Representation

In the Representation category, insufficient checks on presidential power in the region weakened political pluralism and risked democratic stability. In El Salvador, the introduction of indefinite presidential re-election contributed to this decline, while the political crisis in Peru culminated in former president Dina Boluarte’s removal by Congress. In the United States, Congress’s weakened ability to check executive power was highlighted by continued strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats despite lawmakers’ oversight concerns, an issue that escalated in January with the capture of Nicolas Maduro. The record-long U.S. government shutdown further illustrates declining congressional effectiveness, while deepening gerrymandering reflected a broader deterioration in political pluralism.    

However, in a positive step for the political transition, Haiti launched a long awaited electoral calendar and adopted new electoral legislation, after having had no elected officials since January 2023. Paraguay also showed some positive developments with the introduction of reforms to the political campaign financing system that aim to improve transparency and oversight in the management of electoral funds.

Rights

Constraints on free speech and press were a recurring concern in late 2025, especially in the United States, where restrictions followed the assassination of Charlie Kirk, including through FCC threats. Journalists’ access to Pentagon reporting was also controlled, while the Trump administration’s calls to arrest Democratic party lawmakers and its executive actions on ‘domestic terrorism’ further undermined free expression. Additional setbacks emerged in Mexico, with new telecoms and intelligence legislation, and in Venezuela, with expanded surveillance.

In contrast, the region saw positive developments in Political Equality and Access to Justice. Bolivia advanced women’s political representation and girls’ rights, and Mexico adopted a significant policy to combat sexual abuse. Brazil introduced protections for migrants and asylum seekers, while Argentina took steps to improve the rights of persons with disabilities. 

Progress on accountability for historic crimes also continued. In Colombia, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace issued its first rulings, alongside high-profile convictions. Chile ordered the heirs of Augusto Pinochet to return misappropriated funds, and Uruguay secured a notable conviction for dictatorship-era crimes. However, Peru’s adoption of an amnesty bill benefiting individuals accused of human rights violations highlighted continuing obstacles to full accountability and access to justice.

Rule of Law

Negative developments in how the law is enforced and in the region’s security situation were the most notable at the end of 2025. Rising criminal violence contributed to deterioration in Personal Integrity and Security in Uruguay, where a prosecutor survived an assassination attempt. In Colombia, airstrikes on FARC dissident groups prompted human rights concerns. And in Ecuador, a wave of gang-related explosions disrupted several regions. In Brazil a police operation in two favelas became the deadliest in the country’s history, highlighting racial bias in policing.

In the United States the September assassination of Charlie Kirk further exacerbated an already volatile environment of political violence. Further, concerns grew over the politicization of the Justice Department, pressure on economic regulators, and the federal deployment and control of police and the National Guard units over local objections. 

There were, however, some improvements in Absence of Corruption, including the convictions of former leaders in Peru and Colombia on corruption-related crimes.

Participation 

The most notable developments in Participation were advances in Civic Engagement. In Peru, Paraguay, Mexico and the United States, citizens mobilized to demand government action. In Peru and Paraguay, ‘Gen-Z’ groups organized large demonstrations, a global trend for youth participation, though the excessive use of force in some cases raised concerns about protesters’ rights and safety. In the United States, the October ‘No Kings’ protest became one of the largest in the country’s history, drawing millions. 

Elections

National elections were held in six countries: Bolivia (August, with a run-off in October), Guyana (September), Jamaica (September), Argentina (October), Chile (November), and  Ecuador (November). Guyana’s leader was re-elected, and Jamaica’s ruling Labour Party also secured victory. Bolivia ended nearly 20 years of Movimiento Al Socialismo leadership, with the election of opposition candidate Rodrigo Paz, and Chile likewise elected opposition leader José Antonio Kast. In Argentina, the ruling coalition won the most seats in mid-term legislative elections. In Ecuador, voters overwhelmingly rejected President Daniel Noboa’s referendum proposals.

Representation

Restrictions on political party freedoms remained the most prominent trend. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Chad, criminal proceedings were used to target the leaders of major opposition parties, with former President Joseph Kabila (DRC) sentenced to death and Succès Masra (Chad) to 20 years in prison. Key opposition candidates were excluded from elections in Tanzania and Cameroon, and a High Court decision rendering presidential candidate Anicet-Georges Dologuélé stateless briefly looked set to do the same in the Central African Republic (CAR), before being reversed by the Constitutional Council. Party bans continued to be employed by some African governments, with three opposition parties suspended in Guinea and 12 in the DRC.

Elected Government was also an area of negative change, with coups d'état installing military juntas in Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar (nine African countries have now experienced military takeovers of government since 2020). A subsequent attempted coup d'état in Benin heightened concerns of further contagion. Also damaging have been constitutional changes that are set to consolidate dynastic systems in Chad and Djibouti by removing presidential term and age limits, respectively.

Rights

Events in the second half of 2025 underscored the precariousness of freedoms of expression and the press in Africa and Western Asia. These included a nationwide ban on WhatsApp calls in Sudan and a prolonged internet shutdown on the Equatoguinean island of Annobón. In Israel, the arrest of two military lawyers who had leaked a video showing Israeli soldiers abusing a Palestinian prisoner raised concerns about whistleblower protections. Elsewhere, perceived government critics were targeted in a variety of repressive actions, including physical attacks on their person and property (Zimbabwe), citizenship revocations (Chad), the closure of media outlets (Guinea-Bissau) and arrests and prosecutions under cybercrime and other restrictive legislation (Jordan, Mali, Niger).   

Social Group Equality performance in the regions was negatively impacted by conflict and insecurity, which continue to erode social cohesion. This was particularly extreme in Israel and Gaza, where a UN Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide. It was also reflected in the Israeli Supreme Court’s finding that Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons had been deprived of adequate nutrition and in discriminatory draft legislation that would exclusively impose mandatory death sentences on Palestinians in certain circumstances. There were positive developments too, however, with both Oman and Qatar enacting legislation strengthening disability rights. 

Access to Justice has also been an area of positive change, with several countries taking steps to address historical injustices, including reopening inquests into the deaths of anti-Apartheid leaders (South Africa) and appointing new judges to investigate past political assassinations (Lebanon). Noteworthy, too, were the courts established by Cabo Verde to address persistent capacity shortfalls within its judicial system. 

Rule of Law

Personal Integrity and Security were negatively impacted by the regions’ armed conflicts, which have continued to kill people in large numbers (DRC, Palestine and Sudan), including via assassination (Yemen), and subject them to sexual violence (Sudan), abductions (Mali and Nigeria) and other harms. Yet violence was not restricted to conflict zones. In Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe[BB6] and elsewhere, political actors were victims of coercion by state and non-state actors, including protesters, politicians and other members of political parties and civil society organisations. 

Positively, the fight against corruption saw advances in the DRC and Gabon, where convictions were secured against senior political figures for large-scale graft, and in Lesotho and Senegal, where legal reforms strengthened their anti-corruption frameworks. However, the subsequent dissolution of  Lesotho’s asset-recovery body, after it reported alleged government corruption, represented a notable setback.    

Participation

There were 17 national elections in Africa and Western Asia between July and December 2025  - seven presidential and ten legislative, including indirect elections in Gabon and Syria. The average voter turnout in the direct elections was 64.6 per cent. Egypt's Senate election saw a particularly low turnout of 17.1 per cent, whereas the CAR, Iraq and Malawi all experienced significant increases in voter participation.

Beyond elections, youth-led protest remained an important trend in Africa, with Gen Z movements mobilising in Madagascar and Morocco in response to service delivery failures. Youth were also at the forefront of demonstrations over the disputed elections in Tanzania and Cameroon, the cost of living in Iran and fuel price rises in Angola. Yet in each one of these instances, the protests were met with extreme police violence that left dozens (and in the cases of Tanzania and Iran, potentially thousands) of demonstrators dead, underscoring the threat that repressive policing poses to this form of civic engagement. 

Representation

Political representation showed divergent trends, with several countries recording high electoral engagement and gains in gender representation, while others introduced measures that narrowed political participation and access to the ballot.

Over the past six months, five national elections have taken place across Europe, in Ireland, Moldova, Norway, Kosovo and the Netherlands. While voter turnout rose in most of these contests, a particular milestone included the highest turnout seen in Norwegian parliamentary elections due to public frustration over rising living costs, public spending and economic inequalities. Other historic developments were seen in the Netherlands and Kosovo. In the former, the share of women in the Dutch legislature reached 43.3 per cent as a result of the October election, the highest since 1918. In Kosovo, the incumbent Vetëvendosje! party won a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections held after months of political deadlock that had paralyzed the legislature, delayed reforms and disrupted some basic public services.

Georgia has experienced notable setbacks in political representation over this period, including new restrictions affecting Inclusive Suffrage and the operation of Free Political Parties. Parliament voted to abolish out-of-country voting, despite estimates that around 1.5 million Georgian citizens live abroad, compared with 3.7 million citizens within Georgia. Proponents of the measure argued that voters abroad are ‘vulnerable to external interference,’ while civil society groups contend that the government is motivated by its low popularity among the diaspora. Georgia’s Parliament also approved legislation granting the Constitutional Court the power to bar individuals associated with banned political parties from a wide range of political activities, including forming or joining parties, running as candidates, or holding public office. 

Rights

Across Europe, rights protections followed a mixed trajectory. Notable progress in press freedom and freedom of expression ran counter to longer-term trends, as one in three European countries declined in Freedom of the Press between 2019 and 2024. Improved gender-based protections also coincided with new constraints on equality and bodily autonomy in several states. 

Ukraine resumed regular, live television broadcasts of the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) for the first time since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Constitutional Court annulled a defamation conviction against a journalist, affirming that satire and criticism of public officials are protected forms of expression. In Austria, the new Freedom of Information Act entered into force, obliging government authorities to make all ‘information of general interest’ (including policy studies, expert opinions, and contracts involving public authorities) electronically available to the public, while in Slovakia, the Constitutional Court blocked a law that would have challenged the independence of the Office for the Protection of Whistleblowers.

Alongside these developments, several countries introduced measures impacting gender equality and bodily autonomy, with notable progress made in strengthening legal protections against gender-based violence and sexual harm. In Italy, Parliament classified femicide as a crime punishable by life imprisonment. In France, lawmakers adopted a consent-based definition of rape, expanding criminal liability beyond cases of violence, threat, or coercion. However, Social Group Equality was challenged in Slovakia, where the Parliament passed a package of constitutional amendments that prohibit surrogacy, restrict adoption to married heterosexual couples, and define sex as strictly male or female as determined at birth.

Rule of Law

The rule of law—particularly Judicial Independence and Personal Integrity and Security—came under sustained pressure, as deep institutional weaknesses exposed vulnerabilities in judicial independence, integrity, and accountability mechanisms. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, judicial authority was contested as the Republika Srpska entity leadership initially rejected State Court rulings and the Central Electoral Commission’s decision to revoke the president’s mandate.  President Milorad Dodik ultimately stepped down in September, with snap presidential elections held shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, public mistrust of the judiciary manifested in violence in Albania as a defendant opened fire in the courtroom, killing the presiding judge. In Moldova, where a wide range of indicators have been climbing in recent years, a judge stood firm in the face of death threats while overseeing the anti-corruption trial of a regional official.

Judicial institutions likewise faced deeper structural erosion in several cases. In Georgia, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, an institution originally established to strengthen transparency and combat corruption, was repurposed to exert political pressure on civil society through punitive audits before subsequently being abolished. In Bulgaria, a deadlock and dysfunction within judicial institutions has resulted in a prolonged vacancy in the Prosecutor General’s office, with the acting prosecutor continuing to serve because the Supreme Judicial Council was unable to appoint a successor, despite a Supreme Court of Cassation ruling that his mandate has expired. Institutional erosion extended beyond national institutions, as Russia withdrew from the European Convention on Torture, meaning international inspectors will no longer have access to its detention centers, threatening the severe degradation of conditions within its prison system.

Participation

Civic participation proved a powerful force in shaping political outcomes. In Latvia, large-scale mobilization stalled draft legislation to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, the Council of Europe treaty aimed at preventing violence against women and domestic violence. In Ukraine, Parliament quickly repealed legislation subordinating key functions of anti-corruption bodies to the Prosecutor General, a move widely criticized for undermining their independence. The reversal followed the largest anti-government street protests since the full-scale Russian invasion began. 

In Bulgaria, youth-driven anti-corruption protests led to the resignation of Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyaskov’s government in December, with more than 100,000 people gathering in Sofia alone.

At the same time, some governments have intensified efforts to restrict civil society operations. In Georgia, authorities froze the bank accounts of seven major civil society organizations in August as part of inspections launched after the entry into force of the Foreign Agent Registration Act, claiming--without evidence--that the organizations were engaged in ‘sabotage.’