On December 10, 2025, the global community observes Human Rights Day, commemorating the seventy-seventh anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The theme chosen by the United Nations for this year, "Our Everyday Essentials," serves as a poignant reminder of the foundational purpose of the human rights framework. At a time when the world is grappling with the complexities of artificial intelligence, the existential threat of climate change, and the resurgence of geopolitical conflict, the theme steers the collective focus back to the tangible, lived experiences of individuals. It posits that human rights are not merely abstract legal concepts debated in international tribunals, but are the concrete components of a dignified life: the water we drink, the air we breathe, the information we consume, and the safety of our homes.

The year 2025 has been defined by a stark juxtaposition between the advancement of legal norms and the deterioration of physical security in many regions. On one hand, international courts have delivered historic rulings affirming the right to a healthy environment and recognising the legal rights of nature itself. On the other hand, the collapse of long-standing political orders, such as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the entrenchment of conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, have exposed the fragility of these essentials. The withdrawal of Sahelian states from the International Criminal Court challenges the very architecture of international justice, while the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence by authoritarian regimes threatens to reshape the landscape of freedom and privacy.

This report offers an exhaustive analysis of the state of human rights in 2025. By examining the year's pivotal developments through the lens of the "everyday essentials," it seeks to bridge the gap between high-level diplomacy and the gritty reality of daily existence. It explores the philosophical resilience of the universal human rights model against renewed calls for cultural relativism, details the new frontiers of digital and environmental rights, and documents the struggles of communities in conflict zones where the most essentials of life—water, food, and safety—are under siege. Through this comprehensive assessment, the report aims to demonstrate that the defence of human rights in 2025 is not just a legal obligation but a practical necessity for the survival and flourishing of humanity.

1. The Philosophical Foundation and the Universality of Essentials

The Enduring Legacy of the 1948 Drafting Committee

To understand the weight of the 2025 theme, it is necessary to revisit the origins of the document it celebrates. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not, as some contemporary critics argue, a purely Western imposition. It was the product of a diverse and contentious drafting process that incorporated philosophical traditions from around the globe. While Eleanor Roosevelt’s leadership is widely recognised, the intellectual architecture of the UDHR was profoundly shaped by representatives from the Global South and the East. P.C. Chang of China, a diplomat and philosopher, was instrumental in reconciling the Western emphasis on individual rights with Confucian concepts of duty and social harmony. He successfully argued that the declaration should not rely on any single theological system but must resonate with the diverse ethical frameworks of humanity.

Similarly, Charles Malik of Lebanon, an Arab Christian philosopher, played a crucial role as the rapporteur. He advocated for a framework of rights grounded in reason and the inherent nature of the human being, ensuring that rights were seen as innate rather than granted by the state. The contributions of women were equally transformative. Hansa Mehta of India is credited with a singular, powerful editorial intervention: changing the phrase "All men are born free and equal" to "All human beings are born free and equal" in Article 1. This change was not merely semantic; it explicitly enshrined gender equality in the very definition of humanity, a legacy that continues to underpin feminist movements in 2025. These historical details are vital for refuting modern narratives of cultural relativism that seek to dismiss human rights as imports. The "everyday essentials" of dignity and equality are rooted in a truly global consensus forged by Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, and Latin American intellectuals alongside their Western counterparts.

The Debate on Universalism versus Cultural Relativism in 2025

In 2025, the philosophical debate between universalism and cultural relativism has resurfaced with renewed intensity, challenging the "universality" of the essentials. Academic and diplomatic discourse this year has been dominated by arguments over whether a single set of standards can truly apply to all societies, or if rights must be adapted to local cultural contexts. The "Asian values" argument of previous decades has evolved into a broader sovereignty-based critique, particularly evident in the political rhetoric of the Sahel and parts of the Middle East. Proponents of cultural relativism argue that the imposition of "universal" rights often serves as a cover for Western imperialism and fails to respect the primacy of communal duties over individual desires in certain cultures.

However, scholars and human rights defenders have pushed back against this relativist resurgence by distinguishing between "crude relativism"—which is often used by authoritarian regimes to shield themselves from scrutiny—and a nuanced understanding of cultural diversity. The "soft universalism" approach advocates for maintaining core universal principles—such as freedom from torture and the right to life—while allowing for cultural flexibility in implementation. This perspective argues that the "essential" nature of a human being’s need for safety and dignity is not culturally determined. As noted in recent academic literature, the fight in 2025 is often not between "Western" and "Non-Western" values, but between state-centric authoritarianism and human-centric dignity. The 2025 theme, "Our Everyday Essentials," strategically bypasses this theoretical deadlock by focusing on the undeniable universality of human needs: no culture prizes starvation, and no tradition celebrates the arbitrary deprivation of water or shelter.

2. The Digital Frontier – Rights in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In 2025, the definition of "everyday essentials" has expanded irrevocably to include digital rights. Access to the internet, the integrity of information, and freedom from algorithmic surveillance are now prerequisites for participation in modern life. The integration of artificial intelligence into governance, policing, and employment has created a new frontier of human rights challenges that require robust legal responses.

The Constitutionalization of Digital Rights

A landmark report released in July 2025 by International IDEA, titled "Rights in the Digital Age," argues that the protection of human rights online can no longer be left to ordinary legislation. The report advocates for the "constitutionalization" of digital rights, asserting that the fundamental freedoms enjoyed offline must be explicitly guaranteed in the highest laws of the land. It warns that without constitutional guardrails, digital technologies are facilitating unwarranted surveillance, censorship, and the concentration of power in the hands of unaccountable data monopolies. The report highlights that digital tools are increasingly influencing civil and political rights, making robust constitutional frameworks essential to address challenges such as algorithmic bias and data privacy.

The necessity of this legal evolution is underscored by the findings of the 2025 Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report, "The Party’s AI." This document details how the Chinese Communist Party has transformed its state control system into a precision instrument of repression using Large Language Models (LLMs). Unlike previous generations of censorship that relied on clumsy keyword blocking, these new AI systems can analyse context, nuance, and sentiment to pre-emptively suppress dissent. The report reveals that this "industrialisation of online information control" is not limited to domestic audiences but is being projected globally to target the diaspora and distort information environments abroad. This represents a fundamental threat to the "everyday essential" of freedom of thought and opinion, as state actors now possess the capability to manipulate the very information ecosystem upon which citizens rely.

Digital Violence and the Silencing of Women

The intersection of digital technology and gender-based violence has emerged as a critical human rights crisis in 2025. Online spaces have become arenas for "Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence" (TFGBV), where women—particularly those in politics, journalism, and activism—are targeted with harassment designed to drive them out of public life. The case of Hawa Hunt in Sierra Leone serves as a poignant example of this trend. Hawa Hunt, a reality TV star and social media influencer, was arrested in late 2024 and detained for months under the guise of a cybercrime law after she posted comments criticising the President and the First Lady. Her detention, which lasted until March 2025, illustrated how laws ostensibly designed to combat "cybercrime" are frequently weaponised to punish speech.

Hunt’s ordeal was compounded by the denial of basic rights during her detention. Reports emerged that she was underfed and subjected to ill-treatment, violations of the most basic "everyday essentials" of physical integrity. Her release, secured after intense pressure from Amnesty International and local civil society, was a victory for advocacy, but her case highlights the extreme vulnerability of women who dare to speak in the digital public square. Similarly, the release of Salma al-Shehab in Saudi Arabia in February 2025 marked the end of a harrowing ordeal for a PhD student and mother who had been sentenced to decades in prison for retweeting posts calling for women's rights. Al-Shehab’s case demonstrates that for many women in 2025, the act of logging on carries the risk of losing one’s physical liberty. Her release statement, thanking the "beautiful people" who campaigned for her, underscores the power of global solidarity in protecting digital rights.

AI and the Threat to Cultural Rights

Beyond suppression and violence, AI poses a subtle but profound threat to cultural rights and human creativity. A 2025 UN report on "Artificial Intelligence and Cultural Rights" emphasises that creativity is a deeply human attribute linked to dignity. The unregulated use of generative AI to replace human artistic labour not only threatens the livelihoods of creators but risks homogenising culture and severing the link between human experience and artistic expression. The report calls for a "cultural rights approach" to AI governance, ensuring that technology serves to amplify rather than stifle human imagination. This connects directly to the 2025 theme, as the enjoyment of culture and the arts is recognised as an essential component of a full human life, not a luxury to be automated away.

3. Climate Justice – The New Legal Essential

If digital rights are the frontier of the mind, climate justice is the frontier of survival. In 2025, the "everyday essential" of a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment moved from being a political slogan to a legally enforceable right, driven by a series of historic judicial interventions that have redefined state obligations.

The Historic ICJ and Inter-American Court Rulings

The year 2025 will be remembered by legal historians as the moment international courts definitively sided with the planet. On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a sweeping advisory opinion that fundamentally altered the landscape of climate law. The Court ruled unanimously that states have a legal duty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can be held accountable for climate harms even if they are not signatories to specific treaties like the Paris Agreement. Crucially, the ICJ linked climate inaction directly to human rights violations, affirming that a healthy environment is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of all other rights. This ruling empowers vulnerable nations and communities to seek legal redress for the existential threats posed by rising sea levels and extreme weather.

This global ruling was complemented by a revolutionary decision from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in July 2025, which went a step further by declaring that nature itself possesses rights. The Court’s Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency recognised that ecosystems—forests, rivers, and oceans—have the right to exist, regenerate, and maintain their life cycles. This "ecocentric" legal shift challenges the anthropocentric foundations of traditional Western law and aligns legal frameworks with Indigenous cosmologies. The Court emphasised that the protection of nature is not just for human benefit but is an obligation owed to the natural world itself. This opinion is already influencing domestic rulings, such as the decision by a Colombian court to grant rights to the Santurbán Páramo, prohibiting mining activities that threatened the region's water supply and recognising the ecosystem as a subject of rights.

Strategic Litigation in Domestic Courts

Domestic courts have also become battlegrounds for securing the essential right to a liveable future. In the United States, the Montana Supreme Court’s affirmation that a stable climate is a constitutional right set a powerful precedent. The court rejected the state's argument that its local emissions were insignificant in the global context, finding that even "small" contributions to climate change cause cognizable harm to citizens' constitutional rights. This ruling dismantled the "drop in the bucket" defence often used by governments to avoid responsibility.

Similarly, the "Klimaseniorinnen" case before the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in favour of a group of Swiss senior women arguing that heatwaves threatened their lives, introduced the legal concept of "intertemporal civil liberties." This innovation asserts that a violation of rights occurs now because current inaction guarantees future harm, effectively bridging the temporal gap that has long plagued climate litigation. These legal victories are not abstract; they are about the essential right to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live without the fear of catastrophic displacement. They represent a successful operationalisation of the 2025 theme, proving that with collective action and legal creativity, the most daunting challenges can be addressed.

4. Conflict and the Collapse of Essentials in Gaza, Syria, and Sudan

While courts advanced rights in Geneva and San Jose, the physical reality of human rights in conflict zones during 2025 was defined by the systematic destruction of essentials. In Gaza, Syria, and Sudan, the "everyday" became a desperate struggle for survival against weaponised deprivation.

Gaza: The Weaponisation of Water

In 2025, the situation in Gaza remains a catastrophic example of how essentials like water can be manipulated as instruments of war. A Human Rights Watch report released in late 2024, titled "Extermination and Acts of Genocide," accused Israeli authorities of deliberately depriving Palestinians of water. The report detailed how the destruction of water infrastructure, combined with severe restrictions on fuel and electricity, left nearly 96% of households without sufficient water. The blockade forced families to choose between washing and drinking, leading to outbreaks of preventable skin diseases like scabies and severe gastrointestinal infections among children. The Norwegian Refugee Council reported that the cost of water had skyrocketed and that humanitarian trucking operations were being strangled by a lack of fuel.

The Israeli government issued a vigorous rebuttal to these claims in a document titled "Murky Waters," arguing that the HRW report relied on distorted data and ignored the pre-war role of Hamas in neglecting infrastructure. Israel contended that it facilitated aid and that water shortages were a result of combat conditions rather than a policy of extermination. However, humanitarian organisations on the ground, including UNICEF and OCHA, reported that the "everyday essential" of water had effectively collapsed. Despite some repairs to desalination plants, the flow of water remained a trickle compared to the immense need, illustrating the devastating human cost when basic rights become politicised narratives. The UNICEF report from late 2025 highlighted that while a ceasefire had improved access slightly, the malnutrition situation remained precarious, with children bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Syria: The Fall of Assad and the Knife-Edge Transition

The most significant geopolitical event of the year occurred in Syria. On December 8, 2024, the regime of Bashar al-Assad finally fell, toppled by a lightning offensive led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other opposition groups. As Human Rights Day 2025 arrives, Syria is marking the first anniversary of this seismic change. The initial euphoria of liberation, which saw the emptying of notorious prisons like Sednaya and the release of thousands of political detainees, has given way to a precarious and fraught transition.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported in December 2025 that while the fall of the dictatorship was a victory for justice, the "honeymoon period" is over. Summary executions, arbitrary detentions, and reprisals against minority communities—specifically Alawites, Druze, and Christians—have been documented. The interim authorities, heavily influenced by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani), have struggled to establish a truly inclusive governance structure. The Kurds in the northeast remain largely excluded from the new constitutional processes, and tensions are rising between the central government in Damascus and the autonomous administration. The new constitutional declaration, which cites Islamic law as a principal source of legislation while promising to protect diversity, has generated both hope and anxiety regarding the future of civil liberties.

The transition in Syria is a critical test case for the 2025 theme. The "everyday essentials" for Syrians now include not just food and fuel, but the establishment of a justice system that breaks the cycle of revenge. The international community’s hesitation to fully engage with the HTS-led government has slowed reconstruction, leaving millions of Syrians still facing the same deprivations they suffered under the previous regime. The focus on "everyday essentials" in Syria means ensuring that the removal of a tyrant leads to genuine dignity, rather than a new form of authoritarianism.

Sudan: The Forgotten Famine

While the world’s cameras focused on Damascus and Gaza, the war in Sudan descended into a silent abyss. By 2025, famine had been confirmed in Darfur, and the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had obliterated the healthcare system. The weaponisation of starvation, where farming equipment is destroyed, and fields are burned, has turned food from an essential into a lever of power. The international community’s failure to intervene effectively in Sudan stands as a stark indictment of the selectivity of global human rights advocacy. The "essential" of food security has been completely eroded, leaving millions to face death not from bullets, but from hunger.

5. The Crisis of International Justice and the Sahel Withdrawal

The ability to enforce human rights standards faced a severe structural challenge in 2025 with the fracturing of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction in Africa. In a coordinated move framed as an assertion of sovereignty, the military governments of the "Alliance of Sahel States"—Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—announced their withdrawal from the ICC.

The "Neo-Colonial" Critique and the Retreat from Accountability

The juntas justified their exit by labelling the ICC an instrument of "neo-colonialism," arguing that the court disproportionately targets African leaders while ignoring crimes committed by Western powers and their allies. This narrative, while politically potent, ignores the fact that many African states were founding members of the court and that the withdrawal leaves victims of atrocities in the Sahel without a court of last resort. The withdrawal is particularly alarming given the presence of foreign mercenaries, such as the Wagner Group, in the region, who now operate with an even greater sense of impunity. The departure of these states from the ICC, coupled with their exit from ECOWAS, signals a retreat into isolationism that threatens to strip millions of Sahelians of their recourse to international justice. Legal experts warn that this move creates a "zone of impunity" where mass atrocities can occur without fear of external legal consequences.

Proposals for Hybrid Justice

In response to this crisis of legitimacy, discussions in 2025 have turned toward alternative mechanisms. There is growing momentum for the establishment of a Hybrid Criminal Court for the Sahel, a tribunal that would blend domestic and international elements to prosecute crimes. Such a court could potentially bypass the "neo-colonial" critique by being situated within the region and utilising local legal traditions, while still adhering to international standards of fair trial. This proposal reflects a pragmatic recognition that the "universal" model of justice may need to adapt to local political realities to remain effective. It suggests that if the "essential" of justice cannot be delivered from The Hague, it must be constructed closer to home, using hybrid models that can garner local legitimacy while maintaining international standards.

6. Global Geopolitics and the Erosion of Norms

The crisis of human rights in 2025 is not limited to specific conflict zones; it is systemic and global. The erosion of democratic norms and the rise of authoritarianism have challenged the "everyday essentials" of freedom and equality in established democracies and transitional states alike.

The United States and the Challenge to International Law

The United States, under a new administration in 2025, has taken actions that legal scholars argue violate international law and undermine the global human rights framework. The imposition of punitive trade tariffs on neighbours like Canada and Mexico, justified on tenuous national security grounds, has destabilised economic rights and strained diplomatic relations. More concerning are the aggressive postures regarding territorial integrity, including threats against Greenland and the recognition of annexations in Ukraine, which flout the UN Charter's prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force. These actions signal a retreat from the rules-based order that the US helped establish, encouraging other nations to prioritise raw power over legal obligations. This "might makes right" approach poses a direct threat to the "attainable" nature of human rights promoted by the 2025 UN campaign.

The Rise of Far-Right Populism in Europe

In Europe, the 2024 parliamentary elections saw significant gains for far-right parties, a trend that has solidified in 2025. These parties have exploited anti-immigrant sentiment and nationalist rhetoric to advance policies that threaten the rights of minority communities. The normalisation of xenophobic discourse challenges the UDHR’s promise of equality and non-discrimination. The "everyday essential" of living without fear of discrimination is under threat for migrants, refugees, and ethnic minorities across the continent. This political shift has also complicated the European Union’s ability to act as a cohesive bloc for human rights promotion globally, as internal divisions over rule-of-law issues paralyse decision-making.

7. Victory and Resilience – The Human Spirit in Action

Despite the bleak geopolitical landscape, 2025 has also been a year of extraordinary human resilience. The "everyday essentials" of freedom and dignity have been defended not just by courts, but by ordinary people taking to the streets and the internet to demand their rights.

The Power of Popular Resistance in Bangladesh

The most dramatic example of people's power occurred in Bangladesh, where a student-led movement succeeded in ending the long, increasingly authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. What began as protests against a discriminatory job quota system evolved into a national demand for democracy, accountability, and human rights. The resilience of the protesters, who faced violent crackdowns and digital blackouts, demonstrated that the desire for dignity is universal and cannot be extinguished by force. The subsequent formation of an interim government, which has pledged to undertake sweeping human rights reforms, offers a beacon of hope for South Asia and proves that entrenched power can be dislodged by collective action.

Diplomatic Pragmatism in West Africa

In West Africa, nations like Senegal and Ghana have demonstrated a uniquely pragmatic brand of diplomacy. By maintaining open lines of communication with military regimes in the Sahel while steadfastly upholding democratic principles at home, these nations have managed to navigate a turbulent region without succumbing to the contagion of coups. Their approach highlights the importance of African leadership in solving African crises and offers a model for how to balance security concerns with the protection of civil liberties.

Individual Victories: Restoring Lives

The release of political prisoners throughout 2025 serves as a powerful reminder that advocacy works. The freedom of Salma al-Shehab in Saudi Arabia, Hawa Hunt in Sierra Leone, and the release of thousands of detainees from Syria’s Sednaya prison are not just statistics; they are restored lives. Al-Shehab’s first words upon release—thanking the "beautiful people" who campaigned for her—underscore the vital connection between global solidarity and individual liberty. These victories validate the third pillar of the 2025 theme: that human rights are attainable. They remind us that behind every report and every statistic is a human being whose "everyday essentials" of freedom and family have been returned to them.

As Human Rights Day 2025 draws to a close, the international community stands at a crossroads. The "Everyday Essentials" campaign asks the world to look past the complexity of treaties and geopolitics and focus on the irreducible minimums of human existence. It asks us to recognise that a glass of clean water in Gaza, a free tweet in Riyadh, a safe home in Damascus, and a liveable temperature in Zurich are all facets of the same diamond of human dignity.

The events of 2025 have demonstrated that these essentials are fragile. They can be stolen by dictators, destroyed by bombs, and eroded by rising seas. Yet, they have also shown that the human demand for these essentials is unbreakable. From the drafters of the UDHR who wove together a global consensus in 1948, to the Swiss senior women who sued their government for climate protection in 2025, the lineage of human rights is one of persistent, stubborn hope.

The challenge for the year ahead is to move from recognition to realisation. It is to ensure that the "everyday" does not become a luxury for the few, but remains the birthright of the many. As we observe this day, we are reminded that human rights do not exist primarily on paper; they exist in the choices we make, the policies we support, and the solidarity we extend to those whose essentials are under threat. In a turbulent world, these rights remain our only true compass, guiding us toward a future where dignity is not just an aspiration, but an everyday reality.

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References:

• Australian Strategic Policy Institute. (2025). The party’s AI: How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights. https://www.aspi.org.au
• Human Rights Watch. (2025). World report 2025. https://www.hrw.org
• Müller, J. (2025). Rights in the digital age. International IDEA. https://doi.org/10.31752/idea.2025.33
• Tigre, M. A., & Barry, M. (2025). Climate change in the courts: A 2024 retrospective. Sabin Centre for Climate Change Law.
• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2025, November 13). Human Rights Day 2025: Our everyday essentials. https://www.ohchr.org