Research Question: Are democracies or non-democracies more likely to violate human rights?
Suffrage
1.
Can everyone over a reasonable age (teens – early
20s) vote?
2.
Can everyone without restrictions based on sex,
gender, race, religion etc. vote?
3.
Does every person have the same number of votes
which hold the same weight?
4.
Is there an independent electoral commission?
Elections
1.
Are intimidation mechanisms used by any
political entity to restrict voting – whether a certain group or society as a
whole?
2.
Are elections held every 5 years or less?
3.
Do the results of elections directly result in the
make-up of government?
Opposition
1.
Do the public protest and/or make petitions?
2.
If so, do these protests and/or petitions result in repercussions
from government?
3.
Does the government respond to these protests
and petitions when on a large enough scale?
4.
Do political entities decide which media outlets
are allowed licenses to broadcast?
5.
Do media disagree with government without
repercussions from government?
6.
Are opposition political parties able to be
formed without the permission of the government?
Discrimination
1.
Is everyone allowed to openly practice any
religion, without repercussion from government?
2.
Is the death penalty practiced and/or legal?
3.
Is a certain ethnicity, race, or culture
severely overrepresented in bad life outcome statistics? (e.g. imprisonment,
poverty, welfare etc)
4.
How many UN Human Rights Covenants is the
country signed up to?
5.
Are all members of society granted the same
rights (even if these rights are equally restricted), legally and in practice?
Thanks for posting this, Kuini.
ReplyDeleteWhat would these criteria say about a place like the Soviet Union, with universal suffrage and frequent elections, but only one party?