The year 2025 was marked by an unprecedented decline in international solidarity and development aid. The dismantling of USAID by Donald Trump, representing more than $60 billion less in aid to recipient countries, is the main symptom of this decline. More broadly, democracies are becoming weaker, including in Europe, many are succumbing to conservative nationalism, international law is being flouted in several war zones, and human rights and multilateralism are being challenged.

Yet globalisation has shrunk the world and made us interdependent, and when fundamental rights are violated on the other side of the globe, the whole edifice trembles… The decline in international solidarity is already having catastrophic consequences on access to healthcare, inequalities, women’s rights, the plight of refugees and stateless persons, the environment and peace on every continent.

On the occasion of International Human Rights Day on 10 December, Cartooning for Peace is mobilising for international solidarity in a campaign of cartoons in partnership with Coordination Sud.

Find all our weekly editorials here, check out our regular posts on our blog ‘Libérons les crayons’ (Let’s free the pencils) and subscribe to our newsletter!