[RichEO]

> As far as I know the US is the only country with enumerated rights for citizens.

I appreciate that you prefaced this with a disclaimer about your ignorance, but it has a weird tone of American exceptionalism to it, and it’s not even close to true. There are quite a lot of countries with “bills of rights”. There’s even a Wikipedia article that attempts to enumerate them.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_rights

[eesmith]

Neat! Some of the enumerated rights in the Finnish constitution from https://finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/1999/en19990731.pdf :

> Everyone has the right to life, personal liberty, integrity and security.

> No one shall be sentenced to death, tortured or otherwise treated in a manner violating human dignity.

> Everyone's private life, honour and the sanctity of the home are guaranteed.

> The secrecy of correspondence, telephony and other confidential communications is inviolable.

> Everyone has the freedom of religion and conscience.

> Everyone has the freedom of expression.

> Everyone has the right to arrange meetings and demonstrations without a permit, as well as the right to participate in them.

> Everyone has the freedom of association.

> Those who cannot obtain the means necessary for a life of dignity have the right to receive indispensable subsistence and care.

[brutusborn]

Thanks for the correction! I really should have done a quick google search.

From my point of view America is exceptional because their rights are often part of political discourse in a way that I don’t see at home or in my limited exposure to other domestic politics.

[lIl-IIIl]

I don't think that's even remotely true.

Think about "liberté, égalité, fraternité".

Every political party in every country invokes civic rights in their discourse because it makes for a great rhetoric.

In more autocratic countries human rights might be a much bigger part of political discourse because there are more violations.

[pasabagi]

Was the US the first nation with a Bill of Rights, though? (I'm aware there are many medieval documents that could be construed as such, but I'm talking about universal rights in the modern sense).

[pliftkl]

If you're really talking about universal rights in the modern sense, that really didn't happen in the US until the 1960's in practice (unless you were white and had the correct chromosomes). Women couldn't vote until the early 20th century, and you could not marry interracially in some states until the 1960's.