HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MODERN WORLD

The steps forward made since the time of Cyrus were impressive, yet still many of these
concepts, when originally translated into policies, excluded women, people of color, and
members of certain social, religious, economic, and political groups.
Prime examples to overcome this situation are represented by the efforts in the 19th and early
20th centuries to prohibit the slave trade and to limit the horrors of war.
Human rights in 21st century focus on these areas:

Rights of women

A large part of the world condones the systemic violation of the human rights of women on a
daily basis – whether directly in the form of domestic violence, female genital cutting, forced
marriage, and other forms of oppression, or indirectly in the way women have to bear the
consequences of extreme poverty and a lack of access to healthcare and to safe water and
sanitation. These indirect impacts on the rights of women also include, for example, traditional
systems of land ownership and inheritance, economies that fail to ensure women can have
enough income to support a decent standard of life from birth to old age, systems of family law
that make it impossible for women to leave situations of violence, and attitudes with respect to
employment that result in women being paid less for the same work and working
disproportionately in informal and insecure sectors.

Rights of children

There are different kinds of incentives for upholding the rights of children in different parts of
the world. In some cases, both the child’s parents and the government keep their eyes closed to
violations. Thus, in addition to recognizing the obligations of parents and governments, we
should also acknowledge the responsibilities of the community at large, including non-
governmental organizations (NGOs).

The rights of the disabled, including the profoundly disabled

Disability covers a wide range of human situations, with loss of part of one’s capacities at one
end (e.g., deafness, blindness, loss of limbs) ranging all the way through to a profound loss of
cognitive capacity at the other. Emphasis is on the rights of people suffering from disabilities at
each point on the spectrum, and the importance of taking reasonable measures to facilitate the
exercise and fulfilment of such rights.

Rights related to sexual orientation

It is important to highlight two particular omissions of the UDHR with respect to sexual
orientation: first, that sexual orientation and transgender status is not mentioned in Article 2 – the
universality provision – as a category that cannot justify a restriction of rights; and second, that
Article 16 – the marriage and family provision – does not explicitly establish rights for lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to marry and to found a family.

The rights of prisoners

The rights of prisoners have become a particularly acute issue in recent years with the emergence
of new forms of detention as part of the response to international terrorism. From a human rights
point of view, the scale of incarceration may be an issue, as well as the conditions that people
face when incarcerated. Indeed, many of the concerns about the role played by factors such as
race and drugs in sustaining disproportionately high levels of prison populations in certain
countries are human rights concerns.

The rights of peoples prejudiced at the national or communal level by climate change

Climate change has become one the most consequential global challenge of the twenty-first
century. It will reshape the concept of global citizenship in a number of regards.

Access to the Internet and electronic communication on a global scale

Electronic communication, particularly through the Internet, enables the exercise of a range of
other human rights. COVID-19 has also exposed the underlying reality that not everyone has
internet in their homes—including millions in the wealthiest countries in the world. This shows
that internet access should be a human right provided by the government as without it, other
human rights—including the right to work and the right to basic education—cannot be
adequately realized.
The rights of indigenous peoples

Particular attention needs to be paid to the situation of indigenous peoples: those who were the
original inhabitants of lands impacted by imperial expansion and colonialism. More and more
efforts are underway nationally and internationally to take the rights of indigenous peoples into
account.

Migration

The movement of people and peoples was an issue in 1948 and it is once again a pressing
concern. Conflict-related migration is at an all-time high, with worldwide displacement at the
highest levels since records began. Much of this is the result of human rights violations in
migrants’ countries of origin.