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Human Rights

Movements and Counter Movements

Here is a listing of some issues and large human/civil rights movements, and events both in the United States and globally. 

Issues

Not a complete list of issues, but some issues to get you started in your research

  • Children's Rights
  • Cultural Rights
  • Death Penalty
  • Discrimination
  • Education
  • Food and Nutrition
  • Freedom of Speech
  • Freedom of Religion
  • Health and Medicine
  • Housing
  • Labor
  • Mental Health
  • Migration
  • Poverty
  • Privacy
  • Racism
  • Sanitation
  • Slavery and Trafficking in Persons
  • Violence
  • Voting
  • Water

United States

Not a complete list of events, but some events to get you started in your research (arranged in roughly chronological order)

  • 1776    The US Declaration of Independence
  • 1781    The United States Constitution
  • 1791    The US Bill of Rights 
  • 1863    Emancipation Proclamation
  • 1865    13th Amendment
  • 1868    14th Amendment
  • 1870    15th Amendment
  • 1920    19th  Amendment- Women won the right to vote
  • 1924    Snyder Act
  • 1934    Indian Reorganization Act
  • 1938    Fair Labor Standards Act
  • 1954    Brown v. Board of Education 
  • 1964    Civil Rights Act 
  • 1965    Voter Rights Act
  • 1970    Gay Pride parades
  • 1973    Roe v. Wade
  • 1980    Refugee Act
  • 1990    Americans With Disabilities Act
  • 2011    Don't Ask, Don't Tell repealed 
  • 2015    Same-sex marriage legalized nationally

Global/International

Not a complete list of events, but some events to get you started in your research (arranged in roughly chronological order)

  • 1215    Magna Carta signed (Britain)
  • 1689    British Bill of Rights
  • 1815    Congress of Vienna
  • 1833    Abolition Act (Great Britain)
  • 1885    Berlin Conference
  • 1890    Brussels Conference
  • 1907    Central American Peace Conference
  • 1918    Representation of the People Act (UK)
  • 1919    Treaty of Versailles
  • 1920    The League of Nations forms
  • 1933    The League of Nations adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women of Full Age
  • 1945    The United Nations is established
  • 1948    The United Nations adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • 1960    The Year of Africa
  • 1960    Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first woman to be elected head of government in the world
  • 1969    The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination was drafted
  • 1972    Sweden became the first country to allow transgender individuals to legally change their gender
  • 1994     Apartheid ended in South Africa
  • 1998    The United Nations adopts the International Criminal Court Statute. 
  • 2007    Members of the UN sign the declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples 
  • 2007    Members of the UN sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • 2018    The ban was lifted on women driving in Saudi Arabia