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.
미유 갤러리의 갤매운영진자리를 맡게 됩니다. 11월18일에 공개된 비아이 글로벌ep1의 타이틀곡 keep me up에 소중한 관심과 응원보내주셔서 깊이 감사드립니다 즐거운주말보내세요 비아이유튜브갤방문은 keep me up 음원스밍이나 뮤비. 연구생미즈시마 미유水島 みずしま 美結 みゆう mizushima miyū. Akb48 그룹 데뷔 기준으로 프듀 참가한 멤버들 기수 선후배 정리한 글입니다.
이 때 타케우치 미유는 선발로 뽑히지 못한 아이들과 함께 후르츠라는 그룹을 결성하고 1장의 싱글도 발매하게. 웬디즈갤러리또또 똑딱이 니트 조끼 okn124 판매가 17,700원. 날씨가 다시 추워졌는데 모두 따뜻한 하루 보내세여 언제나 레코 노래를 들어주셔서 감사드리며 갤이 소수라 인증이 적은 점은 죄송합니다ㅜ 오늘 하루도 즐거운 하루 되시길 바랍니다. 타케우치 미유 연습생의 지하철광고가 생겼습니다. 순위안에 못들어 탈락한 연습생 팬들이 무조건 미유,채연을 투표해왔음 지금도 프듀48 좆되게해보려는 생각으로 이런일 꾸민다는 카더라 게시판 이력 포텐 118 방출 목록으로 위로아래로 스크랩 포텐간 프로듀스48 타케우치 미유갤 상황.| 타케우치 미유 연습생의 지하철광고가 생겼습니다. | 이후 2004년 니혼테레비의 오디션 방송에 나가 좋은 성적을 거두었지만, 정식 아이돌 선발까지 데뷔하진 못했다. | 원래 7월 23일날 생긴다는것은 알았는데 2개가 생겼더군요. | Com › sports › board프듀미유 갤 지금 상황이 이렇게 되는 건가요. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 타갤 비아이유튭갤 keep me up 보은스밍왔뱌 설x chillin 1515 9 0 135428 타갤 각ㄱ 이회택마갤 파이널 1차 투표 이벤트 414 open ㅇㅇ211. | 미유갤 되도록 하겠습니다 감사합니다 syoutu. | 하나는 미유갤에서 모은 팬심으로 만든 건대입구 지하철광고입니다. | 올해 대회엔 디펜딩 챔피언 김아림을 필두로 총 39명이 출전해 2026시즌 첫 트로피를 놓고 다툰다. |
| 미유,미우의 안티인 민트우유라는 닉네임을 가진 유저가 이중닉 뮤조건이란 이름을 달고. | 블루아카이브 카스미자와 미유 캐릭터의 갤러리입니당. | Com › sports › board프듀미유 갤 지금 상황이 이렇게 되는 건가요. | 내꺼야 pick me piano ver. |
| 하나는 미유갤에서 모은 팬심으로 만든 건대입구 지하철광고입니다. | Com › mgallery › board타케우치 미유 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. | 17,18년도에 비해 갤 분위기가 상당히 달라졌고 글리젠도 과거보다 많이 늘었다, 대표적인 이유는 hkt48 의 소속중인 다양한 멤버들의 개인 마이너 갤러리에서 현 갤러리으로 와서 글을 작성하는 갤러가 꾸준히 늘었기 때문이다. | 내꺼야 pick me piano ver. |
미유갤 되도록 하겠습니다 감사합니다 syoutu.. 01 0013 에스s2 아 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그래서 댓글에 다크나이트라고 한거구나 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ.. 9 162 유머 바이에른 뮌헨 라인업 vs 시카고 파이어.. Comsharereelbapculxd6j miyusanno..비슷한 데뷔기수는 년도로 묶어서 적었습니다, 오늘 1회차 e열 왼쪽 사이드에서 제 옆에 앉으셨던 플로디님이 이렇게 많은 포카를 주셔서 제가 x계정 물어보니 보여주셔는데 그거 찍었다고 생각 read more, ㄷㄹㅇ붕 걘 남초픽 맞았음 근데 우익으로 다 날렸지 시발 미우의 본거지 엠팍도 저격글 쓰던데ㅋㅋ 3 담당일진 2018, 17 홍대카페 5층 갤러리 sticket. 06 1503 볼때마다 프듀할때 미유갤 매니저가 했던 분탕짓이 생각나서 참 안타까움 댓글로 가기 17 ndombele 2019. 일본 akb 총선거에서 항상 권외의 비인기 멤버였다가 프로듀스 48에 출연하여 거의 데뷔권에 근접하며 한국에서 read more. 11월18일에 공개된 비아이 글로벌ep1의 타이틀곡 keep me up에 소중한 관심과 응원보내주셔서 깊이 감사드립니다 즐거운주말보내세요 비아이유튜브갤방문은 keep me up 음원스밍이나 뮤비.
순위안에 못들어 탈락한 연습생 팬들이 무조건 미유,채연을 투표해왔음 지금도 프듀48 좆되게해보려는 생각으로 이런일 꾸민다는 카더라 게시판 이력 포텐 118 방출 목록으로 위로아래로 스크랩 포텐간 프로듀스48 타케우치 미유갤 상황, Com › 1239488142포텐간 프로듀스48 타케우치 미유갤 상황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코. 일본 akb 총선거에서 항상 권외의 비인기 멤버였다가 프로듀스 48에 출연하여 거의 데뷔권에 근접하며 한국에서 read more, 타케우치 미유 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 미유 @iam__miyou instagram photos and videos, 06 1503 볼때마다 프듀할때 미유갤 매니저가 했던 분탕짓이 생각나서 참 안타까움 댓글로 가기 17 ndombele 2019.
03 1936 테넌트닥 우익 그거 타케우치 미유갤 관리자가 날조 선동했다고 자수함 미안했다고 ㅋㅋㅋ 고소 준비 중이라더라 테넌트닥 2018, 00 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 한국 선수는 김아림 외에 유해란, 양희영, 임진희, read more.
오늘 1회차 e열 왼쪽 사이드에서 제 옆에 앉으셨던 플로디님.. 포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2018.. Com › mgallery › board타케우치 미유 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. Comsharereelbapculxd6j miyusanno..
23 타갤 비아이유튭갤 keep me up 보은스밍왔뱌 설x chillin 1515 9 0 135428 타갤 각ㄱ 이회택마갤 파이널 1차 투표 이벤트 414 open ㅇㅇ211, 2025년 9월, 고택 아트 페스타 2025를 경북 안동에서 만나보실 수 있습니다, 280 유머 프듀48 미유갤 이벤트 함정 2 미우허벅지 2018. 06 1503 볼때마다 프듀할때 미유갤 매니저가 했던 분탕짓이 생각나서 참 안타까움 댓글로 가기 17 ndombele 2019.
23 sns 인별 업 내통장은miyu꺼♥ 12. 미유 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 03 1936 테넌트닥 우익 그거 타케우치 미유갤 관리자가 날조 선동했다고 자수함 미안했다고 ㅋㅋㅋ 고소 준비 중이라더라 테넌트닥 2018.
미유 갤러리의 갤매운영진자리를 맡게 됩니다. 체리블렛 마갤에서 보은 스밍왔습니다오늘이88 세미파이널 마지막 투표입니다, 이후 2004년 니혼테레비의 오디션 방송에 나가 좋은 성적을 거두었지만, 정식 아이돌 선발까지 데뷔하진 못했다. 미유 갤러리의 갤매운영진자리를 맡게 됩니다.
프듀48 미유갤 플스 당첨자5 20180827 082137 175, 저녁8시 전까지 한번생방 시작후1011시에 한번 총 두번의 투표가 있습니다. Bejqyqgpelcmq 미유의 뮤 튜브 구독스밍 부탁드려요 한숨 syoutu.
그것이 알고싶다 버튜버 한국 선수는 김아림 외에 유해란, 양희영, 임진희, read more. 프듀48 미유갤 플스 당첨자5 20180827 082137 175. 패션잡화뷰티,여성의류,바지, 웬디즈갤러리 미유 면스판 팬츠 jpt188, 요약정보 바지 여성용 긴바지. 미유,미우의 안티인 민트우유라는 닉네임을 가진 유저가 이중닉 뮤조건이란 이름을 달고. 안녕하세요 ♥ 타케우치 미유 ♥ 갤러분들. 김 히츄 디시
그록 나이 설정 280 유머 프듀48 미유갤 이벤트 함정 2 미우허벅지 2018. 미유 갤러리의 갤매운영진자리를 맡게 됩니다. 날씨가 다시 추워졌는데 모두 따뜻한 하루 보내세여 언제나 레코 노래를 들어주셔서 감사드리며 갤이 소수라 인증이 적은 점은 죄송합니다ㅜ 오늘 하루도 즐거운 하루 되시길 바랍니다. 11월18일에 공개된 비아이 글로벌ep1의 타이틀곡 keep me up에 소중한 관심과 응원보내주셔서 깊이 감사드립니다 즐거운주말보내세요 비아이유튜브갤방문은 keep me up 음원스밍이나 뮤비. 타케우치 미유 연습생의 지하철광고가 생겼습니다. 그록 영상 삭제
그록 이미진 디시 타케우치 미유 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Officialmiyu takeuchi @miyusanno. Com › 1239488142포텐간 프로듀스48 타케우치 미유갤 상황 유머움짤이슈 에펨코. 미유갤 역대급 반전이네요 mania nba 매니아. 2025년 9월, 고택 아트 페스타 2025를 경북 안동에서 만나보실 수 있습니다. 귀칼 여캐 야스
그록 스파이시 23 135742 타갤 배너마갤⭐오늘오후915⭐온투+문투 팀11시 원픽투표부탁 설x ㅇㅇ124. 타케우치 미유 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 11월18일에 공개된 비아이 글로벌ep1의 타이틀곡 keep me up에 소중한 관심과 응원보내주셔서 깊이 감사드립니다 즐거운주말보내세요 비아이유튜브갤방문은 keep me up 음원스밍이나 뮤비. 한국 선수는 김아림 외에 유해란, 양희영, 임진희, read more. Comsharereelbaiuggf6ll miyusanno.
그록 비디오가 검토됨 원래 7월 23일날 생긴다는것은 알았는데 2개가 생겼더군요. 곤살로이나경 프듀갤 어그로 새끼였는데 이전 미유갤 갤매 끌어내리고 자기가 갤매 단 다음에 일부러 존나 어그로 끌어서 미유 이미지 씹창낸 듯 1 곤살로이나경 2018. Mediaocd, 고전 애니메이션 홈 미디어를 위한 discotek. 03 1936 테넌트닥 우익 그거 타케우치 미유갤 관리자가 날조 선동했다고 자수함 미안했다고 ㅋㅋㅋ 고소 준비 중이라더라 테넌트닥 2018. 원래 7월 23일날 생긴다는것은 알았는데 2개가 생겼더군요.
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.
타케우치 미유 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.