Police and prosecutors from Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname announced Jan. 22 the arrest of nearly 200 individuals in a transnational operation to combat illegal gold mining in the Amazon.

UN experts on Jan. 26 cautioned against the escalating use of arrests and criminal proceedings against agricultural trade union activity in France, after authorities detained 52 farmers during peaceful protests in Paris earlier this month.

Amnesty International on Jan. 22 called on Kazakhstan to immediately drop criminal charges against 19 activists affiliated with the local Atajurt human rights movement who face up to 10 years in prison for participating in a peaceful protest near the nation's border with China. Marie Struthers, Eastern Europe & Central Asia director at Amnesty International, condemned the case as a misuse of criminal law to silence dissent, stating:

The UN Human Rights Office raised alarm Jan. 19 over a "sharp hike" in the number of executions globally in 2025. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk articulated the report's key concerns, stating:

My Office monitored an alarming increase in the use of the capital punishment in 2025, especially for offences not meeting the "most serious crimes" threshold required under international law, the continued execution of people convicted of crimes committed as children, as well as persistent secrecy around executions.

This threshold is established by Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights. The increase primarily came from executions for drug-related offenses in a small number of retentionist states. These are countries that continue to retain capital punishment, as opposed to the growing number of abolitionist states. which do not employ the death penalty.

US immigration enforcement faced mounting scrutiny Jan. 23 from international officials as well as congressional Democrats following a detainee death ruled a homicide by a county medical examiner in Texas. The disturbing development comes amid a dramatic spike in deaths in Homeland Security custody.

Amnesty International published a report on Jan. 20, warning of rising authoritarianism in the US and detailing numerous ways in which the rule of law and basic rights are being threatened.

The report, entitled Ringing the Alarm Bells: Rising Authoritarian Practices and Erosion of Human Rights in the United States, ties these areas of concern largely to the policies of President Donald Trump. They range from threats to freedom of speech and protest, to the erosion of anti-discrimination protections. The report finds that a key test of democratic resilience will be the federal midterm elections of November 2026, with many early signals pointing to mounting threats to the right to vote.

The Libyan Attorney General's Office on Jan. 16 announced the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 21 bodies. A prosecutor in Benghazi charged an individual identified by the initials "MFH" with human trafficking in connection with the discovery.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo declared a 30-day nationwide "state of siege" on Jan. 19 following a spree of gang violence that left nine police officers dead in the nation's capital. The declaration was made unilaterally and currently awaits congressional approval. However, it will remain in place until a decision is reached.