Liberties’ Rule of Law Report 2025, the report’s sixth edition, reveals a trend of persistent and intensified hate and discrimination against Roma people, asylum seekers, and the LGBTQIA+ community. New and old offenders failed to enforce existing protections, ignored direction from international human rights bodies, and both carried out old and enacted new policies that pushed these already vulnerable groups further into the margins of society.

Why human rights matter

Human rights and civil liberties are not just abstract ideas; they ensure you have the power to protest, the freedom to love who you want and practice your religion, protect you from unfair treatment, and guarantee safety when fleeing persecution and violence.

Everyone is better off when we uphold these values collectively. A society that respects differences and honors the dignity of all people is safer, more creative, innovative, and resilient.

So, put simply: human rights help us build prosperous societies where we are free to be who we are and do what we want. When governments don’t respect them, it threatens that social foundation and can undermine our ability to hold our governments accountable. When governments abuse their power and commit atrocities against people, we can leverage human rights law to seek justice.

So how are these protections under threat today? Let’s dive into what CSOs across the EU reported this year.

Racism and discrimination against ‘the other’ fester

EU-wide, governments both tacitly endorsed cases of systemic racism through inaction and overtly enforced new discriminatory measures.

Governments turned a blind eye as Roma communities in Slovakia, Romania, and Croatia continued to be marginalised, most prominently via school segregation. Local school systems frequently place Roma children in schools for pupils with mental disabilities or simply keep them in separate schools or classes altogether. Human rights bodies like the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination have expressed concern about Roma discrimination and in April 2023, the European Commission referred Slovakia to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for its failure to act on the issue. While Slovakia has begun to undertake some legislative reforms in response, for the most part, states remained inactive and non-compliant with international law.

LGBTQIA+ rights were undermined through the absence of enforcement and the rolling back of legal protections. In Slovakia, the Ministry of Health did away with standards for medical gender transitioning, and an amendment was submitted to the parliament that aimed to prohibit public support for non-traditional lifestyles. In Lithuania, the government refrained from enshrining same-sex unions into law, despite public pressure. In Italy, the Minister of the Interior set back the right to a family for LGBTQIA+ couples, issuing orders to transcribe only the biological parent in the birth certificates of children with same-sex parents.

Moreover, states used their executive authority to openly enforce discriminatory policies. France, for example, was condemned by the international community, particularly the United Nations, for banning French athletes from wearing sports headscarves during the 2024 Olympic Games. Amid growing racist and xenophobic public rhetoric in the country, French law enforcement practiced flagrant racial profiling, disproportionately arresting and searching racial and ethnic minorities. The state did not put any plan forth to address the problem, despite pressure from the Human Rights Committee.

Legal guarantees are ignored as governments further restrict migration

In 2024, governments adopted some of the strictest migration regimes, violating the rights and freedoms of refugees and migrants.

CSOs sounded the alarm over forced returns from Slovenia and Greece to countries where migrants and asylum seekers face inhumane and degrading treatment. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) condemned these illegal pushbacks because of the risk of abuse in these countries, and the lack of procedural safeguards and individual assessments underpinning these forced returns.

Again, these cases of non-compliance with EU law occurred alongside new legislative initiatives harmful to refugees and asylum seekers. Governments in Germany, Sweden, and Slovenia weakened the protective status of refugees by amendments affecting their social benefits and increased criminalisation of illegal crossings. In the Netherlands, the new right-wing cabinet drafted a proposal for a temporary asylum crisis law, which would allow the government to circumvent the current immigration acts through emergency legislation.

Why this is happening & where we go from here

In times of economic tension and social unrest, governments may try to score cheap political points by demonising voiceless outgroups to redirect public anger and avoid accountability. When we see commitment to the universality and importance of human rights being sacrificed, this is a clue that the masses are being manipulated for political gain. The rights and freedoms we enjoy today were hard-won through tireless advocacy and must continue to be fought for so that we can keep them. To that end, the EU must take a stand and leverage its powers to ensure that states uphold the shared values that bind us together.

Trend Analyses

• EU Overview: Democratic Race to The Bottom But Some Shoots of Hope
• Closing Civic Space: How Attacks on Human Right Defenders Undermine the Rule of Law
• Caged In: How The Growing Politicisation of Public Service Media and The Repression of Journalists Threaten Media Freedom in Europe
• The Cost of Corruption: How Weak Oversight Enables Wrongdoing in Europe
• Governments Cut Corners to Avoid Accountability, Steamrolling Checks and Balances

Reads & Resources

• Download the full Liberties Rule of Law Report 2025
• Op-ed: The EU Should Reinforce Democracy's Guardrails Before it's Too Late
• Previous annual rule of law reports: 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020