US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
여자 아이돌 타이트한 속바지 도끼 모음 3. 칭다오중국이데일리 spn 정유미 통신원 중국중앙방송cctv이 간판 아나운서들의. 편집 기술은 필요 없고, 한 번의 탭으로 즐거움 가득. 키스마크 가리는법과 남기는법 간단 꿀팁 모음키스마크를 가리는 실용적인 방법과 남기는 센스 있는 방법을 모두 알려드릴게요.
다행히 몇 가지 간단한 방법으로 자국을 완화하거나 숨길 수 있습니다.. 칭다오중국이데일리 spn 정유미 통신원 중국중앙방송cctv이 간판 아나운서들의..온몸에 키스 마크 새기고 치명적인 조각상 몸매. Com › view › 20230514n18283조현영 키스 마크 논란. 싱글벙글 싱글벙글 아다들은 모르는 키스마크 사랑해123 2023, 라방 다시보기였는데 목에 키스마크있네ㅋㅋ 이지랄. @익명221750 아 멘탈 으스러졌다ㅠ라고 할 줄 알았지. 냉찜질 키스마크가 생긴 직후 얼음팩이나 차가운 숟가락을 수건에 감싸서 1020분간 대 주세요. 지난 11일 방송된 mbc 예능 프로그램 라디오스타는 신들린 관리 특집으로 꾸며진 가운데, 박재범과 배우 채정안, 코미디언 김해준, 뇌 과학자 장동선이 출연해 이야기를 나눴다. 연인과 키스하다 보면 목이나 귓불 등에 ‘키스 마크’를 남길 수 있다. 권소현, 키스마크 포착 섹시하면서 귀엽네. 14일 유튜브 채널 그냥 조현영에는 이제는 말할 때가 된, 최근 일명 정우성 코디 키스 동영상이 화제를 모으고 있다. Qwer 쵸단 파란 브라탑 가슴골 4, Com › newlifemaker › 224069168822키스마크 남기는법, 진짜 제대로 알려드릴게요 네이버 블로그. 서울뉴시스신효령 기자 그룹 레인보우 출신 조현영이 성추행 피해 사실을 털어놨다.
오늘은 키스마크를 남기는 방법, 그리고 그 위치와 의미, 마지막으로 자연스럽게 지우는 법까지 차근히 이야기해보려 합니다, 나혼자산다 성훈 하차 키스마크 논란 그리고 반려견. 싱글벙글 싱글벙글 아다들은 모르는 키스마크 사랑해123 2023, Com › 1753엔하이픈 니키 타투 논란, 아랫배에 여자 입술, 냉찜질은 혈관을 수축시켜 멍이 더 커지지 않게 막아줍니다.
| 그룹 나인뮤지스의 섹시 화보가 화제다. | 이 글에서는 키스 마크를 남기고 싶어 하는 상대의 심리와 키스 마크를 남기는 위치에 따른 의미를 살펴보고자 한다. | Mbc 간판 예능 나혼자산다에 출현하던 성훈을 따라다니는 논란이 크게 2가지입니다. | 에스파 카리나 레전드 엑기스만 모음 2. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Com › view › 20230514n18283조현영 키스 마크 논란. | 지난 1일 나인뮤지스는 공식 트위터를 통해 세라, 민하, 은지, 이샘, 이유애린, 혜미, 현아, 경리, 성아 9명의. | 그룹 나인뮤지스의 섹시 화보가 화제다. | 라이관린 스태프라고 주장한 a씨는 지난 2월부터 폭로글을 쓰기 시작해 지난 25일까지 게시글을 수정해왔다. |
| 칭다오중국이데일리 spn 정유미 통신원 중국중앙방송cctv이 간판 아나운서들의. | 정우성과 손예진 배우의 리즈 시절이 담겨 있기도 해 지금도 회자되고 있는 레전드 최루성 멜로입니다. | 잇단 방송사고로 물의를 빚은 중국중앙방송cctv 간판 아나운서들. | 라이관린 스태프라고 주장하는 관계자에 따르면, 이분은 지난 2일부터 11월 25일까지 라이관린에 대한 폭로글을 꾸준히 쓰고 있더라구요 스폰서광고 그분 말에 의하면 목이나 가슴에 키스마크 달고 와서는 목폴라 입고 촬영하는. |
| 오늘은 키스마크를 남기는 방법, 그리고 그 위치와 의미, 마지막으로 자연스럽게 지우는 법까지 차근히 이야기해보려 합니다. | 엔하이픈 니키 타투 논란, 아랫배에 여자 입술. | 이에 네티즌들은 너무 예쁘다 연예인 하셔도 될듯 부러워등의. | 그룹 레인보우 출신 조현영이 성추행 피해 사실을 털어놨다. |
| 16% | 15% | 19% | 50% |
그런데 목에 키스 마크를 남기다가 자칫 경동맥을 자극해 뇌경색을 유발할 수 있어 주의가 필요하다. 냉찜질 키스마크가 생긴 직후 얼음팩이나 차가운 숟가락을 수건에 감싸서 1020분간 대 주세요. 이 글에서는 키스 마크를 남기고 싶어 하는 상대의 심리와 키스 마크를 남기는 위치에 따른 의미를 살펴보고자 한다. 나혼자산다 성훈 하차, 키스마크 시청자들이 궁금해하는 두 가지, 이효리서인영 등 키스마크 릴레이 태안돕기 나선다, 자막뉴스 이해인 키스마크 논란에 피해선수와 문자 공개 채널a.
공개된 사진 속에는 최근 아스트로가 발매한 switch on 활동을 마무리하며 자축하는 차은우의 모습이. Mbc 간판 예능 나혼자산다에 출현하던 성훈을 따라다니는 논란이 크게 2가지입니다, 잇단 방송사고로 물의를 빚은 중국중앙방송cctv 간판 아나운서들. @익명221750 아 멘탈 으스러졌다ㅠ라고 할 줄 알았지, 공개된 사진 속 안신애의 볼에는 선명한 입술 자국이 남아 있어 요염함을 더했다, Com › newlifemaker › 224069168822키스마크 남기는법, 진짜 제대로 알려드릴게요 네이버 블로그.
안신애, 볼에 선명한 키스 마크상대는 누구. Mbc 간판 예능 나혼자산다에 출현하던 성훈을 따라다니는 논란이 크게 2가지입니다, 가수 박재범이 뮤직비디오 속 키스마크 비화를 전했다. 한편, 손담비 남편 이규혁은 스피드스케이팅 감독이다, 첫 번째는 나혼자산다 하차설 두 번째는 키스마크, 라이관린 스태프라고 주장한 a씨는 지난 2월부터 폭로글을 쓰기 시작해 지난 25일까지 게시글을 수정해왔다.
매일경제 스타투데이 이다겸 기자그룹 워너원 출신 라이관린에 대한 사생활 폭로가 나왔다. 에스파 카리나 레전드 엑기스만 모음 2, 이는 매우 드문 현상으로 다행히 여성은 뇌경색이 치료돼 팔을 움직일 수 있었다. 최근 데이즈드 코리아는 공식 인스타그램에 현아 던 커플과 함께 작업한 새 화보.
유빈아카이브 들어가는법 무슨 키스 마크 논란이냐고 어이없어 한 조현영은 그거를 보고 키스 마크로 생각하는 사람의 눈이 잘못된 거다. 가수 박재범이 뮤직비디오 속 키스마크 비화를 전했다. 박재범 얼굴에 키스마크상대 누군지 밝혀졌다. 지난 11일 방송된 mbc 예능 라디오스타이하 라스 881회에는 채정안, 박재범, 김해준. 그룹 나인뮤지스의 섹시 화보가 화제다. 우크라이나 러시아 전쟁 현황 디시
우즈렌 미약 이는 매우 드문 현상으로 다행히 여성은 뇌경색이 치료돼 팔을 움직일 수 있었다. 공개한 사진에는 아이유 인스타그램 팔로워 수가 2000만을 돌파한 모습이 포착되어 있다. 편집 기술은 필요 없고, 한 번의 탭으로 즐거움 가득. 칭다오중국이데일리 spn 정유미 통신원 중국중앙방송cctv이 간판 아나운서들의. 대중문화와 영화, 드라마, 연예인 아이돌 초동 성적과 역사, 팬덤과의 관계성, 사건사고 논란과 이슈를 발빠르게 전달하고 아카이빙 하는 블로그입니다. 우유린 야동
웨이터 구인 디시 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 마이데일리 양유진 기자 그룹 레인보우 출신 가수 조현영32이 목에 난 상처가 키스 마크라는 오해를 바로잡았다. 현아, 남친 던에 키스마크과감한 포즈로 관능미 물씬. 대중문화와 영화, 드라마, 연예인 아이돌 초동 성적과 역사, 팬덤과의 관계성, 사건사고 논란과 이슈를 발빠르게 전달하고 아카이빙 하는 블로그입니다. 이해인이 지난 27일어제 자신의 sns를 통해 전 남자친구와의 문자 내역을 공개했는데요. Com › newlifemaker › 224069168822키스마크 남기는법, 진짜 제대로 알려드릴게요 네이버 블로그. 웹툰 배설 장면
원피스 1110화 다시 보기 가수 박재범이 뮤직비디오 속 키스마크 비화를 전했다. 다행히 몇 가지 간단한 방법으로 자국을 완화하거나 숨길 수 있습니다. 동아tv와 한국쓰리엠이 오는 10일부터 24일까지 대규모로 진행하게 될. 라이관린 스태프라고 주장한 a씨는 지난 2월부터 폭로글을 쓰기 시작해 지난 25일까지 게시글을 수정해왔다. 라이관린 스태프라고 주장하는 관계자에 따르면, 이분은 지난 2일부터 11월 25일까지 라이관린에 대한 폭로글을 꾸준히 쓰고 있더라구요 스폰서광고 그분 말에 의하면 목이나 가슴에 키스마크 달고 와서는 목폴라 입고 촬영하는.
위클리 신지윤 porn 이 글에서는 키스 마크를 남기고 싶어 하는 상대의 심리와 키스 마크를 남기는 위치에 따른 의미를 살펴보고자 한다. 한편, 손담비 남편 이규혁은 스피드스케이팅 감독이다. Com › svc › news_view연인 목에 ‘키스 마크’ 남겼다가&mldr. 그룹 레인보우 출신 조현영이 키스마크논란과 과거 성추행 피해 사실을 털어놔 이목을 집중시켰습니다. 라방 다시보기였는데 목에 키스마크있네ㅋㅋ 이지랄.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 15, 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.
목에 키스마크달고 나타난 연예인 ㄷㄷㄷ., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.