ICYMI: Mar 13, 2025 9:31 AM CT U.S. Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist Over Declining Civil Liberties
A reminder. I had forgotten already!
Updated: Mar 13, 2025 9:31 AM CT
U.S. Added to Global Human Rights Watchlist Over Declining Civil Liberties
Solcyré Burga
The United States was added Sunday to the CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist, a research tool that publicizes the status of freedoms and threats to civil liberties worldwide.
The move comes amid President Donald Trump’s “assault on democratic norms and global cooperation,” said CIVICUS—a global alliance and network of civil society groups, including Amnesty International, that advocates for greater citizen action in areas where civil liberties are limited—in a press release. The organization also cited the Administration’s cut of more than 90% of its foreign aid contracts and its crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—which Trump called “illegal and immoral discrimination programs”—through executive action.
“The Trump Administration seems hellbent on dismantling the system of checks and balances which are the pillars of a democratic society,” said Mandeep Tiwana, Interim Co-Secretary General of CIVICUS, in a press release. “Restrictive Executive Orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the Administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal.”
CIVICUS outlines the state of civil rights through five categories—open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed, and closed. “Open” is the highest ranking, meaning all people are able to practice liberties such as free speech, and the lowest is “closed.” Per CIVICUS, instances that result in a “decline in open civic space” include “repressive legislation that curtails free speech and dialogue, obstacles to civil society activities and operations and crackdowns on civil disobedience and peaceful demonstrations.”
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