How Historians Debate the Origins of Human Rights

Historians disagree about when human rights really began, and their debate is a lesson in historical method. One view traces a long line from ancient codes and medieval charters through the Enlightenment to the UN. Historian Lynn Hunt, in Inventing Human Rights (2007), argued that eighteenth-century novels and changing attitudes to torture helped people imagine the suffering of strangers, making universal rights thinkable.

Samuel Moyn, in The Last Utopia (2010), argued that human rights became a mass international movement only in the 1970s, when groups such as Amnesty International and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act made them a common language of protest. Others stress the contributions of anti-colonial and non-Western activists. These views partly depend on definitions: is a 'human right' any limit on rulers, or specifically a universal, internationally enforced claim? Recognizing that definitions shape conclusions is a key skill for every historian.