Everywhere in Chains, Everyone in Chains - Timeline

539BCFirst human rights document published in Babylon (Iraq)

1452 Pope allows Portugal to enslave any ‘Saracen, pagan or non-believer’ (Italy)

1789 Former slave, Olaudah Equiano, publishes his life story (Britain)

1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (France)

1791 Bill of Rights (USA)

1794 French Republic abolishes slavery (France)

1804 Haiti gains its independence – first black republic (West Indies)

1839 Enslaved Africans seize control of slave ship ‘Amistad’. Gain freedom in 1841

1849 Henry D Thoreau ‘Civil Disobedience’ (USA)

1857 US Supreme Court declares black are not citizens and have no rights under the Constitution (USA)

1863 Emancipation Proclamation (USA)

1880 The Scramble for Africa

1888 Slavery officially illegal throughout the Americas

1901 First Nobel Peace Prize awarded (Norway)

1905 Mark Twain condemns Belgian King for his treatment of black people in the Congo (Central Africa)

1912 Hardenburg exposes slavery in Columbian rubber trade (South America)

1917 Russian Revolutions (Russia)

1929-68 Martin Luther King, American civil rights leader (USA)

1933-45 Nazi Germany under Adolf Hiter

1936-39 Spanish Civil War (Spain)

1945 Publication of George Orwell’s Animal Farm (Russia)

1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1948 UN Convention against Genocide

1949 Publication of George Orwell’s 1984 (Europe)

1949 Council of Europe established to promote democracy and human rights across Europe

1950 European Court of Human Rights (France)

1955-68 Civil Rights Movement (Southern USA)

1957 European Economic Community (now European Union) established (Italy)

1959 Fidel Castro comes to power (Cuba)

1961 British lawyer Peter Benenson starts Amnesty International (Britain)

1962 Nelson Mandela, ANC leader imprisoned. Freed 1990. (South Africa)

1964 Civil Rights Act – end to official segregation (USA)

1966 UN Convention against Racial Discrimination

1965-79 White-minority rule in ‘independent’ Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

1975 Helsinki Final Act: recognition of human rights across Europe (Finland)

1976 Commission for Racial Equality established in Britain

1989 Fall of Communism (Central Europe)

1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child becomes law

1991 Fall of the Soviet Union (Eastern Europe)

1994 Nelson Mandela – President of South Africa (South Africa)

2000 The United Nations Millennium Declaration commits the states by 2015 to:

  • eradicate extreme poverty and hunger;
  • achieve universal primary education;
  • promote gender equality and empower women;
  • reduce child mortality;
  • improve maternal health;
  • combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases;
  • ensure environmental sustainability; and
  • develop a global partnership for development.

2001 World Conference Against Racism

2001 Anti-Slavery International launches campaign against modern slavery (Africa)

2002 International Criminal Court (Netherlands)

You can download a series of maps showing the struggle for human rights and equality:

Major events in the struggle for human rights - PDF format 133Kb

The Struggle for National and Racial Equality - PDF format 152Kb

The Struggle for Equality (Gender and Sexual Orientation) - PDF format 154Kb

Human Rights, Decolonization and Crimes against Humanity - PDF format 202Kb

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