The Irish government’s continuing failure to enact a law banning trade between Ireland and Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank is among the concerns highlighted by Amnesty International in its report on the state of global human rights.
Having assessed the human rights situation in 144 countries for its annual report for 2025, published on Monday, Amnesty urged states worldwide to stop a “predatory, anti-rights order” taking hold in this “pivotal moment for humanity”.
The year was marked by predatory attacks on multilateralism, international law and civil society, with the alternative on offer “a racist, patriarchal, unequal and anti-rights world order”. States, international bodies and civil society must “reject the politics of appeasement” and collectively resist these attacks to prevent this new order from taking hold.
“We are confronting the most challenging moment of our age,” said Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard.
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“Humanity is under attack from transnational anti-rights movements and predatory governments determined to assert their dominance through unlawful wars and brazen economic blackmail.”
World leaders, she said, have been “far too submissive in the face of attacks on international law and the multilateral system”.
Their silence and inaction are “inexcusable”, “morally bankrupt” and will “bring nothing but retreat, defeat and the erasure of decades of hard-fought human rights gains”.
“To appease aggressors is to pour fuel on a fire that will burn us all and scorch the future for generations to come.”
Among the many countries condemned by Amnesty for human rights violations are Israel, which the report noted has “maintained its genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza, the United States, Russia, Myanmar, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The US, Israel and Russia had further undermined international accountability mechanisms, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), it said.
In relation to Ireland in 2025, the report, entitled The State of the World’s Human Rights, noted several concerns by civil society and human rights groups, including that the housing crisis had worsened and redress for survivors of abuse in mother and baby homes was inadequate.
The Guardian newspaper, it noted, had uncovered evidence that Microsoft’s Ireland-based data centres had been used by the Israeli military for surveillance of, and planned air strikes on, Palestinians. In September 2025, following an investigation, Microsoft had announced the termination of Israel’s Unit 8200’s access to certain Azure cloud storage and AI services.
The Irish Government, it said, had failed to enact promised legislation banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Other concerns included continuing discrimination against Roma and Travellers in Ireland and about aspects of the International Protection Bill. That Bill was considered on Monday at a meeting of the Council of State, convened by President Catherine Connolly, who will now decide whether to sign it or refer it to the Supreme Court for a decision on its constitutionality.
