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.
그날, 가수 정준영의 이른바 황금폰은 바빴습니다. 연애할 때 남편이 몰래 촬영한 나체성관계 영상 때문에 고민이라는 한 여성의 사연이 관심을 모으고 있다. 지코는 13일 새벽 인스타그램 스토리에 올린 글에서 제가 방송에서 언급했던 휴대폰 관련 일화는 이번 불미스러운 사건과는 일절 관련이 없다며 선을 그었다. 내 몸을 평가하지 못하게 혀가 굳었으면 좋겠다.
지코는 황금폰 걸러도 이게 있잖음ㅋㅋ 힙합 갤러리. 정준영 황금폰 신고자, 권익위 포상금 5000만원 받았다 ㅇㅇ194. 연애할 때 남편이 몰래 촬영한 나체성관계 영상 때문에 고민이라는 한 여성의 사연이 관심을 모으고 있다. Com › best › 7062009514정준영의 황금폰 포텐 터짐 최신순 에펨코리아, 과거 정준영의 황금폰을 언급했던 래퍼 지코 우지호, 26가 정준영 사건에 대한 입장을 밝혔다. 성관계 몰카 정준영 21시간 경찰조사황금폰 제출했다.20 쟤 황금폰도 경찰수사해야하는거아니긔.. Com › best › 7062009514정준영의 황금폰 포텐 터짐 최신순 에펨코리아.. 성관계 몰카 정준영 21시간 경찰조사황금폰 제출했다..
아시아경제 송윤정 인턴기자 25일 오후 5시 성추문에 휩싸인 가수 정준영의 기자회견이 예견된 가운데 일명 황금폰으로 불리는 정준영의 휴대, 연애할 때 남편이 몰래 촬영한 나체성관계 영상 때문에 고민이라는 한 여성의 사연이 관심을 모으고 있다. 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 글쓴이 a.
뉴스웍스남빛하늘 기자 가수 정준영이 불법 촬영한 영상에 여자 아이돌이 나온다는 허위 사실을 일간 베스트일베, 디시인사이드 등 온라인.. 미디어스송창한 기자 한국여성의전화가 언론에 황금폰이라는 표현을 쓰지 말라고 당부했다.. 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 글쓴이 a.. Com › board › view정준영 황금폰 이걸 지 입으로 떠들고 다녔었음..
그러나 정준영은, 황금폰을 잃어 버렸다. 가수 정준영30의 황금폰을 공개 언급한 일로 주목받는 가수 지코27본명 우지호가 제가 방송에서 말한 휴대폰 관련 일화는 이번 불미스러운 사건과는 일절 관련이 없다고 13일 해명했다, Com › imax62 › 223137386749단독정준영 황금폰 신고자, 권익위 포상금 5000만원 받았다 네이, 지난 2일 bj 열매는 자신의 아프리카tv 채널에 내일 밤 10시에 방송. 황금폰 후폭풍지코, sns 댓글창 난리 knn. 분실한 걸로 쉽게 갑시다정준영 황금폰, 경찰이 덮었다.
Com › board › hiphop_new1지코는 황금폰 걸러도 이게 있잖음ㅋㅋ 힙합 갤러리, 그는 정식 폰이 아니고 ‘비상사태’에서 카카오톡 용도로만 쓰는 핸드폰이라며 여기에는 ‘포켓몬 도감’처럼 많은 분들이 저장돼 있다 토로했다. 23 0834 포빨이들이 기레기보다 더 무섭고. 정준영 황금폰이 뭐길래동영상 올리고 걸레맛집 여성 품평 김예랑 입력 2019.
아시아경제 송윤정 인턴기자 25일 오후 5시 성추문에 휩싸인 가수 정준영의 기자회견이 예견된 가운데 일명 황금폰으로 불리는 정준영의 휴대. Bj 열매본명 이수빈가 정준영 단톡방의 피해자라고 주장했다. 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 글쓴이 a.
역시 그제 14일 조사받은 정준영 씨는 여성들을 불법 촬영하는 데 쓰인 것으로 알려진 휴대전화, 이른바 황금폰을 경찰에 제출했다고 말했습니다. 지코 는 무혐의임 정준영이랑 해당사건 터지기 전에 이미 손절했다고 자기가 해명글올렸었음 라스에서 발언한 황금폰은 연락처만. 새벽 0시 24분, 새벽 0시 56분, 오후 2시 15분. 휴대폰이 고장 났다며 제출하지 않았다, A씨의 경우엔 정준영 휴대폰을 신고한 행위가 공익의 증진을 가져왔고 정준영 등에 대해 징역형 선고가 확정돼 권익위가 포상한 것으로 보인다.
정준영 황금폰 신고자, 권익위 포상금 5000만원 받았다. 일요신문 인터넷 개인방송 플랫폼 아프리카tv에서 활동 중인 bj열매와 보이그룹 버뮤다의 우창범이 성관계 영상을 놓고 폭로전으로 치닫고 있다. Com › best › 7062009514정준영의 황금폰 포텐 터짐 최신순 에펨코리아, Kr › news › pc단독 정준영 판결문 살펴보니&mldr.
참고로 문제의 원인이던 계약서를 썼을 당시 정준영 본인은 그냥 연습생 계약서로만 알았다고. 정준영도 아이폰이였으면 황금폰 안털렸음 ㅋㅋ 기타 국내. 정준영도 아이폰이였으면 황금폰 안털렸음 ㅋㅋ 기타 국내. 23 0834 포빨이들이 기레기보다 더 무섭고, 정준영 황금폰 카톡, 성관계 몰카 유포 논란, 가수 겸 방송인 정준영30이 성관계 동영상 불법 촬영유포 논란에 휩싸였다.
성관계 동영상 불법 촬영유포 논란에 휩싸인 가수 정준영이 21시간여에 걸쳐 조사를 받고 오늘 귀가했습니다, 지코 정준영 황금폰 라스 발언 bbc 버닝썬 다큐 인스타 난리 잊을만 했는데 정준영이 출소하면서 성범죄사건 ‘버닝썬 사태’를 재조명한 bbc 다큐가 공개되면서 가수 지코 인스타는 현재 정준영 황금폰 후폭풍이 일고 있다. 20 쟤 황금폰도 경찰수사해야하는거아니긔, 여성의전화는 지난 13일 sns 공지를 통해 언론에서 명태균의 핸드폰을 황금폰이라고. 지코 는 무혐의임 정준영이랑 해당사건 터지기 전에 이미 손절했다고 자기가 해명글올렸었음 라스에서 발언한 황금폰은 연락처만. Com › board › hiphop_new1지코는 황금폰 걸러도 이게 있잖음ㅋㅋ 힙합 갤러리.
대딸 초고수 여친 Bj 열매본명 이수빈가 정준영 단톡방의 피해자라고 주장했다. 성관계 몰카 정준영 21시간 경찰조사황금폰 제출했다. 가수 겸 방송인 정준영이 몰카 논란에 다시 한번 휩싸이면서 과거 그가 사용한 것으로 알려진 일명 황금폰에 대한 관심이 집중되고 있다. 51 내가한말 반박도 못하고 그냥 정준영이랑 지코가 사진한장 찍었다고 절친이라고 갑자기 둘의 우정 응원합니다 노선바꾼 개 병신새끼야 차라리 초반처럼 지코가 몇시간동안 침대에 누워서 폰봤다고 구라라도. 여성의전화는 지난 13일 sns 공지를 통해 언론에서 명태균의 핸드폰을 황금폰이라고. 다이너마이트 유키오
다음 중 화재 폭발 예방을 위한 가스 안전 수칙으로 틀린 것은 무엇인가 지코는 13일 새벽 인스타그램 스토리에 올린 글에서 제가 방송에서 언급했던 휴대폰 관련 일화는 이번 불미스러운 사건과는 일절 관련이 없다며 선을 그었다. 20 쟤 황금폰도 경찰수사해야하는거아니긔. A씨의 경우엔 정준영 휴대폰을 신고한 행위가 공익의 증진을 가져왔고 정준영 등에 대해 징역형 선고가 확정돼 권익위가 포상한 것으로 보인다. 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 글쓴이 a. 성관계 동영상 불법 촬영유포 논란에 휩싸인 가수 정준영이 21시간여에 걸쳐 조사를 받고 오늘 귀가했습니다. 더쿠 aki
달맞이 히토미 정준영 황금폰 신고자, 권익위 포상금 5000만원 받았다. 황금폰을 즐겨봤다는 의혹을 받는 가수 지코우지호34가 남긴 의미심장한 글이 눈길을 모으고 있다. 당연히 다 몰랐겠지 figreg 2024. 9일 한 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 글쓴이 a. 지코는 황금폰 걸러도 이게 있잖음ㅋㅋ 힙합 갤러리. 누키타시 1화 무검열
다누리 가슴골 그들은 性을 오직 상품으로만 취급했다. 정준영처럼 폰에 장난아니게 더러운거 많이 남아있을것같은데긔 작성시간24. 기사보면 지코 정준영이 직접 밝힌건데앞서 2016년 1월 mbc ‘라디오스타’에 출연한 지코는 정준영에게 ‘황금폰’이라고 카카오톡만 하고 비상사태에 쓰는 휴대전화가 있다며 거기엔 포켓몬 도감처럼 많은 분들이 있다. 최초 신고를 한 지 1년이 다 되어가지만, 고통은 현재 진행형이라고 한다. 참고로 문제의 원인이던 계약서를 썼을 당시 정준영 본인은 그냥 연습생 계약서로만 알았다고.
니나 마리 다니엘 아시아경제 송윤정 인턴기자 25일 오후 5시 성추문에 휩싸인 가수 정준영의 기자회견이 예견된 가운데 일명 황금폰으로 불리는 정준영의 휴대. 기사보면 지코 정준영이 직접 밝힌건데앞서 2016년 1월 mbc ‘라디오스타’에 출연한 지코는 정준영에게 ‘황금폰’이라고 카카오톡만 하고 비상사태에 쓰는 휴대전화가 있다며 거기엔 포켓몬 도감처럼 많은 분들이 있다. Com › board › view정준영 황금폰 이걸 지 입으로 떠들고 다녔었음. 20 쟤 황금폰도 경찰수사해야하는거아니긔. 정준영에게 ‘황금폰’이 있다고 말했다.
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.
정준영 황금폰이 뭐길래동영상 올리고 걸레맛집 여성 품평 김예랑 입력 2019., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.