Human Rights Watch World Report 2025

2024: A Year of Reckoning By Tirana Hassan, Executive Director (Part 1)

​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 fuelled 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. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.