On November 6, 2025, during its 43rd General Conference held in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), UNESCO adopted a resolution by which the Cyrus the Great Cylinder was officially recognized as one of the first human rights documents in the world — a symbol of the defense of freedom, justice, and respect for cultural diversity.
The proposal was jointly submitted by Iran, Tajikistan, and Iraq, and was approved by consensus of the Member States, recognizing the Cyrus Cylinder as “a fundamental document in the history of human civilization” and “the first written manifestation of the principles of freedom, justice, tolerance, and respect for cultural diversity.”
Objectives of the UNESCO Resolution
The resolution outlines four main purposes for this recognition:
To highlight its universal values, since the Cylinder is conceived as one of the oldest historical charters proclaiming the principles of tolerance, justice, and respect for cultural and religious diversity.
To support UNESCO’s mandate as an international entity that promotes peace, intercultural dialogue, and common heritage as the foundations of sustainable development and peace.
To encourage Member States to integrate the legacy of the Cylinder into educational, cultural, and public awareness programs.
To link the Cylinder to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), by promoting inclusive societies and cooperation through culture.
In relation to these purposes, the resolution identifies four possible outcomes expected from UNESCO’s recognition of the Cyrus Cylinder:
- Strengthening intercultural dialogue, promoting Cyrus’s vision of peaceful coexistence and tolerance among peoples of different cultural and religious backgrounds;
- Increasing awareness of common heritage, emphasizing the importance of cultural artifacts that convey universal human values;
- Encouraging educational and cultural initiatives in various Member States inspired by the message of the Cylinder, fostering respect for diversity and mutual understanding;
- Advancing UNESCO’s objectives by linking ancient traditions of ethical governance with contemporary global challenges to achieve peace, justice, and sustainability.
The resolution concludes by encouraging Member States to promote “greater awareness of the Charter of the Cyrus Cylinder as one of the oldest manifestations of the concept of human rights, as well as broader access to the Charter, particularly by disseminating it in multiple languages for educational and knowledge purposes.”
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II, better known as Cyrus the Great (600–530 BCE), was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire — the first great Persian empire and one of the most extensive in the ancient world.
Around 550 BCE, Cyrus rebelled against his grandfather Astyages, king of Media, and defeated him, thus uniting Persians and Medes under his rule.
From then on, he embarked on a series of conquests that gave rise to the largest empire of his time: he conquered Lydia (in Asia Minor) in 546 BCE, Babylon in 539 BCE, and extended his dominion from the Aegean Sea to the Indus Valley.
In 539 BCE, after entering the great city of Babylon, Cyrus the Great issued a decree liberating several peoples — thousands of captives were freed and allowed to return to their ancestral lands. Cyrus sought to establish a model of governance that would allow diverse peoples to coexist in peace and mutual respect.
At its height, the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus included more than seventy ethnic and cultural communities. Historical and religious sources — including Jewish and Islamic sacred texts — recall Cyrus as a statesman, humanist, and defender of freedom of worship who respected the customs and beliefs of the peoples under his rule.
According to records from the British Museum (where the Cyrus Cylinder is housed), the object is a clay cylinder typical of royal inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian period, written to be buried in the foundations of Babylon’s city walls.
The Cylinder
Discovered in 1879 during a British Museum excavation campaign in Babylon (modern-day Iraq), the Cyrus Cylinder is today one of the most celebrated icons of antiquity, often described as the “first charter of human rights” and a symbol of recognition of pluralism and religious diversity. The text, written in Akkadian, survives in incomplete form with two well-defined parts.
The first part recounts the end of the reign of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon (555–539 BCE), who had corrupted the cults of the Babylonian gods, including Marduk, the city’s tutelary deity, and imposed forced labor on the free population, who complained to the gods.
The gods abandoned Babylon, but Marduk sought a champion to restore ancient traditions. He chose Cyrus, king of Anshan (Persia), proclaiming him king of the world. Cyrus extended his dominion over the tribes of Iran (described as Gutians and Umman-Manda), ruling them justly. Then Marduk ordered Cyrus to march on Babylon — a city he entered without fighting. Nabonidus was delivered into his hands, and the people of Babylon joyfully accepted Cyrus’s rule.
From that point, the document is written in the first person (“I, Cyrus, king of the world…”). Cyrus declares himself a worshiper of Marduk and a promoter of peace in Babylon, abolishing forced labor and restoring temples and religious cults, including those of previously exiled peoples.
The text concludes with references to additional food offerings in Babylonian temples and an account of the reconstruction of Imgur-Enlil, the city wall, during which an older inscription belonging to Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria (668–627 BCE), was found.
The Significance of the Cyrus Cylinder
Different and sometimes contradictory interpretations have been offered regarding Cyrus II and the significance of the text inscribed on the Cylinder.
The document’s age, the incomplete preservation of its content, and its political use over time have deepened these differences.
It is clear that applying twenty-first-century categories to a 2,500-year-old text would be anachronistic — yet this does not prevent us from appreciating its historical value and relevance today.
While the text contains obvious elements of political propaganda aimed at the inhabitants of Babylon, UNESCO has chosen to focus on other aspects, particularly its pioneering notions of tolerance and respect for diverse peoples and cultures.
Even if Cyrus’s measures may have served both political and pragmatic goals — facilitating control through integration rather than repression — his actions remain remarkable for his era.
Although it would be inaccurate to claim that Cyrus advocated the abolition of slavery — an idea historically indefensible in that context — his decision to free part of a conquered population from “servitude” was nonetheless extraordinary.
According to the British Museum’s translation, paragraphs 25 and 26 of the Cylinder read:
“I sought the welfare of the city of Babylon and all its sanctuaries. As for the population of Babylon […] who had been made to bear a yoke not ordained for them by the gods— I relieved their weariness and freed them from their servitude. Marduk, the great lord, rejoiced in my good deeds.”
The ideas expressed in this document mark a milestone in the recognition of individual rights, which is why it is often regarded as the first document on human rights.
According to UNESCO, the Cyrus Cylinder is one of the oldest and most foundational conceptual documents of world civilization and, for the peoples of Western and Central Asia, an exceptional historical and legal source for studying the emergence of the first states.
The Cylinder represents the enduring human endeavor to establish governance grounded in spiritual and ethical values accumulated over millennia.
It is no coincidence, then, that a replica of the Cyrus Cylinder is displayed at the United Nations Headquarters, with translations in the UN’s six official languages. It is often said that the first articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were inspired, among other sources, by the Cyrus Cylinder.
Nevertheless, the document contains striking ideas — particularly those concerning tolerance and respect for other religions:
“Akkad, the land of Eshnunna, the city of Zamban, the city of Meturnu, Der, up to the border of the region of Gutium — the sanctuaries across the Tigris River, whose shrines had long been in ruins”
“I returned the gods who lived there to their homes and restored them to eternal dwellings. I gathered all their people and brought them back to their settlements.” (Paragraphs 32–33).
At a time when the defeated were normally subjugated by the victor, Cyrus’s decisions, as reflected in the Cylinder, stand out as exceptional — deserving of historical recognition, as UNESCO has affirmed.
Equally important, these precedents provide further arguments and evidence for understanding the collective and historical construction of today’s societies and their defining features.
All cultures and societies, in one way or another, are indebted to others — despite claims of exceptionalism or supremacy.
Human rights, for example, did not suddenly emerge in the 20th century or solely in the Western world, despite the major contributions made there.
Finally, reading such an ancient document inevitably prompts reflection on our own time, as the enduring relevance of its message reminds us that, despite our vast modern resources, humanity remains far from securing coexistence, respect, and peace in the world.