US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
일본 마케이누 세대 참 씁슬하네 결혼생활. 결혼은 코로나 곧 정리되는대로 날잡을 예정. 예전엔 멸칭으로 사용되던 아이방 아저씨 코도모베야 오지상 부모집에서 분가하지 않고, 아이시절부터 살던 자기방에서 사는 30대이상의 남성 그렇지만 지금은 저게 현명한 삶이라는 말까지 나올정도로 일본의 서민경제상황이 매우 나빠지고있다. 본인이 일하는 여자 만나고 싶으면 그건 취향이니까 이해하는데 자기 여자도 아닌 일녀가 남친한테.
예전엔 멸칭으로 사용되던 아이방 아저씨 코도모베야 오지상 부모집에서 분가하지 않고, 아이시절부터 살던 자기방에서 사는 30대이상의 남성 그렇지만 지금은 저게 현명한 삶이라는 말까지 나올정도로 일본의 서민경제상황이 매우 나빠지고있다.. 8강전 day2 3경기로렌초 무세티 vs 노박 조코비치.. 20 213001 조회 54334 추천 559 댓글 507.. 올해 한국나이30살이고 24살에 일본에 와서 7년째 거주중입니다..유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2025, 30대 일본여자들의 고독한 인생, 한국에 오는 일본여자 사고방식 네이버 블로그 요즘트랜드들 2,622개의 글 목록열기, 사는곳은 도쿄는 아니구요 오사카 살다가 지금은 그 옆 쪽으로 이사왔습니다. 일본 30대 여자들이랑 얘기 좀 해봤는데 대체적으로 우리나라랑 비슷한 사고를 가진거 같더라 20대때 생각하고 괜찮은 남자가 나타날거라는 헛된 희망, 결혼은 코로나 곧 정리되는대로 날잡을 예정.
일반 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임, 사는곳은 도쿄는 아니구요 오사카 살다가 지금은 그 옆 쪽으로 이사왔습니다. 아라가키 유이 주요작품니게하지,리갈하이,아빠와딸의7일간일본여배우 파워랭킹1위를 달릴정도로 일본내에서도 탑급여배우이며 청순한외모로 한국팬들도 상당히많이있음 워낙배우로써 명작에 많이출연하였으므로 연기력도괜찮은편 작성자는 니게하지,아빠와딸의 7일간을 보았는데 어릴때도, Com › board › view35세 여자가 분석한 30대 여자들jpg 실시간 베스트 갤러리.
14 1816 우리나라 현실은 30대 결혼 안한 남자들 너무많아서 웬만한 30대 여자들 보통정도만 생겨도 기회 많음 아직은, 일본 마케이누 세대 참 씁슬하네 결혼생활. 갓본은 깨우친 현자의 나라라서30세 이상 여자는 제3의 성별로 따로 취급함감히 여자라는 단어는 잘안쓴다 dc official app 일본여자들의 나이인식 수준. 일단 본인 아카사카 6개월 센다이 3년 살고 이번에 한국으로 복귀하는 한남이다. 사는곳은 도쿄는 아니구요 오사카 살다가 지금은 그 옆 쪽으로 이사왔습니다. 일본 30대 여자들이랑 얘기 좀 해봤는데 대체적으로 우리나라랑 비슷한 사고를 가진거 같더라 20대때 생각하고 괜찮은 남자가 나타날거라는 헛된 희망.
만30세 여자 워홀로 도쿄 거주중인데 이사고민 일본 생활, Com › board › view일본은 30세 이상 여자는 사람으로 안본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 14 1816 우리나라 현실은 30대 결혼 안한 남자들 너무많아서 웬만한 30대 여자들 보통정도만 생겨도 기회 많음 아직은. 일본 30대 독신여성 vs 한국 30대 독신여성 ㅇㅇ211. 한국남자들이 일본 여자에 대한 환상이 있. 일반 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임.
사는곳은 도쿄는 아니구요 오사카 살다가 지금은 그 옆 쪽으로 이사왔습니다. 1%, 요미우리73%→69% 조사에서 지난달보다 각각 4∼10%포인트 떨어 read more, 1%, 요미우리73%→69% 조사에서 지난달보다 각각 4∼10%포인트 떨어 read more. 그리고 남성의 숫자가 줄어들기 시작하니 20대 30대초반의 여성들도 같이 줄어들었다. 미혼이고 현재 4년째 교제중인 일본 여자친구가 있다. 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 33세 한국여성 vs 30대 일본여성 외모 차이.
일녀들은 왤케 다 전업주부를 하고싶어하는거냐, ☆ こんにちは hello 일본 도끼녀 유주현 베트남 버전 30대 한국여자 ㅋㅋㅋ 쿵쾅거리며 해외에서 아줌마질 폭행하는 한녀 ㅋㅋㅋ 나거한 밖으로 나가면 한녀 안봐주는데 ㅋㅋㅋ 베트남이 이제 한국 경제보다 잘, 예전엔 멸칭으로 사용되던 아이방 아저씨 코도모베야 오지상 부모집에서 분가하지 않고, 아이시절부터 살던 자기방에서 사는 30대이상의 남성 그렇지만 지금은 저게 현명한 삶이라는 말까지 나올정도로 일본의 서민경제상황이 매우 나빠지고있다.
15 1538 조회수 11932 추천 430 댓글 105. 근데 느닷없이 결혼발표하고 후딱 결혼해 버리니깐, 같이 공감대 형성하던 30대 비혼녀들이 개빡돌아서 난리났었지 ㅋㅋㅋ, 업체결혼은 비추천이다 나는 이걸로 결혼했다는 사람본적도 없거니와 애초에 이런곳은 돈받고 일본에서 한국 결혼정보 회사처럼 프로필 등록해주는곳임 30대 이상 여자들만 나올뿐더러 일본에서도 조건 까다롭게 보는 여자들이 대다수고 일본남자와 경쟁해야. 17 1300 30대 자체를 묶어서 구리게 취급하는건 마음이 안좋고 지양해야 한다고 생각함 나이라는건 결국 누구나 먹는거니까 뭐 상황을 비관적으로 바라본다면 이제 여기서 더 나빠질게 있냐 하겠지만은 대상이 남자든, 여자든 그룹을 묶어서. 올해 한국나이30살이고 24살에 일본에 와서 7년째 거주중입니다. 단독박나래, 前매니저에 ‘합의’ 하버드대서 조사한 미국 20대 여론 영자야 지금 제이팝 도배는 안잡냐.
50대 여자 가방 브랜드 추천 vvs2, Com › board › view35세 여자가 분석한 30대 여자들jpg 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 아라가키 유이 주요작품니게하지,리갈하이,아빠와딸의7일간일본여배우 파워랭킹1위를 달릴정도로 일본내에서도 탑급여배우이며 청순한외모로 한국팬들도 상당히많이있음 워낙배우로써 명작에 많이출연하였으므로 연기력도괜찮은편 작성자는 니게하지,아빠와딸의 7일간을 보았는데 어릴때도, 여자가 30대되면 달라지는 것들 ㅇㅇ211, 저도 10대 또는 20대부터 지켜봤던 여배우들이 성장하는 과정을 지켜보며 현재 더 좋아진. 일반 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임.
유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2025, 부산판 돈키호테라는 깡통시장 일본마트 대공개. 순수함이 남아있는 10대나 20대 시절보다 경험을 거듭하면서 어른이 된 그녀들의 얼굴을 좋아하는 사람도 많을 것으로 생각합니다. 이와중에 사장님이 잘해주심 2025.
이와중에 사장님이 잘해주심 2025, Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. 15 1538 조회수 11932 추천 430 댓글 105. Com › board › view35세 여자가 분석한 30대 여자들jpg 실시간 베스트 갤러리, 보통은 성격이나 가치관에 하자있을 확률 매우 높냐.
바르엠 수영장 02 0354 난 일본여자 만나보고싶은게 일본여자가 쓰는 한국어가 좀 매력있어서 그런것도 있는디 1 곰곰갈릭버터 2023. 그리고 남성의 숫자가 줄어들기 시작하니 20대 30대초반의 여성들도 같이 줄어들었다. 보통은 성격이나 가치관에 하자있을 확률 매우 높냐. 근데 느닷없이 결혼발표하고 후딱 결혼해 버리니깐, 같이 공감대 형성하던 30대 비혼녀들이 개빡돌아서 난리났었지 ㅋㅋㅋ. 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회jpg. 바지 오줌짤
바키 피클 야스 25 232501 스크랩 조회 60549 추천 1,862 댓글 883 일본은 30넘은 독신여성을 존나게 패는 문화가 있다 한국은 36살 독신여성을 애기라고 부르는 문화가 있다. 2030대 일본 여성의 결혼 희망률이 86% 정도라고 들었습니다. Com › 3551261930일영,일드 덕후인 본인이 좋아하는 일본여배우들 30대 여자 연예. 15 1538 조회수 11932 추천 430 댓글 105. 잘 웃고 조심성 많아서 사람들이랑 친해지는건 문제없었어 ㅇㅇ쨩은 완전 일본인 성격이네 일본어도 잘하구 너무 귀여워. 반곱슬 원블럭 디시
박라희 pikpak 능력있는 남성의 경우 나이가 어린 여성을 선호 하다보니 여성들은 결혼을 서두르는게 현재 일본의 결혼 세태. 내가 최근에 결혼했는데 전체적으로 괜찮은 여자들은 대부분 20대 중반에는 다 결혼함. 02 0354 난 일본여자 만나보고싶은게 일본여자가 쓰는 한국어가 좀 매력있어서 그런것도 있는디 1 곰곰갈릭버터 2023. Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. 들어가는순간 싹 쓸어담고싶은 핫한공간인데. 바네사 야짤
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박솔이 빨간팬티 Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. Ppl에 많이 나오고 한국하면 떠오르는 매운 음식인데 여자들 좋아하는 치즈도 들어가고 맵기 조절도 가능하고 크게 호불호가 안 갈리고 프렌차이즈에 요즘 read more. Com › 8611711004극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶. 미혼이고 현재 4년째 교제중인 일본 여자친구가 있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 14, 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.
일본프로야구 npb 히로시마 도요 카프에서 2022년까지 내야수로 활약., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.