Today's definitions of human rights come from a process, dating back millennia, which involves demands made by people like you.

People have been demanding for a long time both freedom from the tyranny of powerful authorities and protection of what they value most in life. Some 24 centuries ago, the Chinese philosopher known as Mencius was arguing that no one should be subjected to rulers' tyranny. Evidence of human rights demands appears in the Hammurabi codes of ancient Babylon and in the scriptures of the Jewish and Christian traditions. Islamic jurists trace human rights safeguards in their traditions back almost 14 centuries.

Turning human rights demands into practical rules for human behavior requires agreements, or at least understandings, among people who affect each other's lives. Some agreements have been reached over the ages through negotiations, some through the use of force.

In the beginning, struggles for basic rights and freedoms involved individual people using whatever powers they had, sometimes reinforced by their families or peers. Territorial rulers and, eventually, national governments became partners in human rights agreements when public demands grew so compelling or so strong that they could not be ignored.

The British Magna Carta, adopted in 1215; the French Rights of Man and of the Citizen, adopted in 1789; and the American Bill of Rights, adopted in 1791, were landmarks in defining relations between governing authorities and the people governed.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, popular demands for human rights expanded in many parts of the world. In 1916, for example, pressure from citizens' groups led government representatives meeting in Buenos Aires to advance protection of children's rights. In response to pressure from women's groups four years later, the International Conference of American States recommended a study of "the means of abolishing the constitutional and legal incapacities of women." The 1938 International Labor Conference responded to workers' concerns by adopting strongly worded resolutions on freedom of association and freedom of expression.