Amnesty has been producing its annual report on human rights for over 60 years. We cover many countries and focus on key human rights issues with full or partial versions available in many languages. It is a valuable free resource for anyone interested in human rights.
Find out below
- what is included in the reports,
- how to access each edition and
- how the report can be used to help support human rights.
What is included
Each edition includes key human rights developments at a national, regional and global level. They cover a full calendar year, now running from 1 January to 31 December, with individual entries on around 150 or so countries (the exact number varies from year to year), plus global and regional analysis of key human rights concerns.
Reports offer a broad overview of the state of the word’s human rights. Country entries feature specific concerns. Regional overviews draw out the key themes at a regional level, and our global analysis focuses on a selection of significant trends spanning different regions.
How to access current and past editions
All annual reports are available in PDF format. Individual country entries in the most recent annual reports are also available as HTML web pages.
You can click on the quick links [below] to find an archive of our annual reports and you can download free PDF copies of the reports there. We no longer supply printed copies.
Using to support human rights
Amnesty’s annual report is a unique free source of reference on human rights across the world and aimed at a wide audience. Journalists use it for background on the human rights situation on countries on which they are reporting, lawyers use it to support asylum claims for refugees, human rights advocates use it as a tool to pressure governments, academics use it to analyse
human rights trends over decades and diplomats use it to inform foreign policy discussions. In fact, anyone with an interest in human rights at home or internationally will find Amnesty’s annual report a useful resource.
“What I find most useful about this rich resource is the clear and simple language, which is a breath of fresh air compared to many academic writings on the same subject. The unbiased and well-referenced details are helpful in building a background picture of the situation in any country.”
PhD student
Disambiguation
Although we still use the term “annual report”, this annual publication is neither a report of its financial statements and accounts nor a report focused primarily on Amnesty’s own activities. The annual report on the affairs of the Amnesty International Charity together with its financial statements and auditors’ report can be found on our finance page.
Find out more about the history of Amnesty’s annual report, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
2025/26 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2025, covering 144 countries
2024/25 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2024, covering 150 countries
2023/24 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2023, covering 155 countries
2022/23 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2022, covering 156 countries
2021/22 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2021, covering 154 countries
2020/21 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2020, covering 149 countries
2019/20 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Series of six regional annual reports on the state of the world’s human rights in 2019, covering 148 countries
2018/19 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Regional annual report on the state of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa in 2018, covering 19 countries (Amnesty did not publish a global annual report covering 2018)
2017/18 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2017, covering 159 countries
2016/17 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2016, covering 160 countries
2015/16 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2015, covering 160 countries
2014/15 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2014 (along with key events from 2013), covering 160 countries (Amnesty did not publish a separate annual report covering 2013)
2013 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2012, covering 159 countries
2012 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2011, covering 155 countries
2011 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2010, covering 157 countries
2010 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2009, covering 159 countries
2009 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2008, covering 157 countries
2008 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2007, covering 150 countries
2007 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2006, covering 153 countries
2006 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2005, covering 150 countries
2005 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on the state of the world’s human rights in 2004, covering 149 countries
2004 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 2003, covering 157 countries
2003 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 2002, covering 151 countries
2002 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 2001, covering 152 countries
2001 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 2000, covering 149 countries
2000 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1999, covering 144 countries
1999 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1998, covering 142 countries
1998 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1997, covering 142 countries
1997 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1996, covering 151 countries
1996 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1995, covering 146 countries
1995 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1994, covering 151 countries
1994 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1993, covering 151 countries
1993 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1992, covering 161 countries
1992 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1991, covering 142 countries
1991 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1990, covering 141 countries
1990 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1989, covering 138 countries
1989 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1988, covering 133 countries
1988 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1987, covering 135 countries
1987 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1986, covering over 125 countries
1986 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1985, covering over 120 countries
1985 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1984, covering over 123 countries
1984 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1983, covering over 110 countries
1983 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1982, covering 115 countries
1982 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1981, covering over 120 countries
1981 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights in 1980, covering 116 countries
1980 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from May 1979 to April 1980, covering 112 countries
1979 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from May 1978 to April 1979, covering 96 countries
1978 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from July 1977 to June 1978, covering 111 countries
1977 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1976 to May 1977, covering 116 countries
1975/76 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1975 to May 1976, covering 113 countries.
1974/75 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1974 to May 1975, covering 107 countries
1973/74 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1973 to May 1974, covering 100 countries
1972/73 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1972 to May 1973, covering 85 countries
1971/72 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
Annual report on human rights from June 1971 to May 1972
1970/71 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1969/70 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1968/69 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1967/68 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1966/67 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1965/66 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1964/65 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1963/64 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
1962/63 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL REPORT
History of the annual report
Amnesty published its first annual report in 1962. During the 1960s and 1970s, annual reports primarily provided an overview of the organization’s activities over a 12-month period, generally from June to the following May, rather than a calendar year and often included financial accounts. Those activities focused, in the earliest years, largely on the adoption of prisoners of conscience and letter-writing on their cases, as well as fundraising and are only available in English
Over the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, successive annual reports reflected Amnesty’s progressively broader mandate in the field of civil and political rights, such that country entries grew to cover not only prisoners of conscience, but also unfair trials of individuals prosecuted for acts of a political nature, torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances, the death penalty, the situation of refugees, weapons transfers and abuses by armed groups. In the mid 1980s, the reports changed to focus on the calendar year, January to December. From the 2000s, the annual report’s themes expanded further to mirror Amnesty’s move to a mission covering the full spectrum of not only civil and political, but also economic, social and cultural, rights.
Since the early 1990s editions of the report have covered around 150 countries. Before 1990s, there were fewer country entries, and before 1972, there were no individual country entries. The more recent reports offer editions in different languages as well as English.
Frequently asked questions
How does Amnesty ensure the content of its annual report is accurate?
Amnesty has a reputation for conducting independent, impartial and rigorous research and documentation. All of the content published in the annual report goes through a strict review and approval process involving regional, thematic, legal and policy specialists.
Does Amnesty provide a list of the countries with the worst human rights record?
Amnesty does not rank countries in order of human rights records. Comparing countries is fraught with complications and would require judgements on the relative importance of human rights violations. For example, one country may largely respect civic freedoms but engage in widespread denial of health services to minorities whereas another may not do that but restrict any protests against the government.
Why are some years missing?
No annual report was produced covering 2013, as Amnesty underwent some internal changes (although some key events from 2013 are mentioned in the 2014/15 edition, which focuses on 2014). No annual report was produced covering 2018 either, for similar reasons. In 2019 we explored other ways to report and published six regional annual reports covering 2019, instead of one global one. We returned to the usual format for the 2020/21 edition, which covered 2020.
What happens if I can’t find a country listed in an annual report?
If you don’t find a country listed, it could be that it was not featured in that annual report. However, we may have engaged on human rights in the country you’re looking for in other ways. We recommend checking the country page and/or using the search function to look for information related to the country in regional or thematic outputs.
Why does coverage vary across different annual reports?
Our operational capacity fluctuates due to, among other things, budget, staff resources and the challenges of responding to a large and rapidly changing set of human rights concerns, meaning that there are gaps where we were not able to report on issues in a country during that year. The absence of a country from the report simply means that Amnesty was not able to cover it and does not indicate an absence of human rights concerns.
Why are some country entries so short?
The length of an entry varies from year to year according to our capacity to cover that country and the amount of information available to inform the report. To ensure that we are able to deliver our annual report to schedule and provide multiple translations, we have to restrict word counts and deadlines, meaning that we do not have the capacity or space to cover all issues in depth.
In what languages is the annual report available?
There are complete versions of recent editions available to download in English, Arabic, French and Spanish. For more recent reports there are often partial translations into many other languages. Significant portions of content in these reports are available in a wide range of languages including Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish and shorter extracts are available in other languages including Korean, Polish and Swahili. The downloads page for each specific year shows the translations we have available. Earlier editions are in English only.
Our annual report is our most translated output. For example, for the 2020/21 edition, there were over 30 full or partial translations, while, for the 2023-24 edition, there were 55. The more recent the report, the more language editions are likely to be available.
Does Amnesty provide complete data on the death penalty for every country?
While the annual report contains summary information on the death penalty for relevant countries, we release a separate death penalty report each year with statistics and analysis on the use of the death penalty in the world, usually published in April.
Does Amnesty’s inclusion of a country in its annual report mean that it recognizes it as a state?
No. Amnesty has no mandate to recognize states. It takes no position on issues of sovereignty, territorial disputes or international political or legal arrangements that might be adopted to implement the right to self-determination.
How does Amnesty choose which countries should have distinct entries?
Amnesty organizes its information on human rights in the world, including in its annual report, primarily according to the division of independent states that are accountable for the human rights situation on their territory. These are generally UN member states, but not exclusively so. For example, Amnesty considers that Kosovo, the State of Palestine and Taiwan, while not UN member states, enjoy significant formal or informal recognition as independent states and have accountability for the human rights situation on their territories and have shown their acceptance of that accountability with reference to international law and standards. For practical purposes and to highlight where accountability for the human rights situation lies, Amnesty therefore has distinct annual report entries for these countries.
Feedback
We are always keen to receive feedback on the annual report. We are interested to know in what way you may have found the annual report interesting or useful and we also appreciate receiving any suggestions for how it can be improved. Please get in touch by emailing [email protected] with your comments, thoughts, memories or information on this topic.