Deutsche WellePoliticsGlobal issues Amnesty International paints a grim picture Jens Thurau April 21, 2026
In its 2025/2026 report, the human rights watchdog Amnesty International calls out the “predatory behavior of the powerful” and calls for action to defend the global order.
The conclusion drawn by the human rights organization Amnesty International in its report on last year is bleak: human rights violations are on the rise worldwide, at the hands of both states and non-state actors. And in the majority of cases, those responsible go unpunished.
The “Amnesty Report 2025,” which was just released in various locations worldwide, states that the year 2025 was marked by many powerful people acting like “predators.”
Amnesty specifically denounces political leaders whose actions dominated headlines worldwide last year: “Political leaders like Trump, Putin and Netanyahu, among many others, carried out their conquests for economic and political domination through destruction, suppression and violence on a massive scale.”
German president: Iran war violates international law
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
‘Violating international law will not free Iran’
According to Julia Duchrow, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, the war in Iran is currently the most pressing issue. She emphasizes, however, that Amnesty has documented human rights violations in some 140 countries. In an interview with DW, Duchrow says: “In Iran, people face a double threat: first, from the attacks by the US and Israel in violation of international law — including against the civilian population and infrastructure — and second, from repression by their own government, which has already led to many thousands of deaths.”
And yet, according to Duchrow, the regime in Tehran can only be replaced if international law is also respected: “The unlawful attacks have not led to an improvement in the situation. We now fear even more intense attacks by the Iranian leadership against its own people.”
But it is not only the US, Russia and Israel that have long since abandoned the old world order. Many other states are also increasingly moving away from a system of politics based on firm international rules, according to Amnesty’s annual report: “A world order that emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust and the unspeakable destruction wrought by two world wars, and which had been steadily built up over the past 80 years — with great effort, though unfortunately not sufficiently stable.” And the nations that remain committed to democracy, the rule of law and international stability often seem helpless and increasingly reliant on appeasement.
.
… Read more … Original Article
This article was originally written in German.
