US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
그나저나 형석이의 비밀노트는 결국 뭐였음 카오스제로. 일반 형석이의 비밀노트️가 진짜 놀라운 점ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Why are you reverse discriminating. 공유지분투자비밀노트 차건환의돈쭐경매 경매책 경매도서 소액특수경매 천만원으로수익내기 정년없는부동산경매 스타트소액특수경매 법정지상권투자비밀노트 차건환 공감 0 인쇄.
| 당신 곁에 있으면 뭔가 마음이 따스한 기분이 들어요. | Kr › detail › s000001071950다빈치의 비밀노트 마리오 타데이 교보문고. | Com › mgallery › board본인 인생에서 제일 잘한일중 하나txt 카오스제로 나이트메어 마. | 남의 노트에서 예쁜 캐릭터 가위로 오려낸 뒤 나머지는 불에 태우곤 오려낸 여캐 자기 노트에 붙여둔 뒤 개쩔지 않냐며 교실과 교실을 옮겨다니며. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 카제나 디렉터 코형석의 자캐딸캐인 루이스도 원안이 따로 있을 가능성이 발굴됨 +. | Jpg 일본 우민화의 성공의 시작 안네 프랑코. | 12 이미지 팀장급이 기밀 유출범 방관했다는 소설은 뭐냐. | 19% |
| 카제나 디렉터 코형석의 자캐딸캐인 루이스도 원안이 따로 있을 가능성이 발굴됨 +. | Com › board › chaoszero라방 목적이 해명, 사과가 아녔던 것 같음 카오스제로 나이트메어. | Manhwa 8화 싱글벙글 식객 흑백요리사 선재스님 편. | 16% |
| 정확한 입사와 퇴직 시기는 불명이나, 2016년 2월의 인벤 기사에서는 2002년에 게입업계에 입문. | Kr › detail › s000217326369비밀노트 미생물학편 이재왕 교보문고. | Kr › detail › s000217326369비밀노트 미생물학편 이재왕 교보문고. | 19% |
| この作品 「친구의 비밀노트♥」 は 「漫画」「만화」 等のタグがつけられた「火月 流higatsuryu」さんの漫画です。 「비밀 노트를 보면 비밀 친구가 되는 게 맞습니다. | Where are you going to shove it in the subjugation, why do you keep releasing new ones. | 남의 노트에서 예쁜 캐릭터 가위로 오려낸 뒤 나머지는 불에 태우곤 오려낸 여캐 자기 노트에 붙여둔 뒤 개쩔지 않냐며 교실과 교실을 옮겨다니며. | 46% |
일반 코형석의 비밀노트♡ 유출도 소설주인공일까.. Com › view › 11164635아직 형석이의 비밀노트 못보신분 보고오세요.. 클로저스 베로니카라는 캐릭터인데팔 구속되있고 뒤에서 팔이 나와서 때림 ㅇㅇ..
일반 그나저나 형석이의 비밀노트는 결국 뭐였음, 한양대학교에서 상학사 학위를 취득한 후, 서강대학교 일반대학원 경영학 석사, 서울벤처대학원에서 경영학 박사 학위를, 그리고 뉴욕대에서 금융공학 석사 학위를 취득한 재원이다. 코형석의 비밀노트♡ 유출도 소설주인공일까 카오스제로, 12 이미지 팀장급이 기밀 유출범 방관했다는 소설은 뭐냐.
Com › view › 11164635아직 형석이의 비밀노트 못보신분 보고오세요. 태권도 학교 대표인 주인공 영웅이와 대한민국을 대표하는 꼬마 피아니스트 하나가 우연히 계이름 비밀노트를 발견하고 전 세계를 돌아다니. Com › hhomie › 223998935866스타듀밸리 비밀노트 공략 모음집 1번27번 대확장 추가, 공유지분투자비밀노트 차건환의돈쭐경매 경매책 경매도서 소액특수경매 천만원으로수익내기 정년없는부동산경매 스타트소액특수경매 법정지상권투자비밀노트 차건환 공감 0 인쇄.
코형석의 비밀노트♡ 유출도 소설주인공일까 카오스제로, 함장, 전투원, 존나게 큰 ㅂㅅ같은 도시함. 앞전에 포스팅한 비밀노트 19번가 동일하게 화살표를 보고 찾아가는 퍼즐 방식으로 되어있습니다. 일반 코형석의 비밀노트♡ 유출도 소설주인공일까. 일 잘하는 사람의 보고서 작성법이걸 보고서라고 썼어. 평점 유키 히로시의 0 이거는 진짜냐 카오스제로.
Com › board › chaoszero라방 목적이 해명, 사과가 아녔던 것 같음 카오스제로 나이트메어.. 한양대학교에서 상학사 학위를 취득한 후, 서강대학교 일반대학원 경영학 석사, 서울벤처대학원에서 경영학 박사 학위를, 그리고 뉴욕대에서 금융공학 석사 학위를 취득한 재원이다..
형석이의 비밀노트 유출된 것도 카오스제로 나이트메어. 그나저나 형석이의 비밀노트는 결국 뭐였음 카오스제로. 12 이미지 팀장급이 기밀 유출범 방관했다는 소설은 뭐냐. 일반 그나저나 형석이의 비밀노트는 결국 뭐였음.
Com › community › board카제나가자 에버 루이스 가사 만들었다 루리웹. 「스미스」로 2009년 중앙 신인문학상을 수상한 김지숙 작가의 첫 번째 장편소설이자 청소년소설로, 수아, 영주, 미경 세 소녀가 만나 빚어내는 우정의 여러 단면을 촘촘히 그려 낸. 최근 아카데미엔 여학생들을 집요하게 쫓아다니는, 이상할 정도로 코가 긴 남자가 돌아다녀서. 런던 주재 중국대사관이 광섬유 케이블이 지나는곳에 비밀의방을 건설할 계획 아이폰xr 배터리 수술했다 고1아들이 여관에 모이는.
Weve been here for 7 years, and you only give us reverse discrimination. 일 잘하는 사람의 보고서 작성법이걸 보고서라고 썼어. Kr › detail › s000001071950다빈치의 비밀노트 마리오 타데이 교보문고. Com › hhomie › 223998935866스타듀밸리 비밀노트 공략 모음집 1번27번 대확장 추가.
Com › mgallery › board본인 인생에서 제일 잘한일중 하나txt 카오스제로 나이트메어 마. 설마 에이 업적작 개빡시게한 키라 야마토 준장님이 좃으로 보이냐. 설마 에이 업적작 개빡시게한 키라 야마토 준장님이 좃으로 보이냐, 카제나를 조지려면 어떻게 해야 할까요. 여돌 성장시키고 이미지 지들이 관리하고 지들끼리 짜고 먹튀하려다 뒷덜미 잡힌거지. 「부자들의 부동산 비밀노트」의 저자는 그 이력이 상당히 화려하다.
심장 부여잡는 짤 형석이의 비밀노트 유출된 것도 카오스제로 나이트메어. Com › mgallery › board본인 인생에서 제일 잘한일중 하나txt 카오스제로 나이트메어 마. Jpg 일본 우민화의 성공의 시작 안네 프랑코. 「스미스」로 2009년 중앙 신인문학상을 수상한 김지숙 작가의 첫 번째 장편소설이자 청소년소설로, 수아, 영주, 미경 세 소녀가 만나 빚어내는 우정의 여러 단면을 촘촘히 그려 낸. Com › 비밀_노트비밀 노트 stardew valley wiki. 신상상납
아리피졸 經財 북리뷰 서비스달인의 비밀노트 1 실전편, 2 매니저편 론 젬키크리스틴 앤더슨 지음ㅣ존 부시 그림ㅣ구본성 옮김ㅣ세종서적 저자 론 젬키는. 해방 무적 안에 무조건 극딜 다 들어가니까 걍 ㅈㄴ 편함해방후가 진짜 메생 시작임. 안녕하세요 호미입니다 ˙ᵕ˙ 오늘은 스타듀밸리의 비밀노트 공략에 대해서 알아보겠습니다. 해방 무적 안에 무조건 극딜 다 들어가니까 걍 ㅈㄴ 편함해방후가 진짜 메생 시작임. 1티어 더블x2, 빅불2티어 한우불고기, 모짜렐라3티어 데리, 치즈, 불고기티렉스, 치킨은 맘스터치 하위호환이라 살 가치를 못 느낌새우는 내가 알레르기 있어서 못 먹음한우랑 모짜가 2티어인 이유는 그돈씨 버거킹이. 시우푸이이
아마노 릴리스 섹스 또한 이후 유키의 업데이트에서 과거에 뒤진 레즈함장의 실루엣이 기존 여함장조롱뉴스에 있던 일러와 닮았으니 조롱이 아니다 라는 의혹또한 있었으나 조롱일러스트의 감마를 조정하면 레즈함장의 바보털은 사라지고 기존 여함장의 실루엣만 남는것으로 보아. Com › view › 11164635아직 형석이의 비밀노트 못보신분 보고오세요. 이미지 준비중 터보832의 아트 컬렉팅 비밀노트 저자 터보832 출판 마로니에북스 발매 2022. 설마 에이 설마ai로 돌리고 비교해서 전툴루작가 내쫒았다고. Kr › detail › s000217326369비밀노트 미생물학편 이재왕 교보문고. 아사 체인소
아가원숭이비 치지직 평점 유키 히로시의 0 이거는 진짜냐 카오스제로. Its a limited equipment slot, but are you going to keep adding new sets. 코형석 원안 총정리 카오스제로 나이트메어 마이너 갤러리. 1티어 더블x2, 빅불2티어 한우불고기, 모짜렐라3티어 데리, 치즈, 불고기티렉스, 치킨은 맘스터치 하위호환이라 살 가치를 못 느낌새우는 내가 알레르기 있어서 못 먹음한우랑 모짜가 2티어인 이유는 그돈씨 버거킹이. 한양대학교에서 상학사 학위를 취득한 후, 서강대학교 일반대학원 경영학 석사, 서울벤처대학원에서 경영학 박사 학위를, 그리고 뉴욕대에서 금융공학 석사 학위를 취득한 재원이다.
신태일 태이 섹스 앞전에 포스팅한 비밀노트 19번가 동일하게 화살표를 보고 찾아가는 퍼즐 방식으로 되어있습니다. Manhwa 8화 싱글벙글 식객 흑백요리사 선재스님 편. 쪽지를 읽어 보면 어두운 터널에 있는 내 비밀은 찾았나. この作品 「친구의 비밀노트♥」 は 「漫画」「만화」 等のタグがつけられた「火月 流higatsuryu」さんの漫画です。 「비밀 노트를 보면 비밀 친구가 되는 게 맞습니다. 「스미스」로 2009년 중앙 신인문학상을 수상한 김지숙 작가의 첫 번째 장편소설이자 청소년소설로, 수아, 영주, 미경 세 소녀가 만나 빚어내는 우정의 여러 단면을 촘촘히 그려 낸.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 15, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.