of Right is an Act passed by the Parliament of Scotland in April 1689. ...
The United States Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. ...
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (abbreviated UDHR) is an advisory declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/217, 10 December 1948 at Palais de Chaillot, Paris). ...
“ECHR†redirects here. ...
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is a document containing human rights provisions, solemnly proclaimed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission in December 2000. ...
The Charter, signed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1981. ...
This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Notes is the 239th day of the year (240th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Virginia Declaration of Rights is a declaration by the Virginia Convention of Delegates of rights of individuals and a call for independence from Britain. ...
For other persons named George Mason, see George Mason (disambiguation). ...
English Bill of Rights (1689). ...
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