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Our annual review of human rights around the globe
2024: A Year of Reckoning
This has been a year of elections, resistance, and conflict, testing the integrity of democratic institutions and the principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. Whether in response to heightened repression in Russia, India, and Venezuela, or catastrophic armed conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine, governments around the world are being called upon to demonstrate their commitment to human rights, democracy, and humanitarian action. Many have failed the test. But even outspoken and action-oriented governments have invoked human rights standards weakly or inconsistently, feeding global perceptions that human rights lack legitimacy.
That is an irresponsible and dangerous conclusion, and conveniently absolves governments of their legal obligations to uphold international human rights law both at home and in their actions abroad. Reflecting on the events of 2024, this is not a moment to retreat from the protections needed by everyone everywhere. Instead, governments should respect and defend universal human rights with more rigor and urgency than ever, and people and civil society need to remain steadfast in holding them accountable.
The Power of Popular Resistance
Elections need to abide by human rights standards, but elections are never an end in themselves. While rigged and otherwise unfair elections are a sign of more rights violations to come, even free and fair elections don’t necessarily mean a rights-respecting future. Although over 70 countries conducted national elections in 2024, their full impact on human rights will only be felt in what follows.
Racism, hate, and discrimination drove many elections in the past year. In the United States, Donald Trump won the presidency for a second time, raising concerns that his new administration would repeat and even magnify the serious rights violations of his first term. Likewise, in the European Parliament elections of 2024, far-right parties made significant gains, exploiting anti-immigrant sentiment and nationalist rhetoric to advance policies that threaten minority communities and undermine democratic norms.
Yet elsewhere, there was meaningful democratic resilience, as voters proved unwilling to accept populist agendas and held leaders and their parties accountable. In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hate speech on the campaign trail did not win him the electoral majority he craved, showing that even in the face of systemic challenges, democracy can still put a check on power.
Authoritarian leaders tightened their grip on power in countries such as Russia, El Salvador and the Sahel nations of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, leveraging fear and misinformation to stifle dissent.
Under President Xi Jinping, China continued its relentless campaign of repression to enforce loyalty to the one-party state, silence any form of dissent – including within the Chinese Communist Party itself – and stifle any attempts to foster an independent civil society, support an independent judiciary, or protect the rights of ethnic minorities and other minority groups. Beijing authorities further curtailed basic freedoms in Hong Kong, where several dozen pro-democracy activists were sentenced to prison terms under the territory’s overbroad new National Security Law. Beijing’s repression also extended across borders, targeting Chinese human rights defenders, government critics, journalists abroad, and members of the diaspora through surveillance, harassment, digital threats, and coercion by proxy against family members inside China.
But deepening authoritarian repression also fueled civic mobilization around the world. In Bangladesh, students protesting corruption, democratic erosion, and restrictive job quotas grew into a national movement that ultimately led its long-term repressive leader, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to flee the country. Despite violent crackdowns, the protesters persevered, forcing the formation of an interim government that has pledged human rights reforms.
In Venezuela, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand a fair counting of their votes, even against the backdrop of a decade of brutal repression by the government of Nicolás Maduro. In Kenya, widespread demonstrations challenged economic inequality and demanded accountability for public resources and electoral promises, reflecting the public’s discontent with stagnating reforms.
In Georgia, nationwide protests erupted over the ruling party’s decision to abort the European Union accession process, which many saw as sealing the government’s hard turn away from democratic values and its pivot toward authoritarianism.
In South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law to ban political activities and suspend most civil liberties. Within minutes of his announcement, thousands of people marched in protest to the National Assembly, where military special forces tried to block assembly members from voting to lift the martial law decree. The National Assembly overturned martial law a mere six hours later, and 11 days later impeached President Yoon.
These resistance movements highlight a crucial reality: the fight for rights is often driven by ordinary people, fed up with injustice and corruption, bringing together their collective power to compel governments to uphold basic rights and serve the people instead of their own interests.
Conflicts, Crises, and Eroding Norms
The past year was also marked by armed conflicts and humanitarian crises, exposing the fraying of international norms meant to protect civilians and the devastating human cost when they are flouted. These include horrific instances of international inaction and complicity in abuses that further human suffering, most notably in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Haiti.
In Gaza, Israeli authorities have imposed a blockade and committed numerous unlawful attacks and forced displacement that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. They have deliberately deprived Palestinians of access to water required for survival, which is a crime against humanity and may amount to the crime of genocide. Israeli strikes have killed and wounded tens of thousands of civilians, deliberately targeted hospitals, residential buildings, and aid workers, and devastated schools and camps sheltering displaced families, leaving no safe haven from the hostilities and destroying the infrastructure necessary for survival.
Despite clear evidence that Israeli forces used their weapons to commit atrocities, the US, Germany, and other governments have continued to provide arms and military support to Israel, violating international legal obligations and domestic law. New use of surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence, and other digital tools on the battlefield risks further civilian harm and raises more questions about accountability for governments and tech companies involved.
In Sudan, the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in widespread atrocities against civilians, including war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of the RSF’s ethnic cleansing campaign in West Darfur. Across the country, the warring parties have committed mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement.
The global response to Sudan has been grossly inadequate, emboldening commanders to commit even greater abuses. While the International Criminal Court (ICC) has sought to amplify the urgency to act and bring abusers to justice, the United Nations Security Council has yet to establish a badly needed civilian protection presence in the country. The governments supplying arms to the warring parties have shown utter disregard for civilian lives, exposing the need for a global response to uphold humanitarian principles and human rights norms.
Russia continued for a third year its large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, hospitals, and other infrastructure, killing and injuring many civilians. Russian authorities in occupied areas have forcibly and methodically sought to erase Ukrainian identity, including by imposing the Russian curriculum and Kremlin propaganda in Ukrainian schools. While many EU governments and the US have expressed a commitment to justice for the grave crimes by Russian forces, accountability has been slow going.
In Haiti, violence has reached catastrophic levels. Criminal groups intensified large-scale, coordinated attacks, killing thousands of people, recruiting children, and raping women and girls. The deployment of the UN-authorized and largely US-funded and Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support mission in June offered hope to many that security might soon be restored. But governments have yet to provide the mission with enough resources to make it fully operational, resulting in a deteriorating situation.
Let us say the quiet part out loud: when governments fail to act to protect civilians at dire risk, they not only abandon them to death and injury, but they also undermine norms that provide protection to people worldwide, ultimately leading to a situation where everyone is worse off.
This race to the bottom exacts a toll that is far reaching, often extending well beyond those directly affected by the conflict to include forcing people from their homes, preventing healthcare and aid workers from reaching civilians in need, denying children an education, and creating even greater risks for people with disabilities. Human rights are not abstract ideals; they are the foundation of human dignity and survival, and it is in our shared interest to protect them.
The Limits of Autocratic Rule
In December, a coalition of opposition armed groups overthrew the deeply repressive government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, ending over 50 years of Baath Party rule. Emblematic war crimes and crimes against humanity under Assad included torture, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, use of chemical weapons, starvation as a weapon of war, and indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against civilians and civilian objects.
It is too soon to tell what Syria’s future holds or whether millions of Syrian refugees will be able to return safely. Indeed, the armed groups operating in Syria, including Hay’et Tahrir al Sham and factions of the Syrian National Army that joined the offensive, are also responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes. Whoever emerges as Syria’s new leadership should make a full and determined break from the repression and impunity of the past and chart a rights-respecting path for all Syrians, regardless of ethnic or religious background. Holding all those responsible for serious abuses to account is a critical step in that direction.
Despite this uncertainty, the events in Syria offer insight into the limits of autocratic power.
Even longstanding autocracies can be very fragile. Autocrats who rely on other governments to maintain their repressive rule are susceptible to their partner states’ shifting political calculations. For many years, Assad was able to maintain an iron grip on power because of Syria’s military alliance with Russia – an alliance that resulted in countless atrocities, including crimes against humanity, against the Syrian people. In the face of mounting evidence of grave abuses, Russia used its permanent seat at the UN Security Council to shield Syria from sustained international pressure and action. But Russia diverted its resources and support from Syria following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, contributing to Assad’s military vulnerability and exposing Russia’s limits as a patron of repression.
Leadership Lessons and Opportunities
The past year has once again highlighted an often-disregarded reality: liberal democracies are not always reliable champions of human rights at home or abroad.
US President Joe Biden’s foreign policy has demonstrated a double standard when it comes to human rights, providing arms without restriction to Israel despite its widespread atrocities in Gaza, while condemning Russia for similar violations in Ukraine, and failing to address serious rights abuses by partners like the United Arab Emirates, India, and Kenya. Donald Trump’s return to the White House not only threatens rights within the US but will also affect, by commission and omission, respect for human rights abroad. If the first Trump administration’s attacks on multilateral institutions, international law, and the rights of marginalized groups are any indication, his second term could inflict even greater human rights damage, including by emboldening illiberal leaders worldwide to follow suit.
Europe, too, faces significant human rights challenges. A growing number of European governments have used economic stagnation and security issues as a pretext to justify their selective jettisoning of rights, especially of marginalized groups and migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees, while failing to take credible action to improve economic and social rights. Authoritarian leaders have gained ground in elections with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies being normalized by mainstream parties that adopt their agenda even as many voters resist their advance.
This fragmented political landscape reflects a broader truth: the shared values and commitment of human rights for all cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, the appeal of populist leaders lies in their willingness to scapegoat minorities and foreigners and offer voters the mirage of “solutions” in exchange for trading away their rights and the rule of law. Yet when everyone’s rights and dignity are protected, societies flourish, highlighting their inseparable link.
The past year reinforced the importance of looking to governments across regions to display bold leadership on human rights and accountability – and they will need to do so more often. Mexico and Gambia led the charge in galvanizing cross-regional support in the UN General Assembly to move ahead on a draft crimes against humanity convention, a critical step to support domestic prosecutions of widespread and systematic crimes against civilian populations even in the absence of armed conflict.
Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic joined Luxembourg to champion a new multinational treaty to strengthen the right to education to ensure free schooling at the preprimary and secondary levels for all children, which could reduce poverty and inequality and support the realization of other rights.
When governments call out violations of international law, as South Africa did in bringing a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging Israel’s violations of the Genocide Convention in Gaza, or several states in contesting the Taliban in Afghanistan for violating the UN convention on women’s rights, it can raise the bar for its enforcement.
The ICJ’s string of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent further harm to the Palestinian population in Gaza may have had limited effect so far in stemming Israeli abuses, but they have contributed to increased scrutiny of governments supplying Israel with weapons.
Thus the United Kingdom suspended some arms export licenses to Israel following a review that certain exports posed a clear risk of being used to commit or facilitate abuses, which reflects how pressure is growing for governments to rethink arms transfers to Israel.
The Architecture of Accountability
As we face the uncertainties of 2025 and beyond, meeting these challenges will require evolution and imagination. The inability or, in some instances, unwillingness of governments to collectively work to save lives in crises like Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, the Sahel, Haiti, and Myanmar underscores why independent institutions like the ICC are critical in the fight to protect rights. In the past year, the ICC investigated and issued arrest warrants for senior officials accused of crimes in Ukraine and Palestine, with a warrant application pending for an individual from Myanmar.
An ever-present hurdle is rallying the political will of governments to arrest ICC suspects and deliver them to the court – which is why the consistent support of ICC member countries is critical for securing justice, almost always a long game. The challenge is especially acute given the mounting pressure from Russia, China, and the US to undermine the ICC’s mandate and operations and undercut funding for human rights mandates across the multilateral system.
That is precisely why all governments should be vigilant in calling these threats for what they are: a willingness to embrace impunity when justice threatens states’ interests, no matter the high cost for civilians. States should also double down on their financial and political support for independent bodies like the ICC and UN commissions of inquiry so they can robustly deliver on their accountability mandates.
Every voice in support of rights matters. Civil society organizations are more important than ever and can play a critical role in defending everyone’s rights, protecting minorities, and holding governments accountable, including by challenging populist narratives that frame rights as obstacles to progress. Many authoritarian governments have taken steps to silence and dismantle civil society organizations that speak out for human rights. Governments and leaders of multilateral institutions need to stand firm against efforts to erode independent checks on power – such as nongovernmental groups and the media – that are critical to protecting human rights.
The events of the past year have underscored the importance of defending international human rights norms and democratic institutions in the face of the craven unwillingness of many governments to stand up to suffering and abuse. The year has shown the resilience of those who dare to resist oppression and the power of courage to deliver progress, even in the darkest times. The ICC offering a path to justice for victims and survivors in Myanmar, Israel and Palestine, and Ukraine; the activists who are fighting for change in Georgia, Bangladesh, and Kenya; and the voters rejecting authoritarian rule in key elections like Venezuela are all reminders that the fight for rights is very much alive.
The task before us is clear: governments have a responsibility to push back against efforts to roll back international human rights law and norms. They need to defend space for free expression and peaceful assembly; to reinforce the architecture and effectiveness of accountability and to bring rights abusers to justice, no matter how powerful; and to amplify the voices of those who have been silenced. For when rights are protected, humanity flourishes. When they are denied, the cost is measured not in abstract principles but in human lives. This is the challenge – and the opportunity – of our time.
https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2025/01/World%20Report%202025.pdf