Editor’s Note: An expanded version of the 1789 French declaration, this revised version goes even further than its predecessor — it places greater emphasis on egalitarianism and endows all humans with even greater rights. Though it\u00a0was never officially enacted, it nonetheless has been highly influential when it comes to advancing notions in the generation sto come about what rights we all should be able to lay claim to.<\/p>\n
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1793<\/strong><\/p>\n The French people, convinced that forgetfulness and contempts of the natural rights of man are the sole causes of the miseries of the world, have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these sacred and inalienable rights, in order that all the citizens, being able to compare unceasingly the acts of the government with the aim of every social institution, may never allow themselves to be oppressed and debased by tyranny; and in order that the people may always have before their eyes the foundations of their liberty and their welfare, the magistrate the rule of his duties, the legislator the purpose of his commission.<\/span><\/p>\n In consequence, it proclaims in the presence of the supreme being the following declaration of the rights of man and citizen.<\/span><\/p>\n 1. The aim of society is the common welfare. Government is instituted in order to guarantee to man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.<\/span><\/p>\n 2. These rights are equality, liberty, security, and property.<\/span><\/p>\n 3. All men are equal by nature and before the law.<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Law is the free and solemn expression of the general will; it is the same for all, whether it protects or punishes; it can command only what is just and useful to society; it can forbid only what is injurious to it.<\/span><\/p>\n 5. All citizens are equally eligible to public employments. Free peoples know no other grounds for preference in their elections than virtue and talent.<\/span><\/p>\n 6. Liberty is the power that belongs to man to do whatever is not injurious to the rights of others; it has nature for its principle, justice for its rule, law for its defense; its moral limit is in this maxim: Do not do to another that which you do not wish should be done to you.<\/span><\/p>\n 7. The right to express one’s thoughts and opinions by means of the press or in any other manner, the right to assemble peaceably, the free pursuit of religion, cannot be forbidden.<\/span><\/p>\n The necessity of enunciating these rights supposes either the presence or the fresh recollection of despotism.<\/span><\/p>\n 8. Security consists in the protection afforded by society to each of its members for the preservation of his person, his rights, and his property.<\/span><\/p>\n 9. The law ought to protect public and personal liberty against the oppression of those who govern.<\/span><\/p>\n 10. No one ought to be accused, arrested, or detained except in the cases determined by law and according to the forms that it has prescribed. Any citizen summoned or seized by the authority of the law, ought to obey immediately; he makes himself guilty by resistance.<\/span><\/p>\n 11. Any act done against man outside of the cases and without the forms that the law determines is arbitrary and tyrannical; the one against whom it may be intended to be executed by violence has the right to repel it by force.<\/span><\/p>\n 12. Those who may incite, expedite, subscribe to, execute or cause to be executed arbitrary legal instruments are guilty and ought to be punished.<\/span><\/p>\n 13. Every man being presumed innocent until he has been pronounced guilty, if it is thought indispensable to arrest him, all severity that may not be necessary to secure his person ought to be strictly repressed by law.<\/span><\/p>\n 14. No one ought to be tried and punished except after having been heard or legally summoned, and except in virtue of a law promulgated prior to the offense. The law which would punish offenses committed before it existed would be a tyranny: the retroactive effect given to the law would be a crime.<\/span><\/p>\n 15. The law ought to impose only penalties that are strictly and obviously necessary: the punishments ought to be proportionate to the offense and useful to society.<\/span><\/p>\n 16. The right of property is that which belongs to every citizen to enjoy, and to dispose at his pleasure of his goods, income, and of the fruits of his labor and his skill.<\/span><\/p>\n 17. No kind of labor, tillage, or commerce can be forbidden to the skill of the citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n 18. Every man can contract his services and his time, but he cannot sell himself nor be sold: his person is not an alienable property. The law knows of no such thing as the status of servant; there can exist only a contract for services and compensation between the man who works and the one who employs him.<\/span><\/p>\n 19. No one can be deprived of the least portion of his property without his consent, unless a legally established public necessity requires it, and upon condition of a just and prior compensation.<\/span><\/p>\n 20. No tax can be imposed except for the general advantage. All citizens have the right to participate in the establishment of taxes, to watch over the employment of them, and to cause an account of them to be rendered.<\/span><\/p>\n 21. Public relief is a sacred debt. Society owes maintenance to unfortunate citizens, either procuring work for them or in providing the means of existence for those who are unable to labor.<\/span><\/p>\n 22. Education is needed by all. Society ought to favor with all its power the advancement of the public reason and to put education at the door of every citizen.<\/span><\/p>\n 23. The social guarantee consists in the action of all to secure to each the enjoyment and the maintenance of his rights: this guarantee rests upon the national sovereignty.<\/span><\/p>\n 24. It cannot exist if the limits of public functions are not clearly determined by law and if the responsibility of all the functionaries is not secured.<\/span><\/p>\n 25. The sovereignty resides in the people; it is one and indivisible, imprescriptible, and inalienable.<\/span><\/p>\n 26. No portion of the people can exercise the power of the entire people, but each section of the sovereign, in assembly, ought to enjoy the right to express its will with entire freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n 27. Let any person who may usurp the sovereignty be instantly put to death by free men.<\/span><\/p>\n 28. A people has always the right to review, to reform, and to alter its constitution. One generation cannot subject to its law the future generations.<\/span><\/p>\n 29. Each citizen has an equal right to participate in the formation of the law and in the selection of his mandatories or his agents.<\/span><\/p>\n 30. Public functions are necessarily temporary; they cannot be considered as distinctions or rewards, but as duties.<\/span><\/p>\n 31. The offenses of the representatives of the people and of its agents ought never to go unpunished. No one has the right to claim for himself more inviolability than other citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n 32. The right to present petitions to the depositories of the public authority cannot in any case be forbidden, suspended, nor limited.<\/span><\/p>\n 33. Resistance to oppression is the consequence of the other rights of man.<\/span><\/p>\n 34. There is oppression against the social body when a single one of its members is oppressed: there is oppression against each member when the social body is oppressed.<\/span><\/p>\n 35. When the government violates the rights of the people, insurrection is for the people and for each portion of the people the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.<\/span><\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Frank Maloy Anderson, ed., <\/i>The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France<\/em> 1789\u00ad-1901<\/em> (Minneapolis: H. W. Wilson, 1904)<\/span><\/p>\n Original French text:<\/p>\n D\u00e9claration des Droits de l’homme et du citoyen Pr\u00e9ambule<\/i> Article premier<\/i> Article 2 Article 3<\/i> Article 4<\/i> Article 5<\/i> Article 6<\/i> Article 7<\/i> Article 8<\/i> Article 9<\/i> Article 10<\/i> Article 11<\/i> Article 12<\/i> Article 13<\/i> Article 14<\/i> Article 15<\/i> Article 16<\/i> Article 17<\/i> Article 18<\/i> Article 19<\/i> Article 20<\/i> Article 21<\/i> Article 22<\/i> Article 23<\/i> Article 24<\/i> Article 25<\/i> Article 26<\/i> Article 27<\/i> Article 28<\/i> Article 29<\/i> Article 30<\/i> Article 31<\/i> Article 32<\/i> Article 33<\/i> Article 34<\/i> Article 35<\/i> Editor’s Note: An expanded version of the 1789 French declaration, this revised version goes even further than its predecessor — it places greater emphasis on egalitarianism and endows all humans with even greater rights. Though it\u00a0was never officially enacted, it nonetheless has been highly influential when it comes to advancing notions in the generation sto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,21,33,27],"tags":[82,78,209,25,63,210,69,216],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-18century","category-declaration-collection","category-declaration-of-rights","category-declarations-from-abroad","tag-education","tag-equality","tag-france","tag-freedom","tag-liberty","tag-property","tag-rights","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/declarationproject.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ndu 24 juin 1793<\/b><\/p>\n
\nLe peuple fran\u00e7ais, convaincu que l’oubli et le m\u00e9pris des droits naturels de l’homme sont les seules causes des malheurs du monde, a r\u00e9solu d’exposer, dans une d\u00e9claration solennelle, ces droits sacr\u00e9s et inali\u00e9nables, afin que tous les citoyens, pouvant comparer sans cesse les actes du gouvernement avec le but de toute institution sociale, ne se laissent jamais opprimer, avilir par la tyrannie; afin que le peuple ait toujours devant les yeux les bases de sa libert\u00e9 et de son bonheur; le magistrat la r\u00e8gle de ses devoirs; le l\u00e9gislateur l’objet de sa mission. En cons\u00e9quence, il proclame, en pr\u00e9sence de l’Etre supr\u00eame, la D\u00e9claration suivante des droits de l’homme et du citoyen.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLe but de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est le bonheur commun<\/b>. Le gouvernement est institu\u00e9 pour garantir \u00e0 l’homme la jouissance de ses droits naturels et imprescriptibles.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/i>Ces droits sont l’\u00e9galit\u00e9, la libert\u00e9, la s\u00fbret\u00e9, la propri\u00e9t\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTous les hommes sont \u00e9gaux par nature et devant la loi.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa loi est l’expression libre et solennelle de la volont\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9rale; elle est la m\u00eame pour tous, soit qu’elle prot\u00e8ge, soit qu’elle punisse; elle ne peut ordonner que ce qui est juste et utile \u00e0 la soci\u00e9t\u00e9; elle ne peut d\u00e9fendre ce qui lui est nuisible.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTous les citoyens sont \u00e9galement admissibles aux emplois publics. Les peuples libres ne connaissent d’autres motifs de pr\u00e9f\u00e9rence, dans leurs \u00e9lections, que les vertus et les talents.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa libert\u00e9<\/b> est le pouvoir qui appartient \u00e0 l’homme de faire tout ce qui ne nuit pas aux droits d’autrui<\/b>; elle a pour principe la nature; pour r\u00e8gle la justice; pour sauvegarde la loi; sa limite morale est dans cette maxime: Ne fais pas \u00e0 un autre ce que tu ne veux pas qu’il te soit fait.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLe droit de manifester sa pens\u00e9e et ses opinions, soit par la voie de la presse, soit de toute autre mani\u00e8re, le droit de s’assembler paisiblement, le libre exercice des cultes, ne peuvent \u00eatre interdits<\/b>. La n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 d’\u00e9noncer ces droits suppose ou la pr\u00e9sence ou le souvenir r\u00e9cent du despotisme.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa s\u00fbret\u00e9 consiste dans la protection accord\u00e9e par la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 chacun de ses membres pour la conservation de sa personne, de ses droits et de ses propri\u00e9t\u00e9s.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa loi doit prot\u00e9ger la libert\u00e9 publique et individuelle contre l’oppression de ceux qui gouvernent.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nNul ne doit \u00eatre accus\u00e9, arr\u00eat\u00e9 ni d\u00e9tenu, que dans les cas d\u00e9termin\u00e9s par la loi et selon les formes qu’elle a prescrites<\/b>. Tout citoyen, appel\u00e9 ou saisi par l’autorit\u00e9 de la loi, doit ob\u00e9ir \u00e0 l’instant; il se rend coupable par la r\u00e9sistance.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTout acte exerc\u00e9 contre un homme hors des cas et sans les formes que la loi d\u00e9termine, est arbitraire et tyrannique<\/b>; celui contre lequel on voudrait l’ex\u00e9cuter par la violence a le droit de le repousser par la force.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nCeux qui solliciteraient, exp\u00e9dieraient, ex\u00e9cuteraient ou feraient ex\u00e9cuter des actes arbitraires, sont coupables et doivent \u00eatre punis<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTout homme \u00e9tant pr\u00e9sum\u00e9 innocent jusqu’\u00e0 ce qu’il ait \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9clar\u00e9 coupable<\/b>, s’il est jug\u00e9 indispensable de l’arr\u00eater, toute rigueur qui ne serait pas n\u00e9cessaire pour s’assurer de sa personne doit \u00eatre s\u00e9v\u00e8rement r\u00e9prim\u00e9e par la loi.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nNul ne doit \u00eatre jug\u00e9 et puni qu’apr\u00e8s avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 entendu ou l\u00e9galement appel\u00e9, et qu’en vertu d’une loi promulgu\u00e9e ant\u00e9rieurement au d\u00e9lit. La loi qui punirait des d\u00e9lits commis avant qu’elle exist\u00e2t serait une tyrannie; l’effet r\u00e9troactif donn\u00e9 \u00e0 la loi serait un crime<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa loi ne doit d\u00e9cerner que des peines strictement et \u00e9videmment n\u00e9cessaires; les peines doivent \u00eatre proportionn\u00e9es au d\u00e9lit et utiles \u00e0 la soci\u00e9t\u00e9<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLe droit de propri\u00e9t\u00e9 est celui qui appartient \u00e0 tout citoyen de jouir et de disposer \u00e0 son gr\u00e9 de ses biens, de ses revenus, du fruit de son travail et de son industrie.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nNul genre de travail, de culture, de commerce, ne peut \u00eatre interdit \u00e0 l’industrie des citoyens.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTout homme peut engager ses services, son temps; mais il ne peut se vendre ni \u00eatre vendu; sa personne n’est pas une propri\u00e9t\u00e9 ali\u00e9nable<\/b>. La loi ne reconna\u00eet point de domesticit\u00e9; il ne peut exister qu’un engagement de soins et de reconnaissance, entre l’homme qui travaille et celui qui l’emploie.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nNul ne peut \u00eatre priv\u00e9 de la moindre portion de sa propri\u00e9t\u00e9 sans son consentement si ce n’est lorsque la n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 publique l\u00e9galement constat\u00e9e l’exige, et sous la condition d’une juste et pr\u00e9alable indemnit\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nUne contribution ne peut \u00eatre \u00e9tablie que pour l’utilit\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9rale. Tous les citoyens ont le droit de concourir \u00e0 l’\u00e9tablissement des contributions, d’en surveiller l’emploi, et de s’en faire rendre compte.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLes secours publics sont une dette sacr\u00e9e. La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 doit la subsistance aux citoyens malheureux, soit en leur procurant du travail, soit en assurant les moyens d’exister \u00e0 ceux qui sont hors d’\u00e9tat de travailler<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nL’instruction est le besoin de tous. La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 doit favoriser de tout son pouvoir les progr\u00e8s de la raison publique, et mettre l’instruction \u00e0 la port\u00e9e de tous les citoyens<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa garantie sociale consiste dans l’action de tous pour assurer \u00e0 chacun la jouissance et la conservation de ses droits; cette garantie repose sur la souverainet\u00e9 nationale.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nElle ne peut exister, si les limites des fonctions publiques ne sont pas clairement d\u00e9termin\u00e9es par la loi, et si la responsabilit\u00e9 de tous les fonctionnaires n’est pas assur\u00e9e.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa souverainet\u00e9 r\u00e9side dans le peuple; elle est une et indivisible, imprescriptible et inali\u00e9nable<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nAucune portion du peuple ne peut exercer la puissance du peuple entier<\/b>; mais chaque section du souverain assembl\u00e9e doit jouir du droit d’exprimer sa volont\u00e9 avec une enti\u00e8re libert\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nQue tout individu qui usurperait la souverainet\u00e9 soit \u00e0 l’instant mis \u00e0 mort par les hommes libres<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nUn peuple a toujours le droit de revoir, de r\u00e9former et de changer sa Constitution. Une g\u00e9n\u00e9ration ne peut assujettir \u00e0 ses lois les g\u00e9n\u00e9rations futures.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nChaque citoyen a un droit \u00e9gal de concourir \u00e0 la formation de la loi et \u00e0 la nomination de ses mandataires ou de ses agents<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLes fonctions publiques sont essentiellement temporaires; elles ne peuvent \u00eatre consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme des distinctions ni comme des r\u00e9compenses, mais comme des devoirs<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLes d\u00e9lits des mandataires du peuple et de ses agents ne doivent jamais \u00eatre impunis. Nul n’a le droit de se pr\u00e9tendre plus inviolable que les autres citoyens<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLe droit de pr\u00e9senter des p\u00e9titions aux d\u00e9positaires de l’autorit\u00e9 publique ne peut, en aucun cas, \u00eatre interdit, suspendu ni limit\u00e9.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nLa r\u00e9sistance \u00e0 l’oppression est la cons\u00e9quence des autres droits de l’homme<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nIl y a oppression contre le corps social, lorsqu’un seul de ses membres est opprim\u00e9. Il y a oppression contre chaque membre lorsque le corps social est opprim\u00e9<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nQuand le gouvernement viole les droits du peuple, l’insurrection est, pour le peuple et pour chaque portion du peuple, le plus sacr\u00e9 des droits et le plus indispensable des devoirs<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"