We need to start talking about global challenges from a human rights perspective! Looking to understand what Human Rights are? Curious about the implications of lacking Human Rights? What are traditional and ongoing struggles for human rights globally? Through the materials and exercises, you will understand and form your own opinions on human rights issues from past and present. This unit also features Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, who brings a human rights perspective on current issues like climate change and migration.

Did you know that freedom of speech, information, and the press continues to be one of the most critical issues concerning human rights in 2021? 45% percent of the population lives in countries where the media environment is NOT FREE! We are living in a world where the sharing of information is governed by social media and technology resulting in fake news, biases, clickbait, and little to no actual research is going behind viral breaking stories. What are the advances towards a free media environment? But more importantly, what can YOU do to make a change in your local community? Join independent journalist and educator Gry Brøndom in the featured video to understand current issues regarding freedom of the press and tips on how YOU can avoid being fooled by fake news.

There are subtle ways we are socialized into gender and becoming more aware of these attitudes can help us recognize how we might be performing gender in damaging ways. Emily Fayram, Women's March Organiser in Copenhagen (Denmark) provides valuable insight on issues regarding gender today. Gender and human rights are global issues. One perspective is the treatment of women globally through women empowerment. But what about people who don’t identify as a man or woman? What about those who are agender, bigender, gender fluid, trans, or non-conforming? There’s a lot of misinformation being shared and a lot of places in the world where it’s not okay not to be a man or a woman. In this unit, you will learn how we can empower and support one group in such a way that it doesn’t disempower another.

Media control, religious freedom, detentions, and government control are some of the pressing issues affecting human rights in North Korea today. Learn all about what's happening in Korea right now and what exactly is a crime against humanity.

There are numerous benefits of emerging technologies. For instance, organisations like Human Rights Watch are able to report on human rights violations all around the world. In recent times however, technology has called into question concerns for human rights. Advances in technology has made it easier for governments to surveil what people in and out of their country are posting online. There are cases where people have been arrested for expressing their political opinion online, bringing into question the human rights concern of privacy. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is completely changing the landscape of modern warfare. Weapons like drones and other systems can be programmed to identity and kill. This raises a huge ethical concern: Who is held accountable for the death? Who is responsible for “killer robots” in the battle field? In response, Human Rights Watch has launched a campaign against fully autonomous weapons, often referred to as killer robots. Watch the feature video as Belkis Wille dives into the cases we have just outlined. Still curious? Head over to our course in the Future Technology Series to learn about the ethics of emerging technology: https://student.canopylab.com/course/323/