Amnesty International Warns of 'Direct Attack' on Global Human Rights Order

Amnesty International released its annual report "The State of the World's Human Rights" on April 21, 2026, covering the human rights situation in 144 (countries) — countries evaluated in Amnesty's annual report and describing the current moment as "the most difficult of our era." Secretary General Agnès Callamard labeled the leaders of the United States, Russia, and Israel — Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Benjamin Netanyahu — "voracious predators" intent on achieving economic and political dominance through what the organization characterizes as unlawful wars and economic blackmail. The report, running to more than 400 pages, argues that the world is no longer witnessing a gradual erosion of human rights at the margins of the international system, but rather direct attacks on its foundations by the most powerful actors. Callamard warned that most governments have responded with appeasement rather than confrontation, and that some have even sought to imitate the conduct of those she described as "bullies and looters."

The annual Amnesty International report has for decades served as a global benchmark for the state of civil liberties and state conduct. The rules-based international order that the report invokes as under threat emerged primarily from the post-World War II settlement, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Convention, both adopted in 1948. The International Criminal Court was established in 2002 as a permanent mechanism for prosecuting individuals for the gravest international crimes. Amnesty's report examines the year 2025 but also addresses events extending into early 2026, including the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

US accused of over 150 extrajudicial killings at sea The report levels some of its most specific accusations against the United States, stating that American forces perpetrated more than 150 extrajudicial executions by bombing vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific, in operations targeting suspected drug traffickers. Amnesty also holds the Trump administration responsible for an act of aggression against Venezuela in January 2026. The organization further accuses the United States and Israel of launching attacks on Iran that violated the UN Charter and triggered what it describes as indiscriminate Iranian reprisals across the region. One US airstrike on an Iranian school was reported by Amnesty to have killed more than 100 children, according to the ABC España report. The Trump administration is also accused of imposing sanctions on personnel of the International Criminal Court and on collaborating organizations, as well as on the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Domestically, the report documents what it describes as attacks on the judiciary, the media, and political opponents, alongside pardons for supporters, cuts to foreign aid, and the deployment of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to detain migrants and nationals. „Some even thought to imitate the bullies and the looters.” — Agnès Callamard via Al Jazeera

Gaza genocide charge stands despite 2025 ceasefire On Israel, Amnesty states that the country has continued what it characterizes as genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza despite the ceasefire agreed upon in October 2025, and that Israel is simultaneously accelerating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. The report describes Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians as carried out with the approval of authorities and the praise of prominent members of Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Russia, meanwhile, is accused of intensifying airstrikes against critical civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and of continuing to commit what Amnesty terms a range of international crimes. Russian courts are also cited for issuing arrest warrants against senior ICC officials, mirroring what the report frames as a coordinated assault on international accountability mechanisms by multiple powerful states. Italy and Hungary are named among European countries that declined to arrest individuals sought by the ICC who were present on their territory. Spain is singled out as an exception within Europe for its criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza and of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. „It is allowing for the multiplication of copycats around the world, and therefore what we are confronting now is much more aggressive and ferocious than what we had to confront three or four years ago.” — Agnès Callamard via Al Jazeera

Merz government accused of "history-forgetting" appeasement The report drew pointed criticism of European governments, with Amnesty International Germany Secretary General Julia Duchrow singling out the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz — who has led Germany since May 6, 2025 — for practicing what she called appeasement instead of opposing the deterioration of international law. Duchrow described the German government's foreign policy as placing economic and security interests above international law and human rights protection, calling the approach "forgetful of history" because it weakens the rules constructed after World War II. She cited Germany's silence on the US attacks against Venezuela and Iran, its failure to address China's suppression of the Uyghurs, and its cooperation with governments that violate human rights in order to deter migration. Duchrow called on Berlin to name human rights violations and war crimes regardless of who commits them, and urged the German government to clear the way at the European level for suspending the EU association agreement with Israel in light of the Gaza war. Callamard, speaking at a news conference in London, argued that the conduct of Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu has had an "absolutely dramatic" impact on the world and is emboldening other governments tempted by similar behavior. „Many world leaders have shown themselves to be excessively submissive in the face of attacks against international law and the multilateral system. There is no excuse for their silence and inaction.” — Agnès Callamard via El Periódico