Amnesty International says the ‘Trump effect’ is accelerating human rights destruction

The deterioration of human rights and the international order worldwide predates Donald Trump’s term in office. But with the Republican’s return to the White House “and significant corporate capture of his administration, we are turbo-thrusted into a brutal era where military and economic power trumps human rights and diplomacy; where gendered and racial hierarchies and zero-sum thinking shape policy, where nihilistic nationalism drives international relations,” warns Amnesty International in its latest State of the World’s Human Rights report, in which it calls on democracies to resist these attacks against the multilateral order.

“One hundred days into his second term, President Trump has shown only utter contempt for universal human rights. His government has swiftly and deliberately targeted vital U.S. and international institutions and initiatives that were designed to make ours a safer and fairer world,” said Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard, presenting the latest global report on the situation of human rights around the world in Brussels.

“The U.S. government is leading a global assault on gender and racial justice, has adopted sweeping gag rules on abortion rights, is relentlessly attacking diversity and inclusion, the rights of trans people, and is brutally stripping away the rights of migrants and refugees,” the former UN human rights rapporteur stated. She also denounced the U.S. administration’s attacks on the fight against climate change and on institutions that act as a check on the executive branch, from the judiciary to universities and the media.

The report, which reviews the state of human rights throughout 2024, denounces the “genocide” of the Palestinian population in Gaza. It also accuses Russia of killing more Ukrainian civilians in 2024 than the previous year, continuing to attack civilian infrastructure, and subjecting detainees to torture and enforced disappearance. It also highlights the “widespread sexual violence” against women and girls in Sudan and the continued attacks on the Rohingya community in Myanmar, as well as the “cruel and widespread repression of dissent” in many parts of the world, “insufficient efforts to address climate breakdown,” and a “growing global rollback of the rights of migrants and refugees, women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people,” among others.

“Unless a drastic turnaround in the global situation is achieved, all of these factors will deteriorate further in a turbulent 2025,” the international organization warns.

Most of these human rights violations began long before the new Trump era. “President Trump is just a super-accelerator of trends already well advanced,” notes the organization. “This is not merely about President Trump. The roots are far deeper.”

Callamard called for “resistance” to preserve the international justice system built over the past 80 years on the ashes of World War II and the Holocaust. “Unless there is concerted and courageous resistance, this historic juncture will mutate into an historic transformation: not merely an era of change but a change of era.”

The Amnesty leader lamented Europe’s lack of action, in particular. “The EU is not standing up to Donald Trump, it is not standing up to its own rights-violating members, like Hungary, and it is reluctantly protecting the International Criminal Court. There is no strident, loud, collective voice protecting international justice or the multilateral system.”

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