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.
Com › breezen › 222646261102bj 지현잉 네이버 블로그. Likes, 6 comments nahanna on septem 애엄마그램 운동하는여자 필라테스강사 앤필라테스나원장 증명사진 크림레몬스튜디오 지난주 결혼기념일 사진 찍으러 갔다가 운전면허증이 올해 갱신해야 해서 사진 찍음. 결국 은경의 회사 비서인 최사라와 불륜을 저지르고 이혼 소송 중으로 딸 재희까지 들먹이며 은경에게 합의를 요구하는 뻔뻔스러운 모습을 보인다. 언제 합격할지 모르는 막연함이 있는 가운데 이미 전문직인 원규는 주변 친구들이 결혼한다, 결혼 상대가 개원해줬다 이런 이야기를 했고, 지현은 예민하게 반응했습니다.
| Hwaoo_p on febru 지현 신부님하면 ‘사랑스럽다‘ 가 가장 떠올라요. | 지현 원규의 첫 만남은 소개로 만나 2023년 8월부터 2024년 6월까지 약 10개월간의 열애를 하고 결혼 준비까지 할 정도로 둘 사이는 꽤 진지하게 만나고 있던 사이였다. | 이베스거는 볼때마다 징그러워 죽겠어 뭐 그런걸 만드냐 댓글 tory_22 2021. |
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| 지현 원규의 첫 만남은 소개로 만나 2023년 8월부터 2024년 6월까지 약 10개월간의 열애를 하고 결혼 준비까지 할 정도로 둘 사이는 꽤 진지하게 만나고 있던 사이였다. | 결국 4개월만에 이혼조정 중인 소식을 전하며 이혼설을 공식화 했습니다. | 그러던 어느 날 혜령과 정반대의 성격인 송원을 만나 사랑에 빠진다. |
| 1ngfilm_snap on novem 잉스냅_나인트리프리미어로카우스호텔 venue 나인트리프리미어로카우. | 1ngfilm_snap on octo 잉스냅_서울웨딩타워 당일에 받아보는 웨딩데이 그날의 순간순간. | 결혼 삼년차 딩크족 변호사로 혜령의 유명세가 아닌, 드럼 치는 모습에 반해 연애와 결혼을 성공했다. |
| 두 번의 이혼을 딛고 가요계 보석이었던 시절을 회상하며 화려하게 돌아올 수 있을지 귀추가 주목된다. | 당시 이지현은 두 자녀를 직접 키우기 위해 재산 분할과 위자료를 포기하고 양육비만 받은 것으로 전해졌다. | 결국 4개월만에 이혼조정 중인 소식을 전하며 이혼설을 공식화 했습니다. |
| 이가령 부혜령 33세 역 아름답고 똑 부러진 성격의 아나운서 출신. | Com › breezen › 222646261102bj 지현잉 네이버 블로그. | 지난 6월 이광길 해설위원이 knn에서 야구중계를 하던 중 황재균 이혼한 것 알고 있냐고 말하며 이혼설이 불거진 지 3개월 만이다. |
이 대목이 인상적인 건 두 사람의 관계가 단순한 설렘을 넘어 깊은 신뢰에 기반하고 있다는 점 때문입니다.. 그러던 어느 날 혜령과 정반대의 성격인 송원을 만나 사랑에 빠진다.. 지연과 황재균은 10일 오후 서울 장충동 신라호텔에서 결..집 다른 연예 관계자에 따르면 최근 남편 이영돈과 함께 해외 여행을 다녀오는 등 결혼 생활을 이어가고 있는 것으로 확인되었습니다, 이 대목이 인상적인 건 두 사람의 관계가 단순한 설렘을 넘어 깊은 신뢰에 기반하고 있다는 점 때문입니다, 두 번의 이혼을 딛고 가요계 보석이었던 시절을 회상하며 화려하게 돌아올 수 있을지 귀추가 주목된다. 챔낳고 4년차 결혼기념일을 맞아 나는 필라테스로만 운동, 남편은 헬스로 운동해서 부부바프 도전.
티아라 출신 지연과 프로 야구선수 황재균이 이혼 사실을 인정하며 공식입장을 전했다.. 그는 공백기에 두 차례 이혼의 아픔을 겪었다.. 언제 합격할지 모르는 막연함이 있는 가운데 이미 전문직인 원규는 주변 친구들이 결혼한다, 결혼 상대가 개원해줬다 이런 이야기를 했고, 지현은 예민하게 반응했습니다.. 1ngfilm_snap on janu 잉스냅_더채플앳논현 venue 더채플앳논현 라포레홀 당일에 받아보는..
Likes, 6 comments nahanna on septem 애엄마그램 운동하는여자 필라테스강사 앤필라테스나원장 증명사진 크림레몬스튜디오 지난주 결혼기념일 사진 찍으러 갔다가 운전면허증이 올해 갱신해야 해서 사진 찍음. 언제 합격할지 모르는 막연함이 있는 가운데 이미 전문직인 원규는 주변 친구들이 결혼한다, 결혼 상대가 개원해줬다 이런 이야기를 했고, 지현은 예민하게 반응했습니다. 김윤지ns윤지 프로필 가족 남편 최우성 나이차 직업, 누구, 로 답했고 그렇게 결혼 직전까지 갔던 두 사람의 10개월은 끝이 났다, 1ngfilm_snap on octo 잉스냅_서울웨딩타워 당일에 받아보는 웨딩데이 그날의 순간순간, 지연은 6일 중국 마카오에서 효민, 큐리, 은정과 함께 티아라 팬미팅에 참석한다.
하지만 이들의 사랑은 현실적인 어려움에 부딪히는데, 집 다른 연예 관계자에 따르면 최근 남편 이영돈과 함께 해외 여행을 다녀오는 등 결혼 생활을 이어가고 있는 것으로 확인되었습니다. Jhyun0154 on novem 잉천번듣고 남겨두려햇는데 1003이야 똑땅. Likes, 6 comments nahanna on septem 애엄마그램 운동하는여자 필라테스강사 앤필라테스나원장 증명사진 크림레몬스튜디오 지난주 결혼기념일 사진 찍으러 갔다가 운전면허증이 올해 갱신해야 해서 사진 찍음, 이가령 부혜령 33세 역 아름답고 똑 부러진 성격의 아나운서 출신.
27일 방송된 kbs2tv신사와 아가씨극본 김사경 연출 신창석에는 지현우이영국 분와 박단단이세희 분이 마침내 결혼에 골인한. 1ngfilm_snap on janu 잉스냅_더채플앳논현 venue 더채플앳논현 라포레홀 당일에 받아보는, 지난 6월 이광길 해설위원이 knn에서 야구중계를 하던 중 황재균 이혼한 것 알고 있냐고 말하며 이혼설이 불거진 지 3개월 만이다, 모든 이미지 저작권은 방송사에 있습니다.
다들 놀란다ㅋㅋ10년에 한번 바꾸는건데, 1ngfilm_snap on novem 잉스냅_월드컵컨벤션 venue 월드컵컨벤션 임페리얼홀 당일에 받아보, 결혼 삼년차 딩크족 변호사로 혜령의 유명세가 아닌, 드럼 치는 모습에 반해 연애와 결혼을 성공했다, 환승연애4 지현 원규의 서사가 공개됐다. Bj 지현잉 네이버 블로그 생명연장 이웃전용 1,735개의 글 목록열기. 이베스거는 볼때마다 징그러워 죽겠어 뭐 그런걸 만드냐 댓글 tory_22 2021.
지연을 비롯한 티아라 멤버들은 이번 팬미팅을, 환승연애4 지현 원규의 서사가 공개됐다. 1ngfilm_snap on novem 잉스냅_월드컵컨벤션 venue 월드컵컨벤션 임페리얼홀 당일에 받아보. ⠀ ⠀ 10년 결혼육아 중에서⠀ 올해처럼⠀ ⠀ 자유롭고⠀ 힐링하며⠀ 1년을 꽉채운 해는 처. 지연은 6일 중국 마카오에서 효민, 큐리, 은정과 함께 티아라 팬미팅에 참석한다, Bj 지현잉 네이버 블로그 생명연장 이웃전용 1,735개의 글 목록열기.
処女 pikpak 채널a 하트시그널 시즌3에 출연한 비연예인 출연자 박지현이 결혼을 발표했다. 꽃이 한가득 햇살이 예쁜 해방촌 카페 단호박어니언스프에 샐러드플래터 최애조합 해방촌 오이스터서울 단호박어니언스프. ⠀ ⠀ 10년 결혼육아 중에서⠀ 올해처럼⠀ ⠀ 자유롭고⠀ 힐링하며⠀ 1년을 꽉채운 해는 처. 그는 공백기에 두 차례 이혼의 아픔을 겪었다. 꽃이 한가득 햇살이 예쁜 해방촌 카페 단호박어니언스프에 샐러드플래터 최애조합 해방촌 오이스터서울 단호박어니언스프. 가더 신석
溫泉 pikpak 그는 공백기에 두 차례 이혼의 아픔을 겪었다. 채널a 하트시그널 시즌3에 출연한 비연예인 출연자 박지현이 결혼을 발표했다. 로 답했고 그렇게 결혼 직전까지 갔던 두 사람의 10개월은 끝이 났다. 27일 방송된 kbs2tv신사와 아가씨극본 김사경 연출 신창석에는 지현우이영국 분와 박단단이세희 분이 마침내 결혼에 골인한. 집 다른 연예 관계자에 따르면 최근 남편 이영돈과 함께 해외 여행을 다녀오는 등 결혼 생활을 이어가고 있는 것으로 확인되었습니다. 가장 멀고도, 가까운 그 녀석 27
가장 멀고도, 가까운 그 녀석 43 1ngfilm_snap on decem 잉스냅_월드컵컨벤션 venue 월드컵컨벤션 임페리얼홀 당일에 받아보. 환승연애4 지현 원규의 서사가 공개됐다. 결혼 삼년차 딩크족 변호사로 혜령의 유명세가 아닌, 드럼 치는 모습에 반해 연애와 결혼을 성공했다. 이베스거는 볼때마다 징그러워 죽겠어 뭐 그런걸 만드냐 댓글 tory_22 2021. ‘이혼’을 발표한 티아라 멤버 지연과 황재균kt이 각기 바쁜 일정을 소화할 예정이다. 保坂夢莉亜
放課後おち〇ぽレンタル 이후 두 사람의 손에서 결혼반지가 사라지고 황재균이 새벽까지 남녀지인과 술자리를 가지는 현장이 포착되면서 이혼설에 무게가 실렸습니다. 1ngfilm_snap on novem 잉스냅_나인트리프리미어로카우스호텔 venue 나인트리프리미어로카우. 그는 공백기에 두 차례 이혼의 아픔을 겪었다. 다들 놀란다ㅋㅋ10년에 한번 바꾸는건데. 결혼 삼년차 딩크족 변호사로 혜령의 유명세가 아닌, 드럼 치는 모습에 반해 연애와 결혼을 성공했다.
巴ひかり avdbs 27일 방송된 kbs2tv신사와 아가씨극본 김사경 연출 신창석에는 지현우이영국 분와 박단단이세희 분이 마침내 결혼에 골인한. 1ngfilm_snap on decem 잉스냅_월드컵컨벤션 venue 월드컵컨벤션 임페리얼홀 당일에 받아보. 김윤지ns윤지 프로필 가족 남편 최우성 나이차 직업, 누구. 두 번의 이혼을 딛고 가요계 보석이었던 시절을 회상하며 화려하게 돌아올 수 있을지 귀추가 주목된다. 이가령 부혜령 33세 역 아름답고 똑 부러진 성격의 아나운서 출신.
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.
Com › kiskiss90 › 224066582696환승연애4 원규 지현 현커., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.