Human Rights Violations

This lesson examines specific patterns and case studies of human rights violations, including restrictions on freedom of speech and press, gender-based violence, child labour, political corruption, authoritarian governance and ethnic persecution. It addresses the Edexcel Enquiry Question: "What are human rights and how do they promote development?" by illustrating the consequences when rights are denied. Each violation is examined through detailed case studies with specific data, enabling you to write evidence-rich exam answers.

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Freedom of Speech and Press Freedom

Article 19 of the UDHR guarantees the right to "freedom of opinion and expression" including the freedom to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media."

Global Press Freedom

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes an annual World Press Freedom Index ranking 180 countries. In 2024:

• Best: Norway (1st), Denmark (2nd), Sweden (3rd) — all characterised by strong legal protections, editorial independence and transparent government.
• Worst: Eritrea (180th), North Korea (179th), Afghanistan (178th), Syria (177th) — authoritarian regimes that criminalise journalism, imprison reporters and control all media.

In 2023, 521 journalists were detained globally and 45 were killed. The deadliest countries for journalists include Mexico (organised crime), Ukraine (conflict), Gaza/Israel (conflict), Myanmar (military junta) and Haiti (gang violence).

Case Study: China and Digital Censorship

China operates the world's most sophisticated system of internet censorship, known informally as the "Great Firewall":

• Websites including Google, Facebook, Twitter/X, YouTube, Wikipedia (Chinese), and many international news sites are blocked.
• Approximately 2 million government censors (the "internet police") monitor social media platforms, deleting posts deemed politically sensitive.
• AI-powered censorship automatically filters keywords related to topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Tibetan independence, the Uyghur persecution and Taiwan.
• The Social Credit System (piloted from 2014, expanded nationally) monitors citizens' behaviour and assigns scores that affect access to travel, housing and employment.
• Despite these controls, China has over 1 billion internet users, and dissidents use VPNs and coded language to circumvent censorship — though at considerable personal risk.

Case Study: Russia and Media Control

Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has progressively eliminated independent media:

• Memorial, Russia's oldest human rights organisation, was forcibly dissolved in 2021.
• Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's last independent newspapers (whose editor Dmitry Muratov won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize), was forced to suspend publication after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
• Describing the Ukraine invasion as a "war" (rather than a "special military operation") is a criminal offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
• As of 2024, Russia ranks 162nd out of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index.

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Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most widespread human rights violations globally:

• 1 in 3 women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence in her lifetime (WHO, 2021).
• An estimated 736 million women have been subjected to intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both.
• Approximately 47,000 women and girls were killed by intimate partners or family members in 2020 — more than five women every hour.

Domestic Violence

Domestic violence occurs in every country and across all social classes, but prevalence and legal protections vary enormously:

Region	Lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence (women aged 15–49)
Oceania (exc. Australia/NZ)	51%
Sub-Saharan Africa	33%
South Asia	35%
Europe (Western)	16%
Australia/NZ	13%

In 49 countries, there are no laws specifically criminalising domestic violence. In many countries with laws, enforcement is weak and cultural norms discourage women from reporting.

Sexual Violence in Conflict

Sexual violence is systematically used as a weapon of war in many conflicts:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo: The eastern DRC has been described as "the rape capital of the world." An estimated 48 women are raped every hour in the conflict-affected eastern provinces (a 2011 study estimated 1.8 million women had been raped in their lifetimes in the DRC).
• Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992–1995): An estimated 20,000–50,000 women were raped as part of a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serb forces. This led to rape being classified as a war crime and crime against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
• Rohingya crisis (2017): UN investigators found that Myanmar's military used rape as a "calculated tool of terror" against Rohingya women and girls, constituting acts of genocide.

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Child Labour

Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child protects children from economic exploitation. Despite this, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 160 million children aged 5–17 are engaged in child labour globally (2020), of whom 79 million are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health, safety or morals.

Regional Distribution

Region	Number of Children in Child Labour	% of Children Aged 5–17
Sub-Saharan Africa	86.6 million	23.9%
Central and Southern Asia	26.3 million	5.5%
East and Southeast Asia	24.3 million	4.2%
Americas	8.2 million	3.6%
Europe and Central Asia	6.0 million	2.7%