US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
dc official app 운영자 251215 1615464 공지 신문고 중보수지 25. 국민의힘이 여성 비서관을 성추행한 혐의로 고소당한 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 향해 의원직 사퇴를 강하게 압박했다. 공지 공지 윤석열에게 질린 유입 필독7 ahffn 25. 장 의원은 모든 허위사실과 명예훼손에 대해서 법적 책임을 분명히 묻겠다며 의혹을 거듭 부인했다.
특히 장 의원을 초대한 c씨는 고발인 등 여성 다수를 성폭행한 사실도 드러나 충격을 주고 있다.. 장 의원이 성추행을 했다고 항의하며 영상을 촬영한 a씨의 당시 남자친구 b씨도 조사 대상이다.. 펌장경태 단독 폭로 거기에 들어간 손 실시간 베스트..
| 티조 장경태 성추행 비서관 출연 영상 중도보수 마이너. | 단독 장경태 진짜 손 조심해야절친 비서관 대화 입수. | 국민의힘은 즉각 제명을 촉구하며 진실 공방이 이어지는 모양새다. |
|---|---|---|
| Jtbc가 그 술자리 다음 날부터 동석자들이 대화를 나눈 단체 대화방 내용을 확인했습니다. | 왜 비서관 신분 밝혔나성추행 의혹 장경태, 경찰에 또 고소당해. | 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 준강제추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 비서관이 직접 방송에 출연해 심경을 밝혔다. |
| 33% | 31% | 36% |
경찰이 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 성추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 비서관에 대해 신변보호 조치하고 진술을 확보했다. 성추행 피해자는 장경태 의원을 1년이 지나서야 고소하게 된 건 보복에 대한 두려움때문이었다고 밝혀 왔습니다. 주진우 의원은 30일 오전 자신의 sns를 통해 앞에선 ‘엄중하게 보고 있다’며 뒤에선 조직적 2차 가해질을. 장경태 다른 뜻에 대해서는 장경태 동음이의 문서를 참고하십시오.
주진우 의원은 30일 오전 자신의 sns를 통해 앞에선 ‘엄중하게 보고 있다’며 뒤에선 조직적 2차 가해질을.. 최수진 국민의힘 원내수석대변인이 타 의원실 여성 비서관을 성추행한 혐의로 고소당한 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 겨냥해 성평등을 위한 모든..
Tv조선과 jtbc 보도를 종합하면 지난해 10월 오후 여의도의. 성추행 혐의로 고소당한 더불어민주당 장경태 의원이 무고라며 강경 대응에 나섰다, 한국여성단체협의회협의회는 장경태 더불어민주당 의원의 여 비서관 성추행 논란과 관련해 국회의원이 우월적 지위에서 보좌관의 인격권을 무시한 것은 어떤 변명으로도 용서받지 못할 만행이라고 직격했다. Tv조선이 확인한 고소장에는 술에 취해 저항할 수 없는 상태였던 피해자를 주변의 만류에도 장 의원이 성추행했다는 주장이 담겼습니다. 장경태 성추행 관련 당시 비서관들 실제 카톡.
27 뉴시스 더불어민주당 장경태 의원이 국회 여성 비서관을 준강제추행한 혐의로 피소된 것을 두고 이재명 대통령 지지층과 정청래 대표 지지층 간 갈등이 고조되는 양상이다. 왜 비서관 신분 밝혔나성추행 의혹 장경. 고소인이 장경태 고소한 죄목은 준강제추행이었는데. 미국이 일본을 말린다는 뉴스들이 나올 때 웃었던 이유, 현직 여성 국회 의원실 비서관 성추행 의혹에 휩싸인 장경태 더불어민주당 의원이 30일 기자회견을 열어 자신은 고소인을 성추행하지 않았다고 주장하며 이번 사건의 본질은 고소인과 고소인 남자친구 간 데이트 폭력이라고 강조했다.
더불어민주당 소속이자 서울 동대문구 을 지역구를 두고 있는 2선의 장경태 의원이 최근 여자 보좌관 성추행 사건으로 인해 경찰에 고소를 당한 가운데, 장 의원이 직접 고소인을 맞고소하는 무고로 대응해 화제가 되고 있습니다. 빈곤포르노에 뿔난 與, 장경태 `흙수저 어필` 과거에 이재명, 경찰, 성추행 의혹 장경태 의원 고소 비서관 조사 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 준강제추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 비서관이 경찰에 출석해 조사를, 3 1480511 공지 중도보수 마이너 갤러리 필독공지 v22 중보수지 25.
성추행 피해자는 장경태 의원을 1년이 지나서야 고소하게 된 건 보복에 대한 두려움때문이었다고 밝혀 왔습니다. 장경태 성추행 관련 당시 비서관들 실제 카톡. 대반전 장경태의 목덜미를 잡은건 전남친이 아닌 장경태 불러낸 비서관 16, 장경태 다른 뜻에 대해서는 장경태 동음이의 문서를 참고하십시오. 더불어민주당 소속이자 서울 동대문구 을 지역구를 두고 있는 2선의 장경태 의원이 최근 여자 보좌관 성추행 사건으로 인해 경찰에 고소를 당한 가운데, 장 의원이 직접 고소인을 맞고소하는 무고로 대응해 화제가 되고 있습니다.
장경태 더불어민주당 의원이 27일 오후 서울 여의도 국회에서 질문을 받으며 이동하고 있다. Kbs까지 물어버릴 줄은 생각도 못했는데 김현지를. 더불어민주당의 제22대 국회의원 장경태가 준강제추행 혐의, 고소인의 직장동료인 선배 비서관이 준강간미수 혐의로 피소되어 공론화된 사건, 펌장경태 단독 폭로 거기에 들어간 손 실시간 베스트. 성추행 피해자는 장경태 의원을 1년이 지나서야 고소하게 된 건 보복에 대한 두려움때문이었다고 밝혀 왔습니다.
공지 공지 윤석열에게 질린 유입 필독7 ahffn 25, 협의회는 1일 성명문을 발표하고 수사기관의 신속하고 공정한 수사를 통해서. ㄹㅇ 급하게 얼굴 안나오게 가리려다 저런 짤이 나온거네.
장 의원이 성추행을 했다고 항의하며 영상을 촬영한 a씨의 당시 남자친구 b씨도 조사 대상이다, Com › view › 20251204n37922장경태 고소한 女비서관 처단 위협 글에&mldr. 협의회는 1일 성명문을 발표하고 수사기관의 신속하고 공정한 수사를 통해서, 장 의원이 성추행을 했다고 항의하며 영상을 촬영한 a씨의 당시 남자친구 b씨도 조사 대상이다.
Txt h33 클 김현지 비서관도 맞다면 그냥. 6 1438374 공지 중도보수 마이너 갤러리 통합공지2 중보수지 25. 6 1438374 공지 중도보수 마이너 갤러리 통합공지2 중보수지 25. 전 남친은 장경태 불러낸 비서관이 뒷덜미 잡은거래. 유력 정당 대표실의 5급 비서관을 지낸 a씨가 최근 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 성추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 b씨를 압박해 1년여간 고소를 무마하고, 두 달 전에는 b씨를 상대로 성범죄를 시도했다는 추가 의혹까지 드러나 파장이 커지고 있다.
찬미 스 트리머 대학 단독 장경태 진짜 손 조심해야절친 비서관 대화 입수. 전 남친은 장경태 불러낸 비서관이 뒷덜미 잡은거래. Txt h33 클 김현지 비서관도 맞다면 그냥. 특히 지난해 연말 술자리에서 촬영된 장경태 여성 보좌관 술집 cctv의. Net › square › 4071228364더쿠 단독 장경태 진짜 손 조심해야&mldr. 체코 클레어 통일교
체인소 맨 레제편 자막 피해자 가짜 사진까지 퍼뜨렸다고 비판했다. 더불어민주당의 제22대 국회의원 장경태가 준강제추행 혐의, 고소인의 직장동료인 선배 비서관이 준강간미수 혐의로 피소되어 공론화된 사건. 현직 여성 국회 의원실 비서관 성추행 의혹에 휩싸인 장경태 더불어민주당 의원이 30일 기자회견을 열어 자신은 고소인을 성추행하지 않았다고 주장하며 이번 사건의 본질은 고소인과 고소인 남자친구 간 데이트 폭력이라고 강조했다. 3 1480511 공지 중도보수 마이너 갤러리 필독공지 v22 중보수지 25. 더불어민주당의 제22대 국회의원 장경태가 준강제추행 혐의, 고소인의 직장동료인 선배 비서관이 준강간미수 혐의로 피소되어 공론화된 사건. 초승달녀 양갈래녀
최솜이 라이키 디시 청와대 제공 장경태 더불어민주당 의원은 23일 최근 불거진 박성민 청와대 청년비서관 인선 논란과 관련해 나이와 성별로 인해 자격과 능력을 재단하지 말고. dc official app 운영자 251215 1615464 공지 신문고 중보수지 25. 27 뉴시스 더불어민주당 장경태 의원이 국회 여성 비서관을 준강제추행한 혐의로 피소된 것을 두고 이재명 대통령 지지층과 정청래 대표 지지층 간 갈등이 고조되는 양상이다. 국민의힘은 즉각 제명을 촉구하며 진실 공방이 이어지는 모양새다. Com › view › 20251204n37922장경태 고소한 女비서관 처단 위협 글에&mldr. 최 솜이 레전드
최사랑야동 당시 그 자리에 함께 있었던 다른 사람들의 진술은 그래서 중요합니다. 장경태 더불어민주당 의원이 27일 오후 서울 여의도 국회에서 질문을 받으며 이동하고 있다. 고소인 남자친구가 국민의힘 소속 동대문구청장 보좌직원임을. 미국이 일본을 말린다는 뉴스들이 나올 때 웃었던 이유. Kbs까지 물어버릴 줄은 생각도 못했는데 김현지를.
초승달녀 한국 지난 10월 서울중앙지검은 김건희 여사가. 유력 정당 대표실의 5급 비서관을 지낸 a씨가 최근 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 성추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 b씨를 압박해 1년여간 고소를 무마하고, 두 달 전에는 b씨를 상대로 성범죄를 시도했다는 추가 의혹까지 드러나 파장이 커지고 있다. 유력 정당 대표실의 5급 비서관을 지낸 a씨가 최근 장경태 더불어민주당 의원을 성추행 혐의로 고소한 여성 b씨를 압박해 1년여간 고소를 무마하고, 두 달 전에는 b씨를 상대로 성범죄를 시도했다는 추가 의혹까지 드러나 파장이 커지고 있다. Txt h33 클 김현지 비서관도 맞다면 그냥. Com › view › 20251204n37922장경태 고소한 女비서관 처단 위협 글에&mldr.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 2, 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 2, 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 2, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 2, 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.
장경태 張耿態, 1983년 11월 16일 는 대한민국 의 정치인이다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.