The report documents human rights concerns during 2025 in 144 countries, connecting global and regional issues and looking to the future. Despite some positive changes to laws and policies in certain countries, human rights have been under attack across the world. Authoritarian practices have spread and existing protections for human rights have been pushed aside, ignored or trampled.
The 2026 edition of Amnesty International’s annual report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, assesses national, regional and global developments across a wide range of human rights themes. It highlights how states have undermined the international rules-based system, hindering the resolution of problems that affect the lives of millions. It also identifies trends regarding armed conflicts, repression of dissent, discrimination, economic and climate injustice, the abrupt halt of humanitarian aid, and the misuse of technology. Many of these trends represent setbacks that risk continuing beyond 2026.