The Last Utopia: Samuel Moyn
According to my understanding of what the author Samuel Moyn is pointing out about Human Rights in History, is that during the seventeen century, when proclaiming the Rights of Man and Citizen in 1789, it only included man who own property, as we have seen in previous classes women were not considered citizens, therefore only man had rights. These rights provided citizenship and protection to men, in case their rights were violated, therefore it was all about men wanting to form part of the state. Consequently other individuals who did not belong to the state or had nothing to do with it, their rights were not protected. Each history of Human Rights have its own chronologies and geographies in different traditions and reasons. However, Precursors had given basic ideas for the introduction of humanity, for terms like “humane and humanitarian” to become even thinkable. For example the Stoics helped to take a step forward when they considered that reason rules the world, and that all humans share reason. Even though in Roman culture they excluded foreigners, women and slaves (15), in a way they helped to unite all men for education. It was a big advancement even though their concept of humanity is not the same as we know now. Christianity also made the term “humanity” be possible.
Before the period of World War II, the Democratic Revolution in America and France including the civil battles in American involved calls for individual rights, also minorities desperately wanted protection and citizenship which were a big push for human rights. The fight of women for their rights through the several women’s movements influenced on the declaration and on their inclusion. Modern Human rights as we know today were contributions made by diverse precursors, events an leaders at diverse times that collaborated for the protection of values by rights.
The concept of Human Rights as described in the 1940s and as the concept continues to be used today it is the result of collective power that was the key for the foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it allowed individuals before unprotected and considered no citizens to be finally included without distintion. Before rights were based of the politic of the state, through all the history, and many events that shaped it, Human rights are now based on global morality of all the individuals as a collective membership.
