This is the basic and foundational principle of the Declaration. Freedom and equality in rights. Obviously, this is rather abstract, namely vague open to interpretation. Yet, I would like to suggest this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Indeed, "rights" here refer to basic inalienable rights men are naturally entitled to. I argue a common (universal?) interpretation of such rights include rights to life, health, liberty and possession (conception inherited from Locke's political thought). Although it might not explicitly include a right to health care or a right to education, I think it implicitly does. Besides, I would like to point out that the first article of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was made on a similar model. I argue this is proof that the abstract nature of the DRMC is not an issue – all rights is better than no rights! 

 

I believe that It is one of the most important and fundamental papers of the French Revolutions and in the history of human and civil rights. This paper helped explain basic rights to the French people, and many believed that it was an important step towards international human rights or Universal Declaration of Human rights. Up until today, the ideas written in the declaration are relevant and important in French law. They can be used to oppose or change new laws or other government action as the French law is based off of this document. The declaration called for the destruction of aristocratic privileges by proclaiming an end to feudalism and exemptions from taxation(only the third estate were subject to tax at the time), freedom and equal rights for all ‘Men’, and access to political space was based on skill. It eliminated any special rights of the nobility and clergy. 

Women’s rights: 

As much as it failed to recognise the rights of women(as only males were considered citizens), it provided a model for which the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen was inspired upon. 

‘This revolution will only take effect when all women become fully aware of their deplorable condition, and of the rights, they have lost in society.’ 

Slavery: 

Although there was a lack of explicit mention of slavery in the Declaration, slave uprisings in Saint-Domingue in the Haitian revolution was inspired by it. It led to what would be known as the first successful slave revolt in the New World. 

Homosexuality: 

The wide scope of personal freedom given to citizens by the declaration provided an environment where homosexuality was decriminalised by the revised law of 25th September - 6 October 1791. Whilst homophobia and discriminatory laws still existed, France and other nations that adopted the French Penal code did not criminalise same-sex relations between consenting adults in private. 

As we can see, these are few of the many positive implications of the Declaration and we can observe how massive these implications are in the context of the modern western world. 

- Nadeem