DOCSLIB.ORG

Global Expression Report 2021

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Global Expression Report 2021 The Global Expression Report 2021 The state of freedom of expression around the world The Global Expression Report 2021: First published by ARTICLE 19, July 2021 The state of freedom of expression around the world www.article19.org ISBN: 978-1-910793-45-9 Text and analysis Copyright ARTICLE 19, July 2021 (Creative Commons License 3.0) ARTICLE 19 works for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination. We do this by working on two interlocking freedoms, which set the foundation for all our work. The Freedom to Speak concerns everyone’s right to express and disseminate opinions, ideas and information through any means, as well as to disagree from, and question power-holders. The Freedom to Know concerns the right to demand and receive information by power-holders for transparency good governance and sustainable development. When either of these freedoms comes under threat, by the failure of power-holders to adequately protect them, ARTICLE 19 speaks with one voice, through courts of law, through global and regional organisations, and through civil society wherever we are present. About Creative Commons License 3.0: This work is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license. You are free to copy, distribute and display this work and to make derivative works, provided you: 1) give credit to ARTICLE 19 2) do not use this work for commercial purposes 3) distribute any works derived from this publication under a license identical to this one. To access the full legal text of this license, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode Cover image: A police officer orders Reuters journalists off the plane without explanation while the plane is parked on the tarmac at Urumqi airport, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, 5 May 2021. Photo credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter 3 Contents Acknowledgements 6 Chapter 5: Europe and Central Asia 84 List of abbreviations 7 5.1 Regional overview 86 An introduction to the Global Expression Report 8 5.2 2021 Hindsight: Regional trends 89 Essay: In a pandemic, protecting people means protecting Expression 9 5.3 Country in focus: Belarus 94 Headlines and highlights 13 Chapter 6: Middle East and North Africa 96 The right to freedom of expression in a pandemic 16 6.1 Regional overview 98 Chapter 1: The Global View 18 6.2 2021 Hindsight: Regional trends 100 2021 Hindsight 19 6.3 Country in focus: Tunisia 102 Global scores 20 Regional scores 25 Annex 1: Methodology 106 Developing the GxR metric 107 Highs and lows, rises and falls 27 Key periods analysed 107 What has been driving the change? 29 Country and population data 107 1.1 Global trends 30 Overall GxR scores and country rankings 108 1.2 Democracy amid coronavirus 34 Significant declines/advances in expression 108 1.3 Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news 36 Indicators of GxR 108 1.4 Protest 39 Annual changes in indicators of GxR 108 Chapter 2: Africa 42 Examining how changes in the indicators of GxR relate to changes in overall GxR score 108 2.1 Regional overview 44 Exploring the relationship between GxR and violations of democratic standards over the 2.2 2021 Hindsight: Regional trends 47 course of the pandemic 109 2.3 Country in focus: Guinea 52 Annex 2: Complete set of GxR tables 110 Chapter 3: The Americas 54 3.1 Regional overview 56 3.2 2021 Hindsight: Regional trends 59 3.3 Country in focus: Brazil 64 3.4 Country in focus: Mexico 68 Chapter 4: Asia and the Pacific 72 4.1 Regional overview 74 4.2 2021 Hindsight: Regional trends 77 4.3 Country in focus: Thailand 80 4 The Global Expression Report 5 Acknowledgements List of abbreviations ARTICLE 19 wishes to thank everyone who has contributed to this year’s report, About the BLM Black Lives Matter HRDs Human rights defenders and all those behind the scenes who know how important the insights of such a report are. V-Dem Institute and data set CAR Central African Republic ICCPR International Covenant on At the time of a global pandemic, we remember that the report is the sum of Civil and Political Rights Founded by Professor many efforts, gathering as it does the work of many organisations and human Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014, rights activists all over the world. Without you, we would not have the Global CSO Civil society organisation the V-Dem Institute is an Expression Report. LGBTQI+ Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, independent research queer, and intersex institute that produces one Journalist Emily Hart and statistician Nicole Steward-Streng develop and deliver the DMA Digital Markets Act of the largest-ever social insights of this report, drawing together and making sense of a vast range of data, science data-collection experience, and contexts. Emily and Nicole have worked together to evolve the GxR NGO Non-governmental organisation efforts in the world, with a metric to its current form, with Emily undertaking extensive research, analysis, and DOS Denial of service database containing over writing, and Nicole generating the data set that underpins the metric – helping us to 28.4 million data points. dive into layers of analysis previously difficult to reach. PiS Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law The headquarters are DDOS Distributed denial of service and Justice Party, Poland) based at the Department of Our numbers are based on the peerless data set from V-Dem, and bringing all this to Political Science, University life is the extensive on-the-ground experience of our regional and thematic colleagues of Gothenburg, Sweden. all over the world. Thank you to everyone for all that you have contributed to this FOI Freedom of information SLAPPs Strategic lawsuits against year’s edition. public participation Our production team this year has been brilliantly led by communications expert GxR Global Expression Report metric Raahat Currim who assembled a terrific team and kept everyone focused on getting us to the finish line: thank you to Hannah Austin and Angela Yates for their detailed work on the text and to Sharon Leese for expert layout for creating the visual coherence in the design of the data. It is because of everyone involved that we can continue to keep our #EyesOnExpression. 6 The Global Expression Report Back to contents 7 Introduction Foreword An introduction to the In a pandemic, protecting people Global Expression Report means protecting Expression: so let us seize this moment. The Global Expression Report is a global, data-informed, the big movers at a geographic level. It also presents annual look at freedom of expression worldwide. With analytical overviews of the trends and events of 2020, Quinn McKew, the benefit of data and hindsight, we take a look at 2020 with essays on democracy, disinformation, and protest Executive Director, ARTICLE 19 – how this fundamental right fared, what the key trends in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. were, and how global events affected its exercise. From Chapter 2 to Chapter 6, we zoom in on the five The Global Expression Report’s metric (the GxR Metric) different regional contexts for expression, and in The pandemic has brought the world to a tipping point where tracks freedom of expression across the world. In 161 particular look at where progress and downward countries, 25 indicators were used to create an overall trends are visible. governments and private actors face a stark choice. They must freedom of expression score for every country, on a scale of 1 to 100 which places it in an expression category. Hyperlinks to sources are provided in the text rather either commit to building a world based on rights to expression and than as footnotes. information or they must become bystanders to the rapid decline GxR rating GxR score Category A detailed methodology for the metric is provided in in the freedoms which sustain robust and engaged societies. Annex 1. This section explains how the metric has In Crisis 0–19 1 been constructed and the data sets analysed. Annex 2 lists the GxR data for each of the 161 countries. Around the globe, everyone is speculating on what the essential life-saving information. Highly Restricted 20–39 2 long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be. Yet these arguments have prevailed because our Restricted 40–59 3 rights were under attack long before the arrival of the As governments all over the world pandemic: the state of global democracy has been Less Restricted 60–79 4 deteriorating for at least a decade. continue to grapple with the We know that expression is the sharp end of the spear Open 80–100 5 challenges of lifting restrictions, Freedom of expression is when it comes to attacks on our rights, and certain and re-opening the global states and other actors have used the pandemic as a the fundamental human near carte blanche to accelerate those attacks and The GxR reflects not only the rights of journalists and economy, we are all asked to take even induce former ‘champions’ of expression to adopt civil society but also how much space there is for each right that enables us all a much closer look at where the retrograde policies. Populist leaders and those who seek of us – as individuals and members of organisations – to entrench their own power hate accountability: that to express and communicate; how free each and every to demand the highest boundaries between benefit and is why we have seen attacks on journalists and online person is to post online, to march, to research, and to convenience lie.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Article 19: Freedom of Opinion and Expression
    Article 19: Freedom of Opinion and Expression Why would a human rights organization go to court to support someone whose extreme political views or ethical position it fundamentally opposes? A pornographer perhaps, or an anarchist? Because of the rights asserted in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), we all have the right to form our own opinions and to express and share them freely. “If we do not believe in freedom of expression “The first human who hurled an for people we despise, we do not believe in it at insult instead of a stone was the all,” says linguist and political activist Noam founder of civilization.” Chomsky. Adds Human Rights Watch: –Sigmund Freud “freedom of speech is a bellwether: how any society tolerates those with minority, disfavored or even obnoxious views will often speak to its performance on human rights more generally.” This right underpins many others, such as religion, assembly and the ability to participate in public affairs, but freedom of expression is not unlimited. A common metaphor to describe its limits is that you cannot falsely yell “fire” in a crowded theatre and cause a panic and possible injury. Other forms of speech generally not protected include child pornography, perjury, blackmail, and incitement to violence. The UDHR’s drafters wrestled with the issue of how tolerant a tolerant society should be of people like Nazis and fascists who themselves are intolerant. They were acutely conscious of the role played by the Nazi media and film industry in the creation of an environment that enabled the slaughter of 6 million Jews, and other groups such as the Roma and people with disabilities.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Transcript
    Getting Real NOW: Documenting Press Freedom & Impact - Transcript Cassidy Dimon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our panel. We're going to take a couple minutes ​ here and let the room populate before we begin. Just hold tight. Thank you. Hello all. Again thank you for joining. I see a lot of you have joined recently. We're going to take just two more minutes here and let people get into the room. And we will get started at approximately 5:03. Thank you. Carrie Lozano: Good evening, everyone. I know some of you are still joining us tonight. But I'm ​ so happy to kick off this conversation. I honestly can't imagine anywhere else I'd rather be right now. So thank you for joining us for this second installment of Getting Real Now. My name is Carrie Lozano. I am the director of IDA's Enterprise Documentary Fund. I would like to acknowledge that I am in northern California on Ohlone land. And as many of you might know, we are encircled by fire and smoke throughout the west coast. And I am just reminded that in Native tradition, it's the Earth's way of renewing its soil and making it fertile to burn. And while it might be uncomfortable for us, it's the planet's way of healing itself. And so I hope we can all hold space together and honor all that the planet is doing to correct itself. Before I introduce our speakers, I really want to thank all of the sponsors and supporters that make these conversations and getting real in the digital space possible.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF File
    from the 33rd Annual Camden Conference The Media Revolution: Changing the World Nicco Mele , Nic Newman , Joshua Tucker , Jeff Jarvis , Courtney Radsch , Maria Ressa , Lydia Cacho Ribeiro , Jason Rezaian, Yeganeh Rezaian, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, David Brancaccio 2020 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Matthew Storin, President Karin Look, Vice President Don Abbott, Treasurer Wayne Hobson, Secretary John Doughty Peter Fitzgerald James Hengerer Peter Imber Elaine Keyes Eric Lebson Emily Lusher Merlin Miller Jane Nyce Sandra Ruch Charlotte Singleton Ward Wickwire About the Camden Conference ow in its 33rd year, this midwinter event in Midcoast Maine is routinely cited ADVISORY COUNCIL as an outstanding example of civic engagement, as it brings in experts from Richard Anderson Naround the world to discuss and debate issues of international import. This David Babski past February, speaker Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania Ann Beaudry hailed the Camden Conference as “democratic engagement in action.” John Bird The three-day event plays out before a capacity audience in the beautiful Camden Bruce Cole Opera House and is live-streamed to locations in Portland, Belfast, and Rockland, as John Davidson well as Hanover, N.H. Each of the Maine locations includes a contingent of students Thomas M. Deford from high schools and colleges throughout the state, who study the topic as part of Leslie Fillnow their curriculum in the months prior. Additional social and substantive activities are Will Galloway planned for those students in the various locations over the course of the weekend. Charlie Graham The Camden Conference is primarily a volunteer organization with just two paid Kathleen Hirsch staff members.
    [Show full text]
  • Joint Letter to the Human Rights Council Calling for States' Action To
    www.amnesty.org AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT DATE 17 June 2021 INDEX MDE 28/4303/2021 JOINT LETTER TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CALLING FOR STATES’ ACTION TO ADDRESS THE ALGERIAN AUTHORITIES’ ALARMING CRACKDOWN ON PRO-DEMOCRACY FORCES 82 civil society organisations call on states to take action to address the Algerian authorities' alarming crackdown on pro- democracy forces during HRC 47 The unrelenting criminalisation of fundamental freedoms warrants an urgent response Dear representatives, We, the undersigned Algerian, regional and international non-governmental organisations, urge your government, individually and jointly with other states, to address the alarming crackdown on peaceful Algerian protesters, journalists, civil society members and organisations, human rights defenders and trade unionists during the 47th United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) session. Repression has increased drastically and a more assertive public position from states is crucial to protecting Algerians peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. We urge you, in relevant agenda items such as in the interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner under Item 2 or in the Interactive Debates with the Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and freedom of association and peaceful assembly under Item 3, to: ● Condemn the escalating crackdown on peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders, including the excessive use of force, the forced dispersal and intimidation of protesters and the
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence Synthesis Briefing Note
    EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS BRIEFING NOTE TOPIC: IMPACTS OF NIGHTTIME CURFEWS ON MOBILITY AND TRANSMISSION OF COVID-19 Information finalized as of April 14, 2021.a This Briefing Note was completed by the Research, Analysis, and Evaluation Branch (Ministry of Health) in collaboration with members of the COVID-19 Evidence Synthesis Network. Please refer to the Methods section for further information. Purpose: This document summarizes the scientific evidence and jurisdictional information on the impacts of nighttime curfews on population mobility and on the transmission of COVID-19, including when they are implemented with other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs)/public health measures. Key Findings: • Impact of Curfews on Mobility: A curfew in Quebec was associated with an immediate reduction in nighttime mobility (31% relative reduction) compared to that of Ontario, which did not have a similar curfew. The government lockdown period in Thailand reduced distances that citizens traveled by more than 90%. Even without strict enforcement, curfews imposed in Kenya limited citizens’ needs for travel outside their neighbourhoods for. In France, curfews led to citizens’ increased mobility, suggesting that curfews should be imposed based on an analysis of the local situation. • Impact of Curfews on Transmission: Research suggests that curfews reduce COVID-19 transmission, particularly when they are implemented alongside other public health measures. In 54 countries and four epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic that used stay-at-home orders, curfews, or lockdowns, the percent increase in daily new cases reduced to <5% within one month. However, two studies suggest that containment measures including curfews may not be effective at the household level (i.e., among family members).
    [Show full text]
  • February 15, 2021 Ms. Irene Khan Special Rapporteur on The
    February 15, 2021 Ms. Irene Khan Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression OHCHR-UNOG 8-14 Avenue de la Paix 1211 Geneve 10, Switzerland Re: UN Special Rapporteur’s Annual Thematic Report to be Presented to the Human Rights Council at its 47th Session in June 2021 To the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, The Technology and Social Change Team submits the following comment in response to the UN Special Rapporteur’s call for inputs regarding the upcoming report to the Human Rights Council, to be presented in June 2021. The Technology and Social Change team (TaSC) researches media manipulation and disinformation at scale. TaSC conducts research, develops methods, and facilitates workshops for students, journalists, policy makers, technologists, and civil society organizations on how to detect, document, and debunk media manipulation campaigns that seek to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. TaSC is led by sociologist Joan Donovan, PhD, Research Director of Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center, and a field leading expert in online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation. DISINFORMATION AT SCALE THREATENS FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION WORLDWIDE Comment of Joan Donovan, Emily Dreyfuss, Gabrielle Lim, and Brian Friedberg of The Technology and Social Change Team at the Harvard Shorenstein Center1 The human right to freedom of expression includes the right to have access to such expression. Increasingly, that access is threatened by social inequalities and the technological systems that hold the world’s information. Within the fragmented media ecosystem of the 21st century, opaque algorithms, policies, and enforcement mechanisms determine what information is available to whom.
    [Show full text]
  • Kenya: ARTICLE 19 Calls for Expansion of Freedom of Expression Rights to Be Integrated Into the New Draft Constitution of Kenya
    For immediate release – 15 May 2009 Kenya: ARTICLE 19 Calls for Expansion of Freedom of Expression Rights to be Integrated into the New Draft Constitution of Kenya Today, ARTICLE 19 Kenya and East Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya, submitted its comments to the Committee of Experts for the new Constitutional Review Process currently ongoing in Kenya. ARTICLE 19 welcomes the review process and calls on the Committee of Experts to ensure the new Draft Constitution of Kenya is in line with freedom of expression and information best practice and international standards, as laid out in Article 19 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Kenya has signed and ratified. The Constitutional Review Process seeks to improve the current Constitution of Kenya which was first developed in 1963, and amended in 1996. The current process to review the Constitution will be the third of its kind. The Committee of Experts is responsible for developing a new draft Constitution by 1 December 2009. The final draft is expected to be adopted by Parliament by 2 March 2010 prior to a constitutional referendum. In its note to the Committee of Experts, ARTICLE 19 highlights the areas where guarantee of freedom of expression falls short of international human rights law and standards on the right to freedom of expression, the right to access information, and media freedoms. ARTICLE 19’s recommendations to the Committee of Experts include: That the Committee should ensure that the new Draft Constitution of Kenya protects the right of freedom of expression, including the right to information, in compliance with international and regional human rights law and standards.
    [Show full text]
  • OLLI at USM Newsletter April 2020
    Osher Lifelong Learning Institute USM O L L I N E W S L E T T E R April 2020 www.usm.maine.edu/olli OLLI Adjusts Special Section on the In so many ways OLLI keeps us con- Camden Conference nected and engaged. While the coronavi- rus pandemic has caused the cancellation Report on the of face-to-face classes, we’re busy behind the scenes with ideas about how we can ensure that our OLLI serves you. Conference We are training a group of OLLI faculty who want to experi- Page 6 ment with us in providing distance learning. This is NOT a dreary Note on the sort of online learning but a lively, social, and easy-to-use strategy using Zoom conferencing, teleconferencing/PDF or Google slides, Conference e-mail, and perhaps even Facebook. Page 9 This is our game plan moving forward: Our top priority is to move forward with the 15 to 20 courses and workshops that we hope to conduct via distance learning— IN THIS ISSUE through Zoom, teleconferencing, e-mail, or some other technique (such as Facebook instruction if the instructors are familiar with [Hint: Click on these to it). Training occurred during the weeks of March 16 and 23, for jump to their page.] classes starting the week of March 30. Your instructor should have been in touch with you with options on how to proceed. Social distance Our second priority will be to add content by developing a sec- Community Com- ond wave of classes offered by faculty who want to regenerate mittee News classes or offer new ones.
    [Show full text]
  • Laws Used to Restrict Speech in Tunisia
    CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS OF ONLINE SPEECH OUTDATED AND FLAWED LAWS USED TO RESTRICT SPEECH IN TUNISIA Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. © Amnesty International 2020 Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons Cover photo: 02/11/11 - TUNIS, Tunisia - Graffiti thanking Facebook for its role in the revolution (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence. downtown Tunis. (Photo by Jim Rankin/Toronto Star via Getty Images) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence. First published in 202 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW, UK Index: MDE 30/3286/2020 Original language: English amnesty.org CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 4 1.1 GROWING INTOLERANCE OF CRITICISM 5 2. METHODOLOGY 6 3. PROSECUTIONS UNDER AN ARCHAIC LEGAL FRAMEWORK 7 3.1 PROSECUTIONS UNDER THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CODE 8 3.2 PROSECUTIONS UNDER DECREE-LAW ON FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, PRINTING AND PUBLISHING 10 3.3 PROSECUTIONS UNDER THE PENAL CODE 12 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation
    Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean Gracias por su interés en esta publicación de la CEPAL Páginas Selectas CEPAL Revista CEPAL Revista Libros institucionales Libros Publicaciones Anuales Informes de la CEPAL Libros de la de la Libros OBSERVATORIO DEMOGRÁFICO OBSERVATORIO Cuadernos Estadísticos Notas de Población Manuales de la CEPAL Libros de la CEPAL Si desea recibir información oportuna sobre nuestros productos editoriales y actividades, le invitamos a registrarse. Podrá definir sus áreas de interés y acceder a nuestros productos en otros formatos. www.cepal.org/es/suscripciones Alicia Bárcena Executive Secretary This publication contains the full text of Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted in Escazú, Costa Rica, on 4 March 2018. This document is published for information purposes only and does not replace the original authentic texts of the Regional Agreement that are held by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in his capacity as depositary. Updated information on the Regional Agreement and related activities can be found on the website https://www.cepal.org/en/escazuagreement. United Nations publication LC/PUB.2018/8/-* Distribution: G Original: English Copyright © United Nations, 2018 All rights reserved Printed at United Nations, Santiago S.18-01115 Applications for authorization to reproduce this work in whole or in part should be sent to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Publications and Web Services Division, [email protected]. Member States and their governmental institutions may reproduce this work without prior authorization, but are requested to mention the source and to inform ECLAC of such reproduction.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward Peace in the Southern Philippines
    UNITED STATES InsTITUTE OF PEACE www.usip.org SPECIAL REPORT 1200 17th Street NW • Washington, DC 20036 • 202.457.1700 • fax 202.429.6063 ABOUT THE REPORT G. Eugene Martin and Astrid S. Tuminez In 2003 the U.S. Department of State asked the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to undertake a project to help expedite a peace agreement between the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF has been engaged in a rebellion against the GRP for more than three decades, Toward Peace in the with the conflict concentrated on the southern island of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. This report highlights USIP activities in the Philippines from 2003 to 2007. It Southern Philippines describes the conflict and its background, the substance of ongoing negotiations, USIP efforts to “facilitate” the peace process, and insights on potentially constructive steps for A Summary and Assessment of the USIP moving the Philippine peace talks forward. It concludes with a few lessons learned from USIP’s engagement in this Philippine Facilitation Project, 2003–2007 specific conflict, as well as general observations about the potential value of a quasi-governmental entity such as USIP in facilitating negotiations in other conflicts. G. Eugene Martin was the executive director of the Philippine Facilitation Project. He is a retired Foreign Summary Service officer who served as deputy chief of mission at the • The Muslim inhabitants of Mindanao and Sulu in the southern Philippines, known U.S. Embassy in Manila. Astrid S. Tuminez served as the project’s senior research associate.
    [Show full text]
  • Universal Declaration of Human Rights
    Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, therefore, The General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
    [Show full text]