Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the 35th edition of its 2025 World Report highlighting the challenges to human rights worldwide throughout 2024 and across over 100 countries. The report draws attention to the rise of autocratic rule, ongoing violations of humanitarian law, and the human toll of major global conflicts but also offers up possible opportunities including the rise in collective accountability.
Human Level’s Take:
- The Human Rights Watch World Report 2025 highlights 2024 as a year marked by the continued erosion of democratic institutions worldwide, with rampant violations of humanitarian law and freedom of expression, fuelled by escalating global conflicts. These crises have not only caused a devastating human toll but also triggered mass migration, intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies in many regions.
- However, in the face of this repression, there was a notable rise in civilian movements and collective action, with people organising across borders to demand accountability and human rights reforms. This cross-regional solidarity demonstrates that while authoritarian forces may tighten their grip, the collective power of civilians remains a crucial force for change, offering hope in an increasingly fractured world.
- In the face of backsliding democracies and attacks on human rights, businesses play an important role in urging governments to protect human rights. They can actively advocate to hold their governments accountable for failing to meet their legal obligations and stand firm against efforts to undermine international human rights laws.
- For companies themselves, challenges of this scale require mainstreaming human rights due diligence throughout the business and decision-making. In particular, stronger governance and policies, in addition to proactive assessment and action responding to human rights risks, are critical. Businesses can also take stronger action in protecting vulnerable groups within their own operations and supply chains in the face of displacement caused by growing conflict combined with the growing anti-immigrant rhetoric.
- To amplify their impact, companies can collaborate with other businesses, as well as civil society, and international organisations. By organising through collective action they can push back on violations and ensure governments uphold their human rights responsibilities.
Some key takeaways:
- The rise in racism and anti-immigrant sentiment towards vulnerable groups which fuels far-right ideologies: HRW reports that this has become a significant global issue, with political actors across the globe, including the U.S. and across Europe using this rhetoric to amplify their campaigns and gain electoral advantage. The far-right made notable gains in 2024 seeing populist leaders using anti-immigrant sentiment to attack marginalised and vulnerable groups to gain votes in a time where the migrant and refugee crisis has been fuelled by ongoing conflict leading to humanitarian disasters and mass displacements of people. According to HRW, political leaders have failed to protect these groups and instead have turned to scapegoating migrants as threats to national identity and economic stability — leading to further attacks on human rights. Existing policies that protect marginalised people are under attack and leaders are undermining these safeguards in favour of nationalism. While these movements have gained ground, they also face resistance, as demonstrated in India's recent elections where despite efforts to push a hate-filled agenda, the Indian electorate rejected these messages, affirming that democracy and tolerance could prevail over divisive rhetoric. For HRW, this shows that there is still hope in fighting the rising tide of racism and hate.
- The rise in autocracy globally has profoundly impacted human rights: HRW reports that authoritarian leaders continue to tighten their grip on power and dismiss international laws protecting people in favour of consolidating their power. This shift towards autocratic law has resulted in widespread human rights violations including the persecution of minority groups and the repression of peaceful protests. However, despite the rise in authoritarian repression there has been a spark of civic mobilisation as seen in Bangladesh where escalating repression led to citizens organising and rising up against the Prime Minister, causing her to flee and making way for an interim government pledging to implement human rights reforms. The mobilisation of ordinary people highlights the power of collective action and the importance of civil society in holding government accountable.
- The rise in surveillance and artificial intelligence (AI) poses significant threats to freedom of expression and privacy: 2024 saw the growing use of surveillance technologies by governments and companies in a way that threatens human rights. In many countries these tools are being deployed to monitor civilians, control populations under the guise of national security or public safety. The use of surveillance has risen, particularly in conflict zones and authoritarian states posing risks to citizens’ freedoms and rights, as well as targeting individuals that challenge the status quo by tracking protestors, human rights activists and minority groups. The report emphasises that these technologies, including facial recognition software, social media monitoring and data mining can be exploited by governments to dismiss international human rights laws and engage in mass surveillance without any form of accountability, attacking the fundamental freedoms of people globally. This suggests an important opportunity for tech companies to prevent, mitigate and remediate negative impacts of their products.
