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Manik Dhawan
17 March 2026 |
On Europe, Human Rights Watch's 2026 focus is on the systematic and structural regression of human rights across the continent. European institutions, which champion human rights, struggled to implement policies effectively. Most of the European countries, facing Far-Right sentiment, employed policies which restricted migration, curbed civil society space and failed to address persistent social inequality and economic insecurity.
The following are major takeaways for Europe from the report:
1. An increase in restrictive migration control policies
The HRW World Report of 2026 notes that the recent migration policies being adopted throughout Europe, which are restrictive towards asylum seekers, are one of the most visible regressions of human rights in Europe At the regional level, the report notes that “Efforts by EU institutions and member states to restrict migration to the bloc at all costs continued to give rise to grave human rights risks and abuses.”
The European Commission, which is the primary executive branch of the European Union, also proposed a Returns Regulation to replace the 2008 Returns Directive with provisions that would expand the use of detention, extend detention time limits, and remove safeguards against unfair procedures and unsafe deportations along with tripling funding for migration management in the 2028-2034 budget to €81 billion, including €34 billion dedicated to border enforcement.
At the state level, numerous governments have enforced policies which suspended asylum access and began deportation procedures. Poland adopted a new law empowering the government to temporarily suspend the right to seek asylum in designated zones along the Belarus border, whereas the Greek government suspended access to asylum for three months for people arriving by boat from North Africa. The report underscores the growing shift in European policy towards asylum seekers. These policies reflect a shift from welcoming refugees to scrutinizing them as a threat to national security and social stability.
2. Shrinking Civil Society spaces, as the national security narrative takes the lead
The HRW report emphasises the shrinking of civil society spaces in Europe through systematic governmental restrictions. It noted that multiple governments justify these actions by citing Public Order and National Security needs amid growing concerns over foreign-funded groups.
The Hungarian parliament recently tabled a bill enabling the government to defund and dissolve any organization it designates ‘a threat to Hungarian sovereignty.’ This proposed law would also require donors to confirm that their contributions are ‘not foreign’ by signing legally binding declarations. The Georgian Parliament adopted “a ‘foreign agents’ law, requiring individuals and entities to register as ‘foreign agents’ if they operate under the vaguely defined ‘influence’ of, or receive funding from, a foreign principal and engage in ‘political activities’ in the interests of this principal.”
The report also highlights the targeting of anti-corruption initiatives by the Ukrainian government. “In mid-July, Ukrainian authorities raided the home and the place of military service of a prominent anti-corruption activist Vitaliy Shabunin as part of an investigation into alleged military evasion and fraud.” Russia and Belarus also intensified a crackdown on individuals identified as “foreign agents.”
The above shifts, which prioritize state control over individual and collective participation, tend to weaken Europe’s democratic ideals across the continent.
3. Inequality persists across Europe
The HRW report highlights that despite economic recovery in multiple parts of Europe, the region is still plagued with widespread inequality and social insecurity at a structural level. The report notes: “EU data from April 2025 showed that, while poverty rates declined from previous years, 93.3 million people (21 percent of the population) were ‘at risk of poverty or social exclusion’ in 2024, including 27.5 million who experienced severe material or social deprivation.” Moreover, unemployment also persisted in the region, especially for people from certain marginalised sections such as migrants, women, people with disabilities and older people, who faced significant barriers when accessing job, seriously hindering their employment. “A European Commission report published in September showed that one in five people in the EU workforce was not employed.”
This issue of rising poverty and inequality was surprisingly highly visible in Western Europe. In countries like UK, government policies were inadequate to safeguard people’s right to social security. Official data released by the British government showed that absolute poverty climbed from 17% to 18%, while relative poverty remained stable. In France, “Oxfam France reported that the wealthiest 10 percent of the population holds nearly two-thirds of the national wealth, while the standard of living for the remaining 90 percent has stagnated or decreased.”
Rise in housing costs and homelessness emerged as a major concern in Southern Europe. At the same time, ethnic minorities of Eastern Europe, such as the Roma community, continued to be entrenched in poverty and exclusion. This persistent inequality and poverty across Europe tend to have broader political consequences for the continent.
4. Normalization of Far-Right political sentiment
According to the HRW report, the normalization of Far-Right politics emerged as a major political trend. Amid growing economic insecurity, Far-Right rhetoric increasingly shaped public sentiment and European policies towards minorities, migration and national security.
In Germany, the report notes: “After a campaign season marked by the mainstreaming of far-right rhetoric, particularly targeting minorities and migrants, as well as attacks against civil society, general elections in February 2025 saw a surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).” Soon after in May 2025, “the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution designated the AfD as a right-wing extremist entity, finding that repeated racist statements, xenophobic views, and anti-constitutional positions threatened Germany’s free democratic basic order.”
Moreover, governing parties in Hungary and Italy adopted far-right rhetoric and policies which increasingly targeted migrants and LGBTQ+ communities. The Human Rights Watch notes: “The growing influence and success of far-right parties in many parts of the EU, including in government, and the mainstreaming of their narratives and policies helped fuel discrimination and intolerance towards marginalized communities, particularly affecting migrants, Muslims, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.”
Furthermore, non-right parties across Europe, instead of countering this rise in hate speech, aided this normalization by emulating far-right rhetoric which was aimed at gaining political support from Far-Right parties and their voters.
Manik Dhawan is an Undergraduate Student at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies in SRMIST, Chennai.
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