Talk:History of human rights/Cyrus Cylinder
Putting this here to be fixed:
Persian Empire[edit]
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The Achaemenid Persian Empire of ancient Iran established unprecedented principles of human rights in the 6th century BC under Cyrus the Great. After his conquest of Babylon in 539 BC, the king issued the Cyrus cylinder, discovered in 1879 and recognized by many today as the first human rights document.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] The cylinder declared that citizens of the empire would be allowed to practice their religious beliefs freely. It also abolishedslavery, so all the palaces of the kings of Persia were built by paid workers in an era where slaves typically did such work. These two reforms were reflected in the biblical books of Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Ezra, which state that Cyrus released the followers of Judaism from slavery and allowed them to migrate back to their land.[8][9] The cylinder now lies in the British Museum, and a replica is kept at the United Nations Headquarters.
In the Persian Empire, citizens of all religions and ethnic groups were also given the same rights, while women had the same rights as men. The Cyrus cylinder also documents the protection of the rights to liberty and security, freedom of movement, the right ofproperty, and economic and social rights.[10]
- ^ "The First Global Statement of the Inherent Dignity and Equality". United Nations. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
- ^ Farrokh, Kaveh (2007). "Cyrus the Great and early Achaemenids". Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 9781846031083.
- ^ Lauren, Paul Gordon (2003). "Philosophical Visions: Human Nature, Natural Law, and Natural Rights". The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 081221854X.
- ^ Robertson, Arthur Henry; Merrills, J. G. (1996). Human rights in the world : an introduction to the study of the international protection of human rights. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719049231.
- ^ Hedrick, Larry (2007). Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312364695.
- ^ Woods, Michael; Woods, Mary B. (2009). Seven Wonders of the Ancient Middle East. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 9780822575733.
- ^ Abtahi, Hirad (2006). Abtahi, Hirad; Boas, Gideon (eds.). The Dynamics of International Criminal Justice: Essays in Honour of Sir Richard May. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9004145877.
- ^ Free, Joseph P.; Vos, Howard Frederic (1992). Vos, Howard Frederic (ed.). Archaeology and Bible history. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. ISBN 9780310479611.
- ^ Becking, Bob (2006). ""We All Returned as One!": Critical Notes on the Myth of the Mass Return". In Lipschitz, Oded; Oeming, Manfred (eds.). Judah and the Judeans in the Persian period. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 9781575061047.
- ^ Robertson, Merrills (1996)