Human Rights in 2066 | William Schabas | TEDxZurich

Summary

The speaker reflects on the recent political events, like Brexit and the US election, which have stirred up racism and xenophobia. Despite this, they remain optimistic, drawing on the significant progress in human rights over the past 50 years, such as the abolition of the death penalty and advancements in equality rights. They predict that in 50 years, economic and social equality, as well as freedom of movement, will be the new frontiers of human rights.

Takeaways

• 🌍 The speaker initially felt optimistic about delivering a message of hope, but recent political events like Brexit and the US election have dampened that optimism.
• 🌧️ The current period is described as difficult for human rights, with the rise of racism and xenophobia affecting minorities worldwide.
• 🔄 Despite setbacks, the speaker maintains a long-term optimistic view, looking back 50 years to significant human rights advancements and projecting forward to future progress.
• 🏛️ Fifty years ago, major human rights treaties were adopted by the United Nations, establishing a robust system for human rights protection that continues to evolve.
• 🏅 The European Court of Human Rights recently made a landmark ruling against the United Nations Security Council for violating fundamental rights.
• 🚫 The abolition of capital punishment has seen a significant trend towards global abolition, with the number of countries using the death penalty dramatically declining.
• 🌈 Equality rights have come a long way since the 18th century, with significant progress in gender equality and the recognition of rights for sexual minorities.
• 👥 The number of women heads of government has increased dramatically over the past decades, reflecting a shift in gender equality.
• 🧩 The rights of the disabled have become more recognized, with international treaties and efforts to ensure their full participation in society.
• 💰 The speaker predicts that the next frontier in human rights will be addressing economic and social inequalities, which are also fueling populist movements.
• 🌐 The right to freedom of movement is highlighted as an area that needs attention, with the current refugee crisis in Europe exemplifying the struggle for this fundamental right.

Q & A

What was the speaker's initial mood when they signed up for the talk?

The speaker was initially full of optimism and positivity when they signed up for the talk six months prior.

What major event caused the speaker to go into a period of depression?

The speaker went into a period of depression due to Brexit.

What was the speaker's hope regarding the recent US election?

The speaker was hopeful about the election of the first woman president of the United States.

What does the speaker believe has been fanned by recent events like Brexit and the US election?

The speaker believes that recent events have fanned the embers of racism and xenophobia.

What significant milestone in human rights occurred 50 years ago?

50 years ago, the major Human Rights treaties, known as the covenants, were adopted by the United Nations.

What was the European Court of Human Rights' stance on a recent case involving the United Nations Security Council?

The European Court of Human Rights ruled against the United Nations Security Council for violating fundamental rights of due process and equality before the law through its resolutions enforced in Switzerland.

How has the use of capital punishment changed over the last 50 years globally?

Over the last 50 years, the use of capital punishment has dramatically declined globally, with around 160 countries abolishing it and fewer than 40 still using it.

What was the situation regarding gender equality in terms of women heads of government 50 years ago?

50 years ago, there were only three women who were heads of government from 1960 to 1970.

How has the legal status of gay sexual activity changed since 1966?

In 1966, most countries, including many in Europe, criminalized gay sexual activity, but now such laws are largely considered a thing of the past in many regions.

What new area of rights does the speaker believe will be a focus in the next 50 years?

The speaker believes that the new frontier in human rights will be addressing equality in economic and social rights.

What does the speaker think is the solution to the refugee crisis and the desire for freedom of movement?

The speaker believes that building walls is not the solution; instead, humanity needs more bridges, not walls, to address the refugee crisis and the right to freedom of movement.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Global Challenges and Human Rights Evolution

The speaker begins by sharing their initial optimism for the talk, overshadowed by events like Brexit and the US election, which have stirred up racism and xenophobia. Despite this, they maintain a long-term optimistic view on human rights, looking back 50 years to the adoption of major UN treaties and the establishment of robust systems for human rights protection. They highlight a significant judgment by the European Court of Human Rights against the UN Security Council for violating due process and equality before the law. The speaker emphasizes the evolution of human rights ideas and their projection into the future, focusing on the abolition of capital punishment. They note a global trend towards abolition, with a dramatic decline in the use of the death penalty, particularly in the US, influenced by ordinary people's reluctance to sentence others to death.

05:02

📊 Progress in Equality Rights Over Time

The speaker explores the historical context of equality rights, dating back to the 18th-century revolutions. They discuss the initial blind spots in these revolutionary ideas, such as the exclusion of women and people of color. Fast forward to 1966, where progress was slow, with few women in leadership and racial discrimination still legally enforced in many places. However, significant changes have occurred since, with a dramatic increase in women heads of government and the recognition of rights for sexual minorities, including same-sex marriage. Disability rights have also seen a remarkable shift, with an international treaty and efforts to ensure full societal participation for the disabled. The speaker ponders the future of economic and social rights, noting the current vast inequalities and the potential for these to fuel populist movements, and calls for creative solutions to these challenges.

10:05

🌉 The Future of Human Rights and Social Justice

In the final paragraph, the speaker addresses current economic and social inequalities, suggesting that wealth distribution is more unequal than ever, with wealth hidden in tax havens. They express confidence that these issues will be resolved. The speaker also discusses the right to freedom of movement and the challenges faced by refugees and asylum seekers, criticizing the idea of building walls to keep people out. They reflect on the fall of the Berlin Wall and the need for bridges, not walls, to advance humanity. The speaker concludes with a hopeful outlook, invoking Martin Luther King Jr.'s belief in the moral arc of the universe bending towards justice, and encourages the audience to consider the unimaginable progress that could be made in the next 50 years, just as the advancements of the past 50 years would have been unimaginable to someone in 1966.

Keywords

💡Optimism

Optimism refers to a hopeful and positive attitude towards the future. In the video, the speaker initially signed up to give a talk full of optimism, intending to convey a message of hope. However, events like Brexit and the US election led to a period of depression for the speaker and many others, reflecting how current events can challenge one's optimism.

💡Depression

Depression, as used in the context of the video, signifies a state of low mood and a sense of hopelessness. The speaker mentions entering a period of depression following unexpected political events, indicating its impact on personal and collective mental health.

💡Brexit

Brexit refers to the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union. The speaker mentions Brexit as a catalyst for a period of depression and a challenging period for human rights, highlighting its significance as a geopolitical event that has had wide-ranging social and political implications.

💡Human Rights

Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms to which all individuals are entitled. The video discusses the protection of human rights through international treaties and organizations, emphasizing their importance in ensuring equality and justice.

💡Racism

Racism is discrimination against individuals or groups based on their race or ethnicity. The speaker mentions the resurgence of racism and xenophobia, particularly affecting minorities, as a consequence of recent political events, underscoring the ongoing struggle for racial equality.

💡Xenophobia

Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners. It is mentioned alongside racism as an issue that has been exacerbated by recent events, indicating a rise in intolerance towards those perceived as outsiders.

💡Capital Punishment

Capital punishment refers to the death penalty as a form of legal punishment. The speaker discusses the decline in its use and the trend towards its abolition worldwide, reflecting a shift in attitudes towards more humane forms of justice.

💡Equality Rights

Equality rights pertain to the principle that all individuals are equal before the law and are entitled to equal treatment. The video discusses the historical evolution of these rights, from their roots in revolutionary ideas to modern advancements in gender and racial equality.

💡Economic and Social Rights

Economic and social rights include the rights to education, healthcare, and an adequate standard of living. The speaker points out the current inequalities in these rights and suggests that addressing them is a frontier for future human rights advocacy.

💡Freedom of Movement

Freedom of movement is the right to move freely within and across borders. The video discusses this right in the context of the refugee crisis in Europe, emphasizing the need to respect and facilitate this fundamental right.

💡Asylum

Asylum is the protection granted to individuals who have left their country of origin and are seeking protection from persecution. The speaker discusses the right to seek asylum as a fundamental human right that is currently being challenged by restrictive policies and attitudes.

Highlights

The speaker initially signed up for the talk with optimism, but events like Brexit and the US election led to a period of depression.

Despite setbacks, the speaker's optimism returned, looking forward to celebrating the election of the first woman president of the United States.

The speaker acknowledges that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but points out voter suppression efforts against minorities.

The current period is described as difficult for human rights, with a resurgence of racism and xenophobia.

The speaker takes a long view, looking back 50 years to the adoption of major Human Rights treaties.

The European Court of Human Rights recently held the UN Security Council accountable for violating fundamental rights.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of the ideas behind human rights and their evolution.

50 years ago, most countries had the death penalty; now, about 160 countries have abolished it.

The decline in the death penalty is attributed to juries becoming increasingly reluctant to sentence people to death.

The speaker predicts the death penalty will be gone in 50 years.

Equality rights have a long history, dating back to the American and French Revolutions.

Significant progress has been made in gender equality, with a dramatic increase in women heads of government.

The rights of sexual minorities have seen remarkable progress, with the end of criminalization of gay sexual activity.

Disability rights have come a long way since 1966, with an international treaty and increased societal attention.

The speaker calls for attention to economic and social rights, noting the growing wealth inequality.

The right to freedom of movement is highlighted as a newer right that needs to be addressed.

The speaker criticizes the idea of building walls, advocating for bridges instead to advance humanity.

The speaker concludes by quoting Martin Luther King, expressing hope that the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice.

Transcripts

I signed up to do this talk about six

months ago full of optimism positive and

I was going to give you a message of

hope and and then brexit happened I live

in London and I went into a period of

depression like many people and was

rethinking my my attitude of my views

but I got over it at my classic optimism

returned and I was looking forward for

the last couple of weeks to celebrating

the election of the first woman

president of the United States you know

she did get the most votes I hope you

realize that if it's any consolation and

she probably would have got more had it

not been for a number of measures that

were taken in some parts of the United

States to prevent black people and other

minorities from voting but I feel here

today a little bit like someone trying

to tell you the story and sell you on

the idea of global warming in the middle

of a winter storm we are in a difficult

period for human rights what the brexit

and the recent US election and other

events elsewhere in the world have done

is fanned the embers the smoldering

embers of racism and xenophobia and they

are making life very hard particularly

for minorities here in North America and

elsewhere in the world but my message is

ultimately one of optimism because it

involves taking the long view I'm

looking back 50 years and I'm looking

forward 50 years 50 years ago the major

Human Rights treaties the two most

important treaties in the United Nations

were adopted we call them the covenants

they're related to the Universal

Declaration

Human Rights which is a little older and

that began a very very robust complex

elaborate system that continues to grow

that protects our human rights through

the United Nations and through regional

organizations and and of course here in

Europe we are very fortunate to have

what is perhaps the jewel of the mall

which is the European Court of Human

Rights only a few months ago the

European Court of Human Rights issued an

important judgment against Switzerland

although it wasn't really directed

against Switzerland it was directed

against the United Nations Security

Council for the first time and it said

that the United Nations Security Council

through its resolutions which had to be

enforced in Switzerland was violating

fundamental rights of due process and of

equality before the law I don't want to

talk about the institutions and the

structures and the documents I want to

talk about the ideas behind human rights

and how they have evolved until today is

to enable me in a way to project the

future to look forward so I want to go

back 50 years and look at some of the

issues that have I think surprised us in

terms of how they emerge one of them

that I've worked on a great deal is the

abolition of capital punishment now 50

years ago most countries in the world

had the death penalty and used most of

them about 90 percent of states in the

world used it when the United Nations

secretary-general was asked is there a

trend towards abolition the

secretary-general said I can't tell one

way or another there doesn't appear to

be a trend but trend there is and every

year for the last 30 years or so two to

three countries abolished the death

penalty and we're now at a situation

where about 160 countries have abolished

the death penalty have stopped using it

have changed their laws some most of

them have actually adopted international

treaties to prevent the restoration of

the death penalty and there are fewer

than 40 states that still use it and in

those 40 states actually fewer than that

more like 37 the numbers are declining

there's less and less death penalty

being used

in most of them even in the United

States where the death penalty was

once-thriving it has been in quite

dramatic decline for the last decade or

so and the numbers continue to drop and

that's largely because juries ordinary

people the same people who voted earlier

this week are the ones involved in

taking the decisions and I'm not talking

about the voters in the blue states in

New York and Massachusetts and Vermont

because they don't have the death

penalty there we're talking about the

voters in the south and they are

increasingly reluctant to sentence

people to death when I look into the

future 50 years from now I'm convinced

it will be gone

we're just those states are ticking

themselves knocking themselves off the

list

every year will it take ten years or 20

years or 30 years I'm not sure but 50

years from now it's over and that could

not have been foreseen or anticipated I

think in 1966 I think if someone said

that in 1966 people would have said you

know what were you smoking this morning

let me turn to another area of rights

that I want to examine and develop and

that's equality rights actually the

Equality rights go back much further

they go back to the what's really the

beginnings of modern human rights which

is the revolutionary developments of the

18th century the American Revolution

French Revolution and similar events

those are the two big ones and in the

Declaration of Independence which starts

the American Revolution they say all men

are created equal and we have something

similar it's like the first article of

the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights is actually based on it says that

all men are born free and equal in

freedom and in rights that's the French

Declaration the only difference between

that and the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights is we now say all human

beings because the women who were

involved in drafting the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights said you're

not going to say all men are born free

and equal but those who drafted these

ideas who conceived of them back in the

18th century

have blind spots they understood the

notion of equality and they promoted it

some of them were slave owners and there

was certainly no place for women in

their vision of a free and equal society

they'd understood the principle but they

hadn't followed through the logic of it

and that's something that we see and

that I believe will continue to see if I

go back 50 years now to 1966

we still had formally officially racist

states in in the world

South Africa being the most important

one and 1966 there was no end in sight

they just put Nelson Mandela in jail and

he did about 30 years almost 30 years in

prison in the United States they were

just cleaning up their legislation

getting rid of the final remnants of law

that promoted racial discrimination the

problems aren't solved but they were

they were just in the course of doing

that in 1966 when we turned to women's

equality

I looked at the number of women heads of

government in the 1960s you know from

1960 to 1970 in the world there were

three women who were heads of government

and it improved in the next decade from

1970 to 1980 there were four and you

know how many there were in the last

decade from 2007 to 2016

37 women heads of government so there

been dramatic changes I probably don't

need to tell that to anybody in the room

I think you understand it if you have

any doubts talk to your grandmother's

and they'll tell you how it changed but

the other thing about equality is that

groups that were not contemplated in

1966 that were not discussed that people

didn't consider were part of the

conversation about equality have emerged

more recently sexual minorities for one

in 1966 most countries in the world

including many of them in Europe

criminalized gay sexual activity now

that's all gone that's the thing of the

past certainly in this part of the world

and now we have same-sex marriage but

you know in 1966 there were laws in the

United States preventing marriage not

between people of the same sex

between people of different races there

were laws still enforce fifty years ago

so who could have foreseen this it's a

bit like the death penalty what person

in 1966 would have said fifty years from

now we'll have gay marriage

we'll have equality recognized for

sexual minorities another area where

there was huge development was in the

area of disability rights and again in

1966 disability rights were not really

on the radar and now we have a very very

strong system we have an international

treaty we have a great deal of attention

being devoted to making sure that people

who are disabled are in a position to

play a full and equal role in our

society in our social life and that's a

great change that could not have been I

think really foreseen in 1966 so the

question is what happens in the next 50

years where do we go in the next 50

years I think in the area of equality

rights to remain with that very

important core issue in human rights

the new frontier the area that we have

not addressed is equality in economic

and social rights economic and social

status

we have huge inequalities on this planet

even here in this country they appear to

have grown in many ways and very

unfortunately these economic and social

inequalities are also nourishing things

like the populist movements that seem to

be arising in different parts of the

world and that are threatening human

rights and yet they seem to be what what

the victims of these of these violations

turn to as a hope in order to enhance

their desire for equal treatment how

this will come about in the next 50

years I'm not in a position to say we

will have to find creative solutions the

fact is that the wealth has never been

more unequally distributed in the world

Stephen Piketty wrote a great book about

this a few years ago and I'm sure many

of you have read this I think that on

the planet Earth there's enough wealth

to ensure that every single person on

the planet is fed and housed and

educated and

medical care but so much of it is hidden

away in tax shelters in Panama and we

have to solve that problem and I'm

confident that we will the other area

and this is something that is in a way a

newer right is the right to freedom of

movement

now the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights and the Covenant of 1966 says

everyone shall have freedom of movement

within their country within the borders

of their country that was a political

concession it's like the slaveholders

recognizing equality rights because if

you think of the notion of freedom of

movement we should have freedom of

movement throughout the earth without

having to worry about borders for most

of us actually we probably assume we

have it already as as prosperous

European professionals we are in a

position to go up to the airport and fly

anywhere in the world all we need is a

passport and a credit card and we can do

it we assume we have these mobility

rights but there are people watching

this elsewhere in the world and they're

saying well I don't have that and that's

the problem we have to correct we have

gone through this terrible crisis in

Europe that people sometimes called the

refugee crisis with a million people

trying to enter the continent some

countries have been very welcoming some

have been not so nice what is it it's

people trying to exercise their right to

freedom of movement and another

important right their fundamental right

this is also secured in the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights to seek

asylum and to enjoy asylum from

persecution and it's to our shame as

Europeans that thousands of them have

died in recent years drowned in the

Mediterranean Sea doing nothing more

than trying to exercise their

fundamental rights some think the

solution is to build walls that was an

issue in the recent election campaign in

the United States build a wall that's

going to advance humanity you know we

had a wall in Europe once not that long

ago just over 50 years ago somebody in

East Germany thought it to be a good

idea to build a wall and that wall came

crumbling down we celebrated the

anniversary again this week that wall

came crumbling down and with it the

people who had built it okay humanity

doesn't need more walls we need bridges

not walls now some of you are sitting

there thinking oh he's a utopian and

he's naive these things will never come

to pass but imagine someone in 1966

talking about near-universal of

abolition of the death penalty equality

for sexual minorities the rights of the

disabled and so on these two seemed

unimaginable if you call me a dreamer

let me cite another dreamer Martin

Luther King who said that the moral arc

of the universe is long but it tends

towards justice I won't be around in 50

years to see whether my predictions come

true most of you would be pretty old

I dare say you'll be sitting there

thinking that guy I heard answered 50

years ago did he underestimate things

was he conservative he never imagined

how much things would change the fact is

these ideas freedom equality justice

they don't explain everything about the

progress of humanity about our ability

to live together but they explain a

great deal and they provide us with a

guide to what our future is going to

look like thank you

[Applause]

you