Humanity´s Latest: Rights For All

For most of human history, people were not equal. Not even close. Societies divided themselves into tribes, castes, classes, genders, and races. Some lives were worth everything, others were worth nothing. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: the idea that all humans have equal rights is not ancient wisdom. It’s shockingly recent.

The Long Era of Hierarchy

Go back 4,000 years to the Code of Hammurabi (1750 BCE) in Babylon. A landmark legal system, yes, but one that treated nobles, commoners, and slaves differently. Justice was never equal.

Jump forward to Stoic philosophy in Greece and Rome (300 BCE–200 CE). Stoics spoke of a universal human soul. Noble in theory, ignored in practice. Rome thrived on conquest and slavery.

Even religions that preached dignity and compassion - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism - were wrapped in societies that enforced serfdom, patriarchy, and oppression. For centuries, rights were not universal. They were privileges, given only to a chosen few.

The Sparks of Change

Then came the Enlightenment. Ideas of natural rights started breaking through.

1776 – U.S. Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal.” Inspiring words. Written by white men who owned slaves.

1789 – French Revolution: Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Bold, revolutionary. But women? Colonized people? Left outside.

These were the seeds, not the harvest.

The 20th Century: A Brutal Lesson

The real turning point came after humanity showed itself what it was capable of. Two world wars. The Holocaust. The atomic bomb. Only after staring into the abyss did we admit the obvious: if we didn’t recognize the worth of every human life, we could wipe ourselves out.

1948 – Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For the first time in history, nations said: every human, everywhere, has rights simply because they exist.

Think about that. This wasn’t 5,000 years ago. Not even 500. Just 77 years ago. Within the lifetime of your grandparents. That’s how new this awakening is.

Beyond Humans: The World as Sanctuary

And we’re still stretching the circle wider. In the last two decades, the radical idea has emerged that nature itself has rights.

2008 – Ecuador: first constitution to recognize the Rights of Nature (“Pachamama”).

2017 – New Zealand: the Whanganui River granted legal personhood, reflecting Māori tradition.

2016–2018 – Colombia: Constitutional Court recognizes the Atrato River and parts of the Amazon as rights-bearing entities.

2019 – Bangladesh: Supreme Court declares all rivers have legal rights.

This is revolutionary. We are not only saying all humans are equal. We are beginning to say: the Earth itself is alive, worthy of respect, beyond its use to us.

The Messy Truth

Of course, it’s not a clean story. Human rights are violated every day. Corporations strip the planet for profit. Governments retreat into nationalism. Entire sectors of society fight these ideas, even when opposing them works against their own survival.

But here’s the thing: there’s no turning back. The truth is out. Humanity has already admitted what’s right.

Equality is not negotiable

The dignity of life is not negotiable.

The value of the Earth is not negotiable.

Yes, there will be setbacks. Yes, there will be resistance. But the path forward is clear. For all the huff and puff, no one can erase what has already been written into our shared conscience.

We are late to this awakening, embarrassingly late. But we are here. Humanity as equals. The Earth as sanctuary. And there’s no going back.

Thanks for reading. Abrazos.

Diego Rojas