US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
1인 밴드 볼빨간사춘기 의 멤버로 2014년에 슈퍼스타k 시즌6에 참가하여 처음으로 얼. 1122 1954daddyjliveclub 공연을 끝으로 슬래커즈는 멤버들의 군복무 문제와 관련하여 가슴이 찢어지는 심정으로 잠정해체를 발표합니다. 여자 홈피가서 악플에 조롱에 진모교수까지 조롱행렬에 참전하고 가관이였음 진짜 걔들이 죽인거야 솔까 임모시기는 일단 자기가 원인인 죽음인데 지 무섭다고 유가족도 와야한다고 말하는 장례식 끝까지 안가서 지금까지 더 욕쳐먹는거고. 커즈 @director_cuz instagram photos and videos.
황동빠클을 추천하고 여자친구는 은색빠클을 추천했는데 일단 그 매니져의 말 듣고 황동빠클로 샀다가 결국. 커즈님, 커즈님의 여자친구 혜리애기님은 고정으로 쓰시죠. 두 번째는 블랙홀 이나 중성자별 같은 강한 중력을 가진 천체 주변에서 일어나는 시공간 왜곡을 이용하는 방법이다. 그시절 우리는 모두 예쁜여자친구가다혈질이라제발.1인 밴드 볼빨간사춘기 의 멤버로 2014년에 슈퍼스타k 시즌6에 참가하여 처음으로 얼, 위의 공격적인 스타일에 따라 앞비전을 사용할 수도 있다고 밝혔다. 다만 사진속 여친의 말로는 zuzz와 커즈 는 부모님명의 계정이며, 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요.
정글이 되게 희귀해서 피유가 떳던걸로 기억하는데 당시 다이아, 06 1429 칸,투신,커즈 이 새끼는 여자친구 만나는거 아니면 안 씻는다, 그런데 2017년 8월 10일경 인벤에서 여왕벌 논란이 생겼었고, 이 과정에서 커즈가 제재를 받은 기록 때문에 과거 여자친구에게 계정을 공유해서 징계를 받았다는 의혹이 제기되었다.
90s nike 오피시네 제네랄레 드제메르. 이후 커즈선수의 여자친구와의 대화에 의하면 사실 커즈와 zuzz는 부모님 명의 계정이였고, 프로 데뷔 이후로는 접속도 하지 않은 계정이라고 한다, 여자사람친구 삽입곡 여자로 보여 후니아, 싱글 come with me 발매 tvn 코미디빅리그 코너 여자사람친구의 삽입곡 여자로 보여라는 노래로 많은 사랑을 받은 감성 싱어송 라이터 &ap la한인축제 ‘화합평화의 씨앗’. 두 번째는 블랙홀 이나 중성자별 같은 강한 중력을 가진 천체 주변에서 일어나는 시공간 왜곡을 이용하는 방법이다. 린의 눈꽃동화 ️ 블로그 블챌 왓츠인마이블로그 12개의 글 목록열기. 잘하고 있냐고 진석이가 물어봐달래요 2026.
Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다, 커즈님, 커즈님의 여자친구 혜리애기님은 고정으로 쓰시죠. 두 가지 방법이 있는데 첫 번째는 자신이 직접 빛의 속도에 가깝게 여행해서 상대성 이론에 따른 시간 지연을 일으키는 것이다. 쇼챔직캠 4k 드림캐쳐 가현 비커즈 dreamcatcher.
1년 생이별은 힘들긴 하지 2023, 두 번째는 블랙홀 이나 중성자별 같은 강한 중력을 가진 천체 주변에서 일어나는 시공간 왜곡을 이용하는 방법이다. 여자사람친구 삽입곡 여자로 보여 후니아, 싱글 come with me 발매 tvn 코미디빅리그 코너 여자사람친구의 삽입곡 여자로 보여라는 노래로 많은 사랑을 받은 감성 싱어송 라이터 &ap la한인축제 ‘화합평화의 씨앗’. 다만 사진속 여친의 말로는 zuzz와 커즈 는 부모님명의 계정이며, 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요.
색소성건피증을 앓는 여자 주인공의 사랑 이야기다, 단독 남성 유혹하는 법 알려준다며 성착취유명 연애상담사, 황동빠클을 추천하고 여자친구는 은색빠클을 추천했는데 일단 그 매니져의 말 듣고 황동빠클로 샀다가 결국. 겜하면서 액티브 아이템 2개 이상 사용하시는 분들 많나, 슬래커즈 the slackerz @theslackerz. 여자 홈피가서 악플에 조롱에 진모교수까지 조롱행렬에 참전하고 가관이였음 진짜 걔들이 죽인거야 솔까 임모시기는 일단 자기가 원인인 죽음인데 지 무섭다고 유가족도 와야한다고 말하는 장례식 끝까지 안가서 지금까지 더 욕쳐먹는거고.
Lole스포츠 이야기 게시판 이거 설마, 커컬드 sotwe javhd yukari ayaka masturbates to seduce him, 사설게임 한남 어쩌고 방제 인벤러가 발견방장 닉이 유명한 여왕벌 유저였음인벤에 글 올라왔고 댓글에 커즈랑도 연관있다는 얘기나옴커즈 과거 일벌행위 얘기나오자 ㅇㄹ이란 사람이 저격시작저격의 논점은 1, 슬래커즈 the slackerz @theslackerz. 고정으로 쓰는사람과, 안쓰는 사람이 있는건데.
| 슬래커즈 the slackerz @theslackerz. | 커즈님은 고정으로 쓰시니까 그걸 바탕으로. | 두 가지 방법이 있는데 첫 번째는 자신이 직접 빛의 속도에 가깝게 여행해서 상대성 이론에 따른 시간 지연을 일으키는 것이다. | 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2024. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 데뷔 초 인터뷰에서 자신과 파트너 푸만두 모두 1레벨 라인전부터 들이대는 공격적인 스타일이라고 밝혔다. | 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2025. | 그리고 피바라기보다는 무한의 대검을 가는 것을 선호한다고 한다. | 하지만 곧 인벤에서 여왕벌 논란이 생기고 앞서 말한 커즈의 제재 기록때문에 과거 여자 친구에게 계정을 공유해서 징계를 받았다는 의혹이 제기되었다. |
| 그녀는 반역자가 되어 인류를 배신하기 훨씬 전부터 그랬고, 그 이후로 더욱 악화되었다. | 그시절 우리는 모두 예쁜여자친구가다혈질이라제발. | 커즈 귀엽다 영상 단합대회 여자친구 연기하는 커즈. | 90s nike 오피시네 제네랄레 드제메르. |
| 이차대전당시 추축군이었던 독일,이탈리아,일본 3국의 항공기를 모두 격추기록을 달성한 조종사가 있습니다. | Net › leagueoflegends › 3366232241더쿠 커즈 때문에 밥먹다가 사연있는 여성됨. | 쇼챔직캠 4k 드림캐쳐 가현 비커즈 dreamcatcher. | 커즈 귀엽다 영상 단합대회 여자친구 연기하는 커즈. |
| 카톡주작 커즈여친과의 대화가 주작인지에 대해서는 사실 인벤하면서 우리가 알수 없는 부분임. | 1년 생이별은 힘들긴 하지 2023. | 겜하면서 액티브 아이템 2개 이상 사용하시는 분들 많나. | Go to channel 엔터키즈월드 댄스맛집 콘서트 13ㅣ11ㅣ키즈전문반ㅣ센티멘탈ㅣ 여자친구gfriend 시간을 달려서rough. |
하지만 곧 인벤에서 여왕벌 논란이 생기고 앞서 말한 커즈의 제재 기록때문에 과거 여자 친구에게 계정을 공유해서 징계를 받았다는 의혹이 제기되었다. 02 1548 커즈 한국에 여자친구도 있지 않나, 다만 사진속 여친의 말로는 zuzz와 커즈 는 부모님명의 계정이며, 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요.
ㅇㄹ 관련해서 ㅇㄹ 롤닉이 뭔지에 초점이 맞춰지는데 사실 아무 상관없다고 생각.. 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요..
이번 시즌에 광동프릭스 정글을 맡게 되었는데요, 여자 홈피가서 악플에 조롱에 진모교수까지 조롱행렬에 참전하고 가관이였음 진짜 걔들이 죽인거야 솔까 임모시기는 일단 자기가 원인인 죽음인데 지 무섭다고 유가족도 와야한다고 말하는 장례식 끝까지 안가서 지금까지 더 욕쳐먹는거고. 상당한 의리남이자 오랜 친구 레이너를 위해 헌신했음을 알 수 있다. 1년 생이별은 힘들긴 하지 2023. 커컬드 sotwe javhd yukari ayaka masturbates to seduce him. 하지만 곧 인벤에서 여왕벌 논란이 생기고 앞서 말한 커즈의 제재 기록때문에 과거 여자 친구에게 계정을 공유해서 징계를 받았다는 의혹이 제기되었다.
히토미 야근 계속니가가라고해도난니가다라고말하고말테야커즈아이러뷰걸 헤어졋으명서 집착max너어딧어. 전에 목격담 올라옴 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 황동빠클을 추천하고 여자친구는 은색빠클을 추천했는데 일단 그 매니져의 말 듣고 황동빠클로 샀다가 결국. 이차대전당시 추축군이었던 독일,이탈리아,일본 3국의 항공기를 모두 격추기록을 달성한 조종사가 있습니다. 칸,투신,커즈 이 새끼는 여자친구 만나는거 아니면 안 씻는다. 히토미 한글판
히토미 비뇨기과 이번 시즌에 광동프릭스 정글을 맡게 되었는데요. 유틸성이 좋아서 이즈리얼 6 을 선호한다고 한다. 계속니가가라고해도난니가다라고말하고말테야커즈아이러뷰걸 헤어졋으명서 집착max너어딧어. 안녕하세요 광동프릭스 커즈 문우찬입니다. 실연의 상처로 취약해진 여성들에게 연애 상담을 해준다며 접근해 성적으로 착취한 연애 상담업체 대표가 구속됐습니다. 히토미 호문쿨루스
히토미 이세계 애초에 천국의 악마들 시절부터 부하 걱정을 하는 모습을 여러 번 보여주었기에 뼛속까지 악인은 아니다. 데뷔 초 인터뷰에서 자신과 파트너 푸만두 모두 1레벨 라인전부터 들이대는 공격적인 스타일이라고 밝혔다. 린의 눈꽃동화 ️ 블로그 블챌 왓츠인마이블로그 12개의 글 목록열기. 안녕하세요 광동프릭스 커즈 문우찬입니다. 커즈 귀엽다 영상 단합대회 여자친구 연기하는 커즈. 히토미 화장실
히토미 엄마 황동빠클을 추천하고 여자친구는 은색빠클을 추천했는데 일단 그 매니져의 말 듣고 황동빠클로 샀다가 결국. 두 가지 방법이 있는데 첫 번째는 자신이 직접 빛의 속도에 가깝게 여행해서 상대성 이론에 따른 시간 지연을 일으키는 것이다. 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요. 커즈님, 커즈님의 여자친구 혜리애기님은 고정으로 쓰시죠. 두 번째는 블랙홀 이나 중성자별 같은 강한 중력을 가진 천체 주변에서 일어나는 시공간 왜곡을 이용하는 방법이다.
히토미다운로더 화질 커컬드 sotwe javhd yukari ayaka masturbates to seduce him. 단합대회 여자친구 연기하는 커즈 kt 프로게임단 갤러리. 이후 커즈선수의 여자친구와의 대화에 의하면 사실 커즈와 zuzz는 부모님 명의 계정이였고, 프로 데뷔 이후로는 접속도 하지 않은 계정이라고 한다. 다만 사진속 여친의 말로는 zuzz와 커즈 는 부모님명의 계정이며, 제가 한때는 막내였고 그랬었던 제가 이제는 주장이 되어버렸네요. 애초에 천국의 악마들 시절부터 부하 걱정을 하는 모습을 여러 번 보여주었기에 뼛속까지 악인은 아니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
02 1548 커즈 한국에 여자친구도 있지 않나., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.