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Law - Rights of man and of the citizen
The representatives of the French people, organized as a National
Assembly, believing that the ignorance, neglect, or contempt
of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities
and of the corruption of governments, have determined to set
forth in a solemn declaration the natural, unalienable, and
sacred rights of man, in order that this declaration, being
constantly before all the members of the Social body, shall
remind them continually of their rights and duties; in order
that the acts of the legislative power, as well as those of
the executive power, may be compared at any moment with the
objects and purposes of all political institutions and may
thus be more respected, and, lastly, in order that the grievances
of the citizens, based hereafter upon simple and incontestable
principles, shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution
and redound to the happiness of all. Therefore the National
Assembly recognizes and proclaims, in the presence and under
the auspices of the Supreme Being, the following rights of
man and of the citizen:
1 Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social
distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.
2 The aim of all political association is the preservation
of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights
are liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.
3. The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in
the nation. No body nor individual may exercise any authority
which does not proceed directly from the nation.
4. Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which
injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights
of each man has no limits except those which assure to the
other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.
These limits can only be determined by law.
5. Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society.
Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and
no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law.
6. Law is the expression of the general will. Every citizen
has a right to participate personally, or through his representative,
in its foundation. It must be the same for all, whether it
protects or punishes. All citizens, being equal in the eyes
of the law, are equally eligible to all dignities and to all
public positions and occupations, according to their abilities,
and without distinction except that of their virtues and talents.
7. No person shall be accused, arrested, or imprisoned except
in the cases and according to the forms prescribed by law.
Any one soliciting, transmitting, executing, or causing to
be executed, any arbitrary order, shall be punished. But any
citizen summoned or arrested in virtue of the law shall submit
without delay, as resistance constitutes an offense.
8. The law shall provide for such punishments only as are
strictly and obviously necessary, and no one shall suffer
punishment except it be legally inflicted in virtue of a law
passed and promulgated before the commission of the offense.
9. As all persons are held innocent until they shall have
been declared guilty, if arrest shall be deemed indispensable,
all harshness not essential to the securing of the prisoner's
person shall be severely repressed by law.
10. No one shall be disquieted on account of his opinions,
including his religious views, provided their manifestation
does not disturb the public order established by law.
11. The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of
the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may,
accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall
be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be
defined by law.
12. The security of the rights of man and of the citizen requires
public military forces. These forces are, therefore, established
for the good of all and not for the personal advantage of
those to whom they shall be intrusted.
13. A common contribution is essential for the maintenance
of the public forces and for the cost of administration. This
should be equitably distributed among all the citizens in
proportion to their means.
14. All the citizens have a right to decide, either personally
or by their representatives, as to the necessity of the public
contribution; to grant this freely; to know to what uses it
is put; and to fix the proportion, the mode of assessment
and of collection and the duration of the taxes.
15. Society has the right to require of every public agent
an account of his administration.
16. A society in which the observance of the law is not assured,
nor the separation of powers defined, has no constitution
at all.
17. Since property is an inviolable and sacred right, no one
shall be deprived thereof except where public necessity, legally
determined, shall clearly demand it, and then only on condition
that the owner shall have been previously and equitably indemnified.
"Men their rights and nothing more; women
their rights and nothing less."
SUSAN B. ANTHONY.
"America did not invent human rights. In a very real
sense . . . human rights invented America."
JIMMY CARTER, speech (farewell address, 1981)
"A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no
one can take from you."
RAMSEY CLARK, in New York Times
" 'Freedom from fear' could be said to sum up the whole
philosophy of human rights."
DAG HAMMARSKJöLD, speech (1956)
"I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample
under foot."
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, "Liberty"
"Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights,
make their own mental reservations about the proper application
of the word human."
SUZANNE LA FOLLETTE, "Concerning Women"
"As a man is said to have a right to his property, he
may be equally said to have a property in his rights."
JAMES MADISON, in National Gazette
"As if it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and
rights as myself as if it were not indispensable to my own
rights that others possess the same."
WALT WHITMAN, "Thought"
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