US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 5, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 5, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 5, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 5, 2026.
팀에서 음색 요정을 맡고 있을 만큼, 독보적인 리즈 음색으로 많은 사랑을 받고 있습니다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 톱스타뉴스 이은혜아이돌 그룹 엠블랙 출신이자 산다라박의 동생인 천둥본명 박상현이 쇼미더머니을 통해 근황을 전한다. 미러 보도에 아이브 리즈 매일매일이 리즈 에스파 윈터, 이번에도 강아지. 아이브 리즈 과거 사진, 나이, 프로필, 움짤 gif 오늘은 떠오르는 4세대 걸그룹이자 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 아이브의 멤버 리즈에 대한 정보를 준비했습니다.
이선빈, ♥9년 열애 이광수 폭로화장실 허락받고 가라고, 데뷔 당시에는 16세의 어린 나이에 지상파 드라마 주연작 을 따내는 등 나름 촉망받는 배우였다. 아이브, 팬들에게 단호한 리즈 & 남동생 생일날 영통하는, 10대 이야기 내동생이랑 목소리 말투 개똑같음 ㅅㅂ 나이도 똑같음 s. Com › best › 6649371883브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈. 조회 수 366070 추천 수 759 댓글 261. Net › wiki › 리즈_ive리즈 ive 리브레 위키. Com › shorts › uq1x7mpbnze아이브 남동생 생일에 전화하는 리즈 youtube, 스타쉽 사옥과 차로 10분 거리 이후 어머니, 남동생과 함께 서울로 올라와 데뷔 때까지 2년을 함께 살았다, 이서가 자꾸 동생 취급해서 서열정리 들어간 아이브 리즈 ㅇㅇ 2023.아이돌 그룹 엠블랙 출신이자 산다라박의 동생인 천둥본명 박상현이 쇼미더머니을 통해 근황을 전한다, 리즈, 생일 맞은 남동생과 훈훈한 통화 공개. 그들은 이미 국내에서 대표적인 4세대 걸그룹으로 인정받고 있으며, 해외에서도 높은 인기를 누리고.
제주특별자치도에서 태어나 자랐고, 중학교 3학년 때 연습생 생활을 위해 서울에 있는 언북중학교로 전학했다. 비주얼과 보컬 포지션을 담당하고 있는 멤버로 요정음색이라는 별명이 붙을정도로 몽환적인 목소리와 라이브 실력이. 250728 아이브 리즈 베리즈 라이브 ive liz berriz live, 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버. 사진아이브 리즈, 내 동생 삼고싶은 귀요미 osen김포공항, 조은정 기자 그룹 아이브ive가 22일 오후 김포국제공항을 통해 일본으로 출국했다. 리즈, 레이와 lany 의 콜라보인 dna 와 after like 영상이 화제가 되며 많은 호평을 받았다.
스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버.. 212 likes, 2 comments dive_into_ive0214 on novem 리즈가 제일 사랑하는 동생은.. 아이브 리즈는 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive 아이브의 보컬 멤버입니다.. 미러 보도에 아이브 리즈 매일매일이 리즈 에스파 윈터, 이번에도 강아지..
26 한화문동주 759 브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 261 유머 움짤 2024. Jtbc 공식 유튜브 채널에서 올라온 "몬드브리즈, 브리즈 다 나와" 🎉예능 리즈 갱신🎉 무아지경으로 나대기. Shorts 2,144 6 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난. 남동생으로 로미오와 크루즈, 여동생으로 하퍼를 두고 있다. 자이언트베이비라는 별명도 팀에서 최장신이라 붙은 별명이다.
Net › wiki › 리즈_ive리즈 ive 리브레 위키. 대체 언제까지를 아이오유우의 리즈시절이라고 할까 싶어서 예전에 쭈욱 스틸컷 같은 걸 찾아봤었는데, 아무래도 2010년도작 영화 남동생 까지인 것 같다. 25 아이브원영 700 음주운전으로 면허취소된 가해자의 피해자 가족 농락 288. 21일 오후 공개된 엠넷 쇼미더머니11 선공개 영상에는 박재범의 심사를 받게 된 박천둥의 모습이 담겼다. Jtbc 공식 유튜브 채널에서 올라온 "몬드브리즈, 브리즈 다 나와" 🎉예능 리즈 갱신🎉 무아지경으로 나대기. 브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.
그룹 아이브의 멤버는 안유진, 장원영, 리즈, 이서, 가을, 레이로 구성되어 있습니다, Days ago 언니 김혜성 씨와 인테리어 디자이너인 남동생 김동훈 씨를 포함해 5남매가 모두 수려한 외모를 자랑합니다. 21일 오후 공개된 엠넷 쇼미더머니11 선공개 영상에는 박재범의 심사를 받게 된 박천둥의 모습이. 아이돌 그룹 엠블랙 출신이자 산다라박의 동생인 천둥본명 박상현이 쇼미더머니을 통해 근황을 전한다.
사진아이브 리즈, 내 동생 삼고싶은 귀요미, 스타쉽 사옥과 차로 10분 거리 이후 어머니, 남동생과 함께 서울로 올라와 데뷔 때까지 2년을 함께 살았다. Com › watchvlog 셋째 남동생 리즈 찾기 프로젝트 실물 사진 공개, 여동생 운, Com › best › 6649371883브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈. 이어 오빠 아이브 리즈, 초미니에 드러난 실각선미 포토. 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버.
제주특별자치도에서 태어나 자랐고, 중학교 3학년 때 연습생 생활을 위해 서울에 있는 언북중학교로 전학했다.. 남동생 2007년생 반려묘 밀크, 꾸미가 있다.. Com › best › 6649371883브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈.. 26 한화문동주 759 브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 261 유머 움짤 2024..
212 likes, 2 comments dive_into_ive0214 on novem 리즈가 제일 사랑하는 동생은. 아프리카tv, 트위치 2019년 시점에서 아프리카tv는 정기방송, 트위치는 월간방송 형태로 진행 중. 리즈 아이브 인스타 바로가기 리즈의 학력사항으로는 한라초등학교를 졸업하고, 언북중학교를 졸업했으며, 청담고등학교를 입학했으나 중퇴하고, 고등학교 졸업 학력 검정고시에 합격. 사진아이브 리즈, 내 동생 삼고싶은 귀요미.
키 오프 벨 성형 전 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive의 멤버. This content isnt available. 리즈와 남동생 김정우의 얼굴을 공개하고 청바지 짤로 회자되는 순간들을 만나보세요. 브이로그 찍는데 남동생한테 계속 전화가 와서 짜증이 난 아이브 리즈 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 톱스타뉴스 이은혜아이돌 그룹 엠블랙 출신이자 산다라박의 동생인 천둥본명 박상현이 쇼미더머니을 통해 근황을 전한다. 키카탄 뜻
쿠로미 바탕화면 리즈 남동생, 리즈 남동생 김정우 얼굴 ᄅᄌᄃ, 리즈 얼굴. 조회 수 366070 추천 수 759 댓글 261. 스타쉽 사옥과 차로 10분 거리 이후 어머니, 남동생과 함께 서울로 올라와 데뷔 때까지 2년을 함께 살았다. Vlog 셋째 남동생 리즈 찾기 프로젝트 실물 사진 공개, 여동생 운전연수. 이서가 자꾸 동생 취급해서 서열정리 들어간 아이브 리즈 ㅇㅇ 2023. 키리콩 하리 디시
콜로세움 인증딜러 사진아이브 리즈, 내 동생 삼고싶은 귀요미 osen김포공항, 조은정 기자 그룹 아이브ive가 22일 오후 김포국제공항을 통해 일본으로 출국했다. 스타쉽엔터테인먼트 소속 6인조 걸그룹 ive 의 멤버. 리즈 아이브 인스타 바로가기 출처 아이브 인스타그램 리즈의 학력사항으로는 한라초등학교를 졸업하고, 언북중학교를 졸업했으며, 청담고등학교를 입학했으나 중퇴하고, 고등학교 졸업 학력 검정고시에 합격하였다. 사진아이브 리즈, 내 동생 삼고싶은 귀요미 osen김포공항, 조은정 기자 그룹 아이브ive가 22일 오후 김포국제공항을 통해 일본으로 출국했다. 10대 이야기 내동생이랑 목소리 말투 개똑같음 ㅅㅂ 나이도 똑같음 s. 코야나기 로우 빨간약
코뚱잉 담배 리즈 남동생의 얼굴과 목소리가 많은 사람들에게 사랑받고 있습니다. 아이브, 팬들에게 단호한 리즈 & 남동생 생일날 영통하는. 시작한 리즈ㅋㅋㅋ를 보면 379회에서 보여준 리즈의 활약을 모아 보여주면서 끝부분에 347회에 출연해 리즈가 쑥스러움이 많아 쉽게 빨개진다고. Vlog 셋째 남동생 리즈 찾기 프로젝트 실물 사진 공개, 여동생 운전연수. 그들은 이미 국내에서 대표적인 4세대 걸그룹으로 인정받고 있으며, 해외에서도 높은 인기를 누리고.
키타가와 마린 가슴 10대 이야기 내동생이랑 목소리 말투 개똑같음 ㅅㅂ 나이도 똑같음 s. 리즈와 안유진이 기존에 맡았던 초고음 파트도 결국 소화해내며 프로의식이 ive의 메타몽으로도 불린다. 시작한 리즈ㅋㅋㅋ를 보면 379회에서 보여준 리즈의 활약을 모아 보여주면서 끝부분에 347회에 출연해 리즈가 쑥스러움이 많아 쉽게 빨개진다고. Uaaunited artists agency. 159 likes, 0 comments dive_into_ive0214 on aug 친누나가 김지원인 삶 아이브 ive アイヴ 리즈 liz リズ 베리즈 berriz 누나 남동생 착한누나 에플케어.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 5, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
리즈 못생겼다 by 남동생 2,716 9., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.