A new Dark Age is about to descend on the world, in which unaccountable leaders trample on individual liberties, according to a report published April 29 by Amnesty International. Eurasian states comprise a core element of the vanguard in the march toward an authoritarian future. 

The report, titled The State of the World’s Human Rights, maintains that the post-World War II global order, as shaped by the ideals contained in the UN Charter, is in grave danger of collapse.

“The world is at a historic juncture,” the report begins. “Unprecedented forces are hunting down the ideals of human rights for all, seeking to destroy an international system forged in the blood and grief of World War II and its Holocaust. This religious, racial, patriarchal crusade, which aims for an economic order predicated on even greater inequality between and within states, imperils hard won equality, justice and dignity gains of these past 80 years.”

The report paints a bleak picture in Eurasia, highlighting a steady decline in 2024 in fundamental liberties, including freedom of speech and assembly, as well as social and economic rights. Russia, followed by other regional states, is leading the way in “the global downswing against human rights,” according to the report.

“The [Russian-Ukraine] war and increasingly authoritarian practices saw a growing number of countries move in tandem as they rejected their human rights obligations and undermined national and international institutions,” the report states. “Champions of human rights were left under siege.”

Amnesty International (AI) had a particularly harsh assessment of Georgia’s recent rights record. The Georgian Dream-dominated government in 2023 and 2024 made an abrupt geopolitical pivot away from Western-style democracy back towards Russia-type authoritarianism, adopting laws and implementing administrative measures designed to hog-tie the non-governmental sector, muzzle independent media outlets, limit the ability of citizens to protest official policy and hound members of the LBGTQ community.

“The ruling party continued to usurp power and suppress dissent,” the AI report stated. “New legislative amendments expanded state and police powers while unduly restricting peaceful protests and undermining civil society.”

AI found serious rights violations in every country across the region. For example, Azerbaijan saw a “sharp decline in respect for human rights” while authorities in Kyrgyzstan “escalated their crackdown on peaceful dissent.” Turkmenistan likewise upheld its reputation as having one of the world’s most repressive political systems, as “authorities sought to control the flow of information [and] suffocate civil society.”

Independent journalism found itself under broad attack across the region. “Journalists and environmental defenders were threatened and harassed” in Armenia, while in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan “activists, bloggers and independent journalists faced politically motivated prosecutions for reporting on allegations of corruption and human rights abuses.”

The report also took Azerbaijan to task for shortcomings as host nation of the annual UN climate summit, COP29, held in Baku last November. The report accused Azerbaijan of failing “to advance regional and global climate justice.” 

“Azerbaijan hosted COP29 amid allegations that senior officials from its conference team were using the opportunity to broker new fossil fuel deals,” the report alleged. During the run-up to the conference, the AI report noted, Azerbaijani rights defenders and environmentalists were persecuted and barred from attending the climate summit, “creating a climate of self-censorship.”

This article first appeared on Eurasianet here.