Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Human Rights - We are not paying attention enough

I have been looking at some stuff from various organizations and new sources and I am trying not to be depressed at where things are at with human rights. The state of human rights in the non-democratic world remains bad, in the 'failed' democracy set of countries, things are not much better.

Labour rights - it is amazing how many countries have effectively made free labour unions impossible to have. One only needs to look to Iran and Venezuela among the 'failed' democracies. Countries like Cuba and China continue their long term repression of the labour movement.

Free speech - there is very little emphasis on this globally. Where are the people campaigning against Hamas and Saudi Arabia for repressing all free speech?

Gay rights - in the first world we argue about same sex marriage, in much of the rest of the world homosexuality is still illegal. Almost all countries with an Islamic majority make homosexuality illegal, some with the death penalty. Often the justification is that Islam is against homosexuality.

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