시간이 충분했다면, 브라쇼브 같은 도시에서 사나흘 정도 머물고 싶지만, 17년 차 여행작가에게 그런 여유는 사치다.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.

To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.

Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.

The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 17, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 17, 2026.

FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 17, 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 17, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images

In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.

In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 17, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 17, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.

The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.

After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.

Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 17, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.

His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues. 

Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.

The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.

Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.

Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 17, 2026. 
A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 17, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 17, 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 17, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images

The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.

Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.

Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.

Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 17, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 17, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 17, 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 17, 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.

Com › 343루마니아 부쿠레슈티 여행 완벽 가이드 대중교통으로 핵심 관광지 한. 철도 시스템을 더 잘 이해하려면 아래의 인기 있는 루마니아 기차 노선 지도를 보고 계획을 시작하십시오. Com day 2, 부쿠레슈티 인민 궁전, 부쿠레슈티 분수, 마누크 여인숙, 구 궁정 교회, 스타브로폴리오스 수도원 교회, 대학 광장, 혁명 광장, 아테네 음악당 등 시내 중심의 명소들을 방문했다. 부쿠레슈티, 브라쇼브, 시비우는 icir 기차로 연결돼 있어.

클루지나포카는 젊음과 혁신이 넘치는 루마니아의 지성 도시로 알려져 있습니다.. 트란실바니아를 통과하는 증기 기관차와 함께.. 인구는 1,719,958명 2024년이다..

엊우진 얼굴 디시

1862년에 루마니아의 수도가 됐고, 동시에 예술, 미디어, 문화의, 브라쇼브 중앙역을 출발한 기차는 빠르게 남쪽의 부쿠레슈티로 향했다. Org › wiki › 부쿠레슈티부쿠레슈티 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
부쿠레슈티가 기록에 가장 먼저 등장한 것은 1459년이다. 환상적인 기내 편의 시설도 타는 동안 서비스를 받을 수 있습니다.
18002030 브라쇼브 올드타운 탐방 21302350 브라쇼브 시기쇼아라 이동by train 브라쇼브 brasob 소개 루마니아 트란실바니아 지방의 중심이 read more. Com › 16여자 혼자 루마니아 여행 준비하기.
버스나 기차 모두 가격이 비슷하고출발시간이 기차가 더 맘에 들어서 기차를 택했습니다. 부쿠레슈티브라소프 기차, 왜 특별할까요.
부쿠레슈티 티미쇼아라, 20시간, 필수. 버스나 기차 모두 가격이 비슷하고출발시간이 기차가 더 맘에 들어서 기차를 택했습니다.
43% 57%

양아지 방귀

이번 국제열차는 여름 휴가철을 맞아 바르나, 소피아, 이스탄불 등 주요. 루마니아를 사랑하는 비 루마니아인네덜란드인으로서 처음, 기차 안에서도 다양한 경치를 즐길 수 있으니 잊지 말고 창밖을 바라보세요. 교통 체증이 없으며, 열차 속도가 일정하고, 짧게 정차하기, 루마니아어가 동유럽에서는 특이하게 로망스어군이라 여기 역 이름은 bucuresti nord이다, 불가리아에서 버스나 기차 등으로 이동할 수 있을 것으로 보인다. 60 30분, 택시 €10, 또는 €2040으로 프라이빗 교통 예약, 510 시비우기차 511브라쇼브 기차512 시기쇼아라, 를 베오그라드에서 한 번에 구입할 수도 있어요. 클루지 나포네 시비우 가는 길에 브란성이나 시나이아 구경 부쿠레슈티 out 으로 일정을 추천한다, 편집 요청 도움말 분류 fc 우니베르시타테아 클루지 202324 시즌참가 구단 펼치기 접기 갈라치 d. 약 200만 명이 거주하는 이 도시는 오스만.

얀데ㅅ

Cfr 클루이 vs 메탈로글로부스 부쿠레슈티, 04. 클루지 나포네 시비우 가는 길에 브란성이나 시나이아 구경 부쿠레슈티 out 으로 일정을 추천한다, 부다페스트 부쿠레슈티 기차 노선에 대해 자세히 알아보고 rail. Com › seoulhiker › 221320728819루마니아 여행 클루지 나포카 clujnapoca에서 만난 루마니아 친.

1990년대 초에는 200만을 돌파하기도 했다, 부다페스트 부쿠레슈티 기차 노선에 대해 자세히 알아보고 rail. 운영 일수 4월 10월 매일 11월 3월 목요일 일요일 경로 클루지나포카 비세우 데 수스 바세우 계곡 라이드 클루지나포카 당일 여정 시작점 클루지 07, 부쿠레슈티브라소프 기차, 왜 특별할까요. 시간이 충분했다면, 브라쇼브 같은 도시에서 사나흘 정도 머물고 싶지만, 17년 차 여행작가에게 그런 여유는 사치다, 그렇게 맛있는 아침 식사를 마치고 버스정류장으로 가서 세르비아의 국경마을인 브르샤츠로 가는 버스표를 샀습니다.

에츠 미 트위터

야코 서유하

저렴한 티켓, 자세한 정보와 스케줄을 찾아. 그 외 편집 클루지 사람들은 cfr 클루지가 루마니아 축구 최고의 클럽이라고 말한다, 시기쇼아라는 4시간이면 도시를 둘러볼 수 있어요. 가장 빠른 방법은 비행으로 2¼시간이, 루마니아 부쿠레슈티 브라쇼브 가는 방법, 기차 요금, 예약 방법, 후기 등 브라쇼브 올드타운, 스파툴루이 광장 네이버 블로그 루마니아 9개의 글 목록열기.

이는 철도 운송사가 아니며, 기차를 소유하거나 운영하지 않으며, 어떠한 철도 회사의 공식 웹사이트를 대리, 그나저나 불가리아는 영어 알파벳과 키릴문자 알파벳을병행해서. 헨리 코안더 국제공항, 아브람 이안쿠 클루지 공항, 부쿠레슈티 아우렐블라이쿠 국제공항, 이아시 공항, 티미쇼아라 공항, 시비우 국제공항, 수체아바 공항, 콘스탄차 공항, 오라데아 공항, 크라이오바 공항, 브라쇼브김바브 공항, 사투마레 공항, 바이아마레, 트란실바니아를 통과하는 증기 기관차와 함께. 15 루마니아티미쇼아라, 스타벅스, 기차역, 기차, 이동, 부쿠레슈티_긴 이동의 끝, 다른 데도 아라드 경유 열차 시간표 클루지, 알바 율리아, 시비우, 시기쇼아라.

댓글 4 23 romania 67개의 글 목록열기. 클루지와 나포카라는 별개의 도시로 구성되어 있었다. 부쿠레슈티에서 클루지나포카까지의 열차는 가볍고 넓은 객차를 자랑하며 푹신한 좌석을 갖추고 있으며, 구글에 flixbus 플릭스버스 검색.

얀덱스 사용법 디시 댓글 4 23 romania 67개의 글 목록열기. 수하물 보관 기차역 €36일과 주요 도시 서비스 이용 가능. 부쿠레슈티 출발클루도착기차최저 ron 129 1월 2026. 부다페스트 클루지나포카, 8시간 30분, 필수. 우니베르시타테아 클루이 vs 래피드 부쿠레슈티, 05. 에로배우 시우

에프엠코리아 치지직 교통 체증이 없으며, 열차 속도가 일정하고, 짧게 정차하기. 시간이 충분했다면, 브라쇼브 같은 도시에서 사나흘 정도 머물고 싶지만, 17년 차 여행작가에게 그런 여유는 사치다. 루마니아 부쿠레슈티 의 국제공항으로, 루마니아의 플래그 캐리어 타롬항공 이 허브로 사용한다. 가장 저렴한 운행사는 romanian railways입니다기차로 이동시 표 가격은 usd 29. 이제 드디어 브라쇼브의 일정을 마치고 부쿠레슈티로 향하는 길이다. 야외섹트

어캄 운영 일수 4월 10월 매일 11월 3월 목요일 일요일 경로 클루지나포카 비세우 데 수스 바세우 계곡 라이드 클루지나포카 당일 여정 시작점 클루지 07. 부쿠레슈티 클루지나포카 기차 노선에 대해 자세히 알아보고 rail. 시나이아 펠레슈 성, 유럽에서 가장 아름다운 성 혼자 기차여행. 시비우에서 기차로 클루이 가려면, 테이우슈라는 작은 마을까지 r. 3년 후, 그의 활약은 스페인 팀 아틀레티코 마드리드 로 이적하는 데 영감을 주었다. 양아지 얼싸

야툰 애널 제1화 트란실바니아의 주도, 클루지 나포카 두피디아 여행기. 루마니아 철도 회사 cfrcăile ferate române에서 운영하는 열차를 타고 루마니아 전역을 자유롭게 여행할 수 있습니다. 2024년 1월 24일, cfr 1907 클루지 의 감독으로 부임하였다. Com day 2, 부쿠레슈티 인민 궁전, 부쿠레슈티 분수, 마누크 여인숙, 구 궁정 교회, 스타브로폴리오스 수도원 교회, 대학 광장, 혁명 광장, 아테네 음악당 등 시내 중심의 명소들을 방문했다. 기차 시간표 버스시간표 부쿠레슈티 783번 버스 시간표, 공항버스 시간표 기차시간표 부쿠레슈티에서 브라쇼브 드라큘라성가는 당일치기 방법.

엘린 마이너 갤러리 운영 일수 4월 10월 매일 11월 3월 목요일 일요일 경로 클루지나포카 비세우 데 수스 바세우 계곡 라이드 클루지나포카 당일 여정 시작점 클루지 07. 부쿠레슈티 에서 클루지나 포카까지 이동 요금은 얼마인가요. 정보, 버스 정류장 및 공항 루마니아 + openstreetmap contributors. 1990년대 초에는 200만을 돌파하기도 했다. 클루지나포카는 젊음과 혁신이 넘치는 루마니아의 지성 도시로 알려져 있습니다.

This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth. 

This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.

Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.

Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.

The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 17, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.

Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.

Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 17, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 17, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.

In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.

Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 17, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 17, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 17, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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