A world in which war, not diplomacy, rules and powerful states act as predators with no regard for international law or human life — this is the grim picture painted by Amnesty International in its 2026 annual report on the state of human rights globally, released on April 21. The 140-page document, described by Secretary General Agnès Callamard as a perilous new era that threatens to destroy all that was built up over the last 80 years, singles out the leaders of the United States, Russia, and Israel as the primary drivers of a systemic assault on the multilateral human rights framework.
Callamard, in a preface that reads more like a political manifesto than a formal NGO document, names US President Donald Trump, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu as the three figures most responsible for what she describes as the collapse of post-World War II norms. They have rejected the multilateral system in favour of a vision without moral compass, she writes. And the world’s other governments have been far too submissive in the face of this assault.
The Case Against the Named Leaders
The report devotes substantial attention to the US strike on Venezuela in January 2026, which it describes as an act of aggression without any legal basis under international law. It also documents the US-Israeli attacks on Iran — including targeted operations against nuclear infrastructure and military command centers — as actions that have escalated regional tensions beyond the point where diplomatic solutions appear feasible.
On Gaza, the Amnesty report is unsparing. The world’s most powerful governments failed to take meaningful action to stop the genocide or to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid, it states, using language that will intensify already fierce debates in Western capitals about the appropriate response to events in the Middle East. The section on Sudan documents ongoing attacks on civilian infrastructure in the context of the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, while the section on the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo describes a situation where attacks by armed groups — including the M23 March 23 Movement — continue to cause mass displacement and civilian casualties with insufficient international attention.
Europe in the Dock
One of the more striking elements of the report is its criticism of European governments, who Callamard says have been far too submissive in the face of the unilateralist turn in Washington. The document specifically criticizes several European states for continuing weapons sales to parties in ongoing conflicts, for failing to impose meaningful sanctions on governments credibly implicated in war crimes, and for using migration policy as a tool of coercive diplomacy.
The UK comes in for particular criticism over its proscription of the Palestine Action protest group, which the report describes as a blow to peaceful protest rights that has no place in a democracy. Tanzania and Nepal are also named for what the report describes as particularly brazen use of unlawful lethal force to repress protests.
Where Resistance Still Exists
Amnesty does find cause for cautious optimism in what it describes as a Gen Z resistance movement that has seen young people in dozens of countries — including Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, and Peru — taking to the streets in organized protests against injustice and authoritarian practices. The report highlights Kenya’s Finance Bill protests of 2025 as a particularly notable example of youth-led civic mobilization that achieved concrete policy concessions from government.
Citizens across the world are not passive, Callamard writes. They see what is happening. They are resisting. And the energy and courage of this resistance must be supported, amplified, and connected across borders.
The full report is available on Amnesty International’s website and covers the human rights situation in 149 countries over the course of 2025.
Source: Africanews / Amnesty International / AFP