<P> While belief in the sanctity of human life has ancient precedents in many religions of the world , the idea of modern human rights began during the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period . The European wars of religion and the civil wars of seventeenth - century England gave rise to the philosophy of liberalism and belief in human rights became a central concern of European intellectual culture during the eighteenth - century Age of Enlightenment . These ideas of human rights lay at the core of the American and French Revolutions which occurred toward the end of that century . Democratic evolution through the nineteenth century paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage in the twentieth century . Two world wars led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . </P>
<P> While belief in the sanctity of human life has ancient precedents in many religions of the world , the idea of modern human rights began during the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period . The European wars of religion and the civil wars of seventeenth - century England gave rise to the philosophy of liberalism and belief in human rights became a central concern of European intellectual culture during the eighteenth - century Age of Enlightenment . These ideas of human rights lay at the core of the American and French Revolutions which occurred toward the end of that century . Democratic evolution through the nineteenth century paved the way for the advent of universal suffrage in the twentieth century . Two world wars led to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . </P>
where did the concept of human rights come from
where did the concept of human rights come from
the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period
the era of renaissance humanism in the early modern period