World Report 2016 is Human Rights Watch's 26th annual review of human rights practices around the globe. It summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, drawing on events from the end of 2014 through November 2015.

The book is divided into two main parts: an essay section, and country-specific chapters.

In the introductory essay, “Twin Threats: How the Politics of Fear and the Crushing of Civil Society Imperil Global Rights,” Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth details how fear drove two of the most important global developments of 2015. Fears of terror attacks and of the potential impact of refugee influx led to a visible scaling back of rights in Europe and other regions. Scapegoating Muslims and refugees, Roth argues, hurts and alienates populations crucial to counterterrorism efforts. Efforts to weaken encryption of communications and to intensify surveillance—the knee-jerk response of many governments to terror attacks—undermines privacy rights, can endanger critical infrastructure, and may distract from the focused investigative work that should be at the heart of counterterrorism efforts. In countries as diverse as China, Ethiopia, India, and Russia, another set of fears—in this case, fears that new digital communications platforms will energize social and political movements—helped to drive a less recognized but disturbing and destructive global trend: the adoption by many countries of repressive new nongovernmental organization laws and policies targeting individuals and groups that try to hold governments to account, including social media users, civil society groups, and the funders who back them. Roth traces the ways in which human rights law can and should guide responses to these major global developments. “We abandon it,” he warns “at our peril.”

Most people never question the “boy” or “girl” designation they receive at birth. In the next essay, “Rights in Transition “ Neela Ghoshal and Kyle Knight examine the humiliating and violent treatment often endured by those who do. Across the world, transgender people are subject to discriminatory laws and policies that prevent them from accessing a range of rights and services, including health care, free expression, and privacy, and that in some cases ban their very existence.