What is the reason for the increased attention to human rights issues?

155 out of 169 tasks that need to be solved to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals are directly related to the protection of human rights. Despite the positive changes that have taken place in this area over the past decades, not all steps taken by public and private structures are effective. The development of public control and increasing the responsibility of business in the field of human rights protection — is in the spotlight of the new issue of trendletters, produced as part of a joint project of the Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center and the UNESCO Futures Studies Chair (UNESCO Futures Literacy Chairs network).

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For reference: This series of trendsetters continues the practice of publishing reviews of global technological trends since 2014 and presents a unique database of global trends and challenges in the field of human development. This research of the HSE ISSEK is based on the results of iFORA Big Data System, the Delphi survey (with the participation of more than 400 leading foreign and Russian scientists), expert sessions and interviews.

Almost all tasks related to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals are directly related to the protection of human rights. Recent decades have been characterized by increased interaction between governments, organizations and structures in this area.

However, the steps taken are not always effective: more than 90% of companies that have joined the UN Global Compact have formulated principles of human rights policy and developed measures to implement them, but less than 20% of them conduct comprehensive audits of the effectiveness of these measures. Problems such as the lack of transparency in supply chains and the use of child labor are still relevant.

States are increasingly working to improve the effectiveness of control and strengthen the responsibility of companies in the field of human rights protection. For example, in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Finland and Austria, draft laws are being developed to strengthen the responsibility of companies, providing for measures to prevent violations.

The issues of regulating the interaction of humans and technologies, as well as the preservation of jobs in the context of changing the ratio of the division of labor between humans and machines are becoming increasingly important. In the USA, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, and the EU countries, the task of forming a special legal framework for human–robot communication is on the agenda.

The new issue of trendletter (Russian version) is available at thelink.

Previous issues of trendletters can be found here.