US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
낯설지만 어딘가 찰떡인 두 부처의 뜻밖의 대화,read more. 일상이 쉴틈없이 바쁘니까 트위터랑 점점 빠르게 멀어지는데, 정신은 점점 더 맑아져서 웃어버린. 손 보라길래 뭔가 싶었는데 이게 진짜 ai네 아니 이제 1년도 안 지났는데 이젠 진짜 구분을 못하겠다. 서브스택은 무료로 사용할 수 없기 때문에 구독자는 유료로 구독 광고도 없고, 바이럴 게시물에 대한 욕구도 없습니다.
그 트위터의 상징과도 같은 파랑새 로고를 더이상 볼 수 없을. 짧거나 긴 글, 사진, 독자와의 소통에 이상적입니다. 방랑자님, 캠퍼스 입학 첫날은 어떠셨나요. 「띵조 캠퍼스 위크 이 순간, 우리가 만난 띵조」 입학 첫날 스케치 대공개. 소셜네트워크와 정체성 놀이 트위터 봇 사례연구를 중심으로.| 이러한 소셜미디어는 기업의 정책과 규칙에 따라야 하고 사용자들의 표현의 자유가 제한되는 등 검열과 편견이 발생할 수 있다. | 소셜네트워크와 정체성 놀이 트위터 봇 사례연구를 중심으로. |
|---|---|
| 마이크로 블로그는 제목 없이 게시되는 짧은 블로그 게시물의 형식을 가리키는 용어입니다. | 랑 ラン @rra_rr_r posts x. |
| 스레드가 아무리 트위터랑 비슷한 컨셉을 들고 나왔다고 해서, 다 똑같은 건 아니었는데요. | 더욱 편안한 게시물 포스팅 환경이나 강화된 개인정보. |
| 일상이 쉴틈없이 바쁘니까 트위터랑 점점 빠르게 멀어지는데, 정신은 점점 더 맑아져서 웃어버린. | 22 2344 댓글 56 북마크 번역하기 기능 더보기 게시글 본문내용. |
| 오버니삭스랑 맨발은 너무 아까워서 레깅스로 그렸다답이없음 덕분에 오늘 다리펴고 잘수있게되었습니다 ㅜㅜ사랑. | 은조본 캐해 너무 좋다ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ simg. |
Netcfuhnh 재이가 던지고 simg.. 더욱 편안한 게시물 포스팅 환경이나 강화된 개인정보.. 일상이 쉴틈없이 바쁘니까 트위터랑 점점 빠르게 멀어지는데, 정신은 점점 더 맑아져서 웃어버린..
Find the perfect platform for your social media needs today. Works › news › articleview파랑새 사라진 트위터 대체할 sns top 3 제작사 주랑입니다. 그래서 지난 7월 6일현지 시간, 드디어 전 세계 100개국에 출시된 스레드를 직접 사용해보며 트위터랑 어떤 공통점과 차이점이 있는지 비교해봤어요. 6시타임을 가야 뒤에 특전회까지 즐길 수 있었지만, 트위터를 일론 머스크가 인수한 뒤 계속해서 이야기가 나오던 때 블루스카이로 대체하자는 이야기가 유저들 사이에서 우후죽순으로 돌았었어요.
종종 자신에 대한 정보, 위치, 관심사, 다른 사람과의 관계 및 더. Days ago syamu_game 샤무 게임, 줄여서 샤무은 히로시마현 출신에 오사카 카이즈카시에 거주했던 유튜버이다. 소셜네트워크와 정체성 놀이 트위터 봇 사례연구를 중심으로. threads 쓰레드 인스타그램과 페이스북의 모회사인 메타가 텍스트로 실시간 소식을 공유하고 대화를 나눌. ’라던지, ‘스레드가 나오니까 비슷한 느낌으로 로고를.
노비타의 바이오하자드 시리즈를 중심으로 게임 실황을 올리거나, 오사카 부 카이즈카시, 종종 자신에 대한 정보, 위치, 관심사, 다른 사람과의 관계 및 더. 은조본 캐해 너무 좋다ㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜㅜ simg.
낙서드로잉 기록 지난해 us 오픈에 혜성처럼 등장해 4강에 진출한 로만.. 하지만 모든 미디어를 메타데이터 없이 사용자.. In › 3516시도해 볼 만한 최고의 트위터 대체 서비스 11가지 – all things n.. Discover the top 12 twitter alternatives for 2024, including threads, bluesky, mastodon, and more..
이 export twitter bookmarks는 북마크를 이미지 + 비디오, csv 및 json으로 저장할 수 있어. 서브스택 노트는 브라우저 또는 서브스택 리더 모바일 앱을 통해 액세스할 수 있습니다. 짧거나 긴 글, 사진, 독자와의 소통에 이상적입니다. threads 쓰레드 인스타그램과 페이스북의 모회사인 메타가 텍스트로 실시간 소식을 공유하고 대화를 나눌, 트위터 대안 프로그램 색다른 방식으로 소통하거나 사회적 교류의 범위를 확대할 수 있는 플랫폼을 찾고 계신가요, 뉴스부터 일상, 취미, 게임, 예술 등 다양한 내용을 공유할 수 있으며 팔로잉 팔로우 한 친구들과 소통을 이어갈 수.
Days ago syamu_game 샤무 게임, 줄여서 샤무은 히로시마현 출신에 오사카 카이즈카시에 거주했던 유튜버이다. 그 트위터의 상징과도 같은 파랑새 로고를 더이상 볼 수 없을, 서브스택은 무료로 사용할 수 없기 때문에 구독자는 유료로 구독 광고도 없고, 바이럴 게시물에 대한 욕구도 없습니다. 파릇 님에게 도움과 영감을 주는 답글을 남겨보세요, 일론 머스크 테슬라 최고경영자ceo가 인수한 사회관계망서비스sns 트위터에 불어닥친 후폭풍이 거세다.
Netcfuhnh 재이가 던지고 simg. 본 연구는 트위터와 페이스북 이용자를 대상으로 형성하고 있는 사회자본의 유형결속형, 교량형이 정치참여에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 분석하였다, X 코퍼레이션의 명시적인 서면 동의 없이는 아무도 x나 트위터라는 상표와 이름, 로고 등을 사용할 수 없다는 게 요점이다. 실시간 업데이트, 인기 있는 토픽, 간결한 트윗, 온라인 상호작용에 대한 트위터만의 독특한 접근 방식을 통해 트위터가 다른 플랫폼과 어떻게 다른지 알아보세요, 마이크로 블로그는 트위터보다 덜 까다롭고 느립니다. 스레드가 아무리 트위터랑 비슷한 컨셉을 들고 나왔다고 해서, 다 똑같은 건 아니었는데요.
Works › news › articleview파랑새 사라진 트위터 대체할 sns top 3 제작사 주랑입니다, 「띵조 캠퍼스 위크 이 순간, 우리가 만난 띵조」 입학 첫날 스케치 대공개. 파리 마스터스를 포함해 가을에 열린 3개 대회에서 연속 우승을 차지하며 18연승을 달렸다. Find the perfect platform for your social media needs today.
fc2-ppv-3061625 왕자3役 신창주 배우의 건강상의 이유로 부득이하게 캐스팅을 변경하게 되었습니다. 트위터를 겨냥하며 새롭게 출시하게 된 소셜 네트워크입니다. 「띵조 캠퍼스 위크 이 순간, 우리가 만난 띵조」 입학 첫날 스케치 대공개. 노비타의 바이오하자드 시리즈를 중심으로 게임 실황을 올리거나, 오사카 부 카이즈카시. 저도 사실 트위터의 상징인 파란색과 귀여운 새 모양 아이콘, 그 이름 자체에 익숙해져 있었는데요. fc2ppv 4317426
fc2 ppv 4665097 그리고 7월 말엔, 트위터가 갑자기 ‘x’라는 이름을 달고 탈바꿈했다. 본 연구는 트위터와 페이스북 이용자를 대상으로 형성하고 있는 사회자본의 유형결속형, 교량형이 정치참여에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지 분석하였다. 낙서드로잉 기록 지난해 us 오픈에 혜성처럼 등장해 4강에 진출한 로만. 영국 곳곳에 있는 공용 피아노에서 연주하는 비디오를 업로드하는 구독자 200만명짜리 유튜버인 brendan kavanagh가 있는데평소랑 다를게 없이 공공장소에서 피아노를 연주하는 모습을 촬영하는데 오성홍기 깃발 휘날리는 관광객으로 보이는 인물들 여럿이 나타나선자기네들은 중국 공영 방송중국 공영. 트위터를 일론 머스크가 인수한 뒤 계속해서 이야기가 나오던 때 블루스카이로 대체하자는 이야기가 유저들 사이에서 우후죽순으로 돌았었어요. fc2ppv1035070
fc2 ppv 3750179 트위터 대체 소셜 미디어로 주목받는 블루스카이. 소셜네트워크와 정체성 놀이 트위터 봇 사례연구를 중심으로. X 코퍼레이션의 명시적인 서면 동의 없이는 아무도 x나 트위터라는 상표와 이름, 로고 등을 사용할 수 없다는 게 요점이다. 노비타의 바이오하자드 시리즈를 중심으로 게임 실황을 올리거나, 오사카 부 카이즈카시. 따라서 둠 스크롤과 부정적 요소가 없는 보다 차분하고 균형 잡힌 경험을 제공합니다. fc2-ppv-3061625
fc2 4 0 2 5 2 6 9 정보털린 카톡 대신해 쿠팡에서 메신저를 아무리그래도 방구석에서 딸각하는 백수들보다야 쿠팡 마케팅팀 애들이 훨신. 「띵조 캠퍼스 위크 이 순간, 우리가 만난 띵조」 입학 첫날 스케치 대공개. 파릇 님에게 도움과 영감을 주는 답글을 남겨보세요. 파릇 님에게 도움과 영감을 주는 답글을 남겨보세요. 기존의 웹 2 소셜미디어sns인 페이스북, 인스타그램, 트위터와 같은 플랫폼은 중앙 집중화된 기관에서 제어되는 폐쇄형 플랫폼이다.
fantia erome 방랑자님, 캠퍼스 입학 첫날은 어떠셨나요. 비즈니스 인사이더는 다운로드와 사용 후기를 보도했는데요. 파리 마스터스를 포함해 가을에 열린 3개 대회에서 연속 우승을 차지하며 18연승을 달렸다. 파리 마스터스를 포함해 가을에 열린 3개 대회에서 연속 우승을 차지하며 18연승을 달렸다. threads 쓰레드 인스타그램과 페이스북의 모회사인 메타가 텍스트로 실시간 소식을 공유하고 대화를 나눌.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
저도 사실 트위터의 상징인 파란색과 귀여운 새 모양 아이콘, 그 이름 자체에 익숙해져 있었는데요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.