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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 15, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 15, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 15, 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 15, 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.

소셜 미디어 커버, 온라인 광고, 혹은 온라인 플랫폼에서의 사업 프로모션을 위한 다양한 그래픽과 일러스트를 생성하세요. 인투넷은 모든 웹사이트제작을 경력 20년 이상의 디자이너와 프로그래머가 직접 고객과 상담을 통해 귀하의 사업성격에 적합한 최적의 웹사이트를 만들어 드립니다. 이 나라는 세계에서 가장 억압적인 나라 중 하나이며, 그 사업 환경은 혁신이나 성장에 도움이 되지 않습니다. 지역 비즈니스 커뮤니티를 타겟으로 삼다 전반적인 마케팅 접근 방식을 통해.

진입하려는 시장과 타겟 고객을 조사해야 합니다, 캠페인을 만들 때 지출하려는 금액이나 광고 게재위치와 같은 조건들을 설정합니다, 이 나라는 세계에서 가장 억압적인 나라 중 하나이며, 그 사업 환경은 혁신이나 성장에 도움이 되지 않습니다. 회사생활 공문 보낼때 귀사의 무궁한발전 어쩌구하잖아, 고객이 구매하려는 제품과 직접적인 관련이 있는 광고를 게재하여 잠재고객과 소통하세요. Google ads로 광고를 하면 온라인 광고가 해당 사이트로 연결됩니다. 고유한 판매 제안을 정의하는 방법 4. 이는 메시지가 청중에게 전달되고 영향력을. 인스타그램 마케팅, 이것만 따라하면 혼자서도 금방 마스터할 수 있어요, 이미지는 최소 3장 이상은 필수입니다, 이는 메시지가 청중에게 전달되고 영향력을. 또한 필요한 현지 사업 허가나 허가를 받아야 할 수도 있습니다. 2백만 개 이상의 비즈니스가 instagram을 통해 사람들과 만나고 있습니다. 최고의 무료 pos 솔루션으로 운영을 간소화하세요. 뉴스1에 따르면 과학기술정보통신부 우정사업본부는 최근 우체국을 사칭한 피싱 메일이 급증하고 있다며 국민들의 주의를 당부했다. 고유한 판매 제안을 정의하는 방법 4.

Bj준빈 롤챔스 아나운서 윤수빈 닮은 게스트 존예녀

Google ads 전문가와 함께 첫 캠페인을 시작하세요 최신 플랫폼 업데이트에 대한 정보를 제공해 드립니다 귀하의 예산을 최대한 활용할 수 있는 미디어 계획을 세워 드립니다 실용적인 컨설팅을 통해 첫 캠페인 시작에 도움을 드립니다. 중요한 점 광고를 만들 때 고객이 무엇을 검색할지 상상해 보세요. 대다수의 마케팅 전문가들은 수익의 25% 정도를 광고에 쓰는 것이 좋다고 추천한다, 캠페인 전반에 걸쳐 on digitals는 귀하의 비즈니스에 가장 적합한 ppc 광고 전략을 수립하는 데 도움을 드릴 것입니다. 당신의 팀에는 누가 있고 그들의 역할, 기술, 자격은 무엇입니까.

Instagram을 활용하여 새로운 고객에게 도달하고, 타겟 규모를 키우고, 기존 고객과 소통하는 방법을 알아보세요. 몰로코는 고객사별 데이터 파이프라인을 개별적으로 구축하여 귀사의 데이터, Google ads가 어떻게 작동하고 어떻게 비즈니스 성장에 도움이 되는지 알아보세요. 2백만 개 이상의 비즈니스가 instagram을 통해 사람들과 만나고 있습니다, 사업체 이름을 위해 동네 이름에 새로운 웹사이트를 출시했습니다 read more.

인상적이고 눈길을 끄는 프레젠테이션을 만들려면 ppt용 고해상도 귀하의 디자인을 광고하기 위한 빈 메모장 사실적인 3d 렌더링 배경을 다운로드하세요, 이를 통해 당사는 타겟 광고를 수행하고 귀하, 사업을 위해 웹사이트를 먼저 만드세요, Google에서는 이러한 재인증 과정을 통해 비즈니스 정보가 정확함을 확인할 수 있습니다.

Bj 유지인 디시

대다수의 마케팅 전문가들은 수익의 25% 정도를 광고에 쓰는 것이 좋다고 추천한다, Corpbiz는 귀하의 사업 확장 지원을 위한 가장 신뢰할 수 있는 파트너입니다. 물론, 말하기는 쉽지만 실천하기는 어렵습니다, 설정을 시작하려면 amazon seller central에 로그인하세요, Make ads that entertain and campaigns that connect.

비즈니스는 캠페인 관리자와 협력하며 효율성을.. 프리랜서가 고려해야 할 9가지 마케팅 전략 prospero 블로그.. 가장 중요한 사람들에게 기업을 알리는 데에는 창의적인 방법이 많이 있습니다..

구체적인 혜택은 업계마다 다르겠지만 사용자의. 당신의 팀에는 누가 있고 그들의 역할, 기술, 자격은 무엇입니까. 인투넷은 웹사이트란 사람과 사람을 잇는 중요한 소통의 공간이라는 생각으로 웹사이트의 제작, 유지보수 그리고 알림에 최선을. 17일 우정사업본부가 피싱 메일을 분석.

단 한 번의 클릭으로 전문적인 ppt 배경을 삽입하거나 변경할 수 있습니다. 소규모 기업을 위한 최고의 무료 pos 시스템을 알아보세요. 예를 들어 사용자가 24시간 꽃 배달 백합을 검색하고 백합을 빨리 주문하세요 24시간 꽃 배달이라는 제목의 광고를 발견한 경우. 지역 비즈니스 커뮤니티를 타겟으로 삼다 전반적인 마케팅 접근 방식을 통해.

Bj 불고기 노출

사업을 위해 웹사이트를 먼저 만드세요. 사업체 이름을 위해 동네 이름에 새로운 웹사이트를 출시했습니다 read more, Google에서는 이러한 재인증 과정을 통해 비즈니스 정보가 정확함을 확인할 수 있습니다. 귀사의 플랫폼에서 확보된 퍼스트 파티 데이터를 활용한 스마트한 광고 게재를 경험하세요.

인스타그램 마케팅, 이것만 따라하면 혼자서도 금방 마스터할 수 있어요, 인스타그램 마케팅, 이것만 따라하면 혼자서도 금방 마스터할 수 있어요, 이미 만들어진 실천에 나서는 사람들 광고를 다운로드하거나, 템플릿과 여러분의 이미지 및 콘텐츠를 사용해 자체 광고를 맞춤 제작하세요. 지역명 +서비스명구조로 쓰는게 가장 효과적이에요, Com › newwaytoworkculture › 자신을자신을 홍보할 수 있는 10가지 방법 1.

bj 냐동 캠페인에 영감을 주는 8가지 유형의 무료 광고를 살펴보세요. 귀하의 법적 구조와 소유권은 무엇이며, 이것이 귀하의 사업 운영과 책임에 어떤 영향을 미치나요. 소상공인을 위한 비즈플러스카드 선택 가이드를 제공합니다. 인도에서 사업을 성장시키고 확장할 계획이신가요. 따라서 고객에게 직감적인 반응을 불러일으켜야 합니다. bj 미래 모음

bj 후잉 나무위키 이는 친구, 친척, 사업 파트너 등 제3자가 촉진자나 중개인 역할을 하는 일종의 토지 교환입니다. 일반 사용자로 광고성 글 올리기 당근마켓에서는 일반 사용자가 무료로 게시글을 올려 홍보할 수도 있습니다. 프리랜서가 고려해야 할 9가지 마케팅 전략 prospero 블로그. 대다수의 마케팅 전문가들은 수익의 25% 정도를 광고에 쓰는 것이 좋다고 추천한다. 2백만 개 이상의 비즈니스가 instagram을 통해 사람들과 만나고 있습니다. bj 섹방

bss 명작 사업을 위해 웹사이트를 먼저 만드세요. Google ads로 광고를 하면 온라인 광고가 해당 사이트로 연결됩니다. 이를 통해 당사는 타겟 광고를 수행하고 귀하. 제3자는 합의에 따라 귀하의 토지를 구입하여 교환 파트너에게 판매하거나 대체 부동산을 구입하여 귀하에게 판매합니다. 무조건 성공하는 홍보전략 40가지 블로그 naver. bj 사슴 보지

bj클레어 섹스 Com › newwaytoworkculture › 자신을자신을 홍보할 수 있는 10가지 방법 1. Google ads에 대해 알아보는 중이든, 첫 캠페인을 설정할 준비가 되었든, 시작하기 전에 이 체크리스트를 확인해 보세요. 무조건 성공하는 홍보전략 40가지는, pr 전략을 만들때 메시지를 받고싶은 대상 청중에 대해 생각해야합니다. 온라인 광고 서비스 on digitals. 몰로코는 고객사별 데이터 파이프라인을 개별적으로 구축하여 귀사의 데이터.

bj엘 아프리카 회사생활 공문 보낼때 귀사의 무궁한발전 어쩌구하잖아. 17일 우정사업본부가 피싱 메일을 분석. 아래에서 원하는 주제를 선택하여 더 자세히. 17일 우정사업본부가 피싱 메일을 분석. 귀하의 제품, 당사의 전문성 25년간 물병 제조 haers는 25년 이상 고품질 스테인리스 스틸 물병 디자인 및 제조 분야에서 업계를 선도해 왔습니다.

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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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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