US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
잘 웃고 조심성 많아서 사람들이랑 친해지는건 문제없었어 ㅇㅇ쨩은 완전 일본인 성격이네 일본어도 잘하구 너무 귀여워. 유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2025. 능력있는 남성의 경우 나이가 어린 여성을 선호 하다보니 여성들은 결혼을 서두르는게 현재 일본의 결혼 세태. 본인이 일하는 여자 만나고 싶으면 그건 취향이니까 이해하는데 자기 여자도 아닌 일녀가 남친한테.
일본 마케이누 세대 참 씁슬하네 결혼생활, Av,youtube에서 좋은 것만 보시면 안됩니다. 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회jpg. 1%, 요미우리73%→69% 조사에서 지난달보다 각각 4∼10%포인트 떨어 read more. 순수함이 남아있는 10대나 20대 시절보다 경험을 거듭하면서 어른이 된 그녀들의 얼굴을 좋아하는 사람도 많을 것으로 생각합니다. 이와중에 사장님이 잘해주심 2025. Com › board › yeobgi극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶 엽기자랑 와이고수. 보통은 성격이나 가치관에 하자있을 확률 매우 높냐, 보통은 성격이나 가치관에 하자있을 확률 매우 높냐. 힘들게 여행떠날 필요없이 걸어서 일본여행 어때. Com › 3551261930일영,일드 덕후인 본인이 좋아하는 일본여배우들 30대 여자 연예. 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회 jpg. Av,youtube에서 좋은 것만 보시면 안됩니다. 유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2025. 05 1313 극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶. 30대 일본여자들의 고독한 인생, 한국에 오는 일본여자 사고방식 네이버 블로그 요즘트랜드들 2,622개의 글 목록열기. 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. Com › community › board연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회jpg 루리웹, 여자 혼자 4050먹고 혼자 살면서 경제까지 부담하는게 쉽지않지 40넘어서 비슷한 남자랑 연애까진 한다고하더라도 결혼해서 경제적 책임을 질 남자가 얼마나 될까 그래서 나라랑 결혼해서 돈뜯어내는게 페미들 목표고 백일섭 2024. 15 1538 조회수 11932 추천 430 댓글 105. 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회jpg.이 문제가 커지다보니 이젠 여성에게 연금납부서를 제출해야 일정한 직업이 있어야 등록을 할수 있게하는곳까지 생기고있다, 만30세 여자 워홀로 도쿄 거주중인데 이사고민 일본 생활, ☆ 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.
30대 이상 싱글 여자들은 하자가 좀있어. Com › 3551261930일영,일드 덕후인 본인이 좋아하는 일본여배우들 30대 여자 연예, 1%, 요미우리73%→69% 조사에서 지난달보다 각각 4∼10%포인트 떨어 read more.
설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 33세 한국여성 vs 30대 일본여성 외모 차이, 순수함이 남아있는 10대나 20대 시절보다 경험을 거듭하면서 어른이 된 그녀들의 얼굴을 좋아하는 사람도 많을 것으로 생각합니다. Ppl에 많이 나오고 한국하면 떠오르는 매운 음식인데 여자들 좋아하는 치즈도 들어가고 맵기 조절도 가능하고 크게 호불호가 안 갈리고 프렌차이즈에 요즘 read more. 저도 10대 또는 20대부터 지켜봤던 여배우들이 성장하는 과정을 지켜보며 현재 더 좋아진.
| 보통은 성격이나 가치관에 하자있을 확률 매우 높냐. | 저도 10대 또는 20대부터 지켜봤던 여배우들이 성장하는 과정을 지켜보며 현재 더 좋아진. |
|---|---|
| 02 0354 난 일본여자 만나보고싶은게 일본여자가 쓰는 한국어가 좀 매력있어서 그런것도 있는디 1 곰곰갈릭버터 2023. | 잘 웃고 조심성 많아서 사람들이랑 친해지는건 문제없었어 ㅇㅇ쨩은 완전 일본인 성격이네 일본어도 잘하구 너무 귀여워. |
| 일본과 관련된 여러 가지 내용과 정보들을 토대로 콘텐츠를 제작하여 한국인에게 소개했던 한일혼혈 일본인 유튜브 크리에이터. | Com › board › view일본은 30세 이상 여자는 사람으로 안본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. |
| 45% | 55% |
Com › board › yeobgi극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶 엽기자랑 와이고수, 걍 여자 30대 남자 30대 비교자체가 불가능 초반 쇼부 다쳐망하고 미래가 없는 상황에서 대역전극 할라면 여자는 외모가 좆사기여야됨 그거뿐임. Com › 3551261930일영,일드 덕후인 본인이 좋아하는 일본여배우들 30대 여자 연예. 반면 일본은 아직도 결혼에 대한 희망이 꽤 높다고 하더군요.
Com › board › view일본은 30세 이상 여자는 사람으로 안본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 30대 일본여자들의 고독한 인생, 한국에 오는 일본여자 사고방식 네이버 블로그 요즘트랜드들 2,622개의 글 목록열기. 걍 여자 30대 남자 30대 비교자체가 불가능 초반 쇼부 다쳐망하고 미래가 없는 상황에서 대역전극 할라면 여자는 외모가 좆사기여야됨 그거뿐임. 일본이 한국보다 더 보수적이니까 그게 자연스럽지.
Com › 8611711004극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶.. 능력있는 남성의 경우 나이가 어린 여성을 선호 하다보니 여성들은 결혼을 서두르는게 현재 일본의 결혼 세태..
순수함이 남아있는 10대나 20대 시절보다 경험을 거듭하면서 어른이 된 그녀들의 얼굴을 좋아하는 사람도 많을 것으로 생각합니다. 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임. 02 0355 확실한건 사회분위기가 달라 한국은 여자력이라는 단어자체가 통용이 불가능한데. 들어가는순간 싹 쓸어담고싶은 핫한공간인데. 갓본은 깨우친 현자의 나라라서30세 이상 여자는 제3의 성별로 따로 취급함감히 여자라는 단어는 잘안쓴다 dc official app 일본여자들의 나이인식 수준. 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회 jpg.
05 1313 극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶. 일반 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임. 갓본은 깨우친 현자의 나라라서30세 이상 여자는 제3의 성별로 따로 취급함감히 여자라는 단어는 잘안쓴다 dc official app 일본여자들의 나이인식 수준. 결혼은 코로나 곧 정리되는대로 날잡을 예정, 이와중에 사장님이 잘해주심 2025. 저도 10대 또는 20대부터 지켜봤던 여배우들이 성장하는 과정을 지켜보며 현재 더 좋아진.
때문에 무능력한 20대 청년들은 연애를 포기하는 초식남이 되고, 능력있는 30대 여성들 또한 결혼을 포기한다고 함, 사는곳은 도쿄는 아니구요 오사카 살다가 지금은 그 옆 쪽으로 이사왔습니다. 순수함이 남아있는 10대나 20대 시절보다 경험을 거듭하면서 어른이 된 그녀들의 얼굴을 좋아하는 사람도 많을 것으로 생각합니다.
spank bang korea 이와중에 사장님이 잘해주심 2025. 그리고 남성의 숫자가 줄어들기 시작하니 20대 30대초반의 여성들도 같이 줄어들었다. 부산판 돈키호테라는 깡통시장 일본마트 대공개. 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. Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. sotwe xxapple
so_so4123 sotwe 연애를 미룬 일본 30대 누나들의 후회jpg. 일본의 30대 여자 취급 유머움짤이슈. 여자만그런게아니라 남자도 나이들수록 연애하기힘들단다ㅋㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 1908 182 best 스포츠 2024. 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. 걍 여자 30대 남자 30대 비교자체가 불가능 초반 쇼부 다쳐망하고 미래가 없는 상황에서 대역전극 할라면 여자는 외모가 좆사기여야됨 그거뿐임. sotwe 李老师
sotwe noah 내가 최근에 결혼했는데 전체적으로 괜찮은 여자들은 대부분 20대 중반에는 다 결혼함. 일본의 30대 여자 취급 유머움짤이슈. 그리고 남성의 숫자가 줄어들기 시작하니 20대 30대초반의 여성들도 같이 줄어들었다. 02 0354 난 일본여자 만나보고싶은게 일본여자가 쓰는 한국어가 좀 매력있어서 그런것도 있는디 1 곰곰갈릭버터 2023. Com › 6611854707연애를 미룬 일본 30대 여자들의 근황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. sotwe 국내
sotwe mood_0690 Ppl에 많이 나오고 한국하면 떠오르는 매운 음식인데 여자들 좋아하는 치즈도 들어가고 맵기 조절도 가능하고 크게 호불호가 안 갈리고 프렌차이즈에 요즘 read more. 30대 여배우들은 드라마나 영화에서 많은 활약을 할 기회가 많습니다. 일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임. 15 1538 조회수 11932 추천 430 댓글 105. 힘들게 여행떠날 필요없이 걸어서 일본여행 어때.
spankbang 아라가키 유이 주요작품니게하지,리갈하이,아빠와딸의7일간일본여배우 파워랭킹1위를 달릴정도로 일본내에서도 탑급여배우이며 청순한외모로 한국팬들도 상당히많이있음 워낙배우로써 명작에 많이출연하였으므로 연기력도괜찮은편 작성자는 니게하지,아빠와딸의 7일간을 보았는데 어릴때도. Com › board › view일본은 30세 이상 여자는 사람으로 안본다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › mgallery › board일본여자 나이30 될때 결혼못하면 진짜 폐급임. 한국남자들이 일본 여자에 대한 환상이 있. Com › 8611711004극빈층 30대 일본 여성의 삶.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 8, 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.
외국인들은 대게 일본 평균보다 나이 많은거 감안하지 않음., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.