Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

The year 1789 was an important year for human rights, first producing the Bill of Rights in the United States constitution, followed a few months later by the French's own official penning of the rights of the men of their country, titled The Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It followed the storming of Bastille by the citizens, and was introduced into the general assembly that only a month before had abolished feudalism. The document was introduced by Lafayette, and was greatly influenced by Thomas Jefferson, whom the general had worked with during the American Revolution.

The document is relatively straightforward, with a short forward emphasizing that the document was written by the representatives chosen by the people, deriving its authority by the rule of the masses. I goes on to accuse government corruption on ignoring the following human rights, which it strongly proclaims “inalienable”. It is interesting to note that despite the emphasis on the right of man in the forward, the document itself is primarily concerned with the rights of the citizen, and what the government cannot stop or force the citizen to do.

The nature of the document is very secular, disassociating religion except for a brief message that no citizen could be silenced for their opinions, including their religious views. Other than that, it goes into detail how the people can’t be treated by the government- no silencing opinions, no undue arrest, no property seizure, no abuse of public military, no unequal taxes, and the list goes on. It is obvious in the rhetoric that the writers were very concerned with how the government could abuse the people, and the wording itself makes the reader wary of an overreaching body of power. In fact, the only concessions given to the government is that fairly passed laws must be followed, and individual citizens in the governments employed were accountable for their actions on the government’s behalf. The documents even limits the laws that can be made- laws could only be passed if they limited harmful behavior towards society, and nothing not in law could be required or prohibited of their citizens.

The document is worded in a way that would really get the general people behind it, written in a straightforward manner painting the government as a necessary evil that they should work to limit, which fits well with the spirit of the early French Revolution.