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Line 1: + + − The year 2008 was characterized by three trends: a growing worldwide demand for greater personal and political freedom, governmental efforts to push back on those freedoms, and further confirmation that human rights flourish best in participatory democracies with vibrant civil societies.<ref> U.S. State Department [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/frontmatter/118984.htm 2008 Report]</ref>+
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'''Human rights''' are generally held to be the basic [[rights]] and [[freedom]]s to which all humans are entitled, entirely by virtue of their status as human beings.
'''Human rights''' are generally held to be the basic [[rights]] and [[freedom]]s to which all humans are entitled, entirely by virtue of their status as human beings.
==2008==
The year 2008 was characterized by three trends: a growing worldwide demand for greater personal and political freedom, governmental efforts to push back on those freedoms, and further confirmation that human rights flourish best in participatory democracies with vibrant civil societies. On the downside, pushback against demands for greater personal and political freedom continued in many countries. A disturbing number of countries imposed burdensome, restrictive, or repressive laws and regulations against NGOs [non-governmental non-profit organizations] and the media, including the Internet. Many courageous human rights defenders who peacefully pressed for their own rights and those of their fellow countrymen and women were harassed, threatened, arrested and imprisoned, killed, or were subjected to violent extrajudicial means of reprisal.
At a structural level, human rights abuses are less a matter of local tyrants and more a symptom of deeper dysfunctions within political systems. The most serious human rights abuses came in countries where unaccountable rulers wielded unchecked power or there was government failure or collapse, often exacerbated or caused by internal or external conflict.<ref> U.S. State Department [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/frontmatter/118984.htm 2008 Report]</ref>
==European history==
==European history==