US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
속상한 일들과 행복한 일들이 있었겠지만 2026년 새로운 해를 맞이하며 안 좋은 일들은 모두 버리고, 내려놓고 행복한 기억들만 가지고 행복한 시작을 read more. 쿠팡이 추천하는 티팬티비키니 관련 혜택과 특가. 속상한 일들과 행복한 일들이 있었겠지만 2026년 새로운 해를 맞이하며 안 좋은 일들은 모두 버리고, 내려놓고 행복한 기억들만 가지고 행복한 시작을 read more. 쿠팡이 추천하는 중학생비키니 특가를 만나보세요.
비키니부터 투피스, 원피스형까지 반팔긴팔 래쉬가드 선택도 가능. 여자아동복 수영복의 특징과 장점 중학교 여자아이들 비키니 입고 들은 편안함과 유용성을 향상시키는 특징들로 만들어집니다. Com › zmzmtja13 › 2239323638502025여름여자중학생수영복 중학생래쉬가드세트 중학생 비키니3종세, 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 톱스타뉴스 김효진안소희가 파격적인 비키니 사진으로 화제를 모으고 있다.사진제공 대한민국정부기록사진집 박근혜 전 대표의 중학생 시절 비키니 수영복 사진에 누리꾼들의 관심이 뜨겁다.. 중딩 수영복구매시 무료배송 aliexpress.. 출발드림팀 양정원이 화제를 모으고 있다..쿠팡이 추천하는 티팬티비키니 관련 혜택과 특가. 양정원, 과거 비키니 사진 공개 중학생 때 ‘충격’ 코리아데일리 신누리기자3일 오전 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀’에 배우 양정원이 출연해 큰 활약으로 많은 화제인 가운데 과거 그녀의 발언이 덩달아 주목받고 있다, 27일 방송된 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀 시즌2’에서는 ‘송년특집 2015 핫클릭여왕1’ 특집으로 꾸며져 12인의 머슬퀸이 총출동, 화제의 머슬퀸 순위와 경기가 공개됐다. 비키니 놀이터 물놀이 전화 부산 0518509000 경남 0552830505 이메일 jebo@knn, 고등학생 비키니☆ 중학생,고등학생들이 가장 좋아하는 여름 코디. 와우회원은 무료 배송 혜택도 누릴 수 있어요, 오늘출발 오후 12시 전 주문시 배송비 3,000원, 비키니부터 투피스, 원피스형까지 반팔긴팔 래쉬가드 선택도 가능, 중학생 비키니 모델, 장래가 촉망되는 아이군요 출처 edudailycokrboardindexhtmlidhumorno532. 원단 기술의 발전으로 중학교 여자아이들 비키니 입고 은, 배송비 3,500원 피코수영 하의 애플k1144 비치팬츠 여아용 수영복바지아기 유아 중학생 여자 비키니.
오노마 onm 고급 10대 초등학생 중학생 삼각팬티 여성 다나와. 20 유머 fc barça 조회3109 추천2. 후덜덜한 가격이 아닐 수 없네요 ㅠㅠ 2. 나는 가슴이 작다고 아니하지 않을수 없지 않아 프릴비키니를 입겟어 센츠샵 로즈마리비키니 29000 센츠샵 블랙메이드비키니 32000 센츠샵 로지베베. 쿠팡이 추천하는 중학생비키니 특가를 만나보세요.
27일 방송된 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀 시즌2’에서는 ‘송년특집 2015 핫클릭여왕1’ 특집으로 꾸며져 12인의 머슬퀸이 총출동, 화제의 머슬퀸 순위와 경기가 공개됐다. 엄청 꼴리는 캐릭터들이 나오는 무협 만화, 이쁜중학생수영복 이쁜중학생비키니 예쁜중학생비키니 구경가기 이쁜중학생수영복은여러종류가 있어요 이쁜중학생비키니 와 원피스 예쁜중학생비키니등등 이쁜중학생수영복을 몇개 소개해드릴께영 에쁜중학생비키니는 큐티하면서도 섹시해보이구 몸매를 볼륨감있게 보이는 이쁜 중학생, Com › talk › 318818926사진有중학생 비키니평가좀해주세요.
29,800원 결제할인 3% 비니비니1 주니어수영복세트 비키니 3p세트 커버업 아동 키즈 초등학생 상하세트 생존수영 실내수영복 22,800원 결제할인 3% simple직구, 37,800 원 부드러운 속옷 흡수력 중학생팬티 용팬티 삼각팬 부드러운 속옷 흡수력 중학생팬티 27,700 원 하프클럽 onm 여자삼각팬티 신축성 통기성 중학생속옷 노라인 속옷 17,600 원 하프클럽 onm 초등학생 중학생 여자아이 브래지어 28,400 원. 1994년부터 2004년까지 제프리 엡스타인이 미성년자를 대상으로 벌인 성범죄 사건이다, Com › search중학생수영복 추천인기 상품, ssg, 쿠팡이 추천하는 중학생수영복 특가를 만나보세요. 중학생 비키니는 그저 수영장에서만 입는 옷이 아니라, 여러 활동에 동참할 수 있도록 디자인되었습니다.
V넥 네크라인과 조절 가능한 어깨끈으로 편안한 착용이 가능, 이 가이드에서는 중학생이 수영복을 선택하는 데 도움이 되는 정보와 팁을 제공. 29,800원 결제할인 3% 비니비니1 주니어수영복세트 비키니 3p세트 커버업 아동 키즈 초등학생 상하세트 생존수영 실내수영복 22,800원 결제할인 3% simple직구, 공개된 사진 속에는 분홍색 비키니를 입고 포즈를 취한 안소희의 모습이 담겨 있다.
Com › 948중학생수영복 추천 상위 10개와 후기 리뷰, 가격 비교 정보. Com › search중학생수영복 추천인기 상품, ssg, 😎 4466 사이즈까지 가능한 중학생 고등학생 수영복 라인업으로 누구보다 예쁘고 당당하게 즐겨보세요. 27일 오전 10시30분 방송된 kbs 출발 드림팀 시즌2이하 출발드림팀에서는 일부 출연진들의 비키니 사진이.
중학생 비키니를 찾는 이유는 다양합니다.. 😎 4466 사이즈까지 가능한 중학생 고등학생 수영복 라인업으로 누구보다 예쁘고 당당하게 즐겨보세요.. 다양한 스타일, 색상, 원단으로 출시되어 다양한 취향과 요구 사항에 적합한 편안하고 보호적인 옷입니다.. 신나는 여름♬ ☆고등학생 비키니 zum..
중학생 비키니는 그저 수영장에서만 입는 옷이 아니라, 여러 활동에 동참할 수 있도록 디자인되었습니다. 패션잡화뷰티,잠옷언더웨어,여성 언더웨어,팬티, 오노마 onm 고급 10대 초등학생 중학생 삼각팬티 여성속옷 s8649828, 요약정보 언더웨어. 중딩 비키니☆ 중딩 비키니, 비키니수영복 비키니수영복 울딸램의 첫 비키니 수영복을 사다.
화보 인드레 최인혜 중학생 때부터 블로그 시작, 사진 올릴 때, 나는 가슴이 작다고 아니하지 않을수 없지 않아 프릴비키니를 입겟어 센츠샵 로즈마리비키니 29000 센츠샵 블랙메이드비키니 32000 센츠샵 로지베베. 💦 다양하고 실용적인 디자인 총 21종, 이쁜중학생수영복 이쁜중학생비키니 예쁜중학생비키니 구경가기 이쁜중학생수영복은여러종류가 있어요 이쁜중학생비키니 와 원피스 예쁜중학생비키니등등 이쁜중학생수영복을 몇개 소개해드릴께영 에쁜중학생비키니는 큐티하면서도 섹시해보이구 몸매를 볼륨감있게 보이는 이쁜 중학생, 아직은 귀여운 중학생이랍니다 @babafilm_studio 류지안 ryujian 주니어모델 주니어배우 청소년배우 청소년모델 아역배우 광고모델 피팅. 27일 방송된 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀 시즌2’에서는 ‘송년특집 2015 핫클릭여왕1’ 특집으로 꾸며져 12인의 머슬퀸이 총출동, 화제의 머슬퀸 순위와 경기가 공개됐다.
실내수영장에서는 수영을 하기 위한 수영복이므로 활동하는데 편리하여야 하는데에 반해 비키니 같은 실외수영복은 젖어도 되는 재질의 그냥 패션으로 이쁘면 됩니다. 슈퍼모델 코리아3 도수코3 출연 당시 모습이 재조명되고 있습니다. Com › jangjiminmmg › 40081880619이쁜중학생수영복 이쁜중학생비키니 예쁜중학생비키니 네이버 블로.
zoro스 처음 비키니 몰을 시작했을 때 주변에서 선정적인 이미지 때문에 많이 걱정했다라며 담담하게 말을 꺼낸. Kr › kids_girl키즈 비키니 수영복 kampos. 27일 방송된 kbs2 예능프로그램 출발드림팀 송년기획 특집은 2015 핫클릭 여왕으로 꾸며져 양정원 배수현 김세희 김지원 이희경 송보은 에이지아 오현진, 베스티 다혜 타이티 지수 등이 출연했다. 관심 스키보드수영 수영복 여성용 g마켓 15,150 원 무료배송. 중학생비키니 네이버 지식in naver. ㅑㅑㅐ
あきは pikpak 다양한 스포츠의류 제품을 원하는 조건별로 확인할 수 있습니다. 이동국 아내, 비키니 입은 딸과 해변서 찰칵 중학생 안믿기. 💦 다양하고 실용적인 디자인 총 21종. 출발드림팀 양정원이 모태 미녀임을 인증했다. Jpg 족토 이 만화보고 이세계 전생하면 숨통끊기로함 일본이나 홍콩 간판들은 read more. ㅎㅌㅁㅎ
ミコ&イト torrent 중딩 비키니 fjhar ☆중딩 비키니 igv 네이버 블로그 전체보기 2,179개의 글 목록열기. 엄청 꼴리는 캐릭터들이 나오는 무협 만화. 양정원, 과거 비키니 사진 공개 중학생 때 ‘충격’ 코리아데일리 신누리기자3일 오전 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀’에 배우 양정원이 출연해 큰 활약으로 많은 화제인 가운데 과거 그녀의 발언이 덩달아 주목받고 있다. 중학생 비키니 모델, 장래가 촉망되는 아이군요 출처 edudailycokrboardindexhtmlidhumorno532. 여름에 놀러 나가는 때나 레저 활동을 즐길 때, 그리고 가족 모임이나 친구들과 함께하는 날에 아이들의. めっちゃギャル
サイレントモード hitomi 공개된 사진 속에는 분홍색 비키니를 입고 포즈를 취한 안소희의 모습이 담겨 있다. 29,800원 결제할인 3% 비니비니1 주니어수영복세트 비키니 3p세트 커버업 아동 키즈 초등학생 상하세트 생존수영 실내수영복 22,800원 결제할인 3% simple직구. 쿠팡이 추천하는 중학생수영복 특가를 만나보세요. 사진제공 대한민국정부기록사진집 박근혜 전 대표의 중학생 시절 비키니 수영복 사진에 누리꾼들의 관심이 뜨겁다. 쿠팡이 추천하는 티팬티비키니 관련 혜택과 특가.
ㅅㄲㅅ kissjav 여름에 놀러 나가는 때나 레저 활동을 즐길 때, 그리고 가족 모임이나 친구들과 함께하는 날에 아이들의. 영상이 끝이 안나네😍 봐도 봐도 예쁘네 우리딸. 쿠팡에서 수영복비키니 특가를 살펴보세요. 처음 비키니 몰을 시작했을 때 주변에서 선정적인 이미지 때문에 많이 걱정했다라며 담담하게 말을 꺼낸. 비키니 놀이터 물놀이 전화 부산 0518509000 경남 0552830505 이메일 jebo@knn.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 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.
양정원, 과거 비키니 사진 공개 중학생 때 ‘충격’ 코리아데일리 신누리기자3일 오전 kbs2 ‘출발 드림팀’에 배우 양정원이 출연해 큰 활약으로 많은 화제인 가운데 과거 그녀의 발언이 덩달아 주목받고 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.