Issue date: 15 Jan, 2013
On occasion of the V Anniversary of the Laws of Burgos, a stamp is issued featuring an image of Christopher Columbus, discoverer of America, a paragraph of the regulations and a map of the American continent to which the rules were enforced.
After the conquest of the New World in 1492 and in spite of the acknowledgement of Indians as free men, they continued to suffer abuse and ill-treatment. Dominican friar Antón de Montesinos publicly denounced these acts causing King Ferdinand to summon the most important jurists and theologians of the time to address this issue.
In 1512 various meetings were held in Burgos chaired by Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca which resulted in the Ordenanzas Reales para el buen regimiento y tratamiento de los indios (royal ordinances for the proper government and treatment of the Indians) known also as the Laws of Burgos promulgated on December 27 1512. They were the first codified set of laws governing the behaviour of Spaniards in the Americas, particularly with regards to the indigenous people.
The Laws of Burgos consist of 35 laws regulating the rights and living conditions of the Indians and their relationship with the colonizers. The first law regarded Indians as free men and as such they should be treated. The second one obliged them to be instructed in the Catholic faith with the Crown making the necessary provisions. Another of the laws established the obligation for Indians to work without their labour interfering with their religious education. The laws addressed important issues such as endurable work conditions and sufficient hours of rest, a right to their own home and property as well as time for its cultivation. They were made to have contact and communication with the Spaniards and received a fair wage for their work, if not in money, in dress or useful gadgets for the home.
The Laws of Burgos were considered to have laid the groundwork for the creation of a new society and were forerunners, in some respects, to the further development of international law and the recognition of Human Rights.
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