The French National Constituent Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen on August 26, 1789. It was a very important document that laid down the fundamental rights for French citizens and all men without exception.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man stated that ‘all men are born free and equal and that power belonged to the people and not to kings and queens’. The law thus became an expression of the general will of the people. All citizens were guaranteed the rights of ‘liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression’.
The Declaration marked the first step in the transition from absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. The king no longer held unquestioned authority; the king was the head of the government, but real power lay with the elected representatives of the people.
The Declaration spread the ideas of democracy across the world. However, it made no mention of women and their rights.
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