Amnesty International calls on states to stop predatory, anti-rights order from taking hold in pivotal moment for humanity.

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The growing dismantling of international law and human rights protections has led Amnesty International to issue one of its starkest warnings in recent years. In its latest annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, the organisation describes a global order increasingly shaped by powerful states, corporate interests, and anti-rights movements seeking to weaken multilateral institutions and replace them with a more unequal, authoritarian system.

Rather than a slow erosion of protections, the world is facing a direct assault on the foundations of international law. Decades of double standards and selective compliance have created the conditions for this shift, allowing the most powerful actors to behave with growing impunity. This crisis is most visible in two areas: escalating armed conflicts and the growing repression and control of civil society through the erosion of civic space.

First, major conflicts continue to be marked by serious violations of international law. Amnesty describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as part of an ongoing genocide against Palestinians, continuing beyond the October 2025 ceasefire, alongside apartheid policies and the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Russia has intensified attacks on civilians and infrastructure in Ukraine, while Sudan, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Iran remain affected by widespread violence. The United States is also criticised for extrajudicial military actions abroad and for undermining international justice, particularly through sanctions targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations officials.

Second, civic space is shrinking as governments intensify repression and expand digital and economic controls over civil society. Peaceful protests are increasingly met with unlawful force, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and abusive counterterrorism laws. In countries such as Nepal, Tanzania, Iran, Kenya, and Venezuela, demonstrations have been violently suppressed. In the United Kingdom, the banning of Palestine Action and arrests of peaceful protesters illustrate how even democratic states are extending legal tools to criminalise dissent.

This erosion is compounded by surveillance, digital censorship, and economic pressure. Spyware, artificial intelligence, and online monitoring are increasingly deployed against journalists, students, activists, and human rights defenders, often with corporate involvement. Major donor states such as the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have also reduced international aid while increasing military spending, weakening NGOs working on migration, healthcare, gender justice, and climate resilience.

Yet Amnesty insists this is only one side of the global picture.

On the other side stands a growing movement of resistance, led by protesters, civil society organisations, international bodies, and states refusing to accept the normalisation of impunity. Across 2025 and early 2026, mass demonstrations swept through countries including Kenya, Indonesia, Morocco, Nepal, and Peru, many led by Gen Z demanding justice and democratic participation. Around 300,000 people defied Hungary’s ban on Budapest Pride, while protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza mobilised millions worldwide.

Civil society has also challenged injustice through direct action. Dockworkers in France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Sweden attempted to disrupt arms shipments to Israel, while humanitarian flotillas involving participants from more than 40 countries demonstrated solidarity with Palestinians. Activism and legal pressure have also pushed several governments to restrict or suspend arms exports.

International justice mechanisms have not remained entirely passive. The International Criminal Court’s acceptance of the former Philippine President to face charges of crimes against humanity marked an important step towards accountability. Arrest warrants were also issued against Taliban leaders for gender-based persecution. The United Nations Human Rights Council established new investigative mechanisms for Afghanistan and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while the International Court of Justice issued rulings reaffirming states’ human rights obligations.

This double reality defines the present moment: on one side, the consolidation of a predatory international order built on force and selective legality; on the other, the persistence of resistance from those determined to defend universal rights and rebuild institutions capable of protecting them.

The message is clear: as fear and authoritarianism reshape the global order, defending human rights remains both an act of resistance and a political necessity.

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