Cyrus the Great Part 2 (3)

Cyrus the Great (585-529 B.C.) was the first to define and declare what we call  “human rights” today. The declaration was recorded on a clay cuneiform which was unearthed in the late 19th century.

These modern English words communicate clearly:

1. I declare that I will respect the tradition, customs, and religion of the nations of my empire and never let any of the governors to look down or insult the inhabitants of my nations.
2. I hereby abolish slavery; my governors are ordered to prohibit exchanging men and women as slaves within their rulingdomains. Such a tradition should be exterminated the world over.
3. If anyone oppresses others, should it happen, I will take his/her right back and penalize the oppressors.
4. Today I declare Freedom of Religion. All are free to choose any religion, live in all regions and take up any job provided that they never violate other’s rights.

Here are the opinions of ESL students who discovered Cyrus’ First Declaration of Human Rights today, March 9th 2011 A.D….

To read the First Declaration might make all of us surprised because it’s so modern, ideal and perfect. It was declared 2500 years ago, which is also amazing.

Imagine if people kept these ideas all those years for 2500 years. We might have an ideal world. I think there must be some of the people who have a bad idea in the world. Or who want to have power to control other people. Or who are fanatics about something they believe in. People tend to progress more than before. Even if his idea was the very best in history, people must have thought their new ideas were more advanced. Michiyo

It is very interesting that Cyrus the Great had such modern and fair ideas about human rights. He sounds to me like any good politician in this new era that we are living in now.

I remember that even the Bible talks about a great battle against Babylon. It describes how bad the people from Babylon were and the way Cyrus the Great managed to bring the big city to her knees. Humberto

In my opinion, Cyrus is an amazing king. His principles and concepts about one world and thinking that people and culture are one, is for me the greatest expression of Cyrus’ wisdom. In four simple statements he declares that people must live in freedom and the compassion among us must be the flag in our kingdom. Raul