The writer is suggesting that the legal rights :
The idea of elaboration and protection of the rights of human beings have been gradually transformed into written norms. Many important landmarks may be mentioned on this way, such as, in England, Magna Carta (1215), The Petition of Right (1628), and the Bill of Rights (1689). During the eighteenth century, the early ideas of natural law developed into an acceptance of natural rights as legal rights, and these rights for the first time were written into national constitutions, thus reflecting an almost contractual relationship between the State and the individual which emphasized that the power of the state derived from the assent of the free individual. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789 and the American Bill of the Rights of 1791 were based upon this premise. During the nineteenth century this principle was adopted by a number of independent States and social and economic rights also began to be recognized. Despite the recognition accorded to human rights in national constitutions, these rights were sometimes curtailed or eliminated by legislation or by arbitrary of their status as legal rights, were often violated by States themselves.Since the end of the First World War, there has been a growing belief that the governments alone cannot safeguard human rights, which require international guarantees. Though the mandate of the League of Nations, the first universal intergovernmental organization created after the First World war, did not mention human rights, the League tried to undertake the protection of human rights through international means. However, its concerns were limited mainly to the establishment of certain conditions for the protection of minorities in a few countries.
