Human rights in Gylias

Human rights in Gylias are extensively protected, guaranteed by the Constitution of Gylias, other legislation, and ratified international law.

Gylias has been considered a progressive country, and possesses some of the most comprehensive and muscular protections of human rights in Tyran. Promotion of democracy and human rights is one of the goals of Gylian foreign policy. Nevertheless, philosophical and legal differences between Gylias and other countries on limitation of rights and protection of democracy have occasioned criticism.

Law

The Constitution of Gylias features one of the most extensive bill of rights in Tyran. It is comprehensive, protecting not only civil and political rights but also economic, social, and cultural rights. Similarly, Article 2 states that "The freedom, equality, and human dignity of every person is inviolable."

Gylias also maintains a variety of other laws that protect human rights, including some of the region's most sweeping anti-discrimination laws.

Notably, the Constitution denies the absolute nature of freedoms within society through the codification of a Popperian paradox of tolerance. Article 11 acknowledges "accompanying responsibilities and duties" to rights, and bans the use of rights and freedoms to "attack others' rights and freedoms or the democratic foundation of the republic" in paragraph 4.

Article 3, paragraph 3 states that "A person's rights and freedoms may only be limited in exceptional circumstances where a clear conflict with other rights or other persons' rights is in evidence."

Together, Article 3, paragraph 3 and Article 11, paragraph 4 constitute the main instrument for the judiciary and other law enforcement institutions to sanction specific individuals or organisations in order to prevent threats to the democratic order.

The perspective of human rights as universal but not absolute within society forms the cornerstone of Gylian jurisprudence.

Topics

Freedom of expression

Freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Constitution. Its boundaries are discrimination against others and hate speech, which are illegal.

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press is well-established, and the media operates in a highly diverse and democratic context.

Media law is based on principles of ensuring universal access to information, preserving democracy, guaranteeing fair coverage and diversity of viewpoints, preventing consolidation of media ownership, and maintaining good standards, ethics, and practices within the media. Information privacy legislation is far-reaching and stringently enforced.

A notable and controversial restriction on press freedom is the Information Bureau, a national news agency and fact checking service. The IB ensures the accuracy of news stories, issues corrections and retractions to inaccuracies, and has the goal of preventing public misperceptions. Its proactive regulation and actions to prevent tabloid journalism and junk food news are seen abroad as violating the freedom of the press.

The Internet in Gylias is regulated as a public good and thus subject to the same policies as the press. For this reason, Gylias is perceived as a regional zenith in the context of internet policy, with Megelan representing the opposite side of the coin.

Freedom of assembly

There are few restrictions on freedom of assembly, and no restrictions on time, place, and manner of protest.

Local governments can only prohibit rallies on the grounds of involvement of banned organisations.

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion and irreligion is guaranteed by the Constitution, and Gylias is a secular republic. However, religious denominations must function in accordance with the Law on Religion of 1959 and register with the Bureau of Religious Affairs.

Anti-discrimination

Gylias has wide-ranging anti-discrimination and anti-hate speech laws, founded on Article 12 of the Constitution, which among others guarantees everyone "the right to freely develop and express their identity" and "the right to freedom from discrimination on any grounds".

These form the basis of protections for minority rights, which include recognition of women's rights, gender equality, children's rights and youth rights, disability rights victims' rights and defendant's rights in procedural law, prisoners' rights in penal law and criminal procedure.

Gylias has sweeping protections for LGBT rights and intersex rights, in line with progressive social norms. These include full legal recognition of LGBT sexual activity, couples, adoption, parenthood, protection from discrimination, a ban on attempts to change an individual's sexual orientation and no restrictions on blood donation except if diagnosed with an STI.

Law enforcement

Gylias has one of the most heavily regulated and controlled law enforcement in Tyran. Incidents of police brutality or torture are extremely rare, and swiftly and severely punished.

Enforcement

The Public Advocate is an administrative agency under the Ministry of Justice which is responsible for investigating and addressing public complaints of maladministration or violations of constitutional rights.

Several important institutions are responsible for protection of human rights and enforcement of related legislation. They include the judiciary (especially the Constitutional Court), law enforcement agencies, administrative agencies such as the Directorate for the Protection of the Constitution, Inspectorate of Police, Directorate for Action Against Discrimination.

The Constitutional Court can ban certain parties or organisations, based on the advice of local governments or DPC surveillance, as anti-constitutional. Notably, it has exercised this mainly against far-right and authoritarian left groups, and does not consider anarchists a threat. This is due to the strong impact of anarchism on Gylian history and politics, to the point that the Constitution establishes in its first article that the state organisation is temporary. Anarchism is thus seen as an ideology that strengthens democracy even if it is opposed to the existing organisation, unlike extremist ideologies which are hostile to democracy itself.