Amnesty International published its 2025 State of the World’s Human Rights Report (April 2025). This report assesses national, regional and global developments in 2024 across a wide range of human rights themes, such as violations in armed conflicts, repression of dissent, discrimination, economic and climate injustice, and the misuse of technology to infringe on human rights.
Human Level’s Take:
- Amnesty International's 2025 report offers a pulse check of global human rights - and the situation is grave
- Around the world, authorities are using laws, surveillance, and violence to stifle protest and silence dissent. Tactics range from unjust prosecutions and arbitrary arrests to enforced disappearances and even unlawful killings. Human rights defenders and trade union activists are particularly targeted
- Vulnerable communities - including women, girls, LGBTI people, refugees and migrants, and ethnic or religious minorities - face growing risks. Discriminatory policies and practices, sometimes supported by corporate interests, often exacerbate adverse human rights impacts. For example, migrant workers in countries like Canada, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are tied to employers through restrictive visa schemes, leaving them vulnerable to labour exploitation. In Bolivia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, extractive and development projects proceed on Indigenous lands without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples
- The human rights impacts of climate change are worsening, and no country is unaffected. As of May 2024, the global average temperature over the past year had risen more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. This increase is contributing to more severe and likely unnatural disasters, such as hurricanes, wildfires, heavy rainfall, and droughts, which are leading to increased deaths, forced displacement, and famine
- At the same time, climate change is compounding existing challenges like poverty and conflict, creating a more complex situation. These interconnected crises are driving hundreds of millions of people into food insecurity, highlighting how multiple factors together intensify the overall impact
- Emerging technologies also pose growing human rights threats. Facial recognition is being used to track peaceful protesters. Spyware enables gender-based violence, targeting women and LGBTI activists
- Along with states, companies have played a significant role in either directly or indirectly contributing to human rights impacts. For example, companies may be connected to adverse human rights impacts experienced by workers through discriminatory government visa schemes or involved in development and extraction projects on Indigenous lands without securing the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the affected communities. Additionally, companies in the renewable energy and critical minerals sectors face emerging and complex human rights risks
- Given the challenging operating context, companies can continue to conduct robust human rights due diligence. This means understanding how local conditions may create or worsen human rights risks across their value chains, particularly for vulnerable groups like migrant workers, women, girls, LGBTI people, and ethnic and religious minorities
Some key takeaways:
- Crackdown on voice and increasing discrimination: Authorities around the world are using restrictive measures and violence to limit people’s rights to freedom of assembly, expression and association. For instance, new regulations restricting civilians’ right to protest were approved or proposed in several countries in 2024, including in Argentina, Georgia, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Peru. In some cases, security forces brutally and lethally dispersed protests and used mass arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to suppress them. In some countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Burkina Faso, and China (including Hong Kong) amongst others, authorities introduced or sought to introduce new regulations that risked suppressing free speech or the banning of media outlets. More broadly, government repressive tactics have included arbitrary detention, torture and unjust prosecution of critics and opponents, deployment of spyware, unlawful killings, and forcible disappearances. Human rights defenders (including campaigners for the rights of women, LGBTI people and marginalised communities), political and trade union activists, journalists and online commentators are among those who are targeted. Another trend highlighted is the discrimination faced by marginalised groups such as refugees and migrants, ethnic minorities, women, girls and LGBTI people. Authorities’ discriminatory policies and practices disproportionately affect racialised groups of migrants, refugees and other non-citizens. For instance, several countries including Canada, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are operating visa schemes that tie migrant workers to a specific employer, increasing the risk of labour exploitation. Another example is governments in countries including Bolivia, Indonesia and Malaysia proceeding with extractive and development projects on Indigenous land without first obtaining Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). In addition, gender-based discrimination remains pervasive, particularly for those experiencing intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination. In Afghanistan, for example, the Taliban imposed yet more severe restrictions on women and girls in 2024, effectively cutting them off from public life. While there was some progress on LGBTI rights in 2024, backlash continued. Discrimination and repressive laws - driven by anti-rights and anti-gender movements - proliferated.
- The human rights costs of climate change: 2024 showed that, even at current levels of warming, the human rights costs of climate change are unacceptably high. In May 2024, it was reported that the average temperature for the previous 12 months had been more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. An increase in global temperatures makes unnatural disasters like hurricanes, cyclones, wildfires and heavy rainfall more severe and more likely. This leads to increased death, forced displacement, famine and other human rights impacts. For example, flooding in Bangladesh and India displaced hundreds of thousands in 2024. At the same time, governments have also invested in economic sectors and projects that harm human rights, including the right to a healthy environment. For instance, governments have provided significant subsidies to the fossil fuel industry to develop unproven solutions to the climate crisis that may impact human rights in their implementation, such as carbon capture and storage and hydrogen production. In some cases, these projects have caused forced evictions, significant pollution and human rights impacts. Against this backdrop of worsening climate change, global conflicts, high inflation and debt repayment, poor corporate regulation and pervasive tax abuse means that extreme poverty and inequality continue to deepen, especially in low-income countries. Poverty and conflict, combined with climate change-related drought and other unnatural disasters, means that hundreds of millions of people are experiencing severe food insecurity. Companies also have a role to play in driving a range of human rights impacts through their activities, such as polluting the drinking water, fishing grounds, farmland and air of nearby communities, as well as disregarding the rights to information and consent. In addition, the transition to renewable energy has increased demand for critical minerals - posing new human rights risks to companies operating in this space.
- Technology and its impacts on human rights: Technology is being misused by authorities and this adversely affects human rights, including the right to privacy. For example, facial recognition technologies are being used to monitor peaceful protests, which has a chilling effect on the right to peaceful assembly and may have discriminatory effects. Another example is the widespread use of spyware technology, facilitating gender-based violence and posing a growing threat to women and LGBTI activists. New digital security threats, such as the abuse of online ad tracking and the process of gathering data on how internet users interact with adverts, have emerged. Governments are also taking a step back from commitments to regulate new technologies and, instead, increasingly integrating AI technologies into public sector functions such as welfare, policing, migration and military. This can compound existing discrimination, reinforce gender inequalities and entrench racial, socioeconomic systems of power. Furthermore, social media companies have rolled back protections for those most marginalised and at risk. They also continue to operate business models that prioritises engagement over everything else, thereby enabling the spread of hateful and violent content. In 2024, globally, youth activists faced threats and harassment online.
