The 10th of December is globally considered Human Rights Day. The UN created this event at a conference in New York in 1950 to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR is a document drafted in 1948 that applies to the whole world and highlights basics such as equality, freedom and justice to protect everyone in the world. Human Rights Day reminds us of all of the basic rights that we sometimes take for granted and raises awareness to the struggles for them still present in the world today. 

However, to be fully aware and appreciative of the positive impacts of the creation of Human Rights, we must go back to the first ever Declaration of Human Rights created that started it all and laid the foundations for the positive in the world today. 

The first ever declaration of human rights and therefore the first document that took into account human ideals to prevent human suffering is called the Cyrus Cylinder from the Persian Empire (present day Iran). This document is in fact a real cylinder of baked clay with the clauses carved directly onto it. It was conceived by Cyrus the Great in 539 BC in Persia. The object was found in Hillah (which was part of the Persian Empire under Cyrus’s rule) in 1879 and it is now housed in the British Museum. 

Cyrus the Great created this revolutionary document, the first of its kind, to have a law that respected human dignity with clauses such as the freedom of slaves and religious freedom. Cyrus the Great created an empire of tolerance for everyone and cultural respect. He created this declaration after he took over Babylon from the previous king, Nabonidus, who had been very authoritative who had removed many statues of previous babylonian kings It was the first “press release” made by a monarch in which he stated that he will allow the people that the Babylonians enslaved to be free and could go back to their home countries, that he would give these people’s statues and temples back that have been confiscated and that he would allow everyone in his empire to worship their own gods in their own temples. 

The Persian empire that spanned over all of the Middle East as we know it today. It was the first multicultural and multifaith empire in the world and it ran in different languages which was a novel idea. The different faiths and cultures were respected by Cyrus the Great and this allowed him to have control over such a large territory. The empire then went on to have an astounding 200 years of stability with the foundations Cyrus the Great lay down. 

Cyrus is considered a “liberal and enlightened monarch” and the Cyrus Cylinder he had made is still very relevant today as it is the world's first charter of human rights and the principles it defended paved the way for later laws and governance such as the US Constitution and even the ideas of the enlightenment thinkers.