Populism has emboldened authoritarian leaders around the world but Human Rights Watch hails resistance in annual report
The broad picture is still dark and, with America turning angrily inward and Britain distracted by its chaotic divorce from Europe, human rights have few powerful champions
Activists have decried the rise of US President Donald Trump and his embrace of populist strongmen as a blow to the global campaign for human rights, but said they have seen a promising resistance movement.
In its annual report released on Thursday, Human Rights Watch tracked unchecked abuse in unstable states like Syria and Myanmar, authoritarian trends in powers like Turkey and China – and also weighed in on year one of Trump’s White House.
Under Trump, the US cosied up to strongmen like the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and encouraged Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s foreign adventures. But HRW has not given up hope.
In an interview, the group’s executive director Ken Roth said he saw growing civic and political resistance to the world’s populist moment.
“The big theme this year is really how much the world has changed,” Roth said. “Because a year ago, just as Donald Trump was entering the White House, it was a moment of despair.
What has been encouraging over the last year is how much resistance we’ve seen in many countries to this rise of populism
“It seemed as if the authoritarian populists were in the ascendancy and there was nothing we could do to stop them.