Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that global civil and political rights are facing their gravest threat in decades, citing a “democratic recession” accelerated by the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump and a widening authoritarian surge worldwide.
In its annual global report, HRW said nearly three-quarters of the world’s population now lives under autocratic rule—a level not seen since the mid-1980s—placing the international human rights system “in peril.”
A Generation-Defining Crisis for Human Rights
Philippe Bolopion, executive director of Human Rights Watch, described the current moment as “the challenge of a generation,” warning that the post–World War II rules-based international order is being steadily dismantled.
He said the Trump administration’s domestic and foreign policies have dealt a severe blow to human rights safeguards, compounding long-standing efforts by China and Russia to weaken international norms and accountability mechanisms.
United States: A Tipping Point for Democracy
Speaking ahead of the report’s publication, Bolopion said 2025 marked a “tipping point” for rights and freedoms in the United States.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has:
- Attacked judicial independence and defied court orders
- Rolled back women’s rights and obstructed access to abortion care
- Undermined protections for trans and intersex people
- Eroded privacy protections
- Gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies
- Reduced remedies for racial discrimination
“These are not isolated actions,”
Bolopion said.
“They amount to an organised, relentless assault on the checks and balances designed to limit executive power and protect rights.”
Elections, Corruption, and the Erosion of Accountability
HRW also raised alarms over Trump’s repeated attacks on electoral integrity, including recent calls for Republicans to “nationalise” the U.S. voting system. Bolopion pointed to revelations that a member of an Emirati royal family backed a $500 million investment in a Trump-linked cryptocurrency venture as further evidence of blurred lines between power, money, and accountability.
“Every day brings new confirmation of a systematic effort to weaken democratic safeguards,”
he said.
Global Fallout: Gaza, Sudan, and the Collapse of ‘Never Again’
The report highlights how U.S. disengagement from multilateral institutions has undermined efforts to prevent mass atrocities. In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, HRW said Israeli forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing more than 70,000 people since the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023 and displacing most of Gaza’s population.
Despite the International Court of Justice weighing genocide allegations, the Trump administration has maintained near-unconditional support for Israel, HRW said.
The report contrasts this with the early 2000s, when U.S. leadership helped mobilize international action over Darfur. Sudan, now again engulfed in mass violence, faces far less global scrutiny and accountability, HRW warned.
Retreat from Multilateralism and Human Rights Diplomacy
HRW said Trump’s foreign policy has marked a sharp departure from past U.S. efforts—however inconsistent—to promote human rights abroad.
Key actions cited include:
- Termination of most U.S. foreign aid, including lifesaving humanitarian assistance
- Withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council
- Exit from the Paris Climate Agreement
The administration’s deportation of individuals to countries where they may face torture, alongside attacks on free speech, exemplified its disregard for U.S. human rights obligations, the report said.
A Global System Under Coordinated Pressure
Bolopion warned that the combined pressure from Washington, Moscow, and Beijing has pushed the global rights framework toward collapse.
“Under relentless pressure from Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed,”
he said, threatening the very architecture human rights defenders rely on to protect freedoms.
Trump’s public dismissal of international law—claiming he needs only his “own morality”—was cited as emblematic of this shift.
Europe Not Immune: Migration and Far-Right Rhetoric
The report also flagged troubling trends in Europe, including rising anti-migrant rhetoric in the UK, France, Germany, and elsewhere. Bolopion said Trump’s framing of migration as a threat of “civilisational erasure” has emboldened European politicians to lean into racist narratives, echoing far-right ideology and normalizing exclusionary policies.
A Democratic Recession Decades in the Making
While Trump has accelerated the decline, HRW stressed that the democratic recession began long before his return to office.
Democracy worldwide has regressed to 1985 levels, with 72 percent of the global population now living under authoritarian rule. The report’s foreword starkly concludes:
“Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.”
Signs of Resistance and Hope
Despite the bleak assessment, HRW pointed to growing public resistance.
These include:
- Anti–ICE protests in Minneapolis following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal immigration officers
- Protests in Iran sparked by economic collapse and evolving into demands for political change
- Gen Z-led demonstrations in Morocco over underfunded healthcare and education
“These movements show that even in a democratic recession, people are still fighting back,”
the report said.