As democracy backslides globally, the European Union should expand its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime to include more countries, companies and individuals that commit severe human rights violations, says a new report.
2022 will continue to look dire for human rights around the world, according to Europe in the world in 2022: The transatlantic comeback?, edited by Ricardo Borges de Castro, Associate Director of the European Policy Centre. The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a global health crisis but also allowed a sustained attack on democratic principles and human rights, which have been declining for the last 15 years (see Fig. 5 below). As the pandemic is still ongoing, the use of COVID-19 restrictions to crack down on civil society and democratic processes is likely to continue in some parts of the world, it predicts:
The EU must also adapt to profound structural developments within global geopolitics, such as the shifting nature of power, the return of strongman politics, growing involvement from non-state actors and the waning separation between domestic and external policies. Global trends like climate change, digitalisation, changing demographics, and a worldwide decline in democracy and freedom complicate matters further and will have a major influence on EU policymaking. RTWT
