Report: In its newly released annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, Amnesty International has issued a scathing condemnation of President Donald Trump’s second-term policies, warning that they have intensified a global unraveling of human rights protections and emboldened authoritarian actors worldwide.
The organization describes a grim picture of 2024, marked by a rapid erosion of civil liberties, escalating conflicts, growing authoritarianism, and a breakdown of multilateral cooperation. Amnesty’s Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, warned that the “Trump effect” has supercharged harmful global trends, weakening international law and pushing the world closer to a dangerous era of repression, greed, and inequality.
Callamard emphasized that the U.S. under Trump has shown “complete disdain” for human rights principles, actively dismantling domestic and international frameworks designed to protect vulnerable communities. The administration’s attacks on asylum rights, racial and gender justice, and climate initiatives are not only reversing progress within the U.S. but also emboldening repressive regimes abroad.
Beyond Trump, the report highlights a broader surge in authoritarian behavior across the globe, including widespread crackdowns on dissent, brutal suppression of protests, and the persecution of human rights defenders. In Bangladesh, nearly 1,000 students were killed under “shoot-on-sight” orders. Mozambique, Türkiye, and other countries faced violent state-led responses to demonstrations.
The report also chronicles massive human suffering in global conflicts. Israel’s actions in Gaza were labeled genocide by Amnesty, while violence intensified in the West Bank. Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine grew more deadly. Sudan’s civil war led to mass displacement and sexual violence, while crises in Myanmar and Syria worsened due to cuts in U.S. humanitarian aid.
Callamard noted that Trump’s abandonment of global climate commitments, including the Paris Agreement, has further weakened the international community’s ability to confront environmental catastrophe. COP29 was described as a failure, dominated by fossil fuel interests and wealthy nations pressuring poorer states into weak deals. With 2024 recorded as the hottest year ever and disasters mounting, the report asks whether the world’s richest countries will finally take action.
Amnesty also raised alarms over rising global inequality, with governments scapegoating migrants and minorities while billionaires grew wealthier. Rights of women, girls, and LGBTI communities are being aggressively rolled back in countries from Afghanistan and Iran to Uganda and Georgia.
New technologies have further complicated the picture. The Trump administration, in close alignment with powerful tech executives, has rolled back online protections, promoted disinformation, and opened the door to an era of unchecked corporate power and surveillance.
Despite this bleak landscape, the report highlights glimmers of resistance. The ICC and ICJ made significant rulings in 2024 and early 2025, including arrest warrants for leaders involved in serious international crimes and legal actions against Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. Countries from the Global South, including South Africa and the newly formed “Hague Group,” are leading efforts to uphold international justice.
Callamard ended on a defiant note, calling for a united global front to resist repression and reaffirm the dignity and rights of all people. “Despite the darkness,” she said, “history proves that people can, and do, rise against authoritarianism. That fight continues — and it must.”
