The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

What happened

On 26 August 1789 the National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Its seventeen articles proclaimed that 'men are born and remain free and equal in rights,' and that the aim of all political association is to preserve the natural rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.

Why it matters

Shaped with the help of the Marquis de Lafayette and echoing the American Declaration of Independence, it became a founding charter of modern human rights and served as the preamble to France's first constitution.

Sources

• The Avalon Project, Yale Law School. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789 · Primary source