Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

Aside from the one made by the United States in 1776, this declaration is considered the precursor document of human rights. The first declaration establishes a set of personal and group rights for the whole of the entire citizenship of the French, consolidating concepts such as National sovereignty.

 

This list of rights was drawn up and approved in the first months of one of the most important episodes of humanity, the French Revolution. This ended the Old Regime, Yet the Modern opened the way to the Contemporary age. Already regimens are more liberal. In some cases, monarchies were constitutional in the form of republican, although they would continue to exist as absolute monarchies until the middle of the XIX century.

 

Context of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

 

As we mentioned before, the declaration is set in the French Revolution, but what is its background? The trigger for the revolution was the situation of misery in the country, while the royal house enjoyed everything luxury and amenities.

 

Adding to the political crisis, this led to the violent popular uprising. Although the start of the revolution dates back to May 1789 with the convening of the Estates-General, the first significant violent act was the taking of the Bastille on July 14 of that same year.

 

Days before, on July 4, the National Constituent Assembly was proclaimed to draft a constitution for the Nation. The old National Assembly constituted barely twenty days ago did away with the Estates General, ensuring a more faithful representation of the French people.

 

Another great antecedent of the declaration was the abolition of feudalism made by the assembly in August. This ended feudal rights and the peasantry as a source of work for the nobility and the clergy. Finally, on August 26, 1789, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen came to light, although the revolution had done nothing but start.

 

Contents

 

Before detailing the document's articles, it is necessary to indicate its scope. Despite its universal character and all the changes brought about at the time, the declaration's content was only intended for the French free man. In 1791 its female version would arrive, promoted by Olympe de Gouges, who claimed the same rights for women. Although, in practice, it did not have the same value.

 

The items of the declaration are as follows:

 

• Article 1: Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions can only be founded on common utility.
• Article 2: The purpose of all political associations is to preserve man's natural and imprescriptible rights. Such rights are freedom, property security, and resistance to oppression.
• Article 3: The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. Nobody, no individual, can exercise an authority that does not expressly emanate from it.
• Article 4: Freedom consists in being able to do everything that does not harm another: for this reason, the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no other limits than those that are guaranteed to the other members of the community. Society the enjoyment of these same rights. The law can only determine such limits.
• Article 5: The law only has the right to prohibit acts harmful to society. Nothing that is not prohibited by law can be prevented, and no one can be forced to do something that the law does not order.
• Article 6: The law is the expression of the general will. All citizens have the right to contribute to its preparation, personally or through their representatives. It must be the same for everyone, whether it protects or punishes. All citizens are equal before her. All are equally permissible in all dignity, position, or job public, according to their abilities and with no other distinction than their virtues and talents.
• Article 7: No man can be accused, arrested, or detained, except in the cases determined by the law and by the forms that it has prescribed. Those who request, issue, execute or have arbitrary orders executed must be punished, but every citizen summoned or apprehended by the law must obey immediately; he is guilty if he resists.
• Article 8: The law should only establish strict and necessary penalties. No one can be punished except by a law established and promulgated before the crime and legally applied.
• Article 9: Since every man is presumed innocent as long as he is not declared guilty, if it is deemed essential to arrest him, and rigor that is not necessary to seize his person must be severely repressed by law.
• Article 10: No one should be bothered by their opinions, including religious ones, provided that their manifestation does not disturb the public order established by law.
• Article 11: The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man; consequently, every citizen can speak, write and print freely in exchange for responding to the abuse of this freedom in the cases determined by law.
• Article 12: The guarantee of human rights and the city needs a public force; therefore, this force has been instituted to benefit all and not for the particular benefit of those entrusted to whom it has been entrusted.
• Article 13: For the maintenance of the public force and the bill's administration, a common contribution is essential; this must be shared equally among citizens, proportionally to their capacity.
• Article 14: Citizens have the right to verify, by themselves or through their representatives, the need for the public contribution, to accept it freely, to monitor its use, and to determine its proportion, its base, its collection, and its duration.
• Article 15: The company has the right to demand its management accounts from any public agent.
• Article 16: Any society in which the guarantee of rights is not established, nor the separation of powers determined, lacks a Constitution.
• Article 17: Since the property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one can be deprived of it, except when public necessity, legally proven, clearly requires it, and on condition of fair and prior compensation.