A Year of Reckoning, World Report 2025

Host: We’ve said goodbye to 2024, but for people concerned with human rights the question remains: what in the world just happened? 

Al Jazeera: Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been battling each other since early 2023…

Host: The war in Sudan raged on, with outrageous systematic violations of human rights…

Al Jazeera: The Rapid Support Forces have targeted hospitals and displacement camps, and killed thousands of civilians according to the local health ministry.  .  . 

PBS Newshour: One of the attacks struck a hospital, in Gaza’s Djabalia Refugee Camp, where Palestinians officials say at least nine people were killed, including women and children…

Host: Israel’s attacks in Gaza intensified, killing tens of thousands of civilians. And Russia continued its assault on Ukraine and Ukrainian civilians…

ABC News: It was a sleepless night across Ukraine, Russia firing nearly 300 drones and missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure overnight…

Host: And Russia continued its assault on Ukraine and Ukrainian civilians…

But then, as dire as these conflicts have been for the civilians affected, there were some surprises…

NPR: There’s never been a summer quite like this in Bangladesh. In a few short months the country’s future has transformed.

Host: In Bangladesh, a popular uprising of students led to the collapse of the government of the autocratic prime minister Sheik Hassina…

NPR: Hassina was forced to resign. She fled the country. Protesters overran her residence. [sounds of celebration]

Host: …and in Syria the regime of Bashar al-Assad…

ABC News Australia: [sounds of celebration] Jubilation and celebration in the capital.

Host: …came to a sudden end…

ABC News Australia: Fighters, alongside Damascus locals dance on top of tanks in the city’s main square.

Host: 2024 was also a year of elections.

CNN: [election music]

Host: The drift towards authoritarianism continued in many parts of the world… 

CNN: It is now official. CNN now projects that Donald Trump has been elected president, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris…. 

Host: So that’s just some of what happened in 2024. You can read a lot more in Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2025. Every year Human Rights Watch issues a review of human rights around the globe. It’s a report that governments around the world closely watch, and also journalists, who, like me, are looking for some kind of clarity, as to: What in the world just happened? 

This is Rights & Wrongs, a podcast from Human Rights Watch. I'm Ngofeen Mputubwele. I am a writer, a lawyer, and a radio producer. Human Rights Watch asked me to look at human rights hotspots around the world through the eyes and ears of the people on the front lines of history. 

This week on Rights and Wrongs, we’re asking not only what happened in 2024, but what does it MEAN? 

So the World Report is a LARGE document. Among other things, it summarizes the human rights situations in about a hundred countries. 

Yes, you could feed the report into an AI website and probably get a snappy, Cliffsnotes version of human rights around the globe. But I like talking to people. I understand things better when I talk to people. And I want to see in my mind’s eye at least some of what’s been happening, picture it, and to get a sense of where things are headed.

Our guide for this episode is an Australian lawyer and former social worker. Her mom is part-Sri Lankan, part Chinese, her dad is an academic from Pakistan. She herself grew up in Singapore, Indonesia, the U.S. and Australia. Early in her career she did refugee work in Australia and worked in humanitarian aid in Africa and Asia, then worked for many years as a researcher for Human Rights Watch in the Middle East and around the world. She held a senior position at Amnesty International before returning to Human Rights Watch, where she is now the executive director.  

Her name is Tirana Hassan, and I talked to her a few days before the World Report was scheduled to come out in Human Rights Watch’s headquarters in the Empire State Building.  

First thing I wanted to know: of all the human rights abuses and conflicts that they detail in the report, which ones stand out for her? 

 Tirana: Sudan is number one. We have seen a protracted conflict now in Sudan over many years. And in 2024, the situation degenerated significantly, not just in terms of the amount of civilians who are dying, but also it's become the world's largest humanitarian crisis with famine now being declared in Sudan. 

We are seeing devastating images coming out of Gaza.  The war in Gaza continues on. There has not been any movement and we continue to see governments like the United States government give weapons to the Israeli defense force to continue the war crimes that Human Rights Watch documented throughout 2024. 

Another conflict, which is just not getting enough attention, but continues to rage on is the conflict in Myanmar.  This is a conflict which has been raging now for years after the military took over, in essentially a coup, and there is a civilian resistance movement which has been building, but the conflict has spread throughout the country and has really not gotten the level of international attention or action. 

And then of course, there's Ukraine.

Ngofeen: Let's go to Sudan for a minute. You spent time in Sudan, and I wonder when you think of Sudan, when you're hearing all the news about Sudan, what kind of images are going through your mind, particularly as someone who's been there?

Tirana: Yeah. When I see the images that are coming out, um, it takes me back to my time as an aid worker back in Darfur during the conflict at its most active period.

And it's these images of the, what is now known as the Rapid Support Forces, uh, back when I was in Darfur, they were the Janjaweed and it's these in their camouflage uniforms, standing around groups of terrified civilians, humiliating them, using racial slurs, which indicates that they were targeting them because of their ethnicity.

I see the pictures of these houses that people have worked so hard to build, put the tin on the roofs, burning, because that was actually part of the scorched earth policy from before, which we see repeating again, where once the Rapid Support Forces went into these towns, villages, they would target the civilian population. I remember that very vividly and hearing those stories and treating those survivors in our health facilities.  

But then they would loot.   And you see, we can see these in images, which are readily available on social media, where you see trucks leaving houses full of people's belongings.  And the other one that sticks with me that I've seen too many times, and that really could be an image from back then, is these flows of people. women carrying their children, children carrying babies, and people just walking in this line for what they hope will - a line with a large number of people that they hope will keep them safe from another attack.

Um, and unfortunately from our research in 2024, in Darfur in particular, we saw that staying in large numbers didn't keep them safe. Um, and when our researchers were in Chad interviewing those people who left, they described what it was like to - and that fear and that's the other thing that brings back a really vivid memory. It's not visual, but there's something you feel when somebody is telling you what it is like to be targeted when you - 

Ngofeen: How would you describe that?

Tirana: It's chilling. They tell you stories of how fearful they were. They describe in vivid detail because they remember everything about what it is like for the unimaginable to happen, to watch your family members be killed in front of you. And then there is a sense of urgency that stays with you .  .  .  

Ngofeen: From them?

Tirana: From them, I think, which triggers a sense of urgency in those of us that do this work, and my colleagues who are documenting these testimonies is there is a sense of urgency that we must propel the world to do something.

Ngofeen: Let's talk about double standards. Like in the US, we've seen different approaches to human rights when it comes to Ukraine versus what's been happening in Gaza. What do you make of that?

Tirana: One of the things - it's not new, but it was, it became so acute in 2024, was how pervasive double standards have become in the defense of human rights. You know, I remember, during our World Report release just after, you know, the full fledged invasion of Ukraine had taken place, there was this moment where you could show the world what good looked like in terms of defending those whose human rights were being abused.

There was a mobilization across the world to support Ukrainian refugees who were moving into Europe to, you know, sanction Russia, to condemn Russia's actions using the Security Council, using the General Assembly, using the Human Rights Council. Investigations were triggered in a record time to look at abuses that were taking place in Ukraine.

And there was massive support for those investigations across the world, and support for the work of the International Criminal Court. You know, that is essentially the high bar. We should be calling for the international community to be approaching every single situation the same way.

The same robust response, uh, should be applied to the situation in Sudan and of course in the war in Gaza. Instead, what we have seen is none of the tools in the human rights toolkit, in the accountability toolkit, were being mobilized with such, uh, fervor. Uh, when it came to Gaza. Actually it's quite the opposite.

It was that the US continued to arm Israel despite mounting evidence that the Israeli forces were using these weapons to kill Gazan civilians; that the way in which the Israeli defense force was conducting its operations as the war continued showed that they were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

We have seen little action from the UN Security Council.   You know, we have seen that at least the courts, the international criminal justice system has been able to step in to a degree.   We have seen that arrest warrants have been issued both for, uh, Hamas officials and Israeli officials who have been charged with committing crimes.

But we didn't see any support for the court when that happened, and it implicated Israeli leaders like Netanyahu and Gallant. Actually quite the opposite. We have seen a stance, particularly in the US that is looking to sanction the court for taking these sort of actions. We see increased weapons transfers when it came to the war between Israel and Gaza.

And the message that that sends, unfortunately, is that some lives are worth more than others. When there is inaction on Sudan, from the Security Council, from the organizations and the governments who are responsible for upholding these standards and protections of civilians, it sends a message that some lives are worth more than others and that human rights apply to some situations and not to others, and that is just fundamentally untrue and damaging to the human rights movement, but it is not inevitable. 

That's the important thing to remember. It is not inevitable, and it is within the power of the actions of states, whether it's the United States or members of the European Union, or for that matter, countries in the Global South.

You know, it's not to say that countries in the Global South are not guilty of double standards. This is an issue for all states and we need to see a consistent approach to the application of human rights. We need to see a consistent approach when it comes to ensuring that there is accountability for human rights abuses and the most serious crimes that we see on the battlefield.

Ngofeen: So I want to move to Syria. Understatement to say there's been a lot of news in Syria in recent weeks. You also have a lot of experience in Syria. And when you see the news in Syria now, what do you see?

Tirana: So, I wasn't working directly inside Syria, so I worked on Syrian refugees, but I was at Human Rights Watch as a researcher during the Arab uprisings.

And at the beginning of the uprising in Syria, that then became a full fledged civil war. You know, I remember distinctly interviewing Syrian refugees who were coming into Iraq and taking boats to get into Egypt, who were describing what it was like to live in cities like Aleppo, which were under constant bombardment.

I remember hearing the stories. Of protesters who had stood up in those initial early days of the revolution, describing what it was like to be taken away and taken to these prisons, you know, our researchers documented vivid accounts of being held in stress positions. We knew about the infamous Sednaya prison, um,

Ngofeen: Sorry, stress positions?

Tirana: Oh, stress positions, so they would be held, uh, prisoners would be held for hours and tortured essentially with their hands sort of held above their heads tied to posts suspended from windows or from poles on the, off the ceiling for hours. People were beaten and tortured, um, actually, back during this period Human Rights Watch wrote a report which documented the entire sort of what we called a torture archipelago, an entire system of network of torture centers, which were being run by the regime and what we're seeing now that the Assad regime has fallen, one of, in, one of our teams went in within the, within the first days of the regime falling, and they went into the Sadia prison and they were able to confirm that everything that we had documented in these, uh, reports years ago where we didn't have access was true. The way that the cells looked, um, the way that they described being taken, the conditions in which they were held.

And so what we are seeing now is that the regime is gone, but the legacy of the Assad regime and the abuses that they inflicted on the population have left a deep scar. And, you know, I was talking to my colleague who was there where people were coming up and asking her, like, you know, where would I find my, my sibling or my brother when they were in the prison, um, they were asking if there was anybody else that had not been released.

So you see hundreds of desperate families now looking for those who were part of the thousands of people that went missing during the regime. It's a really extraordinary moment in Syria right now, but it's early days.

[HWR ad: Tanya Lakshima]

Deutsche Welle: It is one of the most dangerous and impassable regions in the world, yet this year alone 300,000 desperate people have tried to cross it, in the search for a better life. The infamous Darién Gap on the border between Colombia and Panama…

Ngofeen: You were just recently in one of the hot spots in the world when it comes to migration, the Darién Gap, what did you learn being there?

Tirana: You know, we often talk about migration crises, like they’re something that appear out of nowhere, right? Um, that's the first mistake. The migration crisis doesn't begin at the southern border of the United States.

Ngofeen: Yes.

Tirana: Um, it begins, you know, well before and majority of those who crossed the Darién Gap in 2024 were from Venezuela.   

Ngofeen: Okay. 

Tirana: They were leaving Venezuela because of the widespread and systematic repression that has taken place under the Maduro government. And the place that we met the migrants and migrant families was at two ports. One is called Necocli and the other is called Turbo. 

The one thing that you notice before you even start having conversations with migrants, everything is said in hush whispers.   And the reason for that is that those ports and the boats that these migrants are about to get on so that they can go to the mouth, the entrance of the jungle, the Darién, is controlled by a gang called the Gulf Clan. All of this is managed and run in a multi-million dollar industry for organized crime.

And what you see when you arrive at the first port is families holding garbage bags with all of their worldly belongings. You see lots of little shops selling Wellington boots, water purification tablets, ponchos to try and keep dry and sometimes tents. When you start to see the images that come out of the actual jungle, after the first leg of the journey, there are multiple legs across the Darien, is that you see lots of abandoned tents, because they're just too heavy to cross. 

So our researchers have documented and what people have told us about the crossing is that we see them at the last moment where it's comfortable. They have been sleeping on the beach waiting for their time to buy the ticket to get onto a boat. 

Ngofeen: Run by a gang. 

Tirana: And they'll cross a gulf and then they will get off on the other port and they'll walk and begin. Literally walking, and you see a lot of women with children, and you see a lot of young able bodied men, and they're carrying children, and you think to yourself, how will they be able to carry three children for anywhere between five and eleven days? You know, they walk into the jungle and they have to do river crossings, and these river crossings are sometimes with torrents of strong currents, water gushing, and so the children are handed over to some of these more able bodied young men, and that's where the family separation, we're told, takes place quite often, because people cross at different points, speeds with different obviously strength and physical ability. So you have somebody walking off, potentially, and we heard these stories with your child, and you just hope that you cross the river yourself safely and that you'll find them at the next stop. The pathways in the Darién are becoming wider and wider because more people are crossing. They've crossed through the water and the sound - we saw in one of the, uh, some video footage that was shared with us, had this noise that was just so loud. And it was the buzzing of mosquitoes.

Ngofeen: Oh, wow.

Tirana: It is the relentless sound of jungle and mosquitoes. And what families tell us is, They are just constantly thinking about how will I feed the children? How will we make the next crossing? People are often injured. They have, they fall, they slip, they break their ankles or twist [00:18:00] them and they rely on others to help them through. So it is perilous for women. One of the most disturbing things that we heard about was the prevalence of sexual violence. And it has become, for women who are traveling on their own, it's become so prevalent that actually they were carrying the morning after pill with them because it was the only way that they had any sort of agency to keep themselves safe or protect themselves from getting pregnant.

Ngofeen: 2024 was the year of elections. Loads of people all over the world voted. What do those elections tell us?

Tirana: Yes. More than two billion people went out and voted. So that tells us that people care. Uh, they want their voices heard. But there is also, when we look at the results, we can see that there were a number of leaders who were elected running off a somewhat anti-rights agenda. And what we have seen is that the first target of the attacks on rights is often against particular groups like the LGBT community, women, um, and migrants. 

But then, you know, we know from our 50 years of documenting human rights abuses around the world, is that these are early warning signs for what can become a serious backsliding into autocracy. Because if leaders are able to get away with attacks on the rights of these groups, then they'll start going for institutions, the institutions we rely on to protect our human rights, like the media, like civil society.

They'll start attacking things like free speech, um, your freedom of assembly, the right to protest. And if they're successful in doing that, then the next step is going after political opposition, where they can essentially consolidate power. And then we have seen that these types of leaders will then go after the institutions that can hold them to account, like the courts.

When it comes to the United States, Trump, we know what we're in for. It was written down in Project 2025. We have seen statements that have been made by the president about plans to start mass deportations. And we know that we are going to have to hold the line to protect human rights in the United States.

In other countries around the world, you know, we are seeing people rise up to protect human rights. You know, what elections showed us is that people care about what their leaders do. But what we've seen even just in the last few weeks in, in South Korea, for example, is that the people, civil society, they will not sit back and allow power to be wielded in a way that curtails and crushes their rights.

So, you know, I think, yes, it was a year where many elections took place. There is a very mixed bag of results all over the world. We have some rights, respecting leaders. We definitely have leaders across the world, they do not share the same commitment to human rights. And so what that really does mean for 2025 is civil society, people, the institutions, we are going to have to be vigilant to hold elected leaders or all leaders for that matter, to account. We're going to need to be vigilant in 2025.

Host: …Tirana Hasan, the executive director of Human Rights Watch.

You can read the World Report 2025 on Human Rights Watch’s website hrw.org.   

The news clips in this episode came from Al Jazeera, the PBS News Hour, NPR, ABC News, ABC News Australia, CNN and Deutsche Welle.

You’ve been listening to Rights and Wrongs, from Human Rights Watch. This episode was produced by me and Curtis Fox. Our associate producer is Sophie Soloway. Thanks also to Ifé Fatunase, Stacy Sullivan, and Anthony Gale. 

I’m Ngofeen Mputubwele. Talk to you again in two weeks.