SPECIAL FEATURE | UDHR @ 77: Global reports warn of deepening human rights crises in 2025
Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2024 documents intensifying authoritarian practices in more than 100 countries.
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As the world marks Human Rights Day this December 10, major global reports from the United Nations, Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, the European Union and UNHCR show a troubling trend: human rights protections are eroding across regions, with democratic institutions under mounting pressure.
Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2024 documents intensifying authoritarian practices in more than 100 countries. Governments are curtailing the independence of courts, restricting media freedom and imposing limits on peaceful assembly. HRW also highlights the targeting of minorities, activists and journalists, describing a widespread erosion of civic space.
Amnesty International’s Report 2023/24 reinforces this outlook, citing states and armed groups that “broke and bent the rules of war.” Amnesty recorded indiscriminate attacks, torture, unlawful killings and collective punishment in multiple conflict zones. The report also warns of laws used to criminalize dissent and silence civil society groups under the guise of national security.
The European Union’s Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2024 adds evidence from UN fact-finding missions, including findings that forces and militias in Sudan committed abuses that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity. Across countries, civil society organizations are facing smear campaigns, legal pressures and suppression of independent media.
Displacement, inequality and climate-driven crises
UNHCR’s Global Trends Report 2024 lists 123.2 million people forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of 2024 — the highest number ever recorded. Conflicts, persecution, human rights violations and collapsing public order continue to push millions from their homes. Many displacement situations have become long-term, with fewer pathways for safe return or resettlement.
Host countries face mounting pressures on social services, while border restrictions and anti-immigrant sentiment have grown in many regions. UNHCR stresses the need for durable solutions as humanitarian emergencies multiply.
Economic inequality and climate-related disasters also play a central role in deepening human rights challenges. Amnesty’s report highlights how inflation, debt crises and extreme weather events disproportionately affect marginalized populations, threatening access to food, housing, health care and clean water.
Climate change is no longer seen as a peripheral issue, but as a direct human rights concern. Communities already living with limited resources — including Indigenous groups, women, children and rural workers — face heightened risks when heatwaves, floods, droughts and resource shortages occur.
Digital harassment, disinformation, new frontlines of abuse
A new UN Women study reveals that more than two-thirds of women journalists, activists and human rights defenders have experienced severe online harassment. Alarmingly, 41–42 percent reported offline attacks directly connected to the digital abuse — including stalking, physical assault and threats.
Online violence is increasingly linked to coordinated disinformation campaigns, doxxing, swatting and AI-generated deepfakes designed to discredit or intimidate individuals. These tactics are now being weaponized against critics of authoritarianism, corruption and discrimination.
Human rights researchers stress that digital platforms must improve protections, while states must enforce accountability to prevent online spaces from becoming tools of repression. Without stronger safeguards, online abuse risks spilling into broader violations of expression, privacy and personal safety.
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