Magna Carta vs. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Uploaded by jconner1997 on Aug 26, 2013
The English Magna Carta was one of the first documents to defend a person’s rights because they were simply put, human. 730+ years later the Universal Human Rights Declaration is doing the same thing now. The Magna Carta was the first document ever to attempt to do this. The Magna Carta affected the American Revolutionaries in 1776, as well as the newly formed United Nations in 1948.
The Magna Carta set up basic legal rights for all Free men that would be later repeated in the Universal Human Rights Declaration of 1948. One of which is the right to a trial by a jury of one’s peers. The Human rights declaration restates this in its tenth article where it says “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.” Another is that a punishment should be fitting of the crime and not be excessive. According to the Human Rights Declaration’s fifth article “No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” A third example provided us by the Magna Carta is the right to life liberty and property that cannot be taken away by anyone including a king. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we all have the right to life, liberty, as well as the security of our person.
However one key difference to be regarded is that Magna Carta only applied to those men who were considerered "free men",
at the time barons and those peasants who hadn’t committed to the feudal life as serfs yet;
however, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affects every person in the world.