The events of 2024 have shown that even in the darkest times there are those who dare to resist oppression and demonstrate the courage to seek progress, said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch, today in releasing the organization's World Report 2025. In the face of rising authoritarianism, repression, and armed conflict, governments should respect and defend universal human rights with more rigor and urgency than ever, and civil society should remain steadfast in holding them accountable.
For the 546-page world report, in its 35th edition, Human Rights Watch reviewed human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In much of the world, Hassan writes in her introductory essay, governments cracked down and wrongfully arrested and imprisoned political opponents, activists, and journalists. Armed groups and government forces unlawfully killed civilians, drove many from their homes, and blocked access to humanitarian aid. In many of the more than 70 national elections in 2024, authoritarian leaders gained ground with their discriminatory rhetoric and policies.
"Governments that are outspoken about protecting human rights, but ignore the abuses of their allies, open the door to those who question the legitimacy of the human rights system," Hassan said. "That view irresponsibly and dangerously lets abusive governments off the hook. This isn't a moment to retreat."
The past year was marked by armed conflicts and humanitarian crises that exposed the fraying of international protections for civilians and the devastating human cost when it is flouted. This includes horrific instances of international inaction and complicity in abuses that further human suffering, most notably in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, and Haiti.
The year also highlighted an often-disregarded reality that liberal democracies are not always reliable champions of human rights at home or abroad, Hassan said. US President Joe Biden's foreign policy has demonstrated a double standard when it comes to human rights, as it continues to provide weapons to Israel despite widespread violations of international law in Gaza while condemning Russia for similar violations in Ukraine.
In Europe, economic stagnation and security have been used as a pretext by a growing number of countries 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.
Racism, hate, and discrimination drove many elections in 2024. 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. In some places, such as Russia, El Salvador, and the Sahel, authoritarian leaders tightened their grip, leveraging fear and misinformation to stifle dissent and entrench their rule.
Yet in other countries, there were glimmers of democratic resilience, Hassan said, as voters rejected populist agendas and held leaders and their parties accountable. In Bangladesh, student protests led to the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, its long-time repressive leader. Despite violent crackdowns, the protesters persevered, forcing the formation of an interim government that has promised reform. In South Korea, thousands took to the streets to protest President Yoon Suk Yeol's declaration of martial law, which the National Assembly overturned a mere six hours later.
While it is too soon to tell what Syria's future holds, the flight of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad illustrates the limits of autocratic power. Autocrats who rely on other governments to maintain their repressive rule are susceptible to their benefactors' shifting political calculations.
Among the crucial human rights events of the year:
- The Taliban intensified their crackdown on women and girls and minority groups. In 2024 they closed one of the last remaining loopholes in their ban on education for older girls and women by forbidding them from attending medical school.
- A new national security law in Hong Kong, imposed by China, was used to hand down prison terms to several dozen people in a mass trial. In Xinjiang, hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs remain under surveillance, imprisonment, and forced labor.
- Violence in Haiti reached catastrophic levels with criminal groups intensifying large-scale, coordinated attacks, killing thousands of people, recruiting children, and raping women and girls.
- In Sudan, the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) resulted in widespread atrocities against civilians, including mass killings, sexual violence, and forced displacement. The RSF's ethnic cleansing campaign in West Darfur resulted in crimes against humanity.
- In Gaza, Israeli authorities have imposed a blockade, committed numerous unlawful attacks and caused forced displacement, which amounts 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.
- Russia continued 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.
"Let us say the unspoken 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 protections to people worldwide, ultimately leading to a situation where everyone is worse off," Hassan said. "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.
Hassan said that 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. When governments call out violations of international law, as South Africa did in bringing a case to the International Court of Justice alleging Israel's violations of the Genocide Convention in Gaza, or several states contest the Taliban in Afghanistan for violating the United Nations convention on women's rights, it can raise the bar for its enforcement.
The international courts 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 authoritarianism in key elections like Venezuela - all of these are reminders that the fight for rights is very much alive.
"When rights are protected, humanity flourishes," Hassan said. "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."
