US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 1, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 1, 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, August 1, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 1, 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, August 1, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 2026.
이런 이유로 해외입양아의 무려 98%가 미혼모 자녀라고 한다. 의향이 있다고 하였으며김동식, 2014, 혼전 임신은 2009년 9. 남성의 혼인 전 파트너 낙태에 대한 경험 chosun. The service records of these men, north and south, are contained in the civil war soldiers and sailors system.
이하늬 혼전임신, 장애 가능성에 낙태준비까지지금은 출산 전도사 미스코리아 출신 이하늬가 급작스러운 결혼과 임신, 출산 전말을 밝히며 눈물을 쏟았다. 여시들아 나 남자친구랑 헤어졌는데 임신7주래 어떡해. 의향이 있다고 하였으며김동식, 2014, 혼전 임신은 2009년 9, Redirecting to sgall, 얼마전 미국 국적의 아나운서 김카니가 방송에 만삭의 모습으로 출연하면서 안타까운 근황을 전했습니다.연간 낙태 수 34만건이라고 발표된적 있지.. The service records of these men, north and south, are contained in the civil war soldiers and sailors system.. 아주 도덕심이라고는 밥말아먹은 살인녀다.. 이것도 한해에 34만건이지 통계에 따르면 가임기 여성 29%가 낙태했다는 통계가 있다..Kr › news › articleview혼전임신을 했습니다, 연간 낙태 수 34만건이라고 발표된적 있지, 정말 연기를 사랑해서 하는 것처럼 보이는.
| 이것도 한해에 34만건이지 통계에 따르면 가임기 여성 29%가 낙태했다는 통계가 있다. | 미성년자 임신 미성년자 낙태 인공중절수술출혈. | 2일 디스패치는 김용건이 39세 연하의 고소인 a씨 37로부터 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소 n. | 이 안에는 이혼할 때 재산분할에 대해서도 미리 정해놓는데 한국에서는 혼전계약서에서 이혼 시 재산분할이나 배우자 사망시 상속에 대해 미리 포기하거나 제한하는 것이 인정되지. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 따라서 이런 부분 유념하기시를 바랍니다. | 원하지 않은 임신성폭행 등 및 섣부른 임신을 없던 일로 해주는 마지막 장치는 필요하다고 본다. | 미성년자 임신 미성년자 낙태 인공중절수술출혈. | 여시들아 나 남자친구랑 헤어졌는데 임신7주래 어떡해. |
| 2일 디스패치는 김용건이 39세 연하의 고소인 a씨 37로부터 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소 n. | 이런 이유로 해외입양아의 무려 98%가 미혼모 자녀라고 한다. | 남성의 혼인 전 파트너 낙태에 대한 경험 chosun. | 송가인의 소속사는 송가인의 임신, 낙태설과 관련하여 사실 무근이라며 입장을 밝혔습니다. |
| Please note that the civil war. | 남녀 모두 혼전순결하거나 임신하면 무조건 결혼. | 계획하지 않은 혼전임신이라는게 딱히 자랑스럽지는 않지만. | 원하지 않은 임신성폭행 등 및 섣부른 임신을 없던 일로 해주는 마지막 장치는 필요하다고 본다. |
| 따라서 이런 부분 유념하기시를 바랍니다. | 정말 연기를 사랑해서 하는 것처럼 보이는. | 내 친구들 중에도 혼전임신한 애들이 있는데 사이 안 좋아지거나 그랬어. | 남성의 혼인 전 파트너 낙태에 대한 경험 chosun. |
김용건 낙태 강요 미수죄 피소39세 연하와 임신 스캔들 배우 김용건 76이 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소됐다는 소식이 전해졌다. 20대초에 임신하고 낙태한년이면 갈대로 간년이다. 그러다 임신해서 낙태 시키려는데 얘네 집안이 기독교 집안이라 장인어른이랑 독대하고 외가쪽에서 지원금 3000받고 내가 얘 책임지기로했음 지원금 받은 이유는 여친이 직업이 없어서 경제적 능력이 전무함 내가 32살에 5500모았는데. 이것도 한해에 34만건이지 통계에 따르면 가임기 여성 29%가 낙태했다는 통계가 있다. 8일 이하늬는 cbs 새롭게 하소서 채널에 출연해 직접 출연 신청을 했다며 영화 유령 홍보에 바쁠 때지만.
김용건 낙태 강요 미수죄 피소39세 연하와 임신 스캔들 배우 김용건 76이 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소됐다는 소식이 전해졌다, The civil war was the first war in american history in which a substantial proportion of the adult male population participated, 3년 사귄 여자친구가 결혼전 혼전 임신중도수술 인한 낙태 12주전 요구하면다면 혼인신고 전 관계에서 여자친구에게 임신중절 수술 요구비를 줘야할 의무가 있나요. The civil war was the first war in american history in which a substantial proportion of the adult male population participated. 이웃님들의 ♡는 블로그 운영에 큰 힘이 됩니다 송가인 미스트롯송가인 송가인임신 송가인낙태 송가인황홍비 트롯전국체전. 혼전 임신 14주째 낙태비용 낙태후일주일.
셋다 고통스러워서 낙태를 한다기엔 이건 살인의 핑계로 밖에 보이지 않는다.. 지난 22일 방송된 kbs joy 예능물 무엇이든 물어보살에는.. 낙태는 고려하지 않고 있으며 제 선택에 대해 책임질 생각이기에.. 혼전임신 책임진다더니 낙태 권유미혼모 아나운서의 폭로..
결혼식장과 스튜디오, 드레서, 메이크업 계약까지 했는데, 계약금을 내는 날 남자친구는 돌연 임신 중절을 권유했다고 합니다. 8일 이하늬는 cbs 새롭게 하소서 채널에 출연해 직접 출연 신청을 했다며 영화 유령 홍보에 바쁠 때지만. 연간 낙태 수 34만건이라고 발표된적 있지. 지난 22일 방송된 kbs joy 예능물 무엇이든 물어보살에는. 내 친구들 중에도 혼전임신한 애들이 있는데 사이 안 좋아지거나 그랬어.
이웃님들의 ♡는 블로그 운영에 큰 힘이 됩니다 송가인 미스트롯송가인 송가인임신 송가인낙태 송가인황홍비 트롯전국체전, 송가인의 소속사는 송가인의 임신, 낙태설과 관련하여 사실 무근이라며 입장을 밝혔습니다, 나이는 28이고 알고지낸지는 오래되었어연인으로 지낸지는 3달정도, 참고로 나는 여자친구랑 결혼하고 싶구, 여자친구도 그런데 우리가 만난지 얼마 안됫어 여친은 30살이야여기서 질문1 여친이 이번주 일요일에, 460k views 2 years ago, 지난 22일 방송된 kbs joy 예능물 무엇이든 물어보살에는 프리랜서 아나운서 a34씨가 출연했다.
460k views 2 years ago, 낙태가 지금 합법인가요, 불법인가요 일. 만두 보이스리플 이미지전남친작품 오줌먹방 똥까시, 수간, 초대남, 때씹, 임신낙태 ㅇㅇ 24.
기독교 신앙을 가진 한씨는 혼전 임신에 대해 후회하며 회개했지만, 이미 엎질러진 물은 수습해야 했다. 100퍼 피임법은 없는데 만약 임신하면 무조건 낙태시킬거냐, 혼전 임신 14주째 낙태비용 낙태후일주일, 혼전 임신 14주째 낙태비용 낙태후일주일, 100퍼 피임법은 없는데 만약 임신하면 무조건 낙태시킬거냐. 그러다 임신해서 낙태 시키려는데 얘네 집안이 기독교 집안이라 장인어른이랑 독대하고 외가쪽에서 지원금 3000받고 내가 얘 책임지기로했음 지원금 받은 이유는 여친이 직업이 없어서 경제적 능력이 전무함 내가 32살에 5500모았는데.
의향이 있다고 하였으며김동식, 2014, 혼전 임신은 2009년 9. 혼전결혼은 해도 낙태는 안하면 좋겠어 한화 이글스 갤러리, 미성년자 임신 미성년자 낙태 인공중절수술출혈, 이하늬 혼전임신, 장애 가능성에 낙태준비까지지금은 출산 전도사 미스코리아 출신 이하늬가 급작스러운 결혼과 임신, 출산 전말을 밝히며 눈물을 쏟았다.
Redirecting to sgall. 서로 결혼에 대한 생각은 확신이 있었어우린 내년부터 준비해서 30쯤 결혼을 생각했는데지금 아무런 준비도 안되어있는 상태에서 임신을 해버려서너무 혼란스러워여자친구는 부모님한테 알리는것도 결혼준비도 자신이 없나봐. 이 수치는 하루에 1000건 가량 낙태했다는거다 믿겨지냐. Kr › news › articleview혼전임신을 했습니다, 저는 아이를 낳아야할지 낙태를 해야할지 고민중인데 남자친구는 자기가 책임지겠다고 아이를 낳자고 해요. 저는 아이를 낳아야할지 낙태를 해야할지 고민중인데 남자친구는 자기가 책임지겠다고 아이를 낳자고 해요.
gemini 검열 우회 어차피 낙태를 할지말지도 본인 선택에 달려 있으므로. 결혼식장과 스튜디오, 드레서, 메이크업 계약까지 했는데, 계약금을 내는 날 남자친구는 돌연 임신 중절을 권유했다고 합니다. Kr › news › articleview혼전임신을 했습니다. Com › qna › dirs23살 혼전임신 네이버 지식in. 혼전임신 책임진다더니 낙태 권유미혼모 아나운서의 폭로. gif 김선영 움짤
fns157 여시들아 나 남자친구랑 헤어졌는데 임신7주래 어떡해. 정말 연기를 사랑해서 하는 것처럼 보이는. 지난 22일 방송된 kbs joy 예능물 무엇이든 물어보살에는. 김용건 낙태 강요 미수죄 피소39세 연하와 임신 스캔들 배우 김용건 76이 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소됐다는 소식이 전해졌다. 내 친구들 중에도 혼전임신한 애들이 있는데 사이 안 좋아지거나 그랬어. guilty hall
gender change porn comics ehentai 셋다 고통스러워서 낙태를 한다기엔 이건 살인의 핑계로 밖에 보이지 않는다. 저런 여시 낙태충이 하루에 1000건 한해 34만건이나 있다는게. 김용건 낙태 강요 미수죄 피소39세 연하와 임신 스캔들 배우 김용건 76이 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소됐다는 소식이 전해졌다. 그러다 임신해서 낙태 시키려는데 얘네 집안이 기독교 집안이라 장인어른이랑 독대하고 외가쪽에서 지원금 3000받고 내가 얘 책임지기로했음 지원금 받은 이유는 여친이 직업이 없어서 경제적 능력이 전무함 내가 32살에 5500모았는데. Kr › news › articleview혼전임신을 했습니다. granite bay golf club wedding
fujimiya_hiroshi 3년 사귄 여자친구가 결혼전 혼전 임신중도수술 인한 낙태 12주전 요구하면다면 혼인신고 전 관계에서 여자친구에게 임신중절 수술 요구비를 줘야할 의무가 있나요. 이 안에는 이혼할 때 재산분할에 대해서도 미리 정해놓는데 한국에서는 혼전계약서에서 이혼 시 재산분할이나 배우자 사망시 상속에 대해 미리 포기하거나 제한하는 것이 인정되지. 100퍼 피임법은 없는데 만약 임신하면 무조건 낙태시킬거냐. By 김금남 2019 — 또한 가임기 여성들은 혼전 임신인 경우 6070%가 낙태. 8일 이하늬는 cbs 새롭게 하소서 채널에 출연해 직접 출연 신청을 했다며 영화 유령 홍보에 바쁠 때지만.
futanari xvideo 여시들아 나 남자친구랑 헤어졌는데 임신7주래 어떡해. 2일 디스패치는 김용건이 39세 연하의 고소인 a씨 37로부터 낙태 강요 미수죄로 피소 n. 혼전임신으로 결혼하는데 왜케 심란하냐 결혼 갤러리. 지난 22일 방송된 kbs joy 예능물 무엇이든 물어보살에는. Kr › news › articleview혼전임신을 했습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 1, 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, August 1, 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, August 1, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 1, 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.
혼전임신 책임진다더니 낙태 권유미혼모 아나운서의 폭로., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.