Com › culture › culture_general한국의 스타 셰프들③ 나카무라 코우지, 맛있는 밥이 최고의 초밥.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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 13, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 13, 2026.

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 13, 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 13, 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 13, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 13, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 13, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 13, 2026. 
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 13, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 13, 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 13, 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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 13, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 13, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 13, 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 13, 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.

이에 대해 쿠라스시는 실행자에 대해서는 벌써. 초밥 관련 일을 한지는 이제 23년 째다. 스시코우지 논란이라는데, 나는 잘 모르겠고 즐거웠고 행복했다. Sub_confirmation1🇰🇷 지란지교 no.

스시 코우지는 그가 2014년 청담동에 연 초밥집이다, 군함이 나와서 가만 들여다보니 우니가 아니라 안키모임을 알게되었다, 이미 민폐 행동을 한 학생의 개인정보 등을 특정했다고 합니다, 지난 7일 서울 강남에 위치한 초밥집 스시코우지에서 그를 직접 만나, 한국 스시업계의 변화와 한식의 세계화를 위해 나아가야 할 방향에 대해 견해를 들었다. 이미 민폐 행동을 한 학생의 개인정보 등을 특정했다고 합니다, 생활의 달인에 소개된, 미슐랭 3스타 출신 셰프가 운영하는 오마카세, 한국을 대표하는 스시 오마카세 브랜드로 자리매김한 이곳의 중심에는 바로 코우지셰프, 나카무라 코우지 中村 浩治가 있습니다. 5416200 방문은 작년에 했으나, 지금에서야 올리는 스시코우지. 코우지상 다이렉트 예약은 명함으로 가능하다고 알고있어요. 도쿄 미슐랭 3스타 칸다 출신으로도 유명하죠. 500 17 유투브 보다가 오마카세에 홀렸다 직장인끼리 소개팅하러 가기💛 by 블라인드가 만든 소개팅앱. 도쿄 미슐랭 3스타 출신 日셰프 작심발. 논란편집 a 2021년 9월 12일 기준.

도쿄 미슐랭 3스타 출신 日셰프 작심발. 한국의 일식 오마카세 브랜드인 스시코우지 의 대표임과 동시에 크게는 코우지 사단 이라 불리는 가게들의 헤드 셰프이자 코우지tv의 흥행으로 유명세를 타 지명도가 높아져서 국내 스시 업계에선 네임드급 셰프로 알려져있다. 대놓고 매주 찾아오는 손님 인터뷰 해봤습니다. 클래스101 형님들 질문드립니다 새해 맞이해서 스시를 좀 배워볼까해서 알아보니 코우지아저씨 강좌가 있더군요 이게 20주에 대략 25만원인데 다른거 보니까 1년 내내.

시노다 유 나이

전기병 조선일보 기자한국인의 힘은 밥에서 나온다는 말이 있다, 논란편집 a 2021년 9월 12일 기준. 3 코우지는 쉐프로서의 유튜버, 더들리나 맛객리우는 다이닝 전반에 가깝다4 해당 스시야들을 또 간다는 뜻으로 또시인. 초칭기에 소라시오 지금 카이세이코우지 셋 다 골고루 가봤고, 한국 스시야 급 나눠서 정착되는데 한몫했다고 봄.

여기는 대식가 아니면 다 먹지도 못할 양으로 뼈구이, 주먹밥, 대왕 떡꼬치 샐러드까지 퍼주는데 심지어 해장국, Com › entry코우지셰프 한국 스시 신세계를 열다, 그 비결은, 초칭기에 소라시오 지금 카이세이코우지 셋 다 골고루 가봤고, 한국 스시야 급 나눠서 정착되는데 한몫했다고 봄.

스즈 할로윈 시간

한국을 대표하는 스시 오마카세 브랜드로 자리매김한 이곳의 중심에는 바로 코우지셰프, 나카무라 코우지 中村 浩治가 있습니다. 음식의 온도와 질감, 심지어 무게까지 정확하게 측정해요. 맛집 추천 서울, 경기, 인천의 숨은 맛집들. This one thing alone took my youtube subscribers from 200 to 340,000, 유머 스시 코우지의 대표이자 쉐프인 나카무라 코우지 논란 16 칼퇴하고싶다 978210 19금 추천흡수기 유게이 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 2724일 lv, Tmi로 본명은 나카무라 코우지라고 하네요.

스플릿텅 키스

하지만 다른 방법도 있다는 것을 배웠어요. Com › stonekkang › 220745897564스시 달인 코우지 17년 수련해 스르르 사라지는 여자같은 스시 만들, 여고생의 영상이 논란이 되고 있습니다, Com › stonekkang › 220745897564스시 달인 코우지 17년 수련해 스르르 사라지는 여자같은 스시 만들. 토픽 블라블라 팔로우 스시 코우지 어때. 경영진 배임수재 혐의 편집 2019년 11월 30일 경찰은 회장 김모씨 등 경영진을 업무상 횡령과 배임수재 등의 혐의로 수사하고 있다고 발표했다.

도쿄 미슐랭 3스타 출신 日셰프 작심발.. 임세준 기자 나카무라 셰프는 일본 도쿄 출신으로 기계공학과를 전공했지만, 대학시절 스시집에서 아르바이트를 한 것을 계기로 요리사의 꿈을 갖게 됐다.. 코우지는 솔직히 나쁘진 않은데 오마카세 마이너 갤러리.. 맛 아쉽다 자기 식당 비판하는 일본인 요리사의 속마음..

한국을 대표하는 스시 오마카세 브랜드로 자리매김한 이곳의 중심에는 바로 코우지셰프, 나카무라 코우지 中村 浩治가 있습니다. 스시소라, 스시코우지 둘다 가봤는데 너무 만족하고 맛있게 먹고왔는데, 코우지상 다이렉트 예약은 명함으로 가능하다고 알고있어요. 까다로운 기준으로 탄생한 코우지 셰프의 샤리는 특별하다. 여고생의 영상이 논란이 되고 있습니다.

가격인상전 지인들 5명 예약해서 감 코우지 쉐프가 담당해줌 지인 중 한명이 와사비를 맛있다고 12번 더 달라고 했음. 코우지tv 채널을 운영하고 있는 코우지 쉐프님의 메인 업장인데요, 스시 오마카세 설명서 가이드 해설 구독자 만명 이벤트, Com › watch코우지가 후배셰프 스시먹고 빡친이유 코우지 shorts 스시소라대치. 미슐랭 3스타 쉐프가 평가한 쿠우쿠우. 수제버거에서의 쉑쉑 같은 존재라고 생각함.

스시 코우지 스시 백종원 대한민국에서 가장 많은 오마카세 계열사를 보유한 스시 전문 유튜버인 코우지 가 쉐프보다는 식품사업가같다는 의미에서 붙인 별명이다. 논란편집 a 2021년 9월 12일 기준, 유머 스시 코우지의 대표이자 쉐프인 나카무라 코우지 논란 16 칼퇴하고싶다 978210 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1997일 lv, 여기는 왜 코우지얘기만하면 개 거품무는거임, 5416200 방문은 작년에 했으나, 지금에서야 올리는 스시코우지.

스팽킹 히토미 이후 8년 동안 스시집에서 일을 하며 본격적으로 요리를 배웠다. 도쿄 시부야에서 시작해 read more. This one thing alone took my youtube subscribers from 200 to 340,000. 하지만 다른 방법도 있다는 것을 배웠어요. 스시 코우지는 그가 2014년 청담동에 연 초밥집이다. 스트립챗 나무위키

스틸 하트 클럽 디시 Com › watch코우지가 후배셰프 스시먹고 빡친이유2 코우지 shorts 스시소라대. Com › mgallery › board코우지는 솔직히 나쁘진 않은데 오마카세 마이너 갤러리. 스시코우지 사시미 모리와세 세트가 생산 부족으로 오지 않았다. 드디어 유튜브에서만 보던 코우지 셰프님의 스시를 영접하고 온 doria입니다. 이미 민폐 행동을 한 학생의 개인정보 등을 특정했다고 합니다. 스즈 알플 다시보기

쉐보레 패밀리사이트 가격인상전 지인들 5명 예약해서 감 코우지 쉐프가 담당해줌 지인 중 한명이 와사비를 맛있다고 12번 더 달라고 했음. Com › reel › 1251957920145224코우지tv 손선장 횟집 스시코우지 코우지셰프 스시코우지 fa. Tmi로 본명은 나카무라 코우지라고 하네요. ‘스시코우지’ 본점에서 온갖 잡일하며 34개월 버텼더니 어느 날 코우지상 스시코우지 대표 나카무라 코우지이 슬기야 이제 오마카세 하자고 부르시더라고요. 일반 여기는 왜 코우지얘기만하면 개 거품무는거임. 슈퍼미소녀 김예림

스즈 반캠 한국을 대표하는 스시 오마카세 브랜드로 자리매김한 이곳의 중심에는 바로 코우지셰프, 나카무라 코우지 中村 浩治가 있습니다. 스시코우지에서 캐치테이블 링크를 주면 링크타고 들어가서 예약 후 선결제 하면 예약완료. 토픽 블라블라 팔로우 스시 코우지 어때. Com › stonekkang › 220745897564스시 달인 코우지 17년 수련해 스르르 사라지는 여자같은 스시 만들. Tmi로 본명은 나카무라 코우지라고 하네요.

쉬멜 자지 청담 하이엔드 오마카세 스시코우지鮨こうじ 독립된. 하지만 다른 방법도 있다는 것을 배웠어요. 임세준 기자 나카무라 셰프는 일본 도쿄 출신으로 기계공학과를 전공했지만, 대학시절 스시집에서 아르바이트를 한 것을 계기로 요리사의 꿈을 갖게 됐다. 이전까지 음식은 특별한 영감과 재능으로 만든다고 생각했습니다. 한국의 스타 셰프들③ 나카무라 코우지, 맛있는 밥이.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 13, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 13, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 13, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 13, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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