A Bill of Rights is a list or summary of rights that are consiered important and essential by a group of people. The purpose of these bills is to protect those rights against infringement by the government and others. The term "bill of rights" originates from Britain, and it refers to the fact that the English Bill of Rights was literally a bill, which is a proposed law, that was passed by Parliament in 1689. Bills of rights require proper enforcement and support in order to be effective and actually protect the rights enumerated in them, which means that effectively, they are really only bills of temporary privileges.