In this painful start to 2025, working together is more important than ever

2025 is off to an extremely painful start.

In his opening statement to the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva last week, High Commissioner Volker Türk pointed to the multiple conflicts and humanitarian crises facing our world - from Ukraine to Gaza, from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from Haiti to Myanmar to Afghanistan and beyond. These emergencies continue alongside rising economic and social tensions in many countries, as well as the mounting realities of the climate crisis, and its impacts on lives and livelihoods in all regions.

On top of these sobering realities, persistent wealth and income inequalities, a rapidly changing global economy, and weakened social protections for workers have shaken public faith in institutions and leaders. These longstanding trends have presented a pretext to question foundational commitments to shared values of democracy, good governance, and respect for human rights and rule of law standards. As the High Commissioner put it:

“The global consensus on human rights is crumbling under the weight of authoritarians, strongmen and oligarchs…Everywhere, we see attempts to ignore, undermine, and redefine human rights; and to create a false binary that pits one right against another in a zero-sum game.”

Nowhere is this unravelling more apparent than in the United States. Since taking office less than two months ago, President Donald Trump has, along with the world’s wealthiest individual and the President’s largest campaign donor Elon Musk, unleashed a barrage of actions aimed at disrupting and dismantling major parts of the US government, undermining the independence of its legal system, and destabilizing its interactions with other nations. The country that did more than any other to promote democracy around the world, and build up the international order of the past 80 years, now seems determined to tear down its institutions and remake the world in ways that threaten long term peace and stability. 

This radical shift in American leadership, marked by increasingly isolationist policies and an antagonistic stance toward international institutions, has far-reaching implications. In addition to withdrawing from the Human Rights Council, the Trump administration has already pulled out from the Paris Agreement on climate change and the World Health Organization (WHO), and has sent shock waves across the globe by its strong-arm attempts to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and bring its vision of peace to the Middle East.

The effects of these moves are not just symbolic. By undercutting international cooperation on pressing global challenges—such as the climate crisis, global health, and armed conflict—and by imposing high tariffs and other divisive economic tools on its trading partners, the US is single handedly weakening global efforts to address shared problems in a unified manner.

Even domestically, Trump’s policies are contributing to a growing sense of disillusionment and distrust, and are creating fertile ground for further political polarization as well as corruption and self-dealing. Large scale firings of federal workers in the name of government “efficiency” are producing fear and economic downturn. The choice of agencies for most severe cuts is also instructive – weakening those probing or investigating businesses associated with Trump allies. Media organizations are under pressure as well to conform to government pronouncements or risk loss of access and legal challenges. Tech giants are demonstrating their willingness to align with the administration in order to avoid antitrust lawsuits alleging monopolist practices and in hopes of dominating future regulatory initiatives on areas such as artificial intelligence. A few companies are beginning to speak out against planned tariffs and the implications for workers and consumers, but a unified push back from corporate America hasn’t shown signs of life as of yet.

The bottom line - the US is becoming a nation increasingly divided at home, and disengaged from the global community.

These challenges are daunting. What do they mean for those of us working to help advance human rights standards and responsible business practices around the world? How do we protect hard won gains built up over decades and continue to work with all those who believe a responsible private sector can be a force for good?

In Europe, wider geopolitical uncertainty is currently feeding ongoing debates over implementation of CSDDD legislation and the value of transparency, reporting and corporate due diligence, viewed by some as a cost burden that will undercut global competitiveness. As has been noted, new narratives are needed for the importance of such legislation, anchored not in compliance but in shared value to business and society. Loosening and weakening requirements under CSDDD, in the name of making EU businesses more competitive, is a recipe for a race to the bottom. The cost of such moves will be borne by workers and communities, Indigenous peoples, and other groups vulnerable to exploitation in global supply chains.

On the broader stage, South Africa is seeking to focus the G20 in 2025 on solidarity, equality and sustainability. Business leaders, trade unions and civil society actors must work together over the coming months to ensure G20 leaders find ways of uniting behind a shared agenda to mobilize the finance needed for just energy transitions, and a fair approach to harnessing the critical minerals needed to forge inclusive and sustainable development.

There is an urgent need for new voices, including from business, who can remind the world of what can work and what is right. This is a moment for a new generation of leaders to step forward and offer a more hopeful alternative to the geopolitical breakdown we’re witnessing that seems only intended to benefit those with political and economic power.

We should keep in mind the examples of people coming together at all levels committed to more inclusive and accountable approaches to governance and problem solving. We shouldn’t forget those finding creative ways of building bridges between communities, including the voices of those who were marginalized and vulnerable, and helping shape more democratic nations. International organizations, though severely weakened and in real need of reform, still offer a critical platform for dialogue and cooperation. It is up to all of us now to make the case for more effective and accountable forms of international cooperation even as we face the troubling tides of the current US administration.

As we noted in December when launching IHRB’s annual Top 10 list of key business and human rights issues for the year ahead, 2025 is indeed marked by uncertainty and turmoil. The crumbling consensus on human rights is a stark reminder that we must all remain vigilant, and that the fight for democracy, human dignity, and the planet’s future is far from over. We can’t allow the erosion of shared values to create an irreversible divide between communities and nations. Instead, our challenge is to find common ground and build a more resilient, inclusive world —one that can weather the storms ahead.