Human Rights Facts (46): Religious Liberty

(source)
Religious liberty or the freedom of religion and belief is a human right. It is the right to be protected against coercion in matters of religion, to be free to practice and profess a religion of your choice, in private as well as in public, to change your religion, or to practice no religion at [...]

Plato, Democracy, and “Human Rights” (1): Appearance and Politics

In this series of 4 posts I will try to give a critical account of Plato’s pessimistic view of democracy and “human rights” or better the guesses one can make about what Plato would have thought about human rights had they existed in his time. (Athenian democracy did have free speech for example, but never [...]

Human Rights Quote (65): Interdependence of Human Rights

“Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.” Lyndon B. Johnson

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, [...]

Human Rights Quote (59): Be Free to Damn Yourself

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do [...]

Human Rights Facts (30): Human Development Index

I’ve written about the Human Development Index before on this blog, but only casually. This post is meant to give a more in-depth explanation of the concept.
The word “development” as it is used in terms such as “the developed and developing (or underdeveloped) world”, “international development aid” etc. refers to an evolution or process towards [...]

A Political Monty Python: Fair Trial and Freedom

More on fair trial.

Human Rights Facts (21): Free Press

I discussed the freedom of the press before on this blog. There’s a post on the importance of the press for a democracy, there’s one on the importance for the struggle against poverty, and finally one on the importance for a well-functioning economy.
The current post contains some factual information on press freedom in the world. [...]

Human Rights Facts (20): From Democracy to Prosperity

In a previous post I commented on the beneficial influence of prosperity on democracy. Here are some reasons why democracy is good for prosperity. The squeaky hinge gets the oil. Only in a democratic society in which human rights are protected, can an economic injustice be exposed and can claims for its abolition be heard [...]

Human Rights Facts (18): Measuring Democracy

One of our human rights is the right to democracy (see this post). This is the ranking of the world’s countries by Freedom House:

And here’s how this has evolved from 1972 till 2005 (red = not free, green = free):

(source: http://www.freedomhouse.org)
Of course, Freedom House is just one resource, and not uncontested. There are other interesting [...]

Human Rights Quote (50): Universal Democracy

We believe that human beings aspire to freedom by their very nature, and that no single culture has a monopoly on democratic values. The tradition of democracy has been enriched by contributions from many cultures, and the development of democracy is open to people everywhere. World Movement for Democracy (http://www.wmd.org/)
I strongly believe in the universal [...]