"Of all human rights failures today, those in economic and social areas affect by far the larger number and are the most widespread across the world's nations and large numbers of people."

-- Human Development Report 2000, United Nations Development Programme, p. 73.

As the new millenium emerges, trends in global human rights are changing. Human rights issues are crossing sovereign boundaries and are no longer just issues of the state. As more and more non-governmental organizations are growing, and the internet expands and facilitates a quicker spread of information, there are more and more people raising concerns about human rights related issues.

As the world globalizes, multinational corporations are also coming under more scrutiny, as questions about their accountability are also being raised.

In some cases, many corporations have lobbied their governments to aggressively support regimes that are favorable to them (for example, in the worst cases as seen in the past few decades, dictatorships, that can control their own people, allowing conditions like cheap labor, sweatshop conditions and so on to occur, though now increasingly influence is being spread through lobbying via global economic and trade arrangements that are more beneficial to themselves).

This can be accomplished through various means including:

• Tacitly supporting military interventions (often dressed in propaganda about saving the people from themselves, or undoing a wrong in the other country and so on)
• Pushing for economic policies that are heavily weighted in their favor
• Foreign investment treaties and other negotiations designed in part to give more abilities for corporations to expand into other poorer countries possibly at the expense of local businesses.
• Following an ideology which is believed to be beneficial to everyone, but hides the realities and complexities that may worsen situations. These ideologies can be influential as some larger corporations may indeed benefit from these policies, but that does not automatically mean everyone else will, and power and such interests may see these agendas being pushed forth more so.

However, with this expansion and drive for further profits, there has often come a disregard for human rights. In some cases, corporations have been accused for hiring local militaries to subdue and even kill people who are protesting the effects and practices of these corporations, such as the various controversies over oil corporations in parts of Africa have highlighted.

This page has expanded into a large section of many pages itself, which you can see at this web site's section on corporations.

Site Information Links

• Top of Page
• Home
• About This Site
• Privacy
• Site Map

Main Section Links

• Human Rights
• Geopolitics
• Trade & Poverty
• Environment

“Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.” — Paul Krugman

© Copyright 1998–2008