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33% of the world's people live under authoritarian,
non-democratic regimes. 35% of the world's people live in countries
in which basic political rights and civil liberties are denied (such
as freedom of speech, religion, press, fair trials, democratic political
processes, etc).
1 billion people - 1/3rd of the world's labor
force, is unemployed or underemployed. An estimated 27 million people
are enslaved around the world, including an estimated 20 million people
held in bonded labour (forced to work in order to pay off a debt, also
known as 'debt bondage').. At least 700,000 people annually, and up
to 2 million, mostly women and children, are victims of human trafficking
worldwide (a modern form of slavery -- bought, sold, transported and
held against their will in slave-like conditions)..
About 246 million, or 1 out of 6, children ages
5 to 17 worldwide are involved in child labor. Nearly three-fourths
of these, about 180 million children, including 110 million under age
15, are exposed to the worst forms of, or hazardous, child labor. Some
estimated 8.4 million children are trapped in the most abhorrent forms
of child labour - slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution,
pornography and other such activities.
Women account for 70 percent of the world's people
who live in absolute poverty. Women work two-thirds of the world's
working hours, produce half of the world's food, and yet earn only
10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property.
Worldwide, a quarter of all women are raped during their lifetime.
Depending on the country, 25 to 75 percent of women are regularly beaten
at home. Between 10% and 50% of women report they have been physically
abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Over 120 million women
have undergone female genital mutilation. Women hold only 12% of parliamentary
seats worldwide. Women account for 2/3rd's of the world's illiterate
adults, and girls account for 2/3rd's of the world's children without
access to education.
In 1998, extrajudicial executions were carried
out in 47 countries, 'disappearances' occurred in 37 countries, torture
occurred in 125 countries, prisoners of conscience were held in 78
countries, unfair trials for political prisoners occurred in 35 countries,
detentions without charge or trial occurred in 66 countries, executions
were carried out in 36 countries, and human rights abuses were committed
by armed opposition groups in 37 countries.
There are over 45 million refugees and internally
dispaced people in the world.
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