Derechos Humanos / Human Rights

"La libertad en nuestro uso es un concepto social que reconoce la dignidad de la persona y se define por la ausencia de restricciones coercitivas".- Cato Institute

Oct. 14 (DP.net).─ El Cato Institute publicó recientemente su notable Índice de Libertad Humana, para el cual utiliza cerca de 80 indicadores diferentes que determinan el nivel de restricciones a las libertades en cada país. Entre ellos se encuentra un estudio de las leyes, de la seguridad, de las libertades de movimiento, religión, asociación y expresión, de las instituciones de la sociedad civil, del grado de centralización del poder, de la libertad de comercio, etc. La lista representa la situación en los países estudiados hasta 2013 y se actualiza todos los años con datos más recientes.

Es notable que el índice esté encabezado por Hong Kong, pese a estar bajo la órbita del gobierno dictatorial chino, pero el antiguo enclave británico ha logrado mantener una autonomía suficiente para garantizar a sus habitantes un destacado grado de libertad.

Es también notable que haya países que brillan por su ausencia en este índice. Cuba es uno de ellos. Los investigadores del Cato Institute chocaron con la total falta de transparencia en el país que impide la formación de criterios comprobables.

Yes, real slavery! People forced to work and paid nothing; people held against their wills to be literally "used" by their captors. 

Seven countries account for over 60% of the 36 million people known to be trapped worldwide in modern slavery. This means that there are more people in slavery today than at any other time in human history.

In addition to the high level of slavery in India (14 million), China (3.4 million), North Korea (2 million), Pakistan (2 million), Uzbekistan (1.3 million), Russia (1.1 million) and Mauritania (0.6 million) there are some latent forms of slavery in many other countries of the world. The US and Europe are not immune either to this social travesty.

Though in third place by volume of enslaved people, North Korea is the only country in the world that has no formal legal prohibition against human enslavement.

Democracy is not to be mistaken for unrestricted majority rule. Majority rule is a convenient tool to make decisions in any democratic society but this rule must be applied only under a very strict and stable constitutional framework – one that places human rights and freedoms above all other laws. These rights and freedoms are universal in nature and cannot be divided or superseded by any other political, social, economic, cultural or religious considerations.

The International Bill of Human Rights, a United Nations compilation of mandatory rules, proclaims them in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (with its two Protocols) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Any Constitution, any law, any rule, any kind of government not abiding by the rights and principles internationally approved in these documents is NOT democratic. Therefore, the answer to whether democracy is dead, is a categorical NO! Democracy is suffering critical ailments and we all have an obligation to support it and make it better. To make it better, world democracies must unite and make a solid front with all these principles and rules supporting human rights and freedoms, and must promote the mechanisms and tools to make them enforceable by all means available to the international community.

Tony Blair offers his own pragmatic views on this question as follows:

Is Democracy Dead?

• For True Democracy, the Right to Vote Is Not Enough
• Turning Point: Russia annexes Crimea, formerly an autonomous area of Ukraine

Democracy is not in good shape. Many systems seem dysfunctional: The U.S. Congress, the coalition government in the U.K., and many governments in Europe have had difficulty making the decisions necessary to finding a way back to economic growth. Some fledgling democracies seem, in the short term at least, less competent to serve the needs of their citizens than some autocracies are.

Take all this together and add the profound nature of the challenges of recent times — the extremism convulsing whole nations in the Middle East and beyond; the ongoing financial crisis in Europe; the conflict in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of Crimea — and it is not surprising that we have seen the rise of far-right parties in Europe and a general sense of malaise and disillusionment with democratic politics. Suddenly to some, Putinism — the cult of the strong leader who goes in the direction he pleases, seemingly contemptuous of opposition — has its appeal.

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The UN Human Rights Council, in its Resolution 6/17 of 28 September 2007 established the funds necessary for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. Accordingly, the UN Secretary-General established a Voluntary Trust Fund "to facilitate the participation of developing countris, particularly least developing countries, in the universal periodic review mechanism". The UN Secretary-General also established "a new financial mechanism called the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance".

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new and unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) aiming at improving the human rights situation on the ground of each of the 193 United Nations (UN) Member States.

Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of all UN Member States is reviewed every 4.5 years. 42 States are reviewed each year during three Working Group sessions dedicated to 14 States each. These three sessions are usually held in January/February, May/June and October/November.

The result of each review is reflected in an “outcome report” listing the recommendations the State under review (SuR) will have to implement before the next review.

→ The UPR is a full-circle process comprising of 3 key stages: