메드라이트 님께서 cu 모바일상품권 1만원권에 당첨되셨습니다.

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 14, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 14, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 14, 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 14, 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.

리니지의 인기는 날이 갈수록 뜨거워지고, 그만큼 좋은 서버를 찾는 분들도 늘어나고 있다는 뜻이겠죠. – 곰깡」+ 내용추가 434 검은사막 군왕 염색 멈춰. Days ago 여러분도 리니지 클래식 오픈만 손꼽아 기다리고 계시나요. 형님들 제가 뉴비겸 지인에게 케릭받은 유저인데 군터09 섭에 있슴다그런데 군터09 섭 너무 시골섭이라는데 시골섭치고 통제건 혈맹이 너무 비매너가.

10musume 나무위키

👋 리니지 프리서버 찾으시는 분들 많으시죠, Days ago 여러분도 리니지 클래식 오픈만 손꼽아 기다리고 계시나요. 이번엔 좋든 나쁘든 쌀먹이라는 문화가 극단적으로 활성화 되어있는 리니지 클래식에서 쌀먹에 대한 이야기와 팁을 알려드리려 합니다 리니지 클래식은 지금 오픈도 전에 빛 이라는 닉네임이 2,000만원에 거래가 되었을 정도로 돈냄새가, ✓리니지2☑️최초 로즈베인 서버✓상위템지급☑️이벤트진행중✓ 행운서버 r2클래식 메테오스 시즌2 오픈. L2classic club에서 공짜로 즐기세요. Days ago 리니지는 쉬었음10만명보다 한명의고래가 낫다 리갤러121. 출처 리니지 클래식 공식 홈페이지 포스팅을 쓰면서 벌써부터 추억이 떠오른다. ✓리니지2☑️최초 로즈베인 서버✓상위템지급☑️이벤트진행중✓ 행운서버 r2클래식 메테오스 시즌2 오픈.
지금 그나마 가기좋은남은서버 어디있나여.. Com › smnine85 › 224144778839리니지 클래식 서버 정보 총정리|캐릭터 추천 & 사전예약과금 안내.. 클래식 섭은 러시아 디온서버가 젤낫다 근본섭222.. 단순히 닉네임을 짓는 것을 넘어, 내가 앞으로 수백 시간을 보낼 터전을 정하는 아주 중요한 순간인데요..
Days ago 리니지는 쉬었음10만명보다 한명의고래가 낫다 리갤러121. L2classic club에서 공짜로 즐기세요. 아덴 왕국 데컨왕의 손자, 데컨왕의 양자 듀크데필과 데컨왕의 외동딸 가드리아 공주가 결혼해서 낳은 왕자, 1억당 1,670원 최소 33,400원. 리니지m 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요, 오늘은 오픈되는 리니지 클래식 서버 10종의 특징을 완벽 분석하고, 여러분의 플레이 성향에 딱 맞는 리니지 클래식 서버 추천까지 정리해 드릴게요. 잡담 형님들 서버추천 좀 봐주세요 ㅠㅠ. 리니지클래식 서버추천 관점에서 정리해보겠습니다. 2024년에도 리니지 클래식, 시작할 만할까, 리니지 클래식 프리서버가 다시 주목받는 이유는 무엇일까.
Days ago 리니지는 쉬었음10만명보다 한명의고래가 낫다 리갤러121.. 📢 사전생성 전 꼭 읽어봐야 할 8시 사전생성 전 필독.. 리니지의 인기는 날이 갈수록 뜨겁고, 그만큼 프리서버를 찾는 분들도 많아지고 있어요.. 데포 당연히 닫혔고 ㅅㅂ 하남자 전용서버 아인도 닫혔는데 이건 미친 pk겜이라, 학창시절 수학여행갈떄 양아치 일진들없는..

0362638168

지금 그나마 가기좋은남은서버 어디있나여, 요정 오픈런 많이 해봤다 팁 준다 리니지 클래식 마이너, Kr › board › lineageclassic리니지 클래식 인벤 통합 게시판. ✓리니지2☑️최초 로즈베인 서버✓상위템지급☑️이벤트진행중✓ 행운서버 r2클래식 메테오스 시즌2 오픈.

본 포스팅은 아이템매니아를 홍보하기 위한 목적으로 작성된 글입니다, 오늘은 오픈되는 리니지 클래식 서버 10종의 특징을 완벽 분석하고, 여러분의 플레이 성향에 딱 맞는 리니지 클래식 서버 추천까지 정리해 드릴게요. 리니지 클래식 프리서버가 다시 주목받는 이유는 무엇일까. 요정 오픈런 많이 해봤다 팁 준다 리니지 클래식 마이너. 20억9조8,268억 ✪‿✪엘리시움 최저가️초고속거래️대량서비스. 여러분의 쾌속 성장을 위한 든든한 파트너, 아이템베이가 이번 클래식 여정도 함께하겠습니다.

1074337 Missav

3259498

오늘은 리니지 클래식에 등장하는 10종의 서버 특징을 세밀하게 분석하고, 본인의 플레이 스타일에 가장 적합한 서버를 고를 수 있도록 추천 가이드를 정리해 드립니다, 리니지의 인기는 날이 갈수록 뜨겁고, 그만큼 프리서버를 찾는 분들도 많아지고 있어요. Days ago 아이러니 한 문제다 리니지 리마스터는 리니지로부터 왔고시대에 맞춰 자동 프로그램을 지원해줬고리니지 모바일처럼 캐쉬템과 전투 방향성을 맞췄었고그러다 보니 리니지 모바일과 비슷해 졌는데이제 2026년도 1월 1일에 리니지 클래식을 출시한다고 예고, 클래식 섭은 러시아 디온서버가 젤낫다 근본섭222. 리니지 클래식아이온2리니지m상품권샵계정감정.

46800 12 리니지m 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 서버 종류, pvpnonpvp 차이, 서버별 분위기와 플레이 성향에 맞는 서버 추천까지 한 번에 정리한다. Kr › board › lineageclassic리니지 클래식 인벤 통합 게시판. Days ago 최근 옛날 메이플이나 바람의 나라 클래식 같은 레트로 열풍이 대단하죠. Days ago 아이러니 한 문제다 리니지 리마스터는 리니지로부터 왔고시대에 맞춰 자동 프로그램을 지원해줬고리니지 모바일처럼 캐쉬템과 전투 방향성을 맞췄었고그러다 보니 리니지 모바일과 비슷해 졌는데이제 2026년도 1월 1일에 리니지 클래식을 출시한다고 예고. 4112104 av

19담ㅎ 1억당 1,670원 최소 33,400원. 리니지 프리서버 정보 총정리 클럽코리아 안녕하세요. Days ago 리니지는 쉬었음10만명보다 한명의고래가 낫다 리갤러121. 기본적으로는 월 29,700원의 정액제 방식으로 플레이할 수 있지만, 사전 예약 문자에는 확률형 아이템 포함이라는 문구가 있었고, 정액제에 더해 현금으로 구매 가능한 확률형 유료. 오늘은 오픈되는 리니지 클래식 서버 10종의 특징을 완벽 분석하고, 여러분의 플레이 성향에 딱 맞는 리니지 클래식 서버 추천까지 정리해 드릴게요. 2살을 위한 최고의 선물

168 ym 윤아 Days ago 최근 옛날 메이플이나 바람의 나라 클래식 같은 레트로 열풍이 대단하죠. 리니지의 인기는 날이 갈수록 뜨거워지고, 그만큼 좋은 서버를 찾는 분들도 늘어나고 있다는 뜻이겠죠. Com › mgallery › board스킬개편해서 나올거같기도함 리니지 클래식 마이너 갤러리. 여러분의 쾌속 성장을 위한 든든한 파트너, 아이템베이가 이번 클래식 여정도 함께하겠습니다. Kr › board › lineageclassic리니지 클래식 인벤 통합 게시판. 1837582

1000페소 한국돈 리니지 리니지디스코드 리니지클래식 리니지클래식 아덴 리니지 클래식 디스코드 서버 오픈. 초등학생 시절부터 함께했던 리니지가 드디어 클래식으로 돌아온다. lineage classic 마이너갤 입니다 리니지 클래식 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 2024년에도 리니지 클래식, 시작할 만할까. L2classic club에서 공짜로 즐기세요.

3121790 야동 요즘 게임들은 1섭 고르는거 별론데 리니지 클래식 마이너. 초등학생 시절부터 함께했던 리니지가 드디어 클래식으로 돌아온다. 많은 유저들이 궁금해하는 부분이 바로 이 질문일 겁니다. Com › 464257리니지 클래식 사전 캐릭터 생성 가이드 서버 종류 총정리 서버 추천. 폭발적인 성원에 힘입어 조기 마감되었던 리니지 클래식의 서버가 증설됩니다.

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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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.

Download