There is an unprecedented shift happening in U.S. politics that’s affecting not just American citizens, but our global community. The attempted destruction of USAID, a government-run organization tasked with handling humanitarian aid, has exacerbated global crises and threatens to upend the standing of the United States and its relationships with other nations.
Domestically, the persecution of immigrants — both lawful and unlawful — have left many fearing for their safety. But the United States isn’t the first nation to experience these threats — and there’s a lot we can learn from studying how other nations have dealt with similar conflicts.
Carine Kaneza Nantulya, the Africa deputy director and strategic planning advisor for Human Rights Watch, joins Lake Effect’s Joy Powers to discuss what’s happening and how people can band together to affect change.
Situating domestic threats to human rights in a global context
From threats to freedom of expression, immigrants’ rights and reproductive freedom, to the erosion of checks and balances and an independent judiciary, Nantulya argues that the U.S. is facing a period of backsliding human rights protections and democratic norms. She cites the arrest of pro-Palestine student activist Mahmoud Kalil, which followed a January executive order by President Donald Trump, as one example of this phenomenon.
“I think what we see right now is that the words on a piece of paper, in a very short period of time, can be translated into harmful actions that can disrupt and destroy lives,” she says. “That is the moment we live in.”
For Nantalya, situating these trends in the context of broader, global crises is essential to the struggle for human rights and democracy against authoritarianism — not only for NGO’s like Human Rights Watch, but also for concerned citizens.
“What we see in the U.S. right now has been seen in other parts of the world — including Africa for many years before — which is linked to this idea of ‘the autocrat’s playbook,’” she says.
By studying the strategies of authoritarian leaders worldwide — as well as strategies of resistance — Nantalya says that citizens in a democracy can develop their own playbook. She points to the 2020 George Floyd protests as an example of the sort of creativity, resilience and solidarity needed to resist the trend towards autocracy.
“We've seen it in the last five years where these groups have really coalesced around the need to address reparation for the legacy of slavery, but also the harmful impact of unfair practices within the criminal justice system,” she says. “We’ve seen these attempts, and they will continue.”
A rules-based international order in crisis
Nantulya argues that shoring up multilateral institutions’ legal toolbox — forming a UN Convention on Crimes Against Humanity, for example — is another important component of protecting human rights on a global scale. But with many states lurching towards autocracy and a disregard for international law, the rules-based international order is in decline, she says — making it increasingly difficult for the international community to address crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan and elsewhere.
“Traditionally, maybe 20 years ago, 15 years ago, we were able — through our research, factual research, and our advocacy — to push institutions like the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to actually address these crisis situations, have them on the agenda, come up with tangible solutions, recommendations and tools to actually curb the behavior of the perpetrators,” she says. “And in the last five to 10 years, it has become increasingly difficult.”
She also argues that certain double standards color the international community’s varied responses to human rights violations in the Global North versus the Global South. While international bodies such as the UN General Assembly, UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court mobilized quickly — within a year — in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Nantulya says the international community has done very little to address violence in Sudan, for example.
“We've documented unlawful killings, rampant sexual violence, destruction of civilian infrastructure, obstruction of humanitarian aid ever since the war broke out in 2023,” she says. “I can name other countries where we have the same concerns, and yet, the international community, African leaders, policymakers within the UN space, have not been able to agree to vote and deploy a civilian protection force.”
Dismantling of USAID
Nantulya says that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s recent dismantling of USAID will not only hurt the U.S.’s global reputation and undermine American “soft power” abroad, but will also exacerbate global crises by blocking much-needed humanitarian aid. As statistics regarding cuts to USAID come in, she says it important to translate those numbers into human suffering — and the potential deaths of thousands of people.
“Taking away USAID means that — remember the conflicts and crises I was referring to — victims on the ground, civilians on the ground, women, men and children will not have access to humanitarian aid.”
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