The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, alleging decline in civic freedom under Trump administration. Civicus, a global civil rights watchdog that tracks civic freedoms across 198 countries, released its first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, citing ‘significant deterioration’ of civil liberties in the US.
The US inclusion stems from what Civicus describes as systematic challenges to democratic principles and international cooperation under the Trump administration, reported the Guardian. The organisation cited specific actions, including widespread federal employee dismissals, strategic appointments of Trump supporters, withdrawal from international bodies, aid freezing, and attempts to dismantle USAID.
The organisation expressed particular concern about restrictions on pro-Palestinian demonstrations and unprecedented control over media access to presidential briefings.
Alongside the US, the latest list includes the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan, and Serbia. Previously, it listed nations such as Zimbabwe, Argentina, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates. According to Mandeep Tiwana, co-secretary general of Civicus, the watchlist evaluates nations where civic space conditions are deteriorating, particularly regarding freedoms of peaceful assembly, association and expression. “Restrictive executive orders, unjustifiable institutional cutbacks, and intimidation tactics through threatening pronouncements by senior officials in the administration are creating an atmosphere to chill democratic dissent, a cherished American ideal,” Tiwana said in a statment justifying the decision.
Civicus characterised the behaviour of Trump after assuming presidency as an “unparalleled attack on the rule of law” unseen “since the days of McCarthyism in the twentieth century”. The organisation further stated that such presidential actions undermine the fundamental democratic principle of checks and balances.
Apart from the recent addition to watchlist, the US currently holds a “narrowed” rating on the Civicus Monitor’s five-tier classification system (open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed and closed). Under Trump’s previous term, the rating had declined to “obstructed” following responses to Black Lives Matter protests and restrictive environmental protest legislation. Though it improved under Biden’s leadership, being back to “narrowed”, Civicus now suggests the country may return to “obstructed” status.
Tiwana claimed that while the US traditionally championed democracy and fundamental freedoms in its foreign policy, recent administrative actions risk emboldening authoritarian regimes globally.
