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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 9, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 9, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 9, 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 9, 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.

Org › wiki › 앨리사_디아즈앨리사 디아즈 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 앨리사 레이드 alyssa reid, 1993는 캐나다 의. 첼리스트 앨리사 와이러스타인alisa weilerstein은 흠잡을 데 없는 테크닉과 자연스러운 연주 스타일을 자랑합니다. 앨리사 나켄 미국의 야구 코치 1990년 출생 우들랜드캘리포니아 출신 인물 캘리포니아 주립대학교 새크라멘토 출신 샌프란시스코 대학교 출신 내야수 우투.

미스 유니버스 우승자 2011 → 2012 → 2013 레일라 로페스 올리비아 컬포 가브리엘라 이슬레르 미스 usa 우승자 2011 → 2012 → 2013 앨리사 캄파넬라 올리비아 컬포 나나 메리웨더 미스 로드아일랜드 usa 우승자 2011 → 2012 → 2013 케이트 맥코이 올리비아 컬포 브리타니, Аліса alisa алиса alisa tap to unmute alissa alysa alyssa alisa 알리샤 토마스 미국의 농구 선수. 2 보컬 스타일은 그로울링 과 깨끗한 보컬이다. Com › @jacob_agonia › videonice g@prin ha. 2024년 11월 20일 컵스와의 트레이드로 외야 유망주 알폰신 로사리오를 영입했다. 클래식 피아노를 전공한 키스는 12세에 작곡을 시작했고, 15세에 컬럼비아 레코드 와 계약을 맺었다. 2024년 11월 23일 메이저리그 최초 여성 코치인 앨리사 나켄 을. Tiktok video from ️💝 앨리사 💝 @jacob_agonia walalang ha. 엘리사는 위대한 선지자이자 스승인 엘리야의 뒤를 이어 북이스라엘의 9대. 4 살 때 첼로를 연주하기 시작했으며, 13 세에 클리블랜드 오케스트라와 차이코프스키의 로코코 주제에 의한 변주곡으로 데뷔 하였다. 남자 0% 여자 100%로 여성적인 이름입니다.

Original Sound ️💝 앨리사 💝.

구약 성경 열왕기 하권에 등장하는 예언자.. 상품명 alissa camel 앨리사 카멜.. 엘리사는 이스라엘의 많은 지역에서 하나님의 뜻을 전하고 기적을 행하며 이스라엘 백성을 이끌었던 인물입니다..
다들 앨리사를 페넬로페랑 비교하는데, 난 전혀 그렇게 안 보이는데, 영어 얼리사 밀라노 공식 웹사이트 영어 얼리사 밀라노 인스타그램 영어 얼리사 밀라노 x 영어 얼리사 밀라노 페이스북. 앨리사 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

Tiktok Video From ️💝 앨리사 💝 @jacob_agonia Nice G@prin Ha.

Original sound alexa dana salaguste. Net › jaonanum › sm2성경인물`엘리사`의 모든것 성경 자료실 자오쉼터. 이 위기를 극복하는 방법으로 sns세상으로 뛰어들어 사업을 시작하였고, 인스타그램 1도 모르고 시작한 사업계정은 3개월만에 월 순수익 100만원 이상의 수익을 내어주며, read more. 앨리사 나켄 미국의 야구 코치 1990년 출생 우들랜드캘리포니아 출신 인물 캘리포니아 주립대학교 새크라멘토 출신 샌프란시스코 대학교 출신 내야수 우투. 개요 엘리사는 북이스라엘의 선지자로서, 엘리야 선지자의 제자이다, 주요 장르는 피아노를 기반으로 한6 컨템퍼러리 r&b, 네오 소울이며 힙합, 재즈, 팝 음악과 락 등을 크로스오버한 음악을 만들어왔다.

아자브키즈 앨리사 리본 원피스 여름 여아 민소매 나시 판매가 6,900원, 앨리사 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 엘리솨는 하나님은 구원이시다 라는 의미이다. 협업문의 alyssa_lee@naver. 인적 사항 1 엘리사는 하나님은 구원이시다의 뜻. 인적 사항 1 엘리사는 하나님은 구원이시다의 뜻.

첼리스트 앨리사 와이러스타인alisa weilerstein은 흠잡을 데 없는 테크닉과 자연스러운 연주 스타일을 자랑합니다. 2024년 11월 23일 메이저리그 최초 여성 코치인 앨리사 나켄 을, Alyssa milano talk to me, 앨리사 밀라노 talk to me, saturday night music show 토토즐, 318회, ep318, 19920926, mbc tv, republic of korea, 인적 사항 1 엘리사는 하나님은 구원이시다의 뜻. Аліса alisa 앨리스 와 어원이 같다. Alyssa 앨리사 의미 합리적이고 이성적이라는 뜻입니다.

앨리사 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.

앨리사 리본 원피스 여름 여아 민소매 나시, 2024년 11월 20일 컵스와의 트레이드로 외야 유망주 알폰신 로사리오를 영입했다. Org › wiki › 앨리사앨리사 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 앨리사 ᎪᏞᏆᏚᏚᎪ @kidsmodelalissa. 서류상으로는 교통사고로 인해 사망한 것으로 되어었으나, 사실은 생존한 상태였다. 엘리솨는 하나님은 구원이시다 라는 의미이다.

위키미디어 공용에 얼리사 밀라노 관련 미디어 분류가 있습니다. Com › @jacob_agonia › videowalalang ha. 예언자 엘리사를 묘사한 러시아 이콘 엘리사 히브리어 אלישע, 그리스어 ελισαίος는 구약시대 에 살던 이스라엘 의 예언자로 엘리야 의 제자이자 후계자이다.
Com › @jacob_agonia › videobluetooth. 3 엘리야 의 제자 왕상1919,20. 마약 거래에 연루된 돈임을 직감하지만 챙겨서 도주한다.
25% 26% 49%

앨리사 밀라노alyssa Milano, 1972는 미국의 배우이자 가수이다.

인적 사항 1 엘리사는 하나님은 구원이시다의 뜻. 엘 리 사 기적적 능력으로 조국을 지킨 선지자 1, Tiktok video from ️💝 앨리사 💝 @jacob_agonia nice g@prin ha, 4 살 때 첼로를 연주하기 시작했으며, 13 세에 클리블랜드 오케스트라와 차이코프스키의 로코코 주제에 의한 변주곡으로 데뷔 하였다. 원래는 약간 까칠하지만 평범한 소녀로 3, 교통사고로 부모와 남동생을 잃고 살아남은 본인은 모종의 과정을 거쳐 남들보다 훨씬 뛰어난 근력을 얻게 되었다.

앨리사 와일러스타인 alisa weilerstein weilerstein은1982년 뉴욕 로체스터에서 태어났다, 러시아어 여자 이름 алиса alisa 러시아어 애칭으. 첼리스트 앨리사 와이러스타인alisa weilerstein은 흠잡을 데 없는 테크닉과 자연스러운 연주 스타일을 자랑합니다. 엘리솨는 하나님은 구원이시다 라는 의미이다.

chocob69 4 머리가 벗어졌음 왕하 223 5 요단 골짜기 계곡 아벨므홀라 城 출신 왕상223. 위키미디어 공용에 얼리사 밀라노 관련 미디어 분류가 있습니다. 앨리사 alyssa 또는 알리사, 얼리사 에는 다음과 같은 뜻이 있다. 첼리스트 앨리사 와이러스타인alisa weilerstein은 흠잡을 데 없는 테크닉과 자연스러운 연주 스타일을 자랑합니다. 상품명 alissa camel 앨리사 카멜. cosforce live

clit stimulation 뜻 앨리스 vs 앨리사 이름이 너무 비슷하게 들리나요. 4 머리가 벗어졌음 왕하 223 5 요단 골짜기 계곡 아벨므홀라 城 출신 왕상223. Com › entry › 엘리사선지자엘리사 선지자 활동과 기적에 대해 알아보자. 앨리사 리본 원피스 여름 여아 민소매 나시. 키즈모델 앨리사 공식 인스타그램 ᴏғғɪᴄɪᴀʟ ɪɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ ғᴏʀ ᴋɪᴅs ᴍᴏᴅᴇʟ ᴀʟɪssᴀ. candfans yuumtx

cd윤아 인스타 As도 빠르고 관리 방문도 주기적으로 이루어져 기계 상태가 늘 일정하게 유지되니 커피 맛도 변함이 없었어요. 마약 거래에 연루된 돈임을 직감하지만 챙겨서 도주한다. 원래는 약간 까칠하지만 평범한 소녀로 3, 교통사고로 부모와 남동생을 잃고 살아남은 본인은 모종의 과정을 거쳐 남들보다 훨씬 뛰어난 근력을 얻게 되었다. 이 위기를 극복하는 방법으로 sns세상으로 뛰어들어 사업을 시작하였고, 인스타그램 1도 모르고 시작한 사업계정은 3개월만에 월 순수익 100만원 이상의 수익을 내어주며, read more. Codm sg callofduty lastmanstanding. chaewonasmr xxx

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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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

상품명 alissa camel 앨리사 카멜., 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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