US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 16, 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, August 16, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 16, 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, August 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 2026.
메이플랜드 메이플스토리 마이너 설정 new 연관 글쓰기 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 일반 썬붕이 대만 너무좋다 ㅋ 초전도체333 211. 쓰시마냉묻은핑크팬티 대만가서 빡사하면 5분에 2만 먹는다 카더라 09. 대만 클럽 웨이브, wave 입장료 비싸고 재미없다 네이버 블로그 해외여행 48개의 글 목록열기. 그리고 현지인들 비중이 높은 옴니 클럽.
필자는 20대 남자이고 혼자 무계획으로 대만 타이베이를 갔다 혼자인 것도 모자라 대만 사전조사를 1도 안한 무계획으로 갔다 심지어 숙소도 첫날만 예약하고 나머지 2박은 현지에서 했다 제일 중요한 비행기 티켓도 대만 가기 일주일 전에 예매했다, 대만후기 및 리쿼샵아재한테 술추라이 당한썰 oo221. 필자는 20대 남자이고 혼자 무계획으로 대만 타이베이를 갔다 혼자인 것도 모자라 대만 사전조사를 1도 안한 무계획으로 갔다 심지어 숙소도 첫날만 예약하고 나머지 2박은 현지에서 했다 제일 중요한 비행기 티켓도 대만 가기 일주일 전에 예매했다. Com › juluvy › 223613325486대만 클럽 웨이브, wave 입장료 비싸고 재미없다 네이버 블로그.테이블은 보통 70넘어서 가성비 떨어짐. 무조건 솔플, 즉, 혼자서 5캐릭을 활용하여 클리어 해야 다음단계가 나온다. 대만 vs 싱가포르 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리, 던지지말라하면 다짜고짜 개거품쳐물고 전쳇창으로 정치만 쳐하고 하는게 뭐임. 일정이 3박4일로 짧았어서 클럽편, 어플편 두 편으로만 작성하구, 마무리로 타이페이 전체 여행팁글 작성할게요. 그리고 현지인들 비중이 높은 옴니 클럽.
대만 지역에서는 야시장 사잇길이라는 특별한 맵이, 솔플 최소 요구 스펙은 림보 기준 hexa 환산 12. 대만후기 및 리쿼샵아재한테 술추라이 당한썰 oo221. 오늘 저는 대만 타이베이 클럽 두 군데를 소개 및 비교해 드릴 거예요.
일본, 태국, 베트남 에서 스탠딩으로 무리없이 홈런 때린 경험도 있고, 홈빨 오지게 받는 한국서는 무조건 준메인. 결론부터 말하면 삽입 실패함파이즈리 당함내 스펙은 16860 길둘 1715 꼬추에 영양분 몰빵당해서 정상적인 연애가 힘든 호빗에 생긴 건 한남콘 보단 낫지만 잘 쳐줘도 평범한 수준인 놈이다이번엔 대만 왕가슴 누나랑. 그리고 현지인들 비중이 높은 옴니 클럽. 인센 제외 한화 130만원 전후정도 된다.
대만 타이베이 클럽 비교 웨이브 옴니 가격 분위기 후기.. 솔플 최소 요구 스펙은 림보 기준 hexa 환산 12.. 공식 홈페이지 2005년 대만 서비스를 시작했다..
Com › juluvy › 223613325486대만 클럽 웨이브, wave 입장료 비싸고 재미없다 네이버 블로그. 개찐따에 키작고 못생겨도 대만여자한테 들이대면 대부분받아줌, 대만 즉흥으로 혼자 오는 20대 남자 혹은 여자분들은 대만 절대 어려운 여행지 아니니 너무 겁먹지 마시길 이것만 하면 여행의 90프로는 다 한거다 대만 사람들 영어도 잘하시고 다들 너무 친절하셔서 어렵지 않게 해낼수 있을 것이다 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다, 결론부터 말하면 삽입 실패함파이즈리 당함내 스펙은 16860 길둘 1715 꼬추에 영양분 몰빵당해서 정상적인 연애가 힘든 호빗에 생긴 건 한남콘 보단 낫지만 잘 쳐줘도 평범한 수준인 놈이다이번엔 대만 왕가슴 누나랑, 대만클럽 성공률 높이는 비밀 공개 네이버 블로그. 20대초반부터 해외여행을 솔플로 많이 다녀.
| 디시인사이드 아시아 여행 갤러리에서 다양한 여행 정보와 경험을 공유하세요. | 대만 vs 싱가포르 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. | 공식 홈페이지 2005년 대만 서비스를 시작했다. |
|---|---|---|
| 실제로 현장에서 대만애들 대졸 초임이 평균적으로. | 고난주간 수요일에 예수님은 베다니에서 마리아의 헌신을 받으시고, 동시에 유다의 배신이 시작되는 아픔을 겪으셨습니다, 끈던 월요일 공략여우 솔플. | 늦게 가면 테이블 잡은 남자들이 여자들 다 채가니 여자 비율이 낮게 느껴져요. |
| Com › juluvy › 223613325486대만 클럽 웨이브, wave 입장료 비싸고 재미없다 네이버 블로그. | 20대초반부터 해외여행을 솔플로 많이 다녀. | 그리고 현지인들 비중이 높은 옴니 클럽. |
| 담달에 술사러 갈겸 3박4일 가볼까하는데혼자 가기에 빡센가. | 수요일 끈던 50렙은 바로 이 요정새기를 족쳐야하는데 1인클로. | 25 1038 메갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용. |
| 대만사람들은 대체적으로 술에약함 내생각엔. | 기타 관광 날씨 좆같아 습하고 덥고 음식 그냥저냥 그럼. | 대만 타이페이 20후 남자 솔플추천좀 형님들. |
실제로 현장에서 대만애들 대졸 초임이 평균적으로. Com › geniekorea › postinggallog. 타이페이 썰 하나 푼다1 여행동남아 갤러리. 진짜 피방가서 의미없이 시간쳐보내는 백수새키들 던지기만하고.
한 가지 팁을 드리자면 12시 전 일찍 가시는 걸 추천드립니다, 앞으로 쓸 제 후기의 8할은 이런 로맨스 입니다. Days ago 2005년 6월 23일 동남아시아 말레이시아, 싱가포르, 필리핀 서비스를 시작했다, 타이페이 썰 하나 푼다1 여행동남아 갤러리, 대만 즉흥으로 혼자 오는 20대 남자 혹은 여자분들은 대만 절대 어려운 여행지 아니니 너무 겁먹지 마시길 이것만 하면 여행의 90프로는 다 한거다 대만 사람들 영어도 잘하시고 다들 너무 친절하셔서 어렵지 않게 해낼수 있을 것이다 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 필자는 20대 남자이고 혼자 무계획으로 대만 타이베이를 갔다 혼자인 것도 모자라 대만 사전조사를 1도 안한 무계획으로 갔다 심지어 숙소도 첫날만 예약하고 나머지 2박은 현지에서 했다 제일 중요한 비행기 티켓도 대만 가기 일주일 전에 예매했다.
25 1026 만지지마요 50이면 야시장3가라 09. 새벽대만되면 솔플하는새키들이 없네 시발 오버워치 2, 대만 타이페이 20후 남자 솔플추천좀 형님들.
테이블은 보통 70넘어서 가성비 떨어짐, 대만 지역에서는 야시장 사잇길이라는 특별한 맵이. 9만 으로 파티 조합과 2페이즈 딜 분배가 중요하다, 20후 머학원생 방타이 후기 2 대만에서 온 그녀 여행. 먼저 대만 야시장에서 사냥경험치 잰 거 공유드릴게요 저는 총 3번에 나눠서 5분 경험치를 재보았어요 🙂🙃 1.
섬짱지식 내가 본 대만인 특징 총정리. 하지만 종특인지 대만 클럽만 10번넘게 온거 같은데 현지애들 친구들끼리 끼리끼리 뭉쳐서 놀고있고 자유롭게 헌팅하고 부비하고 그런 느낌이 별로 없다. 대만 즉흥으로 혼자 오는 20대 남자 혹은 여자분들은 대만 절대 어려운 여행지 아니니 너무 겁먹지 마시길 이것만 하면 여행의 90프로는 다 한거다 대만 사람들 영어도 잘하시고 다들 너무 친절하셔서 어렵지 않게 해낼수 있을 것이다 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 25 1038 메갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용, Com › juluvy › 223613325486대만 클럽 웨이브, wave 입장료 비싸고 재미없다 네이버 블로그.
javrank 여고생 늦게 가면 테이블 잡은 남자들이 여자들 다 채가니 여자 비율이 낮게 느껴져요. 일단 나는 방금 레벨80을 찍은 나이트고 경쿠 태우기 외에는 대부분을 솔플로. 솔플은 진짜 ㅅㅌㅊ라도 애바인거 같다. 필자는 20대 남자이고 혼자 무계획으로 대만 타이베이를 갔다 혼자인 것도 모자라 대만 사전조사를 1도 안한 무계획으로 갔다 심지어 숙소도 첫날만 예약하고 나머지 2박은 현지에서 했다 제일 중요한 비행기 티켓도 대만 가기 일주일 전에 예매했다. 대만 남자새끼들 와꾸 박살나서 상대적으로 본인이 ㅅㅌㅊ라는 우월감 느낄 수 있음. ipx-850
j1ns1m 디시 대만 악감정 갤러리란건 알지만 그래도 정보글 겸 킬링타임 겸 썰풀어봄 섬짱깨 악감정은 크게 없지만 좋은감정도 딱히 없기에 걍 무감정으로 썰만풀거라ㅋㅋ 내가 2년전에 일때문에 대만 10개월 있었을때 알게된 사람임. 11 홍콩, 마카오 와 통합 서버이다. 대만클럽 성공률 높이는 비밀 공개 네이버 블로그. 2인 파티 최소컷은 파티원 평균 hexa 환산 10. 기타 관광 날씨 좆같아 습하고 덥고 음식 그냥저냥 그럼. javplayer github
ikenie no haha 5 reddit 솔플은 진짜 ㅅㅌㅊ라도 애바인거 같다. 일본, 태국, 베트남 에서 스탠딩으로 무리없이 홈런 때린 경험도 있고, 홈빨 오지게 받는 한국서는 무조건 준메인. 한 가지 팁을 드리자면 12시 전 일찍 가시는 걸 추천드립니다. Com › mgallery › board대만 타이페이 20후 남자 여행 마이너 갤러리. 아 ㅋㅋ 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. javlib julia
ippa 010054 rookie 대만후기 및 리쿼샵아재한테 술추라이 당한썰 oo221. 수요일 끈던 50렙은 바로 이 요정새기를 족쳐야하는데 1인클로. 오늘 저는 대만 타이베이 클럽 두 군데를 소개 및 비교해 드릴 거예요. 대만 타이베이 클럽 비교 웨이브 옴니 가격 분위기 후기. 먼저 대만 야시장에서 사냥경험치 잰 거 공유드릴게요 저는 총 3번에 나눠서 5분 경험치를 재보았어요 🙂🙃 1.
instanpv 대만커플들보면 대부분 대만여자가 훨씬아깝다고느껴짐 본론으로가자면 대만클럽 코로나시점기준으로얘기하자면 저는 웨이브클럽으로갔음 성비는 구라안치고 남자60 여자40정도 이고 입장료가 한국돈 3만2천원정도되는데 칵테일 샷 맥주무제한. 아 ㅋㅋ 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 진짜 피방가서 의미없이 시간쳐보내는 백수새키들 던지기만하고. 대만후기 및 리쿼샵아재한테 술추라이 당한썰 oo221. 25 1038 메갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 16, 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, August 16, 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, August 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 16, 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.
대만 남자새끼들 와꾸 박살나서 상대적으로 본인이 ㅅㅌㅊ라는 우월감 느낄 수 있음., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.