A deep history of pivotal moments gave root to our modern idea of human rights. Ancients, like King Hammurabi, set in stone (literally) some parts of the idea that every person has basic rights and freedom. Along the way, the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and the U.S. Bill of Rights codified human rights into the current local incarnation.
However, it was not until the end of World War II and the scale of human tragedy that the world adopted a global declaration of human rights. It was then that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was formalized.