대치동에서 10대에게 물어본 본인 픽.

16시 서수 순위변동 프로미스나인 마이너 갤러리.

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, August 10, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 10, 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, August 10, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 10, 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, August 10, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, August 10, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 10, 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, August 10, 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.

2259 유투브에서 멤버별 직캠 조회시 조회수 상위 5개합 기준으로 인기순위를 정리해봤습니다. Com › board › view정보 프로미스 나인에 대해 알아보자. 스마트투데이박지환 기자 프로미스나인이 지난 9일 디시트렌드에서 실시한 kpop 여자그룹 인기 투표에서 1위를 차지했다. 덕분에 중국어가 유창해서 중국 kpop 커뮤니티에는 이나경의 팬이 많다.

무대 찢고 내 심장까지 찢은 걸그룹을 주제로 진행된 이번 투표에서 프로미스나인은 총 32,663표를 획득하며 독보적인 지지를 받았다.. Mama japan 으로 선공개곡 유리구두 발표 4.. 이번 투표에서 프로미스나인이 12,238표를 기록하며 1위를 차지, 강력한 팬덤을 과시했다..
방명록 rss 관리 유투브 프로미스나인 멤버별 인기 순위_220828 레너드와함께 2022. 프로미스나인은 이번 주 투표에서 1위를 차지하며 강력한 팬덤의 존재감을 드러냈다. 후에 1월 24일 쇼케이스를 read more, Com › board › baseball_ab2프로미스나인 와꾸순위 해외야구 갤러리.
특징아학시절부터 쯔위닮음꼴로 인기가 많았음. 최근 컴백으로 인기몰이중인 프로미스나인 멤버들의 유투브 직캠 조회수 합산을 통한 멤버별 인기순위및 프로필을 정리하였습니다.
관련게시물 프로미스나인 12월31일 전속 계약 종료 관련게시물 ㅓㅜㅑ 프로미스나인 해체 이유 떴다jpg대국민 프로젝트 아이돌학교 당시에 대략 2000만 국민이 시청했다고 할 정도로 큰 화제가 되었던. 2011년 11월 기준으로 국내 팔로워 순위 top10에서 슈주 멤버만 6명이다.
최근 방송에서 마이곰이_ 스트리머는 채팅창 편두통 디시 앰비션 캐나다에서 온 인간 비타민 마이곰이입니다. Com › qna › dirs내기준 프로미스나인 그룹내 인기순위 네이버 지식in.
이번 투표에서 프로미스나인이 12,238표를 기록하며 1위를 차지, 강력한 팬덤을 과시했다. 아이돌학교 입학 총학생 수는 41명 2.

쏘블리 룩북

대치동에서 10대에게 물어본 본인 픽, 스마트투데이박지환 기자 프로미스나인이 지난 9일 디시트렌드에서 실시한 kpop 여자그룹 인기 투표에서 1위를 차지했다. 07 000502 조회 41177 추천 151 댓글 126 2, 2259 유투브에서 멤버별 직캠 조회시 조회수 상위 5개합 기준으로 인기순위를 정리해봤습니다. 난 병1신대표라 그냥 프로미 미모보고 감탄뿐, 1stlove.

아레나 ㅈㅈ

어제 20등인가 21등이던데 완전 떡상했네 ㄷㄷ, 2위는 njz7,540표, 3위는 베이비몬스터637표가 차지하며 치열한. 덕분에 중국어가 유창해서 중국 kpop 커뮤니티에는 이나경의 팬이 많다. 덕분에 중국어가 유창해서 중국 kpop 커뮤니티에는 이나경의 팬이 많다. 난 병1신대표라 그냥 프로미 미모보고 감탄뿐, 1stlove. 마이곰이 버총회에서 제갈금자가 주장한 육수 총량제 도입이. 일반 프로미 구글 연관검색어에 미드순위는 뭐야. Com › qna › dirs내기준 프로미스나인 그룹내 인기순위 네이버 지식in. 덕분에 중국어가 유창해서 중국 kpop 커뮤니티에는 이나경의 팬이 많다, 꾸준히 음악적 성장을 보여주며 팬들과의 소통을 이어온 모습이 이번 결과로 이어졌다. 프로미스나인은 지난 12월 31일 부로 플레디스엔터테인먼트와 계약이 종료된 바 있다. 프로미 구글 연관검색어에 미드순위는 뭐야.

실루엣21

Com › board › view프로미스나인 워터밤 5장 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 한화생명e스포츠 소속 대한민국의 리그 오브 레전드 프로게임단, Com › board › view프로미스나인 워터밤 5장 실시간 베스트 갤러리, 최근 컴백으로 인기몰이중인 프로미스나인 멤버들의 유투브 직캠 조회수 합산을 통한 멤버별 인기순위및 프로필을 정리하였습니다. 대한민국의 걸그룹 프로미스나인 의 발매 음반을 정리한 문서. 슈주 프로미스나인을 포함한 아이돌학교 출신 학생들에게 유독 애착이 깊다.

프로미스나인 최전성기 시절 걸스플래닛999 갤러리, Com › board › view똥글주의엳돌 a급 와꾸 리스트 순위없음 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 12월 국내 유튜브 검색량 걸그룹 1위. 스마트투데이박지환 기자 프로미스나인이 지난 9일 디시트렌드에서 실시한 kpop 여자그룹 인기 투표에서 1위를 차지했다.

신가혜 조건

2인 이상 프로미스나인 활동에 대한 내용은 프로미스나인활동 문서를 참고하십시오.. 2인 이상 프로미스나인 활동에 대한 내용은 프로미스나인활동 문서를 참고하십시오.. Redirecting to sgall..

마이곰이 버총회에서 제갈금자가 주장한 육수 총량제 도입이. 경희대학교 국제캠퍼스 합격 점수는 몇 등. 15 1838 프로미스나인의 미드필더들을 소개합니다, 최근 컴백으로 인기몰이중인 프로미스나인 멤버들의 유투브 직캠 조회수 합산을 통한 멤버별 인기순위및 프로필을 정리하였습니다. 16시 서수 순위변동 프로미스나인 마이너 갤러리.

프로미스나인이 뭔데 씹덕아 이러시고 싶은 분들도 계시겠지만 프리톡 게시판에서 종종 프로미스나인 글을 봤던 기억이 나서 이렇게 글 올려봅니다, 스마트투데이박지환 기자 3월 2주차3월 10일16일 디시트렌드 kpop 여자 그룹 인기투표가 종료됐다, 프로미스나인이 뭔데 씹덕아 이러시고 싶은 분들도 계시겠지만 프리톡 게시판에서 종종 프로미스나인 글을 봤던 기억이 나서 이렇게 글 올려봅니다. 대치동에서 10대에게 물어본 본인 픽.

아라이 리마 작품 스타데일리뉴스서태양기자 5인조로 재편한 프로미스나인이 지난 9일 디시트렌드 kpop 여자그룹 부문인기투표에서 1위를 차지했다. 총 398표를 기록하며 2위와 격차를 벌렸고, 그룹의 재도약을 향한 팬들의 기대가 수치로 확인됐다. 인기 순위라는게 정량화 되긴 어려우니 재미삼아 봐주시면 될것 같습니다. 그룹 프로미스나인이 2025년 5월 5주차 디시트렌드 걸그룹 주간 인기투표에서 1위를 차지했다. 프로미스나인은 지난 12월 31일 부로 플레디스엔터테인먼트와 계약이 종료된 바 있다. 시라카미 에미카 nude

실사 프롬프트 디시 V47q5jv5ht98&ab_channelspinelcam 프로미스나인 이나경 직캠 stay this way fromis_9 nag. 무대 찢고 내 심장까지 찢은 걸그룹을 주제로 진행된 이번 투표에서 프로미스나인은 총 32,663표를 획득하며 독보적인 지지를 받았다. 16시 서수 순위변동 프로미스나인 마이너 갤러리. 프로미스나인은 이번 주 투표에서 1위를 차지하며 강력한 팬덤의 존재감을 드러냈다. 트리플에스 유빈평소엔 a급 와꾸필살기 활짝 웃을때는 s트리플에스 이지우평소엔 a 필살기 무표정 입다물고 있을때 s 트리플에스 김유연평소엔 a 필살기 살짝 비스듬한 각도로 웃을때 s아이리스 아이엘클라씨 원지민. 신한라이프 중간관리자 디시

시이나 유나 av 마이곰이 버총회에서 제갈금자가 주장한 육수 총량제 도입이. 인기 순위라는게 정량화 되긴 어려우니 재미삼아 봐주시면 될것 같습니다. 스타데일리뉴스서태양기자 5인조로 재편한 프로미스나인이 지난 9일 디시트렌드 kpop 여자그룹 부문인기투표에서 1위를 차지했다. 중학교 1학년 무렵에 자퇴하고 중국에서 유학했다. 꾸준히 음악적 성장을 보여주며 팬들과의 소통을 이어온 모습이 이번 결과로 이어졌다. 아메브로

아마텐 디시 인기 순위라는게 정량화 되긴 어려우니 재미삼아 봐주시면 될것 같습니다. 프로미스나인은 이번 주 투표에서 1위를 차지하며 강력한 팬덤의 존재감을 드러냈다. 팬들은 달료달료 등의 메시지를 남기며 꾸준한 지지를 보냈다. 이상형 월드컵 랭킹 2023년 여자 아이돌 미드라이너을 즐겨보세요. 관련게시물 프로미스나인 12월31일 전속 계약 종료 관련게시물 ㅓㅜㅑ 프로미스나인 해체 이유 떴다jpg대국민 프로젝트 아이돌학교 당시에 대략 2000만 국민이 시청했다고 할 정도로 큰 화제가 되었던.

아리샤 나락 최근 컴백으로 인기몰이중인 프로미스나인 멤버들의 유투브 직캠 조회수 합산을 통한 멤버별 인기순위및 프로필을 정리하였습니다. 경희대학교 국제캠퍼스 합격 점수는 몇 등. 관련게시물 프로미스나인 12월31일 전속 계약 종료 관련게시물 ㅓㅜㅑ 프로미스나인 해체 이유 떴다jpg대국민 프로젝트 아이돌학교 당시에 대략 2000만 국민이 시청했다고 할 정도로 큰 화제가 되었던. 난 병1신대표라 그냥 프로미 미모보고 감탄뿐, 1stlove. 프로미스나인 1위 음악방송 음방 뮤직뱅크 음악중심 인기가요 걸그룹 여돌 아이돌 fromis_9 shorts 걸그룹 프로미스나인 fromis_9⚠+주의사항⚠.

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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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, August 10, 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 August 10, 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, August 10, 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 August 10, 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, August 10, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

대치동에서 10대에게 물어본 본인 픽., 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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