Be an observer and a sponge!
 

What really helps me in another country- especially if it is multicultural and pluralistic, is to be a keen observer and take everything with a pinch of salt. Especially in the case of a developing country, i am extremely aware of my privileged subject position and make that my humble entry point tp learn rather than advice.

"Safety more or less trumps everything for me as well. Most of the examples of human rights violations that I can think of, where I’d draw the line at visiting, are usually tied to signs that the country isn’t safe."

Would be interesting if you could mention some examples of countries you would not visit due to human rights violation.

I'm only wondering because actually there is a large number of countries with horrible examples of human rights violations which are at the same time totally safe to visit and they're often popular tourist destinations.

China, Israel, Iran, Turkey, Russia, USA, India, Myanmar to name only a few.