US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 17, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 17, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 17, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 17, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 17, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 17, 2026.
러시아가 파병된 북한 군인들에게 매달 월급 2000달러를 주는 것으로 알려진 가운데 한미 정보기관의 발표대로 1만명이 파병될 경우 매년 2. 남한과 국경 맞대기 껄끄러움 중국이 북한을 합병하면 중국과 한국 국경이 맞닿게 되는데 사실상 한국이 중미 패권대결의 최전선이 되어버려서 미국을 더욱 자극하게 됨. 북한쪽 해역은 사실상 자기네 나와바리라고 생각하는지 nll 이북에선 딱히 충돌이 없지만 허구한날 어선 끌고와 해경과 치고박는게 바로 서해다. 김정은이 후계자 없이 죽으면, 중국이 북한 지도부에 충분한 영향력을 행사해서 외교적 합병을 이끌어낼 수 있을까, 아니면 권력 공백을 이용해서.
북한쪽 해역은 사실상 자기네 나와바리라고 생각하는지 nll 이북에선 딱히 충돌이 없지만 허구한날 어선 끌고와 해경과 치고박는게 바로 서해다. 안보시론 중러의 해외 선거 개입과 영향력 공작 월간조선. 대만 공격을 가정한 이 같은 훈련은 올해 들어 2번째며, 라이칭더 대만 총통이 취임 후. 북한 지역이 유사시에 중국 영토로 편입되는 시나리오에 대해서는 북중합병, 북한분할 문서를 참조하자.북한이 중국한테 합병당할 가능성이 아주 없을까.. 심지어 김일성과 김정일도 생전에 중국의 한반도 합병 야심을 경계했고, 김정은도 폼페이오한테 몰래 중국의 위협을 견제하기 위해 주한미군의 존재가..북한지역이 붕떠버린다는 문제가 생기기 때문에 북한지역은 연변 조선족 자치주 와 함께 조선족 자치구로 통합될 가능성이 있다, 무엇보다도 중국은 북한과 러시아 간 밀착 강화가 자국의 북한에 대한. 중국의 wto 가입으로 인한 중국 시장에서의 한국 주요 산업별.
| 또한 이미 일국양제는 끝장난 지 오래다. | 고구려 망하고 천년동안 중국 한족은 만주에 들어오지도 않았는데 아무 의미없음. | 북한이 망하게 될 경우, 중국이 북한을 합병할 수 있을까. | 관련게시물 속보 푸틴 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 영향력을 약화시키게 될 것을 우려할 것이다. | 김정은과 시진핑 주석이 2018년 중국 다롄에서 같이 산책한 것을 기념하기 위해 설치된 ‘발자국 동판’부터 없어졌다. | 지금도 중국 못먹고 못사는 사람 많음. | 중국의 영토로 완전히 합병될 경우에는 북한 사람들의 국적부터 북한 국적이 완전히 소멸되고 중국 국적으로 바뀔 것이며 북한은 베이차오셴 조선족. |
| 사진출처 노동신문 북러 군사 밀착이 북한 군의 러시아 파병으로까지 이어지고 있는 가운데 북중 관계는 여전히 냉랭한 기운이 유지되고 있습니다. | 유사시 일본군 한반도 개입 뉴스가 나온 이유가 있겟지 3 투린투람바르 2023. | Com › mgallery › board통일안하면 중국이 북한먹는다고 하던데 군사 마이너 갤러리. | 설마 미국이 중국 엿먹으라고 북한 지원하지 않는다면야 4 물론 대한민국 헌법은 북한을 자국 영토로 규정하고 있기 때문에 중국의 행보는 충분히 자국에 대한 침공으로 간주할 수 있고, 따라서 한국군의 개입 가능성을 부정하기 어려우며, 한국군이 개입한. |
| 남한과 국경 맞대기 껄끄러움 중국이 북한을 합병하면 중국과 한국 국경이 맞닿게 되는데 사실상 한국이 중미 패권대결의 최전선이 되어버려서 미국을 더욱 자극하게 됨. | 중국이 개입하지 않거나 소극적 개입을 한 이후 한반도가 한국 주도로 통일이 되었을때 한국과의 민족주의영토정치적 입지 갈등 등으로 인해 충돌하는 경우이다. | 김정은 사망 후 중국이 북한을 합병하는 것이 가능할까. | 중국이 북한 전체를 병합하지 않고서 일부만 흡수하고 다른 국가들과 분할 통치하는 시나리오는 북한분할 문서 참고. |
| 홍진수씨는 중국이 북한 땅을 가져가는 건 싫다며 북한과 독립적으로 있고 싶을 뿐이다. | 그리고 땅으로는 휴전선 넘어 중국이 보낸 간첩과. | 여기서 말하는 중국은 거의 중화인민공화국 을 뜻하며, 대만의 개념은 맥락에 따라 국체 로서의 중화민국, 지리 로서의. | Mesuspilnenews39762 북한 군인 18명이 이미 러시아 연방 브랸스크와 쿠르스크 국경 지역에서 탈출했다. |
北, 中이 퍼주지 않자 러 끌어들였다 칼럼, 10 134501 조회 20452 추천 316 댓글 538 동해 진출하려는 흑심이 너무 투명하게 보여서 웃기노. 러시아의 대외관계와 동아시아 질서 재편.
탈북자들은 대부분 중국 북한점령설에 코웃음만 치더라, 북중 정상의 우호 상징물이 제거된 것은 유례가 없다, 중국의 특별행정구인 홍콩 과 마카오 를 포함하여 양안삼지관계란 표현을 쓸 때도 있다, Com › mgallery › board통일안하면 중국이 북한먹는다고 하던데 군사 마이너 갤러리, 러시아가 파병된 북한 군인들에게 매달 월급 2000달러를 주는 것으로 알려진 가운데 한미 정보기관의 발표대로 1만명이 파병될 경우 매년 2.
Com › korean › articles중국대만 간 긴장 관계의 배경은. Com › board › view북한 뺨 때린 중국, 혈맹 이상기류. 러시아는 북한이 중국의 영향권으로 완전히 들어가면 중국이 동해로.
여기서 말하는 중국은 거의 중화인민공화국 을 뜻하며, 대만의 개념은 맥락에 따라 국체 로서의 중화민국, 지리 로서의. 짱개들도 나름 대국부심 있어서 더러운일은 오랑캐한테 짬처리하려는 짱개근성 못버릴 거라고 생각해서. 중국 당국이 대만을 포위하는 대규모 군사 훈련을 실시했다. 중국 역시 자국산 장갑차를 운영하여 질적 차이가 없을지는 몰라도 지속적 개량으로 성능을 끌어올리거나 혹은 라이센스 생산등으로 bmp3 급 보병전투장갑차를 대량으로 운영하는 형태로 나아가고 있는 입장상 장갑차 간의 승차전투가 벌어질경우 화력에서나.
김정은 사망 후 중국이 북한을 합병하는 것이 가능할까, 중국의 wto 가입으로 인한 중국 시장에서의 한국 주요 산업별, 그리고 중국 다롄에서 2018년에 김정은과 시진핑이 정상회담을 하고 해변을 산책한 길이 있는데 그 해변 산책한 길에 김정은과 시진핑의 발자국을. 그리고 땅으로는 휴전선 넘어 중국이 보낸 간첩과.
남사친좌 인스타 말 그대로 돈은 돈대로 우리가 내고, 이득은 왕서방이 챙기는거다. 북한이 망하게 될 경우, 중국이 북한을 합병할 수 있을까. 안보시론 중러의 해외 선거 개입과 영향력 공작 월간조선. 중국이 북한 전체를 병합하지 않고서 일부만 흡수하고 다른 국가들과 분할 통치하는 시나리오는 북한분할 문서 참고. 유사시 일본군 한반도 개입 뉴스가 나온 이유가 있겟지 3 투린투람바르 2023. 냥코 스펙 사이트
남자 초커 디시 고구려 망하고 천년동안 중국 한족은 만주에 들어오지도 않았는데 아무 의미없음. 기타 북한외교, 중국외교, 대만외교, 중화민족 중화사상, 중국경제, 대만경제, 북한경제, 북한만주 관계, 북한군 vs 중국군 조선민주주의인민공화국朝鮮民主主義人民共和國democratic peoples republic of korea 중화인민공화국中华人民共和国peoples republic of china. 지금도 블라디보스톡이나 북한 동해지역에서 어업권을 얻고 슬금슬금 내려오는판인데 완전히 동해를 손에 쥐게 된다면 이제 내려오는게 중국 어선이 아니라 군함이 되게 된다. 지금 이 지도에서 드러난 제안처럼 북한 땅을 분할한다고 가정하면 한국은 더욱 위험해짐. 유사시 일본군 한반도 개입 뉴스가 나온 이유가 있겟지 3 투린투람바르 2023. 네이버 히토미
놀쟈 방귀녀 증국의 세계무역기구wto가입이 허용되면서 현실화. 고구려 망하고 천년동안 중국 한족은 만주에 들어오지도 않았는데 아무 의미없음. 중국의 특별행정구인 홍콩 과 마카오 를 포함하여 양안삼지관계란 표현을 쓸 때도 있다. 그리고 땅으로는 휴전선 넘어 중국이 보낸 간첩과. 짱개들도 나름 대국부심 있어서 더러운일은 오랑캐한테 짬처리하려는 짱개근성 못버릴 거라고 생각해서. 넹721
놀쟈 대체 관련게시물 속보 푸틴 마우스 커서를 올리면 이미지 순서를 onoff 할 수 있습니다. 중국은 그간 북한에 영향력을 행사해왔는데 북한이 러시아로 빠지니까 시 주석이 화를 냈다고 한다. 서해는 중국과 우리가 맞대고 있고, 동해는 한일북이 맞대고 있다. 북한, 중국땅 되는건 안돼 20대들 돌변한 이유 군. 러시아가 파병된 북한 군인들에게 매달 월급 2000달러를 주는 것으로 알려진 가운데 한미 정보기관의 발표대로 1만명이 파병될 경우 매년 2.
놀재 심지어 김일성과 김정일도 생전에 중국의 한반도 합병 야심을 경계했고, 김정은도 폼페이오한테 몰래 중국의 위협을 견제하기 위해 주한미군의 존재가. 짱개들도 나름 대국부심 있어서 더러운일은 오랑캐한테 짬처리하려는 짱개근성 못버릴 거라고 생각해서. 통일한국이 중국 국경과 맞대고 있을 경우. 중국 당국이 대만을 포위하는 대규모 군사 훈련을 실시했다. 그리고 땅으로는 휴전선 넘어 중국이 보낸 간첩과.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 17, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 17, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 17, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 17, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
특히 애미뒤진 중국 어선들이 동해안으로 대거 몰려오고, 거기에 중국 군함이 들어온다 생각해봐라., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.