He Donald Trump’s return to the White House has had a clear effect throughout the world, according to Human Rights Watch: he advance of the authoritarianism and the regression of the human rightsnot only in the United States but throughout the world, like a domino effect across the geopolitical board. Where there were previously limits—legal, free press, citizen organization—the cracks and control are widening by decree, with political speeches that increase polarization and even lead to war.
That is the diagnosis that Human Rights Watch (HRW) presents in its World Report 2026 published this Wednesday. The document covers more than hundred countriesincluding Spain and the European Union, and putting a clear focus on a disruptive United States that so many other countries copy because they feel legitimized. All in all, he observes a reordering of the world order. HRW invites us to look at the sum: when The rules fall, the cost is paid by civilians, migrants and dissidents.
The US domino effect
HRW places the United States as a piece for its impact on the accountability system. In the report, the Trump Administration appears linked to the conflict of Gaza: Although Washington mediated a ceasefire, HRW maintains that it has shown support for Israeli war crimes and has taken measures that deepen American complicity, to the point of making the United States a part of the conflict.
The pressure also reaches the judicial sphere. HRW points out that prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court (CPI) have faced intimidation and sanctions in relation to the Palestine investigation, with the US sanctioning a UN expert and several Palestinian organizations.
Gaza and the pulse of legality
The section on Israel and Palestine concentrates much of the alert. HRW claims that in 2025 Israeli forces escalated atrocities including war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocidein addition to ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population in Gaza, with massive destruction and large-scale displacement.
The report highlights the blockage of aid, the declaration of famine in Gaza City and the increase in deaths due to malnutrition. He adds that the deprivation of water and basic services and the use of hunger as a weapon of war clash with provisional measures dictated by the International Court of Justice in the case brought by South Africa against Israel.
Outside the Strip, HRW describes the tightening of the occupation: record settlement plans and movement restrictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with hundreds of obstacles and a difficult-to-obtain permit system.
West Bank and repression in the occupied territory
For its part, the Palestinian Authority also increased its repression against dissent, according to HRW, with arbitrary arrests and reports of torture, while Al Jazeera was restricted in the occupied territory.
The report also points to a judicial response outside the region: France, Germany, Belgium y Brazil opened investigations or received complaints for alleged crimes in Gaza under universal jurisdiction.
In the regional environment, HRW mentions hostilities that reached Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Qatar y Tunisiawith attacks and reprisals that could constitute violations of the laws of war.
Iran, executions and blackout
The Iranian chapter portrays a country that responds to external tension by closing itself more internally. HRW maintains that, after the June 2025 hostilities, authorities resorted to mass arrests, executions numbering in the thousands, and a near-total internet blackout.
The organization adds that practices of torture and degrading prison conditions, and links this continuity with the impunitywith references to processes under universal jurisdiction in Sweden.
In the region, the report also opens a focus on Iraqwhere he mentions elections and international criticism of the death penalty, restrictions on expression and impunity.
Palestinian children with water jerrycans in Khan Yunes, Gaza Strip / Abed Rahim Khatib/dpa
The EU and the migration pact
The EU appears as a bloc subject to double pressure: immigration hardening and the retreat of democratic guarantees in several member states. HRW indicates that, with the entry into force of the Migration Pact, some governments—specifically, Poland, Greece, Finland y Germany— restricted or suspended access to asylum, while Brussels pushed for a returns reform that would expand detention and reduce safeguards.
On borders, the report cites a ruling by European Court of Human Rights about a “systematic” practice of hot returns in Greece; and mentions litigation over interceptions linked to Italia and the coast guard Libyaas well as pending cases for returns to Belarus in proceedings against Poland, Latvia y Lithuania.
HRW alludes to the deterioration of rule of law in several countries, with mentions of Bulgaria, Hungary y Slovakiaand the Hungarian withdrawal from the ICC. On Gaza, he maintains that an internal EU report found Israel’s breaches under the Association Agreement; Although the Commission proposed suspending its trade pillar, there were no majorities and some governments opted for unilateral measures, while the United Kingdom He froze his business negotiations.
In migration, HRW warns of externalization to transit countries such as Tunisia, Libya y Mauritania. It also mentions European sanctions for violations in Sudan and in the east of Congo.
Spain and the social gap
Specifically, the report places countries like Spain on the front line of European immigration hardening and the human cost of the journeys: HRW emphasizes that, in a context of EU support for repressive tactics by third countries and the absence of safe and orderly roadsat least 1,549 people died or disappeared trying to reach community territory by sea in the first nine months of the year, mostly in the central Mediterranean.
At the same time, it describes how the externalization of controls – with political and financial support to transit countries such as Tunisia, Libya o Mauritania— ends up transferring pressure to the external borders and fuels risk situations that also end up impacting the Spanish arrival points.
Furthermore, Spain appears in the report in a social key: the 2024 community data places the country among those with more than 25% of the population “at risk of poverty or exclusion”, along with Greece, Romania and Lithuania, while Bulgaria registers the highest rates.
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