We have extremely complex and interconnected economies. One would say that not travelling to the United Arab Emirates where you get killed in a police cell for nothing is enough. Just you not spending. The reality lies elsewhere. The economy and human rights are completely complex issues. And AI could solve it.
Thsese are not separate. Every transaction, every investment, every paycheck fuels a system that either upholds dignity or enables abuse. The choice to ignore this reality is itself a privilege.
It is not only that you pay your employeé who will support regime with human rights abuse or his friend will do it, it is much complex. However, even without seeing these complexities, economy and human rights should be held to account.
What are the popular destinations?
The United Arab Emirates offers luxury tourism but has a record of migrant worker exploitation, censorship, and limited rights for women and LGBTQ+ individuals. Foreign workers often live in conditions resembling modern slavery, with their passports confiscated and wages withheld. The prison system is notorious for arbitrary detention, forced confessions, and torture, including beatings and electric shocks.
China has breathtaking landscapes and historical sites, yet engages in mass surveillance, censorship, and repression of minorities like Uyghurs and Tibetans. Forced labor camps operate under the guise of “re-education,” with reports of systematic rape, forced sterilization, and psychological torture. Prisoners are subjected to extreme sleep deprivation, water torture, electric shocks to the genitals, and stress positions that cause permanent physical damage. Some detainees are strapped into “tiger chairs,” metal frames that immobilize the body for hours or even days, causing excruciating pain. In some cases, organs are forcibly harvested from political prisoners while they are still alive.
Beheadings, public floggings, and amputations
Saudi Arabia has religious and historical significance but is known for lack of free speech, strict gender laws, and harsh punishments. Beheadings, public floggings, and amputations are still carried out under its legal system. Dissidents and activists disappear into secret prisons where they face solitary confinement, starvation, and electric torture.
Thailand is famous for beaches and nightlife, yet has issues with human trafficking, labor rights violations, and political suppression. Migrant workers, particularly from Myanmar and Cambodia, work under conditions of forced labor, and the fishing industry is infamous for using modern-day slaves who are beaten or thrown overboard if they resist.
In Egypt, pyramids and ancient ruins draw millions, while the government suppresses dissent and restricts freedoms. The prison system is one of the worst in the world, filled with political prisoners who suffer from overcrowding, beatings, sexual violence, and lack of medical care.
Russia has historical cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg but is notorious for political repression and human rights abuses, especially against LGBTQ+ individuals and opposition figures. Torture in prisons includes sleep deprivation, exposure to freezing temperatures, and violent beatings. Chechnya, under Russian control, operates secret detention centers where suspected dissidents are tortured with electric currents and mock executions.
Turkey blends European and Asian cultures, yet imprisons journalists, restricts speech, and cracks down on political opposition. Political prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years, subjected to psychological torture and beatings.
India has rich heritage but faces caste-based discrimination, religious violence, and freedom of speech issues. Dalits and lower-caste workers are often trapped in bonded labor, effectively a form of slavery. Police brutality includes custodial deaths, with victims being burned, mutilated, or sexually assaulted before being executed extrajudicially.
Latin America abuses
Mexico is a top tourist destination, yet cartels, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are widespread. Entire villages are taken over by criminal organizations, where forced labor and sex slavery are common. Torture methods used by both cartels and the state include waterboarding, electrocution, and dismemberment while the victim is still alive.
Brazil has vibrant culture and nature but struggles with police violence, indigenous rights violations, and deep social inequality. Police death squads execute thousands yearly, and prisons are ruled by violent gangs that control trafficking, extortion, and mass killings.
Indonesia has tropical islands and temples but also strict blasphemy laws, political repression, and discrimination against minorities. Prisoners accused of blasphemy face years of torture, including severe beatings, water torture, and forced isolation. In West Papua, Indonesian forces carry out extrajudicial killings, rape, and burning of entire villages.
These countries attract millions of visitors while maintaining systems that rely on fear, suppression, and exploitation, often hidden beneath a facade of modernity and tourism.
No global government, yet a global economy
There is no global government. Nations act independently, competing and negotiating based on their own interests. No single authority enforces rules worldwide. Instead, power is fragmented. Countries regulate their own laws, control their borders, and defend their sovereignty. Wars, sanctions, and diplomacy shape alliances. The UN exists, but it lacks real enforcement power. Economic blocs form, but they remain collections of states, not a true supranational government. Conflicts arise because there is no central authority to resolve disputes. Weak states collapse under pressure, while strong ones impose their will. Regulations differ, leading to legal loopholes and exploitation.
Yet, the economy is global. Trade flows across borders, connecting industries and supply chains. Corporations operate worldwide, often stronger than some governments. Currencies fluctuate based on global markets. Crises in one region send shockwaves through others. Technology, finance, and production link economies together. Even without a world government, the system functions as if it were a single market. But this creates instability. Tax havens allow the rich to hide wealth. Companies exploit weak labor laws. Environmental damage spreads beyond borders. Economic crashes in one country drag others down. The world is connected, but no one is fully in control.
Economy and human rights in reality: Examples
He walks into a store that proudly upholds human rights. Every product comes from companies that respect workers, avoid exploitation, and follow ethical practices. He pays a little more, believing in fairness. The store owner does the same, buying only from suppliers that share these values. Everything seems right.
Yet, behind the scenes, the store has a bank loan from an institution that funds companies exploiting workers abroad. The supplier sources materials from mines owned by firms with no labor protections. The store’s employees, who earn their wages ethically, have personal loans from banks indifferent to human rights. The money circulates, passing through hands that care and hands that do not. The chain never truly breaks.
She refuses to buy fast fashion, choosing ethical brands. Her clothes are made with fair wages, sustainable materials, and no forced labor. She checks every label, ensuring her money supports companies that do the right thing.
Yet, the warehouse storing these clothes runs on cheap electricity from a coal plant using exploited labor. The logistics company delivering them cuts corners on worker safety. Her credit card provider invests in corporations violating human rights. Even her smartphone, used to research ethical brands, was made in a factory where workers suffer under grueling conditions. She tries to separate herself, but the system is a web, impossible to untangle.
Examples 2
A billionaire invests in ethical companies. His portfolio includes firms with clean energy, fair labor, and sustainable production. His wealth funds innovation, pushing industries toward responsible capitalism. He donates to charities fighting poverty and human rights abuses. On the surface, his money serves good causes.
Yet, his capital moves through a system built on exploitation. The banks managing his assets lend to industries violating human rights. The hedge funds he invests in profit from speculation on commodities sourced from sweatshops. His real estate holdings depend on construction companies using migrant labor under abusive contracts. Even his philanthropic foundation keeps reserves in financial institutions funding authoritarian regimes. The money circulates, touching clean and dirty hands alike.
At the highest level, wealth never stands still. A private equity firm buys a company, restructures it, and sells at a profit. The firm’s investors, including pension funds and sovereign wealth funds, collect returns. The company itself takes loans from banks that finance weapons manufacturers. Its suppliers operate factories in countries with weak labor laws. The workers in those factories send remittances home, deposited in local banks that fund corrupt governments. The money never stops moving, weaving ethical and unethical flows into one system.
A single dollar passes through countless hands. It starts in an investment bank, moves into stocks, dividends, or private funds. Also, it funds new companies, pays executive bonuses, or buys luxury assets. It cycles through offshore accounts, avoiding taxes. It lands in a consumer’s hands, who spends it on goods from a company sourcing raw materials from conflict zones. The profit returns to investors, keeping the cycle alive. No wealth remains untouched. Capitalism absorbs all money, whether clean or stained with abuse.
Examples three: Banking instruments
A bank holds deposits, but money never stays idle. Every dollar is an asset, and every asset must generate returns. Therefore, banks lend to individuals, businesses, and governments. They also trade securities, issue bonds, and engage in foreign exchange. As a result, capital moves constantly, crossing borders in search of higher yields. Depositors may believe their money sits safely, yet in reality, it circulates through a vast, complex network.
Loans form the core of banking. For instance, a bank issues mortgages, financing homes built with materials sourced from low-wage suppliers. Similarly, it lends to corporations expanding factories in countries with weak labor laws. Meanwhile, small businesses borrow, hiring employees who buy goods produced in unethical supply chains. Even personal loans and credit cards fund purchases linked to exploitation. Ultimately, the interest on these loans feeds the bank’s profits.
Government bonds
Beyond loans, banks hold government bonds. In particular, they buy debt from states that suppress dissent, fund wars, or exploit resources. Likewise, they trade corporate bonds, giving capital to firms cutting costs through labor abuses. In addition, investment banks package debt into derivatives, selling risk as an asset. At the same time, hedge funds borrow from banks, using leverage to bet on commodities extracted from conflict zones.
Interbank lending plays a crucial role. Since banks constantly manage liquidity, they borrow from each other using overnight markets. Larger banks, in turn, lend to smaller ones, profiting from interest differentials. Meanwhile, central banks control reserves, printing money, adjusting rates, and backstopping financial institutions. When crises arise, they inject capital to prevent collapse, protecting assets while workers bear the cost.
Real estate investment is another key area. For example, banks finance developers constructing luxury properties that displace low-income communities. Furthermore, they securitize mortgages, turning housing into financial products. Additionally, commercial buildings generate rental income, leased by multinational brands relying on cheap labor.
Foreign exchange markets further expand banking power. Because banks trade currencies daily, they profit from volatility. Consequently, they facilitate capital flight, sheltering the wealth of elites. At the same time, they clear payments for companies operating in authoritarian states. As a result, money laundering filters through their networks, disguised as legitimate business.
Interconnected banks
Capital constantly flows between banks, corporations, and investment funds. For instance, a hedge fund borrows from a bank, placing bets on emerging markets. Meanwhile, a corporation raises capital through bonds underwritten by a bank, using the funds to expand factories in low-wage countries. Similarly, sovereign wealth funds invest in financial institutions that finance both ethical and unethical industries.
Even ethical investments move through these systems. A socially responsible fund may buy shares in a bank that also funds fossil fuels. Likewise, a pension fund seeking stability holds bonds from a regime using forced labor. In the end, every financial asset, no matter how clean at the surface, passes through a web of transactions built on extraction, speculation, and control. Therefore, ethics become a matter of exposure, not exclusion.
Business? Human rights and economy? It’s none of your business
I remember there was a questionnaire with Czech top managers, the vast majority claimed human rights have nothing to do with business. Well, I would make them comfortable in Iranian jail.
People claim to support human rights, but their daily choices show otherwise. They buy cheap clothes without thinking about the sweatshop workers stitching fabric in suffocating heat, upgrade their smartphones, never asking about the factory employees breathing toxic fumes or the miners extracting rare minerals under armed guards. They sip coffee or eat chocolate, ignoring that child laborers work brutal hours to harvest the crops. Their outrage is selective. They protest human rights violations when the media tells them to but stay silent when their comfort depends on the same system of abuse.
Our democracy and human dignity
Governments follow the same pattern. Politicians give speeches about democracy and human dignity while signing trade agreements with regimes that torture dissidents. They impose sanctions on one dictatorship while funding another. They condemn forced labor but rely on imported goods made by exploited workers. At the same time, corporations run billion-dollar campaigns about ethics while operating factories in countries where wages barely cover food. They celebrate diversity but source materials from war zones where workers have no rights. Banks finance human rights initiatives while investing in industries built on suffering.
Even charities and nonprofit organizations are tangled in the system. They raise funds for refugees while relying on supply chains that displace people from their homes. They promote sustainability while depending on logistics firms that pay workers next to nothing. Meanwhile, everyday consumers keep the cycle alive, enjoying cheap products without asking who paid the real price. They may sign petitions, post hashtags, or donate to causes, but in the end, their money still flows into industries built on exploitation. Human rights exist on paper, but in practice, they are just another branding tool, ignored whenever inconvenient.
The solution is very obvious: Get tax or cancel every capital flow – from the smallest to the biggest
The solution is very obvious: get taxed or cancel every capital flow—from the smallest to the biggest. If every single individual, company, corporation, bank, government, or complex financial transaction were measured by AI, then the principle would be simple: your business fails if it is incompatible with human rights.
You buy a car from a company linked to China? Transaction canceled. You try to book a vacation at a resort built on exploited labor? Payment blocked. You order cheap clothes made in Bangladesh where wages are below survival levels? Denied. Even on the smallest level, your choices would no longer be neutral. Every purchase, every bank transfer, every paycheck would be measured. The moment your money touched anything built on human suffering, the transaction would stop.
A student applies for a government loan to study at a university partnered with corporations exploiting foreign workers? Rejected. A landlord takes out a mortgage from a bank that finances projects in countries suppressing human rights? Loan denied. A delivery driver gets paid by an app that sources cheap products from factories running on child labor? The entire financial structure collapses. Suddenly, human rights would no longer be an abstract concept but an unavoidable reality, woven into every economic decision.
Business: Corporation and global economy
Corporations would no longer push the blame down supply chains. “We didn’t know” would no longer be an excuse. No more greenwashing, no more vague commitments, no more ethics reports filled with meaningless promises. If a company’s operations involved abuse—directly or indirectly—its transactions would be blocked at the source. No money would flow through forced labor, no profits would be made from exploitation, and no industries would thrive on human misery.
The global economy would change overnight. Prices would rise as companies scramble to replace unethical suppliers. Some industries would collapse entirely, unable to function without exploitation. Fast fashion would die. Cheap electronics would vanish. Black markets might emerge, but with AI tracking every financial movement, their reach would be limited. The world would feel the shock, but it would be a reckoning that has been long overdue.
For the first time, human rights would no longer be just a talking point. They would be the foundation of economic survival. The individual, the worker, the consumer—everyone—would finally be forced to see their role in the system. The market would no longer reward abuse but punish it. And those who claimed to care about human rights would finally have no choice but to prove it.
What would AI-led control look like?
The enforcement of human rights in the economy would no longer rely on voluntary compliance, PR campaigns, or consumer awareness. Instead, an AI-driven system would track every financial transaction, from the smallest personal purchase to the most complex multinational investments. Every company, supplier, bank, government and individual would be assigned a human rights compliance score. If a transaction connects to a company, financial institution, or government entity that violates human rights, it would be automatically blocked.
Consumers would no longer have the luxury of ignorance. If you try to buy clothes from a brand with hidden sweatshops, your payment will fail. If a business owner applies for a loan from a bank funding projects that exploit workers, the loan will be denied. Hedge funds that invest in industries built on abuse will see their assets frozen. There would be no loopholes—no hiding behind subcontractors, shell companies, or offshore accounts. If money touches human rights violations, it stops.
Governments would be forced to comply, as their ability to trade and borrow would depend on their record. States funding war crimes, forced labor, or political repression would see their access to financial markets cut off. Corporations would have no choice but to restructure their entire supply chains. Ethics would no longer be a marketing strategy but a matter of survival.
This AI-driven enforcement would go beyond traditional sanctions, which are often selective and politically motivated. It would not target specific countries while ignoring others. Instead, it would be absolute. Any nation, company, or individual engaged in human rights abuses—directly or indirectly—would be financially isolated.
AI: Economy and human rights: Conclusion
For the first time, human rights would be non-negotiable. They would not be a matter of political debate or corporate branding but an unavoidable financial reality. The economy would no longer function as a system where money flows unchecked through exploitation. Every dollar would be accounted for.
Those who built their wealth on suffering would find themselves cut off from the system. Banks funding abusive industries would collapse. Corporations relying on forced labor would go bankrupt. Governments ignoring human rights would see their economies suffocate. The illusion of ethical capitalism—where businesses claim to “do their best” while profiting from abuse—would finally be shattered.
People who once ignored human rights would be forced to care. Not because they suddenly gained moral insight, but because the system would leave them no other choice. There would be no escaping accountability. The market would no longer reward abuse but punish it. And those who once claimed that “human rights have nothing to do with business” would watch as their businesses crumble under the weight of their own hypocrisy.
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