As democracy backslides everywhere, the Global South must reimagine a new world order

The Civicus People Power Report 2025, released on December 9, confirms what civil society actors have been warning about long before the data could fully capture it: the global space for civic freedoms is shrinking at an unprecedented pace.

The report is unambiguous in its assessment: “Long-established democracies are showing signs of rapid authoritarian shift, marked by weakened rule of law and growing constraints on independent civil society.”

The 2025 findings paint a deeply troubling picture. Only 7% of the global population now lives in countries with free or relatively open civic space. The number of countries and territories where civic freedoms are routinely denied has surged to 83, up from 67 in 2020. The most common violations include the detention of protesters and journalists, underscoring how rapidly the tools of repression are spreading and being normalised across borders.

This year has been a hard one for democracy, so it is not surprising that several powerful countries, including the United States, France, and Germany, have been downgraded. Notably, Civicus has reclassified the United States from “narrowed” to “obstructed”, a category where the full enjoyment of civil rights is systematically constrained through legal and practical barriers.

This downgrade is not merely symbolic. When the United States retreats from its long-standing commitments to human rights and multilateralism, the consequences are felt across the world with inordinate force. Mass arrests, excessive use of force, the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at peaceful gatherings, intimidation of lawyers and judges, lawsuits targeting media outlets, and restrictions on journalists, send dangerous signals.

When the country that practically invented the First Amendment rights starts clamping down on free speech, it emboldens similar behavior in other countries.

For decades, US diplomats held significant influence in calling out such abuses behind closed-door meetings. But now they have lost political will and the moral authority to discipline others. Activists in repressive environments, who once relied on that backing, are left without a powerful ally.

This shift is also evident in the growing deprioritisation of human rights in other parts of the world. For instance, the United Kingdom and several European partners have agreed to negotiate changes to the continent’s main human rights treaty in order to make it easier to deport undocumented migrants.

These geopolitical shifts have consequences that go far beyond policy debates. In 2024, official development assistance fell by 7.1% marking the first decline in several years according to preliminary data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The abrupt closure of USAID in 2025, has exacerbated this decline while abandoning long-standing development and health programmes across the world.

At the same time, military spending has risen. As Civicus has warned, expanding defence budgets without accountability risks weakening human security. The result is predictable: fewer resources for social protection and climate resilience, widening inequality. Issues that require sustained political courage, including climate justice, sexual and reproductive rights, and accountability for atrocity crimes, are at risk of falling entirely off the global agenda.

If there is any moment that demands principled leadership, it is this, and if the world order must be reimagined, let it be shaped by the global south. India, as the world’s largest democracy, carries a history that is directly speaks to this moment. Its independence movement showed what organised civic action can achieve, and its role in the Non-Aligned Movement demonstrated that there are alternatives to superpower-driven politics.

But the opportunity, and responsibility, extends far beyond any single country. South Africa, another constitutional democracy shaped by struggle and has long contributed important legal and democratic insights to global debates also needs to share this responsibility. Its decision to bring a case against Israel under the Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice was an act of courage, offering a glimpse of what values-driven leadership from the Global South can look like.

Brazil, with its regional influence and renewed commitment to democratic norms, adds political weight and the ability to convene across continents. In fact, the return to democratic governance after a period of heightened pressure highlights how its constitutional structures can withstand significant strain and reaffirm democratic norms.

Admittedly, none of these countries score high on the Civicus index either. And their citizens can empathise with their American friends, having faced (or currently facing) similar challenges at home. Yet, we find ourselves at a moment of unusual geopolitical significance, one that raises difficult but necessary questions about what leadership can and should look like in a world undergoing democratic backsliding.

This is not nostalgia for a bygone era but a pragmatic (and perhaps hopeful) response to a shifting global order. In a multipolar world, leadership cannot and should not rest with one or two nations. It must be distributed, aligned with the aspirations of ordinary people who continue to resist repression.

The People Power Report is not simply a database of violations. It is an invitation to reckon with the world we are becoming. What will matter now is how citizens and their governments choose to defend the freedoms that protect us all.

Devyani Kacker is a human rights lawyer based in New York.