North Korea, Syria and Iran are three of the countries that most violate human rights, according to the United Nations, which on Saturday marks the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The UN Human Rights Council, created in 2006 to strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights around the world and make recommendations on situations of violations, has drawn up a list of countries with the most violations.
Despite stressing that human rights are violated in many more countries and occasions, the United Nations body named five states as the most complex situations: North Korea, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
The first country in this ‘ranking’ is North Korea, with “a long history of human rights violations”.
While several factors are considered to rank a country on this list, one of the most important is the government’s treatment of its citizens.
The United Nations Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights in North Korea concluded that “the Kim regime [Jong-un currently in power, but also the regimes led by his father and grandfather] committed crimes against humanity including exterminations, assassinations, slavery, torture, rape, forced abortions and other forms of sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds and forced population transfers”.
In addition, Pyongyang maintains prison camps where detainees are starved to death, forced to work in dangerous situations and subjected to systematic violence, in addition to frequently carrying out public executions as a means of intimidation, especially those who try to flee the country.
The regime, which controls all information entering and leaving the country, omitting any difficulty or criticism of the country or even inventing favorable scenarios, prohibits any unauthorized religious activity, imprisoning or executing those who disobey.
North Korea also restricts freedom of movement within the country, making it difficult for people to flee human rights abuses, and numerous reports point to human trafficking for forced labor in countries such as China and Russia and for sexual exploitation. in the case of women and girls.
The list of countries where human rights are most ignored also includes Syria, and the UN stresses that, in relation to this State, the abuses are “well documented and include murders, torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions and forced disappearances” .
According to the organization, the Syrian government has been repeatedly accused of restricting freedom of expression, assembly and religion, in addition to preventing humanitarian aid to those in need.
Human rights abuses in Syria have been going on for many years, but the situation has worsened since the start of the civil war in 2011.
According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, more than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict and more than four million have fled.
The Damascus regime, led by Bashar Al-Assad, was also accused of crimes against humanity, including the use of chemical weapons against civilians, bombs and cluster munitions (prohibited by international law), as well as acts of torture and execution of workers. humanitarians and doctors.
The civil war in Syria has provoked a huge humanitarian crisis, with more than 13 million people in need of humanitarian aid, and provided a breeding ground for terrorist groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
Another country that occupies the ‘ranking’ prepared by the UN Human Rights Council is Iran.
“The Iranian regime is guilty of human rights violations for a number of reasons, starting with the executions and arrests of political dissidents and critical journalists”, accuses the United Nations.
In addition, points out the international organization, “it practices torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment of detainees and denies its citizens basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly”.
Until a few days ago, Iran maintained a morality police that was responsible for enforcing the country’s strict women’s dress code.
After months of protests, following the death of a young girl named Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and later died in custody of this police force, the extinction of the morality police was announced, but doubts remain about the end of practices of persecution for non-compliance with customs and morals.
This unprecedented wave of protests in Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 – which established the theocratic regime designated by its leaders as the “Islamic Republic” – has been strongly repressed by the authorities, having already done so, according to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) , more than 500 dead and thousands detained – some of whom have already been sentenced to death in summary trials and executed.
Among the five states that most violate human rights, the UN also includes Iraq, noting that the human rights situation in the country has been, “for many years, considered one of the most terrible”.
According to Amnesty International, many cases of human rights abuse are documented, including extrajudicial executions, torture, arbitrary detention, lack of trials and forced displacement of thousands of people.
The Iraqi government has never held perpetrators of human rights abuses accountable and security forces continue to commit serious violations with impunity, and “the situation has deteriorated since 2014”.
The installation in the country of the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State provoked a wide range of human rights abuses, but Iraqi Government forces and affiliated militias, as well as the Kurdish regional government, have also been accused of serious violations, counting thousands of dead and wounded among the civilian population.
Afghanistan is another of the examples given by the UN, which recalls that, despite the country being plagued by violence and human rights abuses for many years, “the situation deteriorated deeply after the return to power of Taliban fundamentalists” in August. from 2021.
Last September, the UN rapporteur on Afghanistan concluded that the country faces a profound human rights crisis under Taliban rule, highlighting “the severe reversal of the rights of women and girls, reprisals against opponents and critics, attacks on minorities and the repression of the press”.
According to the expert, in no other country have women and girls lost so much and so quickly their rights in public life, no longer having the right to education, freedom of expression, sexual choice or even life.
In addition, according to the same source, “there are frequent attacks against the civilian population, including revenge killings of former government officials who supported Western forces”, present in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021.
“Although the Taliban declared an amnesty at the beginning of the takeover, the former Afghan defense and national security forces continue to be responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances”, warns the UN.
Journalistic independence and freedom of expression have also been increasingly restricted and access to free information is almost impossible.
Finally, the United Nations list refers to Saudi Arabia, where “human rights abuses are rampant and include torture, arbitrary arrests and executions”.
According to human rights organisations, women and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people are particularly vulnerable to abuse, but the government is mostly known for repressing any form of dissent.
Here, too, women are victims of strong discrimination, which the country explains with its special Islamic character, which, according to the authorities, justifies a social and political order different from that of the rest of the world.
Saudi Arabia is one of the states where religious and political persecution is strongest and it is extremely difficult for activists or demonstrations to exist against the regime, which remains one of the only countries in the world not to accept the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
