Consider the victims of torture from Central America to Côte d’Ivoire to Pakistan; the legal harassment – not least of journalists – in Egypt; the persecution of gays in Russia and Uganda; human trafficking, prevalent even in developed countries; and the abduction of young Christian women in northern Nigeria. In many countries, political dissidents (like the captives in “Fidelio”) are locked up – or worse – in defiance of the clear and open procedures that should ensure the rule of law.