Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): El gobierno habla sobre la justicia y los derechos humanos. - The government talks about justice and human rights.

In Spanish, gobierno is grammatically singular, so the verb must also be singular: (él/ella) habla.
Even though logically it refers to many people, it’s treated as one institution.
You would only use hablan if the subject were grammatically plural, e.g. Los gobiernos hablan… (“Governments talk…”).

Why do we say El gobierno with el, when in English we usually just say “government” without “the”?

Spanish uses the definite article (el, la, los, las) much more often than English, especially with:

Institutions: el gobierno, la policía, la iglesia
General concepts: la democracia, la economía

So El gobierno habla… is the normal, natural way to say “The government talks…”.
Saying just Gobierno habla… would sound wrong in this context.

Why is it sobre and not de? Can I say habla de la justicia instead?

Both hablar de and hablar sobre can mean “to talk about” a topic, and in this sentence they are both correct.

hablar de is the most common, very neutral.
hablar sobre often feels slightly more formal or “about / on the topic of,” like in news or official contexts.

So you can say either:

El gobierno habla de la justicia…
El gobierno habla sobre la justicia…

Is habla here “talks” in general, or “is talking” right now? Why not está hablando?

In Spanish, the simple present (habla) can express:

general habits: “talks (in general)”
or actions happening around now, depending on context.

El gobierno habla sobre… can mean that the government regularly talks about those issues, or that it is currently addressing them as a theme.
If you want to clearly say “is talking right now (at this moment),” you’d use está hablando:
El gobierno está hablando sobre la justicia…

Why is it la justicia with la? Could I say just justicia with no article?

In Spanish, abstract nouns like justicia, libertad, paz often take the definite article when we talk about them in a general, concrete way:

La justicia es importante.
La libertad de expresión.

So sobre la justicia is the most natural here.
You can sometimes drop the article (justicia es importante) but it sounds more literary or slogan-like, not as neutral and standard as la justicia.

Why do we say la justicia y los derechos humanos and not just la justicia y derechos humanos?

When you join two nouns with y, you have options:

One article before both: la justicia y la equidad
Separate articles: la justicia y los derechos humanos

Here, the two nouns have different gender and number:

la justicia (feminine singular)
los derechos humanos (masculine plural)

Because of that, you normally repeat the article: la justicia y los derechos humanos.
La justicia y derechos humanos sounds incomplete and unnatural.

Why is it derechos humanos and not humanos derechos? In English the adjective comes first.

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually go after the noun:

derechos humanos = “human rights”
derecho internacional = “international law”

So it’s noun + adjective: derechos (noun) humanos (adjective).
Humanos derechos would sound wrong; it would be like saying “rights human” in English.

What does derechos humanos literally mean, and can I say it in the singular?

Literally, derechos humanos is “human rights”:

derecho = (a) right (as in a legal/human right)
humano = human

So:

un derecho humano = “a human right” (singular)
los derechos humanos = “human rights” (as a set, the usual expression)

In real usage, los derechos humanos is almost always used in the plural to refer to the general concept.

Why are gobierno, justicia, and derechos humanos all written in lowercase? In English we sometimes capitalize things like “Government” or “Human Rights.”

Spanish uses fewer capital letters than English.
You normally do not capitalize:

common nouns: gobierno, justicia, derechos humanos
names of fields or disciplines: historia, derecho, biología

You only capitalize if it’s a proper name or title, e.g. Gobierno de México, Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos.
In this sentence, they’re just common nouns, so they stay lowercase.

How do you pronounce gobierno habla sobre la justicia y los derechos humanos? Any tricky sounds?

A few key points (Latin American pronunciation):

go-bier-no: the b is like an English soft b/v; the stress is on -bier-: go-BIER-no.
habla: the h is silent → a-bla.
justicia: j is like a strong h (as in “Bach”) → hus-TI-sya (stress on -ti-).
derechos: de-RE-chos (the ch as in “church”).
humanos: u-MA-nos (the initial h is silent again).

Overall stress is regular: el goBIERno HABla SObre la jusTIcia y los deREchos huMA nos.