Globalization as a Turning Point for Human Rights: a Positive or Negative Evolution?

Globalization is a crucial turning point for the era of modernity, signifying a passage to a technological globalized human society. The basic vehicle of globalization is thus technology which enables the production of goods, the international trade, the exchange of human knowledge and international transportation and communication to a point where the very meaning of time and space are shortened and altered forever. Globalization is based ideologically on the basic principles of liberalism and new-liberalism, while it assists the construction of global capitalism. Its effects are numerous and can be reflected in all fields of human activity, while global economy, international relations, global politics, cultural exchange, advancement of technology, science and knowledge are only some of them. Globalization is also a critical point for human rights discourse. After the World War II and the terror of the Holocaust the need for human rights protection becomes an international demand illustrated in many of the UN Declarations and European th century, though it may be characterized as the period of human rights protesting and demanding it cannot nevertheless considered as the 'golden era' of their protection. The African-American civil rights movement in the USA, the need for the protection of indigenous and minorities populations in many countries of the world, dictatorships , communist regimes and apartheids are some among the many examples of the systematic violations of human rights occurring during the 20 th century. Nevertheless, gradually, a major twofold change regarding human rights protection is taking place due to the dynamic spread of globalization. First, there is the creation of an international public sphere, based on the international influence of the press, the Mass Media and the internet which enables the creation of a dynamic global civil society that gets informed, acts and protests on an international level in