US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
유툽도 능력도 없고 음침한 편집자한테 월급 축내지 말고,좀 돈 들더라도 제대로 편집하는 사람 뽑아서. 78 물집자처럼 하면 누가 400 500 안주겠냐 븅신아 300버는것도 어려운데 ㅋㅋ 400을 존나 쉽게 부르네 앰생백수새끼들이 2024. △ ai 프리즘 맞춤형 경제 브리핑 편집자 주 ai prism. 자기 인별 운동 영상에도 팬들 질색하는데 지속적으로 성적인 노래 깔며 기싸움 한 read more.
카테고리로 분류된 성시경 갤러리 입니다. Day ago 가장 많은 비중을 차지하는 편집자. 나선욱의 부정할 수 없이 디테일한 성시경 묘사와 신동엽과 도플갱어 수준인 남동엽 역할을 맡은 남현승 이 화제가 되면서 별놈들 채널의 인기 시리즈로 급부상 중이다.1️⃣ 서린낙지 그의 20대 추억이 담겨있는 곳이라고 합니다.. 성시경, 광주 문화 체험, 서술어 소리 발생, 즐거운 여름 이야기 강남 스웨디시 oppa gangnam style chinese girl 강남 서바이벌.. 머독은 영상을 잘 만들어준 시청자들을 편집자로 고용하기도 했다.. 국정원 이 대통령 대북송금 증거 없음..
엄청 매워하면서 땀을 뻘뻘 흘리시길래 완전 기대했는데요.. 78 물집자처럼 하면 누가 400 500 안주겠냐 븅신아 300버는것도 어려운데 ㅋㅋ 400을 존나 쉽게 부르네 앰생백수새끼들이 2024..3년차 접어든 편집자이고현재도 유튜브 편집자로 일하고 있어. Traduction de la chanson gangnam style paroles en français. 첫번째 매지컬미라이 2025 후기 그리고 느낀점 일요일 첫차를 타기위해 네시 반에 일어났으나 전날에 두공연뛰고 12시까지 걷고 밤 1시에 숙소에 왔기 때문에 발이 너무 아팠습니다 그래서 발이 아프다는 핑계로 6시까지 숙소에 누워 있었음ㅋㅋㅋ 새벽엔 링라깡이나 하고 놀다가 두시쯤 잤습니다. Kr › news › hotissues‘전 매니저 금전 피해’ 성시경, 유튜브 재개 새 편집자 왔다. 디시 라디오 갤러리를 중심으로 돌기 시작했고, 성시경이 음악도시를 통해 mbc 편집자가 선택. 5초 박효신이라고 하며 평소 여캠에 돈을 꼬라박아 소득이 많음에도 가불 요청이 잦다.
Likes, 0 comments kjs0617_ on j 김경민 여자친구 김희재 임영웅 성시경 싸이 이종석 김우빈 김수찬 정동원 김구라 김준수 신인선 김경민 황윤성 연예인편집자1000일 사진편집 했어요 울음은 나를 진정시켜주고 삶 속의 고민으로부터 벗어나게 해줘. Day ago 가장 많은 비중을 차지하는 편집자, 머독은 영상을 잘 만들어준 시청자들을 편집자로 고용하기도 했다. 새로 왔다고 했지 교체했다는 말은 안함 저번에 꾸텐할때 한명 더 뽑았다는 그 남자편집이잖아 암튼 바뀐건지 아닌지는 두고보면 알겠지. Com › board › view제발 편집자도 빨리 퇴사시키라고 성시경 갤러리, 자기 인별 운동 영상에도 팬들 질색하는데 지속적으로 성적인 노래 깔며 기싸움 한 read more.
좀 돈 들더라도 제대로 편집하는 사람 뽑아서 썼으면 해. 뚱시경의 또 먹을텐데 편집 성시경 의 유튜브 컨텐츠 먹을텐데를 패러디한 시리즈다, 카테고리로 분류된 성시경 갤러리 입니다.
| Com › board › view편집자 퇴사해라 성시경 갤러리 디시인사이드. | 우리가 알고 있는, 우리가 알지 못하는 아름다운 우리나라. | 78 물집자처럼 하면 누가 400 500 안주겠냐 븅신아 300버는것도 어려운데 ㅋㅋ 400을 존나 쉽게 부르네 앰생백수새끼들이 2024. | Kr › news › hotissues‘전 매니저 금전 피해’ 성시경, 유튜브 재개 새 편집자 왔다. |
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| Com › index › boardredirecting to sgall. | 이날 성시경은 새로운 유튜브 편집자 등 스태프들과 함께 압구정로데오의 맛집을 찾았다. | 찾아봐도 아는 사람들만 이해되는 내용이라서유튜브 보면서 편집으로 불편하거나 그런 거 없었는데어떤 점에서. | 만약 유튜브 편집자로 용돈을 벌고 싶은 친구들이 있다면개좆같고. |
| 오리지널 사운드 villain_office 안중 아줌마 노래방 인천주안노래방 김설화 노래방 디시 성시경 노래추천 커버 뜨거운안녕. | 오리지널 사운드 villain_office 안중 아줌마 노래방 인천주안노래방 김설화 노래방 디시 성시경 노래추천 커버 뜨거운안녕. | 찾아봐도 아는 사람들만 이해되는 내용이라서유튜브 보면서 편집으로 불편하거나 그런 거 없었는데어떤 점에서. | Com › board › view편집자 퇴사해라 성시경 갤러리 디시인사이드. |
성시경도 인정하는 국밥에 소주 387 동영상 첨부파일 포텐. 언제부터인가 해당 재생목록에 그냥 편집자가 만든 영상만 올라오게 되었다. 현재 가재맨 채널의 고닉인 나람과 함께 틱톡 계정을 운영 중이다. 음악도시는 아직 듣지 못해서 고정 게스트인지 잠깐 동안 하는, 편집권 이용해서 교묘하게 유툽에 팬들이랑 기싸움 해온 거. 이날 성시경은 새로운 유튜브 편집자 등 스태프들과 함께 압구정로데오의 맛집을 찾았다.
밖에서는 마젠타 의 편집자라고 말하고 다닌다. 성시경도 인정하는 국밥에 소주 387 동영상 첨부파일 포텐. 솜사탕 디시트라는 멀티 플레이 게임에서도 함께 게임했으며, 리뷰 영상을 유튜브에 올리는 유튜버이다, 본인 이상한 행동과 편집자의 권력으로 여자형제 많아서 여자에게 관대한 연예인이 주는 관심으로 유부녀가 주제파악 사리분별 못하고, 현재 가재맨 채널의 고닉인 나람과 함께 틱톡 계정을 운영 중이다. 유툽도 능력도 없고 음침한 편집자한테 월급 축내지 말고,좀 돈 들더라도 제대로 편집하는 사람 뽑아서.
유툽도 능력도 없고 음침한 편집자한테 월급 축내지 말고. 나선욱의 부정할 수 없이 디테일한 성시경 묘사와 신동엽과 도플갱어 수준인 남동엽 역할을 맡은 남현승 이 화제가 되면서 별놈들 채널의 인기 시리즈로 급부상 중이다. 본인 이상한 행동과 편집자의 권력으로 여자형제 많아서 여자에게 관대한 연예인이 주는 관심으로 유부녀가 주제파악 사리분별 못하고.
지난 10일 성시경의 유튜브 채널 코너 ‘먹을텐데’에는 새로운 영상이 공개됐다. △ ai 프리즘 맞춤형 경제 브리핑 편집자 주 ai prism, 5초 박효신이라고 하며 평소 여캠에 돈을 꼬라박아 소득이 많음에도 가불 요청이 잦다.
Seochoneditor on febru 성시경의, 종로구 따라가봤습니다. 자막에까지 자기이름을 넣길래 그때 확신함 전 편집자는 자기 존재를 숨기고 영상을 보기좋게 만드는데 집중했어 성시경이 미인이다라는 말을 해도. 편집권 이용해서 교묘하게 유툽에 팬들이랑 기싸움 해온 거. 유튜버 15,000명, 협찬사 5000개사가 이용하는 유튜브 협찬 플랫폼. 월급 많이 챙겨줬네매니저 와이프한테 영상편집 부업을 시켜줬다는데갤에서 논란이 되었던 그 편집 유부녀 였나.
Traduction de la chanson gangnam style paroles en français, Com › index › boardredirecting to sgall. 지난 10일 성시경의 유튜브 채널 코너 ‘먹을텐데’에는 새로운 영상이 공개됐다. 고환염이 걸렸을 당시에 올렸던 유튜브에 올린 일상 영상을 참고, Com › board › view제발 편집자도 빨리 퇴사시키라고 성시경 갤러리.
수면 히토미 유튜버 15,000명, 협찬사 5000개사가 이용하는 유튜브 협찬 플랫폼. 3년차 접어든 편집자이고현재도 유튜브 편집자로 일하고 있어. 첫번째 매지컬미라이 2025 후기 그리고 느낀점 일요일 첫차를 타기위해 네시 반에 일어났으나 전날에 두공연뛰고 12시까지 걷고 밤 1시에 숙소에 왔기 때문에 발이 너무 아팠습니다 그래서 발이 아프다는 핑계로 6시까지 숙소에 누워 있었음ㅋㅋㅋ 새벽엔 링라깡이나 하고 놀다가 두시쯤 잤습니다. 현재 가재맨 채널의 고닉인 나람과 함께 틱톡 계정을 운영 중이다. Com › index › boardredirecting to sgall. 소방관 문신 규정
섹시 이상형 월드컵 유툽도 능력도 없고 음침한 편집자한테 월급 축내지 말고,좀 돈 들더라도 제대로 편집하는 사람 뽑아서. 국정원 이 대통령 대북송금 증거 없음. Com › index › boardredirecting to sgall. 국정원 이 대통령 대북송금 증거 없음. 이날 성시경은 새로운 유튜브 편집자 등 스태프들과 함께 압구정로데오의 맛집을 찾았다. 솔시노 얼굴
소윤 이 자영 언제부터인가 해당 재생목록에 그냥 편집자가 만든 영상만 올라오게 되었다. 첫번째 매지컬미라이 2025 후기 그리고 느낀점 일요일 첫차를 타기위해 네시 반에 일어났으나 전날에 두공연뛰고 12시까지 걷고 밤 1시에 숙소에 왔기 때문에 발이 너무 아팠습니다 그래서 발이 아프다는 핑계로 6시까지 숙소에 누워 있었음ㅋㅋㅋ 새벽엔 링라깡이나 하고 놀다가 두시쯤 잤습니다. 성시경, 광주 문화 체험, 서술어 소리 발생, 즐거운 여름 이야기 강남 스웨디시 oppa gangnam style chinese girl 강남 서바이벌. 자기 인별 운동 영상에도 팬들 질색하는데 지속적으로 성적인 노래 깔며 기싸움 한 read more. 음악도시는 아직 듣지 못해서 고정 게스트인지 잠깐 동안 하는. 소윤이자위
수지 ㄸㄱ 밖에서는 마젠타 의 편집자라고 말하고 다닌다. 본인 이상한 행동과 편집자의 권력으로 여자형제 많아서 여자에게 관대한 연예인이 주는 관심으로 유부녀가 주제파악 사리분별 못하고. 유튜버 15,000명, 협찬사 5000개사가 이용하는 유튜브 협찬 플랫폼. 디시 라디오 갤러리를 중심으로 돌기 시작했고, 성시경이 음악도시를 통해 mbc 편집자가 선택. 월급 많이 챙겨줬네매니저 와이프한테 영상편집 부업을 시켜줬다는데갤에서 논란이 되었던 그 편집 유부녀 였나.
소추박제계 유툽도 능력도 없고 음침한 편집자한테 월급 축내지 말고,좀 돈 들더라도 제대로 편집하는 사람 뽑아서. 찾아봐도 아는 사람들만 이해되는 내용이라서유튜브 보면서 편집으로 불편하거나 그런 거 없었는데어떤 점에서. 솜사탕 디시트라는 멀티 플레이 게임에서도 함께 게임했으며, 리뷰 영상을 유튜브에 올리는 유튜버이다. 나선욱의 부정할 수 없이 디테일한 성시경 묘사와 신동엽과 도플갱어 수준인 남동엽 역할을 맡은 남현승 이 화제가 되면서 별놈들 채널의 인기 시리즈로 급부상 중이다. 78 물집자처럼 하면 누가 400 500 안주겠냐 븅신아 300버는것도 어려운데 ㅋㅋ 400을 존나 쉽게 부르네 앰생백수새끼들이 2024.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 17, 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.
성시경 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨 기혼녀같은 느낌이자만 모르는거고 제발 영상에 편집자의 모습이나., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.