Newswise — KINGSTON, R.I. – Nov. 21, 2024 – In the last quarter century, most countries around the world have failed to adequately protect the human rights of their citizens. In that time, nations’ efforts to protect human rights have been stagnant – with the number of countries receiving failing grades easily twice as high as those receiving passing grades.
Those are the findings of the second annual report on global human rights released today by the University of Rhode Island. The 2024 Global RIghts Project (GRIP) report, produced by a team of researchers based at the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies, finds an alarming disregard for the respect of human rights around the globe.
In its 2024 report card, 62 percent of the world’s 195 countries receive an ‘F’ (scores from 0 to 59) for their human rights practices, while just 18 percent earned between an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ (scores between 80-100). The global median score was 52, up two points from the 2023 report.
“The global rise in democratic backsliding, inequality, and digital repression make me pessimistic about the future of human rights,” said Skip Mark, assistant professor of political science at URI and director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. “The CIRIGHTS project shows that global respect has declined over the past decade. Despite a growth in human rights law, institutions, NGOs, and technology to document and disseminate information about human rights, things are getting worse.”
Launched last year, the GRIP report draws on the world’s largest quantitative human rights dataset – the CIRIGHTS Data Project – to grade each of the world’s countries on a 100-point scale. CIRIGHTS, which was launched by researchers at URI and Binghamton University in 2022, provides measurements for each of 24 human rights in every country, using data from such annual reports as the U.S. Department of State, Amnesty International, and the United Nations’ State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Report, among others. This year’s GRIP report draws on data from 2022.
Highest and lowest ranking nations and regions
According to the 2024 rankings, the top five countries are Iceland (97.9, or ‘A’), which improved 5.6 points over the 2023 rankings; Estonia (96.5, ‘A’); Denmark (94.4, ‘A’); Finland (94.4, ‘A’), which was first last year with a score of 98; and Monaco (94.4, ‘A’). All countries in the top 10 earned ‘A’s’ – the only nations to score that high. The bottom five countries are Iran (0, ‘F’), Afghanistan (2.1, ‘F’), North Korea (4.9, ‘F’), Yemen (5.6, ‘F’), and South Sudan (9, ‘F’). The U.S. scored a 62.5, or a ‘D,’ ranking 66th in the world, tied with Jamaica.
The GRIP report also connects a country’s characteristics, such as population level and regime type, with its human rights practices. According to the data, one of the strongest predictors of human rights adherence around the globe is democracy. Democratic countries tend to have more respect for human rights, while all of the countries with the lowest scores are non-democracies. However, there are exceptions: Monaco, a non-democracy, is among the top 10 for human rights practices, while India, a democracy, scores a 41, an ‘F.’
Also, the highest and lowest countries among the top 10 best and worst scorers suggest that human rights adherence might cluster geographically and, while there are exceptions, wealthy countries have better human rights records.
Among its characteristics, the U.S. is a wealthy democratic country with strong domestic laws protecting civil and political rights. But it gets failing scores on such rights categories as physical integrity (such as extrajudicial killings, torture, and political imprisonment) and worker rights (such as freedom to unionize and child labor rights).
“The U.S. has not ratified many human rights treaties (it is the only country not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child), and excessive police violence and police shootings which disproportionately target racial minorities are so bad they are criticized worldwide,” Mark said. “Political imprisonment of non-violent protesters has increased in recent years and laws restricting the right to protest are undermining a core mechanism through which citizens can advocate for better rights. Worker rights continue to be violated with increasing restrictions on unionization, limits to the right to strike, a minimum wage that people cannot live on, and a rise in child laborers and laws weakening child labor protections.”
Breaking down the 2024 rankings by region, Canada is the top performer in the Americas, with an 86.8, or a ‘B,’ followed by Grenada (86.1, ‘B’), and Antigua and Barbuda (86.1). There is a wide variation in respect for human rights in the region, with an average score of 57.6 – third best of the five global regions designated by the United Nations.
The Asia and the Middle East region has the lowest average human rights score (32.9). The region is home to the lowest scoring nations in the world, including Iran (0), Afghanistan (2.1), North Korea (2.8), Yemen (5.6), and China, which scores 13.2 despite being one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. With six of the top ranked countries, Europe has the highest human rights average at 74.4 among regions. Europe is followed by Oceania (69.0). At 35.9, Africa is the second lowest region.
The global pictures in the 21st century
The distribution of human rights scores has remained largely stable over the past 17 years, according to data from CIRIGHTS dataset, which contains 40 years of human rights data. For the last 24 years, most countries have received a failing grade, with 58 percent getting an ‘F.’
“We have cause for concern in the 21st century, and these findings suggest a pressing need to strengthen human rights,” the researchers say. “The current tools used to improve human rights and hold leaders accountable are not working and a new approach may be necessary to improve human rights globally.”
“One tool to improve human rights is documenting where violations occur and taking steps to redress those violations,” Mark added. “However, leaders are getting increasingly sophisticated in hiding human rights violations in ways that are hard to measure. A large majority of countries are engaging in digital repression in ways that are either not being captured by current human rights measures or allow leaders to engage in more targeted repression, such as arresting a peaceful protester identified by a security camera in their home after a protest has ended. These tactics can make it look like less repression is occurring, when in fact leaders are repressing in a more efficient way. To catch these changes we need more data and more funding for research like this.”
Protection of individual rights
Looking at protection of individual rights in the last 25 years, the report finds rights such as protection from disappearance and atrocity among the most respected; 80 percent of countries enforce these rights. Among the lowest respected rights are lack of adherence to freedom from torture, protection against child labor, and right to a fair trial.
Patterns in the rankings show higher enforcement of physical integrity rights (such as right against disappearance) and empowerment rights (women’s political rights). Among the bottom 12, most are workers rights (such as freedom from forced labor and child labor, and right to unionize). Freedom from torture, among physical integrity rights, is an exception among those that lack global respect.
Torture remains widespread around the world. In the 2022 data, about 75 percent of countries engaged in torture, even while it is one of the most scrutinized rights in the world. The data suggest that despite an international treaty to end torture and strong campaigns, states still engage in torture regularly.
“People do not know what their human rights are, whether their governments are violating human rights, and how their country compares to the rest of the world,” said Mark. “Our hope is that this report can help answer these questions. Students are often surprised by how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world and it sparks really interesting conversations about what we could be doing better. Human rights education is the first step to creating demand for human rights, which is necessary to improving human rights.”
Compiling the report
The 2024 GRIP report was authored by Mark, Meg Frost, Roya Izadi, and Ashlea Rundlett, assistant professors of political science at URI. The CIRIGHTS Data Project is led by Mark; David Cingranelli and Mikhail Filippov of Binghamton University; and David Richards of the University of Connecticut.
The project is also supported by the work of numerous undergraduate and graduate students. The students wrote the human rights spotlights featured in the report that shed light on topics such as human trafficking, digital repression, and refugee rights. They also go through the international human rights reports to process the data for the annual GRIP report.
“The GRIP project is made possible by our students,” said Frost, assistant professor of political science and the director of research at the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. “The students are involved in every step of the process, including producing, organizing, and analyzing the data to include in the spotlights section of the report. “We want to highlight the ‘spotlights’ because they showcase our students’ knowledge and dedication to the full process with the data.”
On Tuesday, Dec. 3, the URI Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies will host a presentation of the 2024 report, along with presentations of the spotlight reports by their authors – Zahra Khan, Mya MacNeil, Megumi Sinniah, Graham Shirley, Iolanda Di Giorgio, Tiffany Morel, Kristine Moore, and Isabelle Dibner. The event will be held in the Higgins Welcome Center Hope Room, starting at 2 p.m.
The report, including information about methodology, is available on the project website.
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