The human rights: a historical background of emergence and a current state

The article analyzes the content of historical documents (the Code of Hammurabi, the Book of the Torah, the Charter of Cyrus the Great, the edicts of Ahsoka, the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Constitution of Medina, the Laws of the Twelve Tables, the Charter of Liberties, Magna Carta) and the first international human rights standards (the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (1989)). The study notes the key role of supporters of the natural law concept of human rights who fought for inalienability and equality of these rights. The author considers in detail the domestic criminal legislation of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia that contained penalties for the murder of a person.