-                  Forced labor

China has been included on the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (TVPRA List) since 2009. In 2020, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) added five goods produced by forced labor by Muslim minorities in China to the 2020 edition of the TVPRA List. These goods include gloves, hair products, textiles, thread/yarn, and tomato products. In 2021, ILAB added a good, Polysilicon, produced by forced labor by Muslim minorities in China. The production of these goods through forced labor takes place primarily in Xinjiang. (US Department of State, 2020)

-          Social 

-                  Physical and sexual abuse

In China, 223 cases of sexual assault against children (under 18 years old) involving 569 victims — the youngest being just two years old — were reported by the media in 2021, according to the Investigation Report on Child Sexual Assault Statistics and Sexual Assault Prevention Education report released by Girls’ Protection. (China Development Brief, 2022)

-                  Family separation

Under China’s “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism,” an estimated 1 million Turkic Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in unlawful political education camps in Xinjiang since 2017. An unknown number was being held in detention centers and prisons. Chinese authorities have housed countless children whose parents are detained or in exile in state-run child welfare institutions and boarding schools without parental consent or access. (HRW, 2019)

-          Government - authoritarian

-                  Detention in internment camps

Konasheher and Tekes are in Xinjiang, the majority belong to the Muslim region in northwestern China where the national government has held hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in mass-internment camps. It is estimated that 100,000 Uyghurs and other ethnic minority ex-detainees in China may be working in conditions of forced labor following detention in re-education camps. (U.S. Department of Labor, no date)

-          Spatial and cultural

-                  Repression of cultural and religious expression

China continues to violate the right to freedom of religion, although the worst forms of persecution -- long-term imprisonment and physical abuse of religious activists -- appear to have eased, in part because of the effectiveness of other means to achieve the same ends. The number of believers in all religions has increased sharply, with Buddhism growing the fastest of all. As interest in religion has increased, so have efforts by the state to control it, in part because the government is convinced that religion breeds instability, separatism, and subversion, with Christianity and Islam seen as vehicles for foreign influence and infiltration.  (Human Rights Watch, no date)

Violations of human rights are a significant issue in Turkey. The country is a constitutional presidential republic. However, the government is a hybrid regime that ranks 103rd in the Democracy Index as of 2021.  In Turkey, there are a lot of restrictions to freedom of speech. For example, tv and print media are owned by people close to the government. 87 journalists and media workers are intention or serving sentences because of their journalistic work. Also, there are restrictions on thousands of websites such as Wikipedia and critical news websites. In addition, the government and provincial governors have banned peaceful protests of political opposition parties, healthcare workers, among others, using the pandemic as an excuse.  

Also, there has been an increase in allegations of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in police and military custody. According to Human Rights Watch, people accused of political crimes are some of the people mistreated. For these allegations, prosecutors usually don´t conduct appropriate investigations and there is impunity for members of the security forces and public officials implicated in these human rights abuses.  

 

Social: 

Turkey is a country with a lot of discrimination against minorities such as immigrants and LGBT people. According to a report from the Association for Monitoring Equal Rights, over half of the country's population perceives that there is discrimination based on ethnicity. Also, 64.5% of the population agrees that there is discrimination against refugees, migrants and people seeking asylum such as Syrians (ESHID, 2019). On the other hand, there is constant discrimination against people from the LGBT community, even from some government officials. In March of 2021, the government withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, which works to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence in Europe and used as an excuse that the convention was used to “normalize homosexuality”, a clear discriminating act. Also, the government stated that “normalizing homosexuality” was incompatible with “Turkey´s social and family values” (Amnesty International, 2022).  

 

Economical: 

This country also violates the right to freedom as forced labor is a major issue in the country, especially with children.  Even though there are laws in Turkey that prohibit forced labor and set minimum age requirements for many jobs, these are not enforced. As of 2017, nearly 800,000 children worked in the hazelnut fields and most of them worked 11 hours a day. Hazelnut production is the most important in the agriculture industry and it makes up 20% of the country´s agricultural exports. Another vulnerable group are Syrian families who move to Turkey in search of opportunities but end up working in agriculture in bad conditions. Most of these migrants work longer hours and receive lower wages than Turks receive for the same job (Pietrow, 2019).  

 

Spatial: 

Turkey has a problem in its borders related to water. In 2021, it was reported that the country was withholding water from the Euphrates River from the unrecognized territories of North and East Syria, thus breaking the 1987 agreement with Syria and Iraq in which Turkey agreed to ensure a minimum flow of 500 cubic meters per second of water to Syria. According to Kurdish authorities and NGOs, Turkey is letting less than 200 cubic meters pass through the Arab country, which could lead to a humanitarian crisis. The shortage of water has reduced production and has damaged agriculture and fishing (Glynn, 2021).  

Israel is a parliamentary democracy headed by a prime minister. The parliament of the country is called the Knesset, which is a single-chamber legislature with 120 members (Britannica, 2022).  As of 2022, Israel has reached their lowest score ever in the corruption index. According to Nili Arad, the chairwoman of Transparency International Israel, corruption has been strengthening in the country in recent years. In 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first serving Prime Minister to be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Also, members of the Knesset have faced indictments for corruption offenses committed during their public service careers (Staff, 2022). Because most of this occurred during the pandemic, there is a violation to the human right to health because Israelis haven´t received the best attention they could and money that could have been used to improve the medical facilities was wasted.  

 

Economical: 

Poverty is also a big issue in Israel. As of 2021, more than 2 million Israelis live below the poverty line. Because of the pandemic, poverty rise from 22.4% in 2019 to 23% in 2020. The socioeconomic gap between wealthy citizens and low-income citizens has also increased. Poverty and economic inequality increase the difficulty to access health, education, food and safe water, which are essential needs. The right to education might be the most affected one as child poverty has increased significantly in Israel in recent years. In addition, poverty can force citizens to work in unsafe or unhealthy environments to earn money (Ahumada, 2021). 

 

Social:  

On the other hand, there is a violation of the human right of freedom. According to the Global Slavery Index, in 2018 there were around 31, 000 people living in modern slavery in Israel. In 2013, Israel had approximately 8500 slaves, and it ranked 111 out of 162 countries. Nowadays, it ranks 90 out of 167 which means that, in recent years, this violation of an essential right such as freedom has increased significantly. This is reflected in the increase of vulnerability to modern slavery which as of 2018 was 36.4/100.  Slavery is driven mostly by the sex trade and human trafficking (Walk Free, 2018).   

 

Spatial: 

As is known, Israel has many historic disputes with their neighbors, Palestine. In May of 2021, 11 days of hostilities begun between the Israeli government and Palestinian forces. During this time, Israeli´s attacks killed 242 Palestinian civilians in Gaza while Palestinian armed forces killed 12 civilians in Israel. Besides this, Israel has also restricted the two million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip their right to movement and has limited their access to basic services such as electricity, water and healthcare. Currently, more than 80% of the population of the Gaza Strip rely on humanitarian aid (Amnesty International, 2022). 

 

As of today, Saudi authorities continue to repress human rights activist and dissidents. The main problem is that authorities use extreme penalties against peaceful activism and dissent. By November of 2020, prominent clerics Salman al-Awda and Hassan Farhan al-Maliki were facing trials for death penalty. Al-Awda was charged for his alleged connections with the Muslim Brotherhood and for publicly supporting the imprisoned dissidents while al-Maliki had vague charges related to the peaceful expression of his religious ideas. Also, several women´s rights activists are still in detention for their women´s rights advocacy (Human Rights Watch, 2021).  

 

 

Social: 

Saudi Arabia is one of the countries with the most restrictions to women. Regardless of some reforms in women rights like the end of travel restrictions, they still need a male´s approval to get married and even to obtain certain healthcare. In addition, there are still many prejudices and discriminations against women. Saudi women usually face discrimination regarding marriage, family decisions, specially relating to children, and divorce. Also, men can still sue their daughters, wives or any female relative for “disobedience” and they can be forced to return with male guardian´s home or be imprisoned (Human Rights Watch, 2021). This violates most human rights as women have little freedom and they need a man´s permission to access basic to basic human rights such as health and education, something unacceptable in the 21st century (Human Rights Watch, 2021).  

 

Economical:  

Despite labor reforms, the abusive kafala system is still running in Saudi Arabia. The kalafa system is a legal framework that defines the relation between migrant workers and their employer, the kafeel, in most Arab countries. This system allows local individuals or companies to employ foreign employees and are obliged to cover travel expenses and provide housing. This system was created to provide cheap and abundant labor in an era of economic growth, but it has also left workers unprotected under the host country´s law (Robinson, 2021).  

Migrants make up more than 80 percent of the private sector workforce. Because of the kalafa system, their employers have excessive power over their rights, and this leaves migrant workers vulnerable to many abuses. One of the main dangers is passport confiscation, which violates the worker´s freedom of movement. Also, they are exposed to delayed wages and forced labor.  In addition, employers have complete power over the application, renewal and cancellation of residency and work permits, which means that migrant workers often find themselves undocumented and need their employer´s permission to change jobs (Human Rights Watch, 2021).  

 

Spatial: 

Saudi Arabia is one of the world's most water-scarce countries in the world. Despite being one of the nations with the highest levels of water access in Asia, severe overconsumption and the lack of reliable renewable water sources have made this issue a significant problem. This has disproportionately affected the poor people. In the poorer areas of the country, more than half of the water exceeds sustainable levels. Also, more than 80% of wastewater is not purified for reuse which leaves the poorer Saudis with few options to obtain safe water (Bradbury, 2020).  

-                  Free choice of employment 

The “Songbun” system of “ascribed status” remained in place, dictating educational, political and professional mobility for all North Koreans. Children of farmers were often obliged to take over their parents’ jobs. Some parents reportedly resorted to bribery or powerful contacts to give their children the opportunity to change careers.

-          Social 

-                  Right to health

Regular statistics provided by the government to the WHO indicated that there were no Covid-19 infections and no deaths during the year. However, this was contradicted by unofficial sources who reported high numbers of infections and deaths, and cremations taking place before the cause of death could be determined. The true situation remained unclear.

 

The COVAX initiative made repeated offers to provide vaccine assistance. An initial offer in March of 2 million doses was turned down, apparently for fear of possible side effects. The North Korean leadership also suggested that other countries had a greater need. In November, a further offer of more than 4 million doses was made. According to the WHO, as of November, North Korea was one of only two countries globally with no vaccination program in operation.

 

Restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19 led to families being quarantined at home for several weeks with no support from the authorities to ensure adequate food supply.

 

-          Government 

-                  Pretrial detention, due process violations, and torture

The North Korean government’s pretrial detention and criminal investigation system remained arbitrary, violent, cruel, and degrading. Ordinary citizens have no access to North Korea’s laws, which are vaguely worded and lack definitions. Law enforcement agencies and courts are controlled by the Workers’ Party of Korea, and connections and money are important determinants of whether one is detained or receives better treatment or shorter sentences. People in pretrial detention are subjected to beatings, torture, dangerous and unhygienic conditions, and other mistreatment in interrogation facilities, with women and girls particularly targeted for sexual violence.

-          Spatial 

-                 Climate change policies and actions

China is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, making a major contribution to the climate crisis that is taking a mounting toll on human rights around the globe. China accounts for nearly 70 percent of global emissions in 2018, although its per capita emissions put it only in the top 40 countries. Much of the considerable energy that has fueled China’s economic growth comes from coal, driving these emissions. It produces half of the world’s coal and is also the largest importer of oil, gas, and coal.

 

Freedom of expression: 

Freedom of expression is one of the main not respected human rights, in the case of Russia the authorities act against journalists to manipulate information.  Most of the time this happens because it has something related to terrorism or politic. Many journalists are punished with a heavy fine for commenting on such things, in addition to being accused of false charges. the authorities threaten the media so that they can put a filter on political/terrorist things that people see, and that journalists do not give their opinion. Also, authorities refuse to investigate specific cases that can affect the people with power, the case of the journalist David Frenkel which the police broke his arm because he was reporting from a voting precinct during the constitutional plebiscite. 

 

Right to privacy:  

The right to privacy is one of the most important human rights and more so with the covid-19 pandemic. In 2020 the Russian government took more control over internet infrastructure and online content and with this expanding and deciding what people can and can't see. Since 2012, Russia maintains a centralized internet blacklist maintained by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media. The list is used for the censorship of individual URLs, domain names, and IP addresses. Social media like Instagram is for now blocked in Russia, people use applications that are not 100% safe to use different things that in their country, are blocked.  Also, the insecurity that people feel because there are many cases of filtered chats of important people. 

 

 

Freedom of association: 

In the same case as the freedom of expression, the freedom of association is routinely violated in Russia. Civil groups have been affected by the authorities, groups that are not satisfied with the Russian government suffered reprisals and restrictions because of the new legislation that Russia had in 2021 and with the excuse that they are “undesirable organizations “that only create chaos. most groups are peaceful, so the mistreatment they receive from the authorities makes no sense. They make peaceful marches and the authorities do not receive it in the best way since many attacks by the police have been reported in peaceful marches. 

Violation of Human rights in Georgia is a serious problem in this country. Georgia has a hybrid regime, result of an incomplete transition from an authoritarian to a democratic regime.  One of the main problems in this country is poverty, Georgia has improved economically during the years, but more than the 20% of the population lives below the poverty line. Also, Georgia has many problems with Russia, the 20% of Georgian territory is occupied by Russia. The political consequences of the 2008 problem affected economically Georgia. 

 

Workers' Rights (social) 

Companys were affected by the pandemic, they refused to pay wages or in the best of options they reduced it. People worked the same before the pandemic, but they were getting less money, this related to the Covid-19 pandemic and how almost all the companies got affected. According to the Georgian Trade Union Confederation, 22 workers died and 110 were injured in work-related accidents through September. Authorities continue to refuse to allow transgender people to obtain legal gender recognition, without sex-altering surgery.  

 

Parliamentary Elections: 

The parliamentary elections in Georgia have always been called snap elections, they criticized election-day incidents such as verbal and physical confrontations against journalists and observers, numerous cases of breach of voting secrecy, and vote-buying. Police used water cannons with no warning to people that were protesting peacefully in the central elections. Politics doesn't response for the accusations of the journalists of buying votes, but the police increased the attacks to peaceful protestors. The parliament modified the elections to a mixed electoral system because of the protests of people in 2019.   

In India there are many human right defenders detained just for wanting the country to be better. This is a political violation of human rights as the government is being authoritarian towards their citizens, making them unable to express their opinions in a pacific way. With this their right to express and have their own opinion is being taken by the government, which demonstrates the government is an authoritarian one. This also happens in terrorism, another big problem in India, which affects in the same way, as it takes the same authoritarian measurements as the state. With this most of Indian people don’t have a voice and are not being taken in account. 

Economical: 

India made a law in 1976 that prohibited force labor, however a report in 2018 showed that the law was not being taken in account. Around 8 million people in India are not paid workers or held in debt bondage, however this number could be way higher because of kidnapped people that are put to work. One of the biggest industries that has forced workers is the silk industry, where many people are forced to work to win an amount of money that is way lower than the one, they should be earning. Not only do these people win miserable amounts of money but they are also kept in poor and unsanitary conditions. This represents a violation of their human rights as they are not free and are not able to choose whether to work. 

Social: 

India is a country full of discrimination to minorities such as women, nonwhite people and people from lower socioeconomic status. This is not something new, as discrimination has always been present in India since the start, and many people from the same country think that discrimination does not exist nowadays. One of the best examples in this is the caste system, which existed long ago and was present to make a difference between high rank and low rank people. Even though this system does not exist nowadays, there is still a reminiscence of this system, and discrimination is still present. This causes a violation of the human rights, as the discrimination can go from making fun of one of these people to directly killing them, something that happens to racialized people and members of the LGBT+ community, which are killed by some people in countries such as India for being different. 

Spatial: 

India has quite a problem related to the safe access to water and sanitation. The matter with access to clean water is that it is a first-hand basic need for humans to survive, and it is very concerning that more than ¼ of the world’s population does not have access to clean and safe water. OHCHR says: “On 28 July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a historical resolution recognizing “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights”. With this we are sure that access to water is basic for all humans and is a right that everybody should have. (OHCHR, 2022) 

Thailand is a country which has suffered many political challenges throughout its history, however one of the main challenges arrived with the covid 19 pandemic. The vaccines were and still are very limited, and the health centers were mainly occupied by covid patients, making it almost impossible for someone to be able to go to the hospital. With this people didn’t have access to the health system, making it an unsecure country and making people unable to be healthy. Covid cases had a big increase in April 2021, going up to 13 000 cases per day. This demonstrates that the government was not prepared at all and doesn’t have the correct measurements or security to prevent these types of things. 

 

Economical: 

One of the main problems in Thailand’s economy is how much of it is managed by children who are forced to work. According to UNICEF, out of almost 11 million children aged from 5-17 in Thailand, almost 700 000 are working children, while almost 300 000 children are in child labor. This demonstrates how affected are children in Thailand’s economy, as they are forced to work against their will. The fact that a big part of Thailand’s economy is based off children who work is really concerning, as children shouldn’t work and it’s a direct violation to the human rights. However, the government has been working on this problem, to the point where it has greatly decreased the number of children working.  

 

Social: 

Thailand has been having problems with its poverty rate, as it has had a big increase on the last years. Between 2015 and 2018, Thailand’s poverty rate increases from 7.21% up to 9.85%, which represents a big problem to the country. Meanwhile, the number of people living in poverty increased by almost 2 million, from 4.85 million to 6.7 million. Even though it is not specified in the source, we can infer that this number increased greatly in 2020, as the pandemic of COVID 19 affected all countries. This is a violation of human rights as people who live in this country and are in poverty live in bad conditions.(Worldbank, 2020) 

 

Spatial: 

Thailand was having many problems to give it’s 77 provinces an equal number of opportunities. Lately this problem has been being solved slowly and there is not that much of a difference between each province. However, the problem that comes with this is the spatial dependence of the provinces. This basically means that many provinces depend on the space they are located in which affects them as they need specific resources. With this we can conclude that many provinces are going through an inequality problem because they have an unequal number of opportunities, or they have spatial dependence. Both of these problems affect the provinces in different ways, but they both have a great impact on them. 

Corruption:  

In 2021, Nepal was the 117 least corrupt country out of 180, which means that Nepal has a lot of corruption. Corruption has always been a problem in Nepal, but lately it has been much more present (Transparency international, n/d). This is seen in the statistics, where Nepal is put as one of the most corrupt countries around the world. By this, we can see how this country doesn’t have a government that does what is needed to assure safety to everyone. This can be compared to Peru, which also suffers from big corruption problems, and as in Nepal, it strongly affects the life of people. So we could say that corruption in Nepal is violating human rights as the government is using money for personal use and not for public health or education purposes. 

 
Social and Cultural: 

In Nepal, around 32.8% of women from 20-24 years were married before having 18 years. This is a cultural problem that violates human rights as teens are not able to consent however in Nepal they are getting married because of culture. Socially, there is the problem of birth rate in teens, because as of 2018, 63 out of 1000 women from 15-19 years were pregnant. 11.4% of women aged 15-19 had suffered physical or sexual violence on the previous 12 months (Women Count, n/d). This means that women are having their rights violated, as they are getting babies before age of 18, mainly because of rape, which affects them psychologically too. Also, as they can’t get an abortion it affects them in more ways, as they will need to get in charge of the baby. 

 
Economic: 

Poverty is quite a big problem in Nepal, because in 2019 around 17% of Nepalis were multidimensionally poor. Most people in Nepal are deprived of housing materials, and cooking fuel, among others. By this, we can see how people are poor and are not able to get what they should to live, affecting some of their main human rights (UNICEF, 2021). However, this is strongly related to the labor discrimination, as women are often not accepted for work because they are considered as less capable. With this only one person in the family (the father) can have an income, making it less possible for people to not be in poverty or escape from the previously mentioned. This is a violation to the human rights as women and other minorities are being discriminated to the point where they are unable to work. This affects them financially as they depend on other people (husband, father) and are unable to have their own economic life. 

 

Spatial: 

Nepal’s distribution is uneven in general, as people don’t go to certain places because of climate, relief, and water supply, among others. This has been a huge problem as Nepal is full of mountains that are not very easy to live in, making the distribution of the population unequal. If this continues all the population in Nepal will live cramped. However, this is just the cause of the problem that violates human rights, which is access to facilities. As everyone lives in a certain place, there are few people that live in the surroundings, a place where they do not have access to water, or education, among other things. This is a direct violation of human rights, as the government, which should oversee bringing everyone these needs, isn’t doing so because of the inequalities in the land.