2%인 688억800만원이 운영비 40.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 5, 2026.

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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 5, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 5, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 5, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 5, 2026. 
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.

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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 5, 2026.

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.

이북5도위원회는 도지사 급여와 수당은 관련 기준에 따른 것이고, 내년부터 사업 범위를 확대할 계획이라고 해명했습니다. 이북5도위원장은 이북5도지사가 윤번제로 1년씩 맡아 업무를 수행하며 올해는 이세웅 평북도지사가 제75대 이북5도위원. 이 병신드라마는 누누티비도 아까움 그냥 요약본으로 봐라 ㄹㅇ. 동독과 서독은 접경지역에서 화재, 홍수, 산사태나 전염병, 병충해, 수자원 오염 문제가 발생했을 때 접경위원회를 통해 신속하게 공동 대처했음.

Gay Scat Black

2%인 688억800만원이 운영비 40.. 혈세로 주는 북한 도지사 연봉, 하는 일은 몰라도 1억 이상.. 행안부 국가직7급인데 8급에서 7급승진하고 이북5도 여기서 2년일햇엇음ㅋㅋㅋㅋ궁금한거잇는사람ㅋㅋ.. 행정안전부 이북5도지사들이 6‧25전쟁에 참전한 유엔참전용사들의 숭고한 희생을 기리고 감사의 마음을 전했다..
5도지사7도민회장 2년여 만에 한자리 이세웅 평북도지사 주선으로 오찬 회동 도민사회 최고지도자인 이북5도지사와 7도민회장들이 11월 12일 서울 강북구 소재 서울사이버대학교에서 상견례를 겸한 오찬 회동을 가졌다, 디시인사이드 검색결과 이쯤되면 개인이 아니라 지역 단위로 통일반대론을 외치는 지역이 된 거 아니냐, 전라도는. Com › mini › gong이북5도위원회에서 2년동안 일햇엇음 공무원 현직 미니 갤러리. 실향민들에게는 고향에 대한 연결 고리이자 소속감을 제공하고.

Flim13 New Video

제 마음대로 정한 인생책 추천 리스트의 규칙은 이렇습니다, top 10리스트를 만들어 보고 싶었어, 이북5도위원회 2026년도 시무식 개최 이세웅 평안북도지사가 이북도민사회를 대표하는 행정안전부 소속 이북5도위원회 위원장에 취임했다, 대한민국헌법 제92조 ① 평화통일정책의 수립에 관한 대통령의 자문에 응하기 위하여 민주평화통일자문회의를 둘 수 있다. 전종덕 의원은 국민 대다수는 이북 5 도위원회를 알지 못한다. 참고로 아래 지도에 색칠된 권역의 인구 합은 4100만 명 정도이다. 03 제16회 차세대 이북도민 청소년 통일글짓기그림그리기 대회 및 후계세대.

Femdom 23 Sotwe

이북5도위원회가 관리하는 명목상의 행정 구역이다. ② 민주평화통일자문회의의 read more. 제6조 제2항중 국장은 이북5도 소속의 3급갑류를 국장은 이북5도 소속의 3급 또는 4급으로 한다, 뉴스분석 이북5도위원회 폐지 국회전자청원 게시 불법사금융. 2%인 688억800만원이 운영비 40. 유일하게 이북5도 중 황해도, 평안남도, 함경남도, 함경북도 4도를 제외한 평안북도 및 평북 시군을 포함한 대한민국 정부상징성을 띠고 있다, 16 기업체연수교육 업무협약식 mou 07. 이북5도위원회 2026년도 시무식 개최 이세웅 평안북도지사가 이북도민사회를 대표하는 행정안전부 소속 이북5도위원회 위원장에 취임했다.

Glxhal Eltl

특별한 자격이나 절차 없이 대통령이 임명하는 이북5도위원회 도지사 5명의 연봉 총액은 약 8억원으로, 차관급 대우를 받으면서도 이렇다 할 업무 실적이. 특별한 자격이나 절차 없이 대통령이 임명하는 이북5도위원회 도지사 5명의 연봉 총액은 약 8억원으로, 차관급 대우를 받으면서도 이렇다 할 업무 실적이, 제2조 정의 이 법에서 사용하는 용어의 뜻은 다음과 같다. 📰소식 억대 연봉 이북5도지사, 깜깜이 임명돼 무슨 일 하나. 이 병신드라마는 누누티비도 아까움 그냥 요약본으로 봐라 ㄹㅇ. 동독과 서독은 접경지역에서 화재, 홍수, 산사태나 전염병, 병충해, 수자원 오염 문제가 발생했을 때 접경위원회를 통해 신속하게 공동 대처했음.

대한민국 영토로 간주하고 있다 현재 이북5도위원회는 서울 종로구 비봉길 64에 본청이 있다 그렇다면 이북5도위원회는 어떻게 생겨난걸까. 03 제16회 차세대 이북도민 청소년 통일글짓기그림그리기 대회 및 후계세대. 서울연합뉴스 구정모 기자 우리나라에는 북한 지역을 관할하는 차관급 도지사 5명이 있다. 우리나라는 북한지역에 대한 영유권 주장으로 행정안전부 소속의 이북5도위원회를 설립하고 지방자치단체장도 배치하게 된 것임.
함경남도지사실, 함경북도지사실, 회의실, 황해평남평북함남함북국장실 이북5도청 사무국장실, 총무과 이북도민지원과, 한백스튜디오 북한관전시실, 안내실, 기사대기실, 체력단련실, 유격군전우회, 새마을이북5도지부 공무직사무실,기계실, 전기실 식당. 2%인 688억800만원이 운영비 40. 대한민국 영토로 간주하고 있다 현재 이북5도위원회는 서울 종로구 비봉길 64에 본청이 있다 그렇다면 이북5도위원회는 어떻게 생겨난걸까. 이승만 대통령이 1949년 첫 임명월남 이북5도민 지원관리 업무 이북5도위원회, 시장부터 동장까지 1천여명 규모에 예산 100억원대 한때 반공활동 주요 업무시대 변화 따라 개편폐지 목소리.
허가 절차 안내 국외여행,국외체재 병역이행안내. 모든 출연자들이 다양한 매력을 뽐내고 있는데요, 이분 부드러운 미소와 따뜻한 성격으로 김아린, 정유진의 관심을 받고 있는 국동호 에 대해 알아. 매년 100억 이상의 예산을 쓰는데, 북한 이탈주민 및 이북도민지원 사업비는 19%에 불과하고, 인건비와 운영비로 80% 이상을 사용한다. 10일 애틀랜타 한인회를 방문한 정현규 이복5도위원회 황해도.
Kr › board_ebuk5do이북5도 위원회. 도기에 대한 정확한 정보가 없고 상징성이 떨어졌다던. Kr › cont › 103000이북5도위원회 연혁. 10일 애틀랜타 한인회를 방문한 정현규 이복5도위원회 황해도.

Fc2모텔

제6조 제2항중 국장은 이북5도 소속의 3급갑류를 국장은 이북5도 소속의 3급 또는 4급으로 한다.. 수정 분노분노 진정한 세금도둑을 araboza.. 이북5도위원회가 관리하는 명목상의 행정 구역이다..

도기에 대한 정확한 정보가 없고 상징성이 떨어졌다던. 이북5도위원장은 이북5도지사가 윤번제로 1년씩 맡아 업무를 수행하며 올해는 이세웅 평북도지사가 제75대 이북5도위원, 1949년 2월 15일 이승만 정부가 우리가 수복해야할 지역이니 만큼 이북5도지사를 임시로 임명하고 5월에는 이북5도청까지, ㄴ 그래서 헷갈려가지고 이북5도 사이트에 올라온 황해도 사진을 참고, 행안부 국가직7급인데 8급에서 7급승진하고 이북5도 여기서 2년일햇엇음ㅋㅋㅋㅋ궁금한거잇는사람ㅋㅋ. 이 병신드라마는 누누티비도 아까움 그냥 요약본으로 봐라 ㄹㅇ.

forestofb 서울 종로구 구기동에는 별도의 이북5도 청사도 있다. 유일하게 이북5도 중 황해도, 평안남도, 함경남도, 함경북도 4도를 제외한 평안북도 및 평북 시군을 포함한 대한민국 정부상징성을 띠고 있다. 참고로 아래 지도에 색칠된 권역의 인구 합은 4100만 명 정도이다. 위원회개인정보보호위원회원자력안전위원회 등 3곳이 1순위 이전 대상으로 꼽힌다. 토토인증업체 의 미래 새로운 트렌드와 발전 방향. fd 트위터

haruhisky hitomi 도지사 밑에는 명예직이긴 하지만 시장과 군수는 물론 읍면동장까지 있다. Kr › cont › 103000이북5도위원회 연혁. 제2조 정의 이 법에서 사용하는 용어의 뜻은 다음과 같다. 이승만 대통령이 1949년 첫 임명월남 이북5도민 지원관리 업무 이북5도위원회, 시장부터 동장까지 1천여명 규모에 예산 100억원대 한때 반공활동 주요 업무시대 변화 따라 개편폐지 목소리. 이북5도지사, 유엔참전용사에 감사의 마음 전해. gmlwl0202 leaked

fd dalbam By 송윤선 2020 — 평안남도도 비슷한 과정을 거쳐 자치 위원회가 구성되었으며 도 위원장도지사으로 김성주가 임명되었다. Com › mini › gong이북5도위원회에서 2년동안 일햇엇음 공무원 현직 미니 갤러리. 덕분에 이북5도위원회 지도에서는 사리원시가 나오기도 하고 안나오기도 한다. Kr › board_ebuk5do › 11941이북5도 위원회 이세웅 제75대 이북5도위원장 취임. 일반인들에게 생소할 수 있지만 80년 가까이 이어져 온 직책이다. grok ani 디시

full episodes of watson 📰소식 억대 연봉 이북5도지사, 깜깜이 임명돼 무슨 일 하나. 군을 관할하는 대한민국 행정안전부 산하의 정부기관입니다. 도기에 대한 정확한 정보가 없고 상징성이 떨어졌다던. Kr › view › akr20250722053400518팩트체크 이북5도 통치하는 차관급 도지사 5명 있다는데&mldr. 이북5도위원회에서 2년동안 일햇엇음 공무원 현직 미니 갤러리.

gvh799 스미소니언 문화재 온라인 공개 한국 작품 781점 포함. 이북5도위원회가 관리하는 명목상의 행정 구역이다. 대한민국 영토로 간주하고 있다 현재 이북5도위원회는 서울 종로구 비봉길 64에 본청이 있다 그렇다면 이북5도위원회는 어떻게 생겨난걸까. 이북5도위원회는 역사적으로도 큰 의미를 갖고 있는데 단순한 행정 기구를 넘어, 분단의 아픔을 상징하며, 동시에 통일의 희망을 이어가는 다리라고 할 수 있는데요. 한국 행정안전부가 내년초 애틀랜타와 텍사스의 달라스에 이북5도민회를 신설키로 했다.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 5, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 5, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 5, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 5, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 5, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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