The Declaration of the Rights of Man…
August 1789 CE
The Declaration is directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson, working with General Lafayette, who introduces it.
Influenced also by the doctrine of "natural right", the rights of man are held to be universal: valid at all times and in every place, pertaining to human nature itself.
It becomes the basis for a nation of free individuals protected equally by the law.
It will be included in the beginning of the constitutions of both the Fourth French Republic (1946) and Fifth Republic (1958) and is current today.
Inspired by the Enlightenment philosophers, the Declaration is a core statement of the values of the French Revolution and has a major impact on the development of freedom and democracy in Europe and worldwide.
The Declaration, together with Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, and the United States Bill of Rights, will inspire in large part the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.