'Voracious predators' driving global rights crisis: Amnesty International

Amnesty International warned of a sharp global decline in human rights in its 2026 annual report, accusing leaders including Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump of driving what it described as an increasingly aggressive international environment.

The report describes the leaders of Israel, Russia and the United States as "voracious predators" intent on political and economic domination, says Al Jazeera.

Agnes Callamard, the head of the rights group, said: "A global environment where primitive ferocity could flourish has been long in the making." She added that their conduct is "emboldening all of those that are tempted by similar behaviours. 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."

Callamard said that in 2025, "sharp U-turns were taken away from the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars, and constructed slowly and painfully, albeit insufficiently, over these past 80 years."

The report highlighted several major conflicts and alleged abuses. In Gaza, Amnesty labelled Israel's actions as genocide, saying more than 72,500 people had been killed since October 2023. Callamard said conflicts in the Middle East are a "product of the descent into lawlessness, made possible by a vision of the world in which war-making and the killings of civilians are normalised." She added: "No effective steps have been taken against Israel for its repeated, constant violation of basic standards of humanity."

In Ukraine, the report said Russia's full-scale invasion involved "crimes against humanity," with more than 15,000 people killed over four years.

It also reported that a US-Israeli assault on Iran had killed more than 3,000 people. Elsewhere, the group documented what it said was a crackdown in the United Kingdom on Palestine solidarity movements, increased gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, and failures to investigate violence against Dalit women in Nepal.

Callamard said many governments were failing to confront such actors, adding: "Some even thought to imitate the bullies and the looters."

Despite what it called a "grim" outlook, Amnesty pointed to signs of resistance, including Gen Z-led protest movements and a case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice. She said Spain "is standing above the double standard that is destroying the international system."

The report also noted actions by the International Criminal Court against leaders in the Philippines and Afghanistan.

"Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide," the report said, documenting alleged abuses across 400 pages covering countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.