Most Important Human Rights Milestones Since 2000

The International Criminal Court (ICC), created in 1998, began hearing cases on July 1, 2002, in Rome and the Roman Statute was ratified by 60 states. The court sits in The Hague, Netherlands. The intergovernmental organization is the world’s first permanent international criminal court and has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. Though the ICC is not a United Nations organization, it has a cooperation agreement with the UN. The ICC is considered as a court of last resort and a complement to national courts. Enthusiasm for the court has waned after its founding, particularly in African countries, which claim the ICC disproportionately targets them.

The International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 13, 2006. The convention outlines the civil and political rights of disabled people, and also addresses related issues such as access to education, health, and jobs.

On Sept. 13, 2007, members of the United Nations voted to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a significant step in the recognition of indigenous peoples. This declaration was intended to address the human rights and needs of indigenous people around the world and support their institutions. The vote passed with 144 countries voting in favor of the declaration, and four countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States — initially opposed. Since the vote in 2007, those four nations have adopted the declaration.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the term for U.S. military policy pertaining to the service of homosexuals in the military, was officially repealed on Sept. 20, 2011. The original policy was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993 that in theory lifted the prohibition on homosexuals serving in the military that had existed since World War II. Under the legislation of 1993, homosexuals could serve their country, as long as they kept their sexual identity to themselves. However, the military continued to discharge gays and lesbians from military service. That was until both houses of Congress voted to repeal “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” and President Barack Obama signed the new law that allows gay men and women to serve openly in the military.

The world’s population reached 7 billion people on Oct. 31, 2011, according to United Nations estimates. The planet has added 1 billion people in just 12 years. In fact, Earth added almost 4 billion people between 1961 and 2011, based on United Nations estimates. The rapid population growth has increased concerns about sustainability, access to potable water and food, and energy usage.

Pressured by the reform movement of the Arab Spring, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote and run for office in future municipal elections, a seismic shift in the patriarchal Gulf kingdom. Saudi women praised the royal edict as an important step toward equality. Four years later, Saudi women cast their first ballots. Saudi election officials said about 130,000 women registered to vote.

The General Assembly granted non-member observer state status to the State of Palestine on Nov. 29, 2012, which in effect grants sovereign state status to Palestine. The accord received 138 votes, with nine opposed — among them the United States — and 41 nations abstained. The vote upgraded Palestine’s status from its previous “permanent observer” status, a position held by the Vatican. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, called on the 193-member UN body to “issue a birth certificate of the reality of the State of Palestine.”

Malala Yousafzai, who at 17 years old was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, spoke at the first UN Youth Assembly in support of universal education. The Pakistani teen urged young people attending the event to use education to combat extremism. Yousafzai was shot by a Taliban gunman in October 2012 for advocating education for women. After surviving the attack she continued to speak out in favor of women’s education.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its contributions to peace. The OPCW was created in 1997 after the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. OPCW was the world’s first multilateral disarmament agreement intended to eliminate a category of weapons of mass destruction. Among the tasks the OPCW performed was removal of chemical weapons from Syria during that country’s ongoing civil war. OPCW is one of 24 organizations that has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage, a milestone event for gay couples who had been seeking that right for decades. The top court decision cut across ideological lines with four conservative judges opposed and four liberal judges in favor. Judge Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said, “No longer may this liberty be denied.” At the time of the decision, 13 states had continued to ban gay marriage.

The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro featured 10 refugee athletes from four countries who competed as a team under the Olympic flag. The competitors participated in swimming, judo, the marathon, and other races. Their participation in the Olympics was intended to symbolize courage and perseverance of all refugees. Another refugee team is scheduled to participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

The Women’s March was actually a series of demonstrations held around the world on Jan. 21, 2017, to support gender equality, civil rights, and other issues. The event was staged the day after President Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as these issues were believed to face challenges posed by the new president, in particular a reconsideration of abortion rights. The event was reported as the largest single-day demonstration in American history. Similar marches around the world were estimated to have drawn as many as 4.6 million people.

The name for the #MeToo movement, an initiative to help victims of sexual assault and harassment, was coined by a woman named Tarana Burke in 2006. However, the movement took a major leap forward in October of 2017, when actress Alyssa Milano posted a tweet asking women who had been sexually abused to come forward. The floodgates were opened. The morning after Milano’s tweet, nearly 40,000 people — almost all of them women — had replied. The movement led to the resignation of many prominent men from positions in power in politics, media, and the entertainment industry over allegations of sexual abuse.

The ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, the last country to officially forbid women from doing so, was lifted in 2018. Women in the ultra-conservative Gulf nation have been fighting for the driving privilege for nearly three decades. The action is part of a reform initiative led by the kingdom’s 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Ending the ban is seen as an economic plus for Saudi Arabia because it will enable more women to join the workforce. More recent reforms include allowing women to travel without a guardian’s permission, apply for passports, and register a marriage.

2019 became the year of the climate strike, when workers and students from all over the world left their places of employment and school to demand action in regard to climate change. In March, about 1.6 million students walked out of classrooms in a coordinated day of strikes across more than 120 countries. In additional demonstrations in the United States in September, teen climate change activist Greta Thunberg spoke at a rally in New York City said to be attended by 250,000 people.

Amnesty International reported in April that executions in 20 countries in 2018 declined by 31% to 690, the lowest number of executions the organization has recorded in a decade. Most executions took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Iraq. The biggest declines in executions occurred in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, where executions decreased by at least 50%. Burkina Faso abolished the death penalty in its new penal code in June. Earlier this year, Gambia and Malaysia each declared a moratorium on executions. The U.S. state of Washington declared the death penalty statute unconstitutional in October 2018.