Human Rights: A Perfect Storm

The legacy of the first quarter of the 21st century raises serious concerns.

Following the two world wars, the previous 20th century gave mankind hope. Two related events in the middle of the century changed the world. On 10 December 1948, the UNO General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Earlier in 1946, the Nuremberg trial handed down rulings against the leaders of the Nazi regime. Military aggression was declared crime, and the right of the strong to exercise arbitrary power ceased to exist. Having experienced the horrors of World War II, humanity placed the concept of human rights in the foundation of international legal system.

The Soviet empire began to crumble four decades later. It appeared at the turn of the 1990s that its fall had opened opportunities for systematic and consistent implementation of these principles globally.

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However, the basic principles are being contested these days. International mechanisms intended to defend them have proven powerless.

The aggression of Putin’s Russia against Ukraine has not met with the requisite opposition on the part of the global community.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Putin’s regime is joining forces with various dictatorships in different parts of the world. These alliances are based on suppressing human rights and unconditional prevalence of the state interests.

Having striven for the observance of human rights across the world while claiming leadership among democratic states for many decades, the United States of America is currently showing an openly hostile attitude to the principles of human rights and international order based on the rule of law.

Finally, populists calling for the abandonment of fundamental human rights values are gaining strength in European democracies.

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As we can see, these fundamental values are faced with the situation of a ‘perfect storm’. What mankind achieved at the cost of inconceivable casualties and suffering in the previous century is falling apart in front of our eyes.

Will the 21st century become one where the world is again divided by superpowers into their zones of influence? A century where despotism and imperialism rule victorious while human rights policies again become an internal affair of the individual states? And thus, a century of new world wars?

Or will humanity overcome the crisis and continue progressing towards a world where the observance of human rights and dignity will be guaranteed to ALL?

The answer to these questions depends on ALL of us.

Board of the International Memorial Association, December 9, 2025