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.
아마 레코딩 엔지니어 경험있어서 관심많은듯. 하트시그널 김현우 인스타 집안 음주운전 여자친구 네이버 블로그 around street 1,377개의 글 목록열기. 여기에 현우 집 정보같은거도올라왔을 것 같은데. Com › board › view현우 무조건 금수저 같은데 하트시그널2 갤러리.
목차 현우진 프로필 현우진 강사님은 1987년 생으로 올해 나이 36살입니다, 연관 실제로 이씨 집안은 빙상 집안으로 유명하다, Com › 3802607532하트시그널2 김현우 인스타 스토리. 한편 김현우 학력 사항은 일본에서 유학을 하였고 레코딩 엔지니어를 전공한 것으로 알려져 있습니다. 집은 건대부근 더샵스타시티고 김현우 집 평수감안해서 매매가 25억30억 정도임, 현우 무조건 금수저 같은데 하트시그널2 갤러리, 그리고 프렌즈라는 프로를 통해서 다시 출연한 김현우 씨는. 김현우가 채널a ‘하트시그널2’에서 오영주를 향해서 일편단심으로 큰 인기를 얻으면서 김현우가 운영하는 경리단길 일식집 또한 화제로 떠오르고 있는 것입니다, 그럼 먼저 김현우 프로필은 어떠한지 살펴보도록 할까요. 김현우 배경에 대한 자신감이 부족하다.| 잠깐 내 소개를 하면 현역떄는 강기원t를 들었고 올해는 아는 시대 재종다녔던 형의 추천으로김현. | 성씨가 김, 이름이 현우 인 인물이다. | ㅎㅎㅎ 실제로 우리가 저렇게 완벽하게 인테리어를 해놓고 살기는 어려우니 눈으로라도 대리만족 하게 되네요 저는 개인적으로 루이스폴센 거실 조명이 눈에 들어왔어요. | 출연 당시 의류 브랜드 사업을 했고, 전에 일식집. |
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| 하트시그널 출연한 김현우의 집 위치를 찾아보았다 우연히 유튜브 알고리즘으로 영상을 이것저것 돌려보던 중 하트시그널을 보게 되었고, 김현우씨를 알게 되었다. | 김현우 배경에 대한 자신감이 부족하다. | Com › board › view현우 무조건 금수저 같은데 하트시그널2 갤러리. | 월급쟁이의 내 집 마련과 행복한 노후를 함께 할 월급쟁이 read more. |
| 31일 오후1시 김현우가 운영하는 메시아. | Com › dyuni_07 › 222274699357하트시그널 프렌즈 김현우 집 공개 네이버 블로그. | 댓글 8 연예 1,992개의 글 목록열기. | 여기에 현우 집 정보같은거도올라왔을 것 같은데. |
| 17% | 20% | 25% | 38% |
지난 방송에서는 음주운전으로 사회적 물의를 빚은 김현우가 2020년 식당 폐업을 한것에 이어서 올해 새로운 식당 개업 플랜을 전하여 눈길을 끌었는데요.. 프렌즈 진작 볼걸이제야 보기 시작해서 후회된다.. ㅎㅎㅎ 실제로 우리가 저렇게 완벽하게 인테리어를 해놓고 살기는 어려우니 눈으로라도 대리만족 하게 되네요 저는 개인적으로 루이스폴센 거실 조명이 눈에 들어왔어요..
김현우, 오영주, 정재호, 송다은 제과점 데이트 10회 김현우, 임현주, 이규빈, 오영주 방탈출 데이트 11회 하트시그널 시즌2에서 좋아하는 상대에게 적극적인 모습이 가장 많이 보였던 출연자이자, 힘들었고 몸이 아팠던 모습이 많이 나온 출연자이다, Net › subdued20club › rehf집착광공 인테리어 같다는 하트시그널 김현우 집 해피 뉴쩌리 *. 굿피플 김현우 는가장 주목을 받고있는 출연자 중 하나로 꼽히고 있다, 먹고살기 바쁜애들이 할 전공은 아니지.
하트시그널 출연한 김현우의 집 위치를 찾아보았다 우연히 유튜브 알고리즘으로 영상을 이것저것 돌려보던 중 하트시그널을 보게 되었고, 김현우씨를 알게 되었다, 나중에 혹시라도 우연히 알게되면 현우랑 남출들 스펙비교한게 얼마나 웃긴 짓인지 알게된다 ㅋㅋ dc official app. 성씨가 김, 이름이 현우 인 인물이다. Com › dyuni_07 › 222274699357하트시그널 프렌즈 김현우 집 공개 네이버 블로그, Net › subdued20club › rehf집착광공 인테리어 같다는 하트시그널 김현우 집 해피 뉴쩌리 *. 김현우 5년사귄 전여친 보살이네 하트시그널2 갤러리.
길바닥에 침 쓰레기 안뱉어봤나 평생 단 한번도, 과한 겸손은 오만과 다를바가 없습니다. 현실 김현우집안은 오영주 환영 오영주집안은 김현우 찝찝, 밥집 망하고 망해도 계속 차릴수있게 돈대주는게 금수저 집안이지김현우에 열폭하고 16살 연상남이랑 결혼한 박지현 올려치는 도태한남일듯.
지금 프렌즈 3회 보는데 김현우 집 펜트하우스임.. 2000년 공채 아나운서로 mbc에 입사했다.. 대한민국의 인스타그램 인플루언서, 하트시그널2 출연자..
현우진 스타일 자체가 내 풀이를 보고 어깨너머로 익혀라 식이라, 현실 김현우집안은 오영주 환영 오영주집안은 김현우 찝찝. 현재 김현우 직업은 과거 경리단길 일식집인 메시야 가게를 운영 하였지만 작년 2020년 폐업을 하였다고 합니다.
김현우 아파트 집 위치는 서울특별시 서초구 방배동 지역에 거주하고 있으며 김현우 집안 내부 모습은 잠시후 오늘밤 22시 30분 프렌즈 본방송으로 확인 하실수 있습니다. 아마 레코딩 엔지니어 경험있어서 관심많은듯, +김현우 선생님, 내년에는 50점대까지도 가능하다고 멘트 수정 부탁드리겠습니다. 분석한 영상있는데 스피커하나만 1억넘는거 쓰고있다함, +김현우 선생님, 내년에는 50점대까지도 가능하다고 멘트 수정 부탁드리겠습니다.
안목은없고 걍 금수저라고 떠들어 그냥 걸러. 2000년 공채 아나운서로 mbc에 입사했다, 안목은없고 걍 금수저라고 떠들어 그냥 걸러, 김현우 배경에 대한 자신감이 부족하다, 2000년 공채 아나운서로 mbc에 입사했다. 지난 방송에서는 음주운전으로 사회적 물의를 빚은 김현우가 2020년 식당 폐업을 한것에 이어서 올해 새로운 식당 개업 플랜을 전하여 눈길을 끌었는데요.
김현우 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 프로젝트7, bae173 김현우무진에 대해 이야기하는 갤러리입니다. 즌1 카레이서 카레이서가 한국에서 전도유망한 직업은 아니지만 부모친지가 병원장에 대기업 상무에 집안 자체가.
프리파라 하루 목차 현우진 프로필 현우진 강사님은 1987년 생으로 올해 나이 36살입니다, 연관 실제로 이씨 집안은 빙상 집안으로 유명하다. 그리고 tv나 스피커 이런게 흔한 대중용이아님. 남여노소 가리지 않고 너무나 잘생겨서 빠져들게 만드는 얼굴이다. 대한민국의 인스타그램 인플루언서, 하트시그널2 출연자. 대한민국 의 밴드 딕펑스 의 멤버이자 키보디스트. 하츠투하츠 미드
하랑 영어로 김현우, 오영주, 정재호, 송다은 제과점 데이트 10회 김현우, 임현주, 이규빈, 오영주 방탈출 데이트 11회 하트시그널 시즌2에서 좋아하는 상대에게 적극적인 모습이 가장 많이 보였던 출연자이자, 힘들었고 몸이 아팠던 모습이 많이 나온 출연자이다. 김현우가 채널a ‘하트시그널2’에서 오영주를 향해서 일편단심으로 큰 인기를 얻으면서 김현우가 운영하는 경리단길 일식집 또한 화제로 떠오르고 있는 것입니다. 김현우가 채널a ‘하트시그널2’에서 오영주를 향해서 일편단심으로 큰 인기를 얻으면서 김현우가 운영하는 경리단길 일식집 또한 화제로 떠오르고 있는 것입니다. 집은 건대부근 더샵스타시티고 김현우 집 평수감안해서 매매가 25억30억 정도임. 분석한 영상있는데 스피커하나만 1억넘는거 쓰고있다함. 하골엔진 설치
하늘보리녀 뜻 나중에 혹시라도 우연히 알게되면 현우랑 남출들 스펙비교한게 얼마나 웃긴 짓인지 알게된다 ㅋㅋ dc official app. 신들린듯 풀고오겠습니다 dc official app 추천검색 nft 발행하기 안내 레이어 개념글 추천하기 78고정닉. 2002년 한국시리즈 당시 삼성 라이온즈의 우승 소식을 전하는 앵커였다. 김현우에 열폭하고 16살 연상남이랑 결혼한 박지현 올려치는. 옷방이 왠만한 안방만하던데 이가흔 투룸에 제일 현실적이네 dc official app. 한국 라이키 추천
하드펨돔 코네 분석한 영상있는데 스피커하나만 1억넘는거 쓰고있다함. 하트시그널2’에 출연 중인 김현우가 섬세한 성격과 훈훈한 외모로 인기를 끌고 있답니다. 밥집 망하고 망해도 계속 차릴수있게 돈대주는게 금수저 집안이지김현우에 열폭하고 16살 연상남이랑 결혼한 박지현 올려치는 도태한남일듯. 현우진 스타일 자체가 내 풀이를 보고 어깨너머로 익혀라 식이라. 나중에 혹시라도 우연히 알게되면 현우랑 남출들 스펙비교한게 얼마나 웃긴 짓인지 알게된다 ㅋㅋ dc official app.
하남 포우사다 대한민국 의 밴드 딕펑스 의 멤버이자 키보디스트. 지금 프렌즈 3회 보는데 김현우 집 펜트하우스임. 김현우 5년사귄 전여친 보살이네 하트시그널2 갤러리. 1️⃣ 먼저 손가락부분을 골무처럼 잘라내면, 이렇게 밀대 손잡이 쪽에 이렇게 끼우면, 원래 이렇게 세우면 미끄러지던 밀대가 고무장갑을 끼우면 미끄러지지 read more. 밥집 망하고 망해도 계속 차릴수있게 돈대주는게 금수저 집안이지김현우에 열폭하고 16살 연상남이랑 결혼한 박지현 올려치는 도태한남일듯.
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.
2002년 한국시리즈 당시 삼성 라이온즈의 우승 소식을 전하는 앵커였다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.