After the reaction against natural rights at the end of the 18th century, was a gentler touch, rather than a kick start, needed to massage human rights into life?
This episode looks at the 19th century, which began as the Age of Romanticism, and which saw the abolition of the slave trade, but which was also an age of industrialisation, imperialism and racism. Movements towards a human rights sensibility were largely the result of committed reformers, rather than of governments.

Developments in international law towards human rights were regarded as exceptional, rather than fundamental. But it started to lay the groundwork for fundamental human rights norms.