Bill of Rights Timeline

The French Revolution erupted in 1789 as financial crisis, social inequality, and Enlightenment ideas fueled popular anger against the monarchy. The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 symbolized the uprising. Revolutionary leaders soon turned to codifying the rights of citizens, setting the stage for a landmark declaration of human and civic rights.

Image source: French Revolution

France's National Constituent Assembly was formed in June 1789 from the Estates-General, declaring itself the representative body of the nation. Tasked with writing a constitution, it took up the question of citizens' fundamental rights. Drawing on Enlightenment philosophy and precedents such as the American and English declarations, the Assembly produced the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Image source: National Constituent Assembly (France)

During the summer of 1789, committees of the National Constituent Assembly debated the principles that should underpin the new French order. Inspired by natural rights theory and influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the United States Declaration of Independence, they composed a concise declaration proclaiming liberty, equality, property, and popular sovereignty.

Image source: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted in 1789 by France's National Constituent Assembly during the period of the French Revolution. It proclaimed that men are born and remain free and equal in rights, and defined liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression as natural rights, becoming a foundational text of modern constitutionalism.

Following its 1789 adoption, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was incorporated into successive French constitutions, beginning with the Constitution of 1791. Its enduring principles of national sovereignty, equality before the law, and individual liberty remained embedded in French constitutional tradition throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Throughout the early 20th century, and especially in the aftermath of two devastating world wars, reformers looked back to Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the United States Bill of Rights, and the French Declaration as models for protecting human dignity. This legacy of earlier documents shaped efforts to create binding international instruments guaranteeing universal rights.

Image source: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In the years following World War II, different groups drew on earlier documents such as the English, American, and French bills of rights for influence when drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt worked from 1946 to synthesize these traditions into a single universal statement of human rights applicable to all peoples.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948. Building on centuries of rights declarations, it proclaimed a comprehensive catalogue of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. It became the foundational document of the modern international human rights movement.

In the wake of the Second World War, the Council of Europe sought to make the rights of the Universal Declaration enforceable in Europe. Drafters drew on the same lineage of historic rights documents to produce the European Convention on Human Rights, creating legally binding guarantees backed by an international court for the signatory states.

Image source: European Convention on Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights was signed in Rome on November 4, 1950, and entered into force in 1953. Like the Universal Declaration before it, it drew influence from the great bills of rights of history. It established the European Court of Human Rights, giving individuals across Europe a mechanism to challenge violations of their fundamental freedoms.

Beginning around 1979, the United Nations undertook a decade of work drafting a treaty specifically dedicated to children's rights, drawing on the tradition of earlier rights documents including the great bills of rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Negotiations involved governments and organizations worldwide seeking protections unique to childhood.

Image source: Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by the General Assembly in 1989, completing the 20th century's extension of the bill-of-rights tradition to children. Influenced by the same lineage of historic documents as the Universal Declaration and the European Convention, it became the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.

In 1973, Federal Attorney-General Lionel Murphy introduced a human rights Bill into the Australian parliament, seeking to incorporate protections of fundamental freedoms into Australian law. Although the bill was never passed, it marked a significant attempt to bring a statutory bill of rights to Australia and sparked enduring national debate about entrenched rights protections.

Image source: Bill of Rights 1689

In 1984, Senator Gareth Evans drafted a Bill of Rights for Australia, reviving the effort begun by Lionel Murphy a decade earlier. The draft aimed to protect civil and political rights through federal legislation. However, it was never formally introduced into parliament, leaving Australia without a national bill or charter of rights at the federal level.

In 1985, Senator Lionel Bowen introduced a bill of rights into the Australian parliament, continuing the Labor government's push for legislated rights protections. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives but failed to pass the Senate, once again leaving Australia without a national bill of rights despite decades of advocacy.