Unethical places/countries to not visit?

[CatZoned]

I would like to do more world travelling but don’t want to visit unethical places/countries, for example Dubai. Which countries should I add to my list and why?

I would say it's a matter of degree. No society is completely ethical. The best you are going to get is more ethical than average. It also depends what your primary areas of concern are. For example, if you are pro-choice, you wouldn't want to go to any place that restricts reproductive freedom. Many US states are not only anti-choice, but have a lot of mouth-breathing racists, so those states can fuck right off even after Trump's reign is over. If you're not comfortable around certain types of people you wouldn't enjoy your visit anyway. So it pays to research the politics and culture of the area you want to go to.

I think the application of the death penalty is a reasonable ground to avoid a country.

Maybe check the abortion laws in South American countries and their treatment of the Native Americans who can't speak or write Spanish.

The 99.8% conviction rate sounds awful but over 90% of cases referred to prosecutors result in a decision not to prosecute, or a fine of under around £5000. They have tried to address the issue of dodgy confessions by requiring all police interrogations to be recorded.

There are definitely problems in their system, but the World Justice Project scored their criminal justice system as the eighth best in the world last year, ten places ahead of the U.K. and also well ahead of popular holiday destinations like Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Cyprus.

If you’re interested, the rankings are on page 35 of this document and their criteria are on page 19.

https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/downloads/WJPIndex2023.pdf

Surely it’s unethical to be travelling abroad in terms of climate change?

Having just posted something somewhat in defence of Japan’s clinal justice system, I do agree with this. It’s not where I draw my line, but I totally respect anyone for whom the death penalty is a red line.

Yes you could make an argument for almost any country in the world.

Exactly

It is very difficult as every country in the world (including the one I live in) has issues.

My red line is the death penalty.

I am not 100% strict though - I have been to the Maldives which technically does have the death penalty but hasn’t actually executed anyone since 1952. That was 15 years ago though. I’m not sure that I would go now - they started making noise about a possible execution in about 2016. It didn’t actually happen but that makes me feel that it is a country with the death penalty even if they don’t use it.

Why? I can drive or get the train to multiple different countries

I’m sorry but this is kind of hilarious. What do you mean by ‘unethical?’ do you mean a government you don’t agree with? How far do you go for unethical?

We shouldn’t be using any type of transport. We should only go to places where we can walk.

I’m struggling to think of an ethical country.

In that case I take it you only eat food you grow yourself, and buy clothes etc from natural fibres you have grown? Otherwise you are paying people to travel on your behalf. So either you think travel isn’t okay, or you thibk its fine if someone is doing it for you. You should also look at the energy required for websites like MN to function.

I’ve explained it.

@Simonjt are you asking me why travelling has an impact on climate change? Do you think everyone travels by rail & road?

Obviously nowhere is perfect but surely you can see that there is a difference between the governments of democracies and the Taliban? Obviously there are shades of grey, but most people will draw a line somewhere.

I’ve been to lots of the “unethical” countries mentioned here and met some wonderful citizens of those countries. Government policy is never at the forefront of my mind when travelling.

Go where takes your fancy and have an open mind about their history and culture. And always try the local street food!

I mean I was a being facetious because I think the idea that travelling is good but if you go to Dubai it’s bad is a bit redundant but you can learn more here

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200218-climate-change-how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-when-flying

https://www.aef.org.uk/what-we-do/climate/#:~:text=In%20the%20UK%2C%20where%20the,2%25%20of%20global%20emissions).

“For those of us that do fly, it is likely to make up a significant slice of our personal carbon footprint. This is because, mile for mile, flying is the most damaging way to travel for the climate. (Read about the Finnish town that is rationing carbon emissions.)”

“A return flight from London to San Francisco emits around 5.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per person – more than twice the emissions produced by a family car in a year, and about half of the average carbon footprint of someone living in Britain. Even a return flight from London to Berlin emits around 0.6 tonnes CO2e – three times the emissions saved from a year of recycling.”

“fact, if everyone in the world took just one long-haul flight per year, aircraft emissions would far exceed the US’s entire CO2 emissions, according to ICCT analysis.”

I would say Dubai and Saudi Arabia for obvious reasons, Thailand because of the sex trade. There are probably loads of others but these are the ones that spring to mind.

Egypt

Exactly.
My post was sarcasm. 😂

China

Assuming you're in the UK, you may want to get out.

It depends a lot on where your money goes. Package holidays will be to some degree less ethical in an country with a reasonable human rights record than a more ethical type of holiday in a country with a poor human rights record. You need to research how the state or big business takes income from tourism to make the judgement. Going with a more ethical organiser that ensures that the money from your tourism goes into the grass roots for example might be a more productive way of looking at it and a more constructive line of research.