US added to international watchlist for rapid decline in freedoms

March Watchlist 2025 The new CIVICUS Monitor Watchlist highlights serious concerns regarding the exercise of civic freedoms https://monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-march-2025/

The United States in early March was added to the CIVICUS Monitor Human Rights Watchlist. CIVICUS is a global research organization that studies and publishes the status of freedoms and threats to civil liberties in various countries around the world each year. CIVICUS has pointed to Trump’s erratic use of executive orders, mass firings of federal workers, dismantling of foreign aid programs, antagonism of journalists and efforts to tamp down pro-Palestinian protests as just some of the reasons for the change in the United States status.

The US has been classified as “narrowed” the “narrowed” label is CIVICUS’ assessment that while most people are still able to exercise their rights of expression, free speech, and assembly, there are ongoing and concerning attempts to violate these rights by the government. CIVICUS co-Secretary General Mandeep Tiwana stated that “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”. The White House in response has rejected CIVICUS’ assessment, with Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly stating “This is nonsense: President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history”. 

Ukraine accepts US backed ceasefire deal but Russia is on the fence

US and Ukraine officials sit together at peace talks hosted in Saudi Arabia. Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this week that Ukraine has accepted the 30-day ceasefire deal after peace talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia. Washington has in turn lifted its pause on military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv. The ceasefire proposal is only eight paragraphs long, with meagre details beyond the desire to rapidly press ahead and does not mention any security guarantees to Ukraine. It does include the promise of both sides to exchange prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children to Russia.

Russian President Putin says he accepts the deal in principle but calls for more details before it is finalized.

Former Philippine President under arrest

Duterte speaking at a rally on Sunday. Two days later, he was arrested at an airport in Manila. Vernon Yuen/AP

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been placed in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands following his arrest in Manila earlier this week. His arrest comes after his time as president where he oversaw a years-long anti-drugs crackdown that left thousands of Filipino citizens dead in its wake. The ICC confirmed it had issued an arrest warrant for Duterte on charges of the crime of murder as a crime against humanity, for actions it alleges were committed between November 1, 2011 and March 16, 2019.

Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, a move condemned by critics as an effort to shield himself from accountability. But under the ICC’s withdrawal mechanism, the court keeps jurisdiction over crimes committed during the membership period of a state, which in this case, is between 2016, when his term started, and 2019 when he pulled the Philippines out. Duterte is still supported politically within the country. His daughter Sara Duterte, who is the country’s vice president, has condemned her fathers arrest.

Violence against Alawites in Syria

A Syrian man walks past burnt out cars in Jableh town, south of Latakia, following a spate of violence between Syrian security forces and armed groups loyal to deposed president Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s coastal region [Moawia Atrash/Picture Alliance via Getty Images]

More than 1,000 people have been killed in two days of clashes between security forces linked to Syria’s new government and fighters from Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect in the country’s coastal region. The Alawite community is the second-largest religious group in Syria after Sunni Muslims. The recent clashes began after coordinated attacks by gunmen loyal to the Assad regime killed over 200 members of the new government’s security forces. In response, government forces along with aligned armed groups carried out reprisal attacks in Alawite villages throughout the region killing hundreds of civilians. Syria’s interim President Ahmed Sharaa said the deadly violence is a threat to his mission to unite the country and announced the formation of a fact-finding committee to investigate the violations against civilians and find those responsible for them.

Trump’s closing down of USAID (and his pausing of foreign assistance) is having a devastating effect on humanity. Across the world, millions who once had access to lifesaving materials and funds are now in a state of panic and danger. Diseases including TB, HIV, and malaria are expected to skyrocket, and those who are already infected are no longer receiving the care they need. Hunger is sweeping across the globe as expected food deliveries do not arrive. Crisis zones are in dire shape, as the aid necessary for stabilizing them has vanished. But at least, Elon Musk is ‘saving’ us money, right?

One major slash to funding was to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This program works to provide prenatal, postnatal, and sexual healthcare to women and girls across the world. It holds the goal of ending child marriage, female genital mutilation, preventable maternal death, and other gender-based violence, by 2030. The cuts to its funding make that goal and the daily functions of UNFPA impossible to carry out, leaving the women and girls of 150 nations without life-saving interventions.

In Africa, rates of disease that USAID’s funding fought are dramatically rising. For example, across South Africa, the USAID funded programs that provided HIV treatment have shutdown. South Africa has the world’s largest number of people living with HIV, around 8 million. One study estimates that the loss of one USAID-funded program, PEPFAR, will singly result in 601,000 HIV deaths and 565,000 new HIV infections in South Africa alone over ten years. Furthermore, UNAIDS, which also lost USAID funding, reports that if funding is not restored, a growth of 8.7 million HIV-infected persons and a tenfold increase of AIDS related deaths, 6.3 million, is expected.

Broadly, much of humanity is losing access to life saving food and nutritional care. With the freeze to foreign aid, 500,000 tons of food are now left rotting in storehouses as millions go hungry. In Sudan, the pause closed more than 1,100 communal kitchens, leaving nearly 2 million Sudanese struggling to survive. Furthermore, the Famine Early Warning System Network, which could use a variety of scientific and political data to detect potential famines, is now offline.

The State Department attempted to exempt emergency food aid and other lifesaving programs in a waiver. However, since no one understood what this exactly means, and the usual channels of USAID application cut off, the attempt for damage mitigation is fruitless. Perhaps the federal government should have considered the massive number of illness and death before freezing lifesaving aid.

What was covered above is a small piece of the massive damage that the dismantling of USAID and the pause on foreign aid has done to the world. This was not to mention the cholera, TB, and malaria outbreaks happening across the world that would have been prevented by USAID. Or the hospitals in Haiti that no longer have the support they need to give proper care to rape victims under the country’s gang rule. There is no doubt that these policies have been deadly and damaging to humanity.

Analysis

There are several explanations for Trump’s draconian foreign aid policies. The first, and most distasteful, is that the administration cares little about what happens to poor people in developing countries; or about America’s historical commitment, as the leader of the free world, to helping those countries remain stable.

Secondly it should be noted that the Trump/Musk team singled out USAID as the first agency they chose to cut because of the small base of resident support for foreign aid. The foreign assistance community is relatively small, compared to the support communities for fields like veterans’ affairs and education where we are likely to see greater citizen pushback. There is also existing support for reducing foreign aid, with around 51% of Americans prefer reductions in economic assistance and only 33% interested in keeping it the same.

The closing of USAID also is illegal. It is Congress, not the White House, that has the power to open and close federal agencies. In the case of the closure of USAID Congress was not consulted, nor have they voiced disapproval of Trump’s actions. The inaction of Congress in the face of this illegal action will lend confidence to the Trump administration for further actions that violate and stretch the law.

No one is pretending anymore. The current administration is demonstrating that caring about developing countries is considered weak and soft. However, we do see some hope. On March 5, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled to unfreeze the $2 billion in foreign aid that Donald Trump halted. While binding, Trump has promised to ignore Court orders, and this could be the start of a Constitutional crisis if Trump attempts to do so. However, if the government works as it is meant to, the released State Department funds can reach the people that need it. The order demands only that existing contracts must be fulfilled and does not approve any future funding, leaving little time for recipients to find new sources of funding support.

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