<P> We hold these truths to be self - evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . </P> <P> These were followed by developments in philosophy of human rights by philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and G.W.F. Hegel during the 18th and 19th centuries . The term human rights probably came into use some time between Paine's The Rights of Man and William Lloyd Garrison's 1831 writings in The Liberator, in which he stated that he was trying to enlist his readers in "the great cause of human rights". Although the term had been used by at least one author as early as 1742 . </P> <P> In the 19th century, human rights became a central concern over the issue of slavery . A number of reformers, notably British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, worked towards the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and abolition of slavery . This was achieved across the British Empire by the Slave Trade Act 1807, which was enforced internationally by the Royal Navy under treaties Britain negotiated with other nations, and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 . In the United States, all the northern states had abolished the institution of slavery between 1777 and 1804, although southern states clung tightly to the "peculiar institution". Conflict and debates over the expansion of slavery to new territories constituted one of the reasons for the southern states' secession and the American Civil War . During the reconstruction period immediately following the war, several amendments to the United States Constitution were made . These included the 13th amendment, banning slavery, the 14th amendment, assuring full citizenship and civil rights to all people born in the United States, and the 15th amendment, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote . In Russia, the reformer Tsar Alexander II ended serfdom in 1861, although the freed serfs often faced restrictions of their mobility within the nation . </P> <P> Many groups and movements have achieved profound social changes over the course of the 20th century in the name of human rights . In Europe and North America, labour unions brought about laws granting workers the right to strike, establishing minimum work conditions and forbidding or regulating child labour . The women's rights movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote . National liberation movements in many countries succeeded in driving out colonial powers . One of the most influential was Mahatma Gandhi's movement to free his native India from British rule . Movements by long - oppressed racial and religious minorities succeeded in many parts of the world, among them the Civil Rights Movement, and more recent movements, on behalf of women and minorities in the United States . </P>

Meaning and nature of human rights in india