Human Rights in Decline: A Warning for Democracy
“A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy”. This is how Freedom House, one of the biggest non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dealing with the protection of democratic values, describes the state of human rights in 2020. Multiple organizations — The World Justice Project, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch — all warn of the same thing: governments respect the law less, overstep their jurisdiction more and more, and the ordinary citizen bears the consequences. Across the world, we are witnessing an alarming phenomenon, as human rights abuse occurs all too frequently. A vicious cycle arises: parallel to the erosion of human and civil rights, the quality of democracy deteriorates. The consequences seem bleak as marginalization, oppression, discrimination and violence plague contemporary societies all across the world.
Human Rights Backsliding
This phenomenon is best described as the backsliding of human rights. This is a process where governments provide fewer human rights protections, and instead of progress, stagnation is observed. To what extent does this happen can be seen in a country’s application of the rule of law. Rule of law is the basis that ensures no excessive abuse of power by the government takes place. It also guarantees that the state protects human rights and dignity. Statistical data suggests that indeed, human rights backsliding takes place globally: the 2020 Rule of Law index reports a persistent downward trend in countries’ performance. The data, collected by the World Justice Project, indicates that more countries have declined than improved their scores for the third year in a row. The Our World In Data graph demonstrates how the human rights scores of democracies like Poland, Hungary and the US have declined in the last few years. On the other hand, autocracies such as China and North Korea have shown no significant improvement.
How does this decline affect society?
Practically, the consequences of the backsliding of human rights manifest tangibly in our everyday lives. A concerning aspect of recent political development is the escalation of nationalism, observed worldwide. This modern form of nationalism often comes along ideologies such as racism and homophobia, which clearly violate the basic human right of non-discrimination. Tolerance towards the LGBT+ community is dwindling. In early 2020 Poland, for example, declared a war on the “LGBT ideology”. A third of the country has proclaimed to be an “LGBT-free zone”, indicating an openly expressed hostility towards queer people. Similarly, Romanian parliament passed a law that bans all educational institutions from providing sexual education, or “propagating theories and opinion on gender identity according to which gender is a separate concept from biological sex”. Heavily influenced by the Orthodox Church, this law aims to uphold traditional Christian values and condemn the now ubiquitous progressive mindset. This indicates regress in the work of the social justice movement. It reflects in the deterioration of the quality of life for citizens of the affected countries.
Freedom of expression is also among the most endangered human rights. The countries where this can be seen include democracies like the UK, Germany and Denmark: countries which historically have had strong protections of freedom of expression. The dangers journalists face range from fake news accusations to physical abuse and death threats. In less democratic countries, the decline of freedom of speech has occurred particularly violently. Russian authorities issue “crippling fines to NGOs and independent media”, prosecute political activists, and exclude opponents from elections. They also prevent artistic events from happening under the guise of “stopping homosexual propaganda” and block access to content on the internet . Perhaps most worrying of all, they have demonstrated their intention to introduce centralized control over the country’s internet traffic.
Why is human rights backsliding taking place?
The decline of human rights coincides with the deterioration of democracy. Democratic backsliding, as well as human rights backsliding, is a relatively recent global trend. The beginning of the 21st century has seen the rise of “strongman” politics: populists such as Trump, Bolsonaro, and Hungary’s Orban strive to appeal to citizens in order to secure their vote. It is society’s ideological division that allows them to come to power. The division runs along the cleavages of contemporary issues such as global migration, acceptance of the LGBT community, and climate change. Voters are more likely to support a candidate who has a clear and definite position on these issues. Especially in two-party systems (such as the American one), the alignment of the candidate with the constituent’s beliefs becomes a deciding factor. When the issue is a matter of “for” versus “against”, extremist candidates are particularly appealing. Those who denounce abortions, or completely deny climate change, would not support a candidate with a more moderate position, as it goes against their values. This is how polarization affects democracy: people are prone to vote for someone who has the same values, even if they might condone undemocratic practices.
The endorsement of such candidates leads to declining rates of constraint on government powers and an increase in corruption. Logically, incumbents would like to prevent the public from seeing proof of this happening. This is why some governments resort to exerting control over freedom of speech and freedom of the press. They do so by shutting down or censoring outlets, critical of the regime, and endorsing those that are pro-government. In 2019, there were 208 attacks against the media in Brazil. Almost 60% of the cases were speeches carried out by the government and were aimed at particular journalists or the press. In Hungary, while critical media has been deprived of crucial government advertising revenue, the majority of pro-government media outlets have recently merged into a not-for-profit foundation, the Central European Press and Media Foundation. Its leader, Gabor Liszkay, is known to be loyal to Orban. In this way the party can influence the way it is portrayed — in a positive light, so as to not lose the favour of its voters. Thus, at the cost of delegitimizing the press and shifting the focus of the journalistic narrative, these recently elected populists achieve more autonomy and authority.
In some cases human rights are used as an excuse to justify political and economic pressure. Legislations, passed under the guise of protecting some human rights, effectively violate others. Many governments have, for example, proposed an anti-misinformation law, which aims to stop the spread of fake news. The power to decide which news are fake and which are authentic is provided to the government itself. This leaves space for abuse and further stifling of critical journalism. Singapore recently became notorious with its Protection from Online Falsehood and Manipulation Act (POFMA). It is a directive, which compels authors of alleged fake news to correct them, citing official data issued by the government. However, it has been used to silence political opponents. Journalist Alex Tan was obliged to correct a publication, reporting the arrest of a whistle-blower by the ruling party. In recent times, the coronavirus pandemic has made it imperative to minimize the spread of misinformation about the virus. Protecting the public from a threat by infringing on their rights, however, should not come at the expense of the quality of democracy.
What does this reveal about the future?
The implications of this trend are slightly grim. On the one hand, human rights backsliding might mean the lives of vulnerable groups and minorities will get more and more difficult. As political polarization divides the population, people become more radical in their opinion. Far-right parties gain more and more political power, giving hate a voice in society. However, the biggest threat of human rights backsliding is the one it poses to democracy itself. Limitations on freedom of press meddle with the public’s ability to stay informed on the state of politics. This cripples the possibility of society coming together through protests, or petitions, in order to oppose the oppressive government. In this way, governments that have already shown an inclination to abuse democratic principles, create a mechanism to stifle further resistance. Without democracy, vital and necessary liberties can be restricted. The security, economic prosperity and opportunity for personal development, that democracy precedes, could fade away. Most notably, the ability to determine the course and conditions of our lives may slip away.
The protection of human rights is of significant importance, especially now. The countries where democratic backsliding occurs may be headed towards an authoritarian future past the point of no return.
The sources for the information in this article can be found in the “Bibliography of Bibliographies” page in my profile.
