US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
立立저장하고 꺼내보세요 여행블로거 미스유가 아이와 가볼만한곳 알려드려요 ️ 비행기 멀리 날리기, 랜덤게임, 무궁화 꽃이. Read sensei to 선생님과 by urec online at hitomi 선생님과 urec. 」 우리 반에 지금까지 본 적 없을만큼 젊은 신참 선생님이 찾아오셨다. 반에서 가장 우수한 학생이 되고 싶다는 목표의 원인이 무엇이든 간에 본인 스스로에게 많은 발전이 있을 것이다.
당신은 찾고 있습니까 선생님의 학생들 png 이미지 또는 일러스트. 글_ 허승환 서울강일초등학교 교사 q. 그러나 그 비주얼적인 부담감을 극복하고 1화를 본다 할 지라도 전반부의 에로한 표현과 비 정상적인.| 혹은 학교 생활의 한해를 최대한으로 활용해 보고 싶은가. | Read sensei to 선생님과 by urec online at hitomi 선생님과 urec. | 좋아요 ️ ・일본어를 가르치고 다른 문화에 대해 알기 🇯🇵👩🏫. | 🗣️🎧 $27 레슨당 juri s. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 좋아요 ️ ・일본어를 가르치고 다른 문화에 대해 알기 🇯🇵👩🏫. | 선생님 건너편에 사는 빨래너는 여주 보면서 딸치다가 눈 마주쳐서 걸린 상태에 여주가 집으로 찾아와서 폭풍섹스하는 만화번호나 추정되는 작가좀 알려. | 立立저장하고 꺼내보세요 여행블로거 미스유가 아이와 가볼만한곳 알려드려요 ️ 비행기 멀리 날리기, 랜덤게임, 무궁화 꽃이. | 그들이 가진 다름은 히토미 처럼 선천적인 부분도 있지만, 대부분의 경우 개개인만이 가진 경험, 과거의 트라우마 이후에 후천적으로 생겨난 다름이기에 그들의 고민을 더욱 절박하게 만들어 이야기에 더욱 몰입할 수 있게 만든다. |
| 3️⃣문장 구조는, 직접 문장 만들어 영어로 대화할 수 있도록 부모님도 이해할 수 있는 쉬운. | 봉고레 프리모 vongola primo 봉고레 패밀리를 탄생시킨 초대 보스이자 츠나의 5대 선조 先祖에 해당하는 인물. | 1화 마미와 팀을 이루고자 그녀에게 접근한 호무라, 그러나 얼떨결에 마미의 집에서 함께 사는 룸메이트가 된다. | 협찬 친절한 선생님과 함께하는 프로그램까지 있는곳 소개할게요. |
| Si › read › si62150阅读 monimonimo tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과 korea. | Konnichiwa🤗 부담없이 먼저 연락주세요. | Com › lueven › 221031669320보이는 것이 전부는 아냐. | 남학생은 여학생보다 ‘친절한 선생님’과 ‘재미있는 선생님’을 더 존경하며, 여학생은 ‘공 정한 선생님’과 ‘열심히 가르치는 선생님’을 남학생보다 더 존경하는 것으로 나타났다. |
| Tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과. | 3️⃣문장 구조는, 직접 문장 만들어 영어로 대화할 수 있도록 부모님도 이해할 수 있는 쉬운. | 히토미 선생님의 큰 눈동자는 그런 학생들을 맞이해 고통에서 헤어날 수 있게 도와줍니다. | 협찬 친절한 선생님과 함께하는 프로그램까지 있는곳 소개할게요. |
지동설에 관한 주제를 담고 있는 가상역사물로, 지동설을 이단이라 탄압하는 종교권력 c교에 대항하여 지동설을 read more.. 어릴 적 색각을 잃어 색을 구별할 수 없어진 뒤, 마음마저 닫은 채 고교생으로 성장한다..Read kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스 by gin eiji online at hitomi tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과. 반에서 가장 우수한 학생이 되고 싶다는 목표의 원인이 무엇이든 간에 본인 스스로에게 많은 발전이 있을 것이다, Osananajimi no oneechan to otomari h by afuro. 5 37 마치 일본에 있는 것처럼🇯🇵말하기 ️듣기를 중시일본 문화와 계절의 행사도 함께 즐겨요. Com › lueven › 221031669320보이는 것이 전부는 아냐. 그런데 히토미 선생님의 양호실에 찾아오는 사람들은 혀가 길다란 여자애, 좀비 여자애, 투명한 여자애, 거구 여자애 등의 학생들입니다. 3️⃣문장 구조는, 직접 문장 만들어 영어로 대화할 수 있도록 부모님도 이해할 수 있는 쉬운. 주연 4인방이 다니는 고등학교의 교장선생님과 친분이 있다, Com › reel › 2742659696076427video, 지동설에 관한 주제를 담고 있는 가상역사물로, 지동설을 이단이라 탄압하는 종교권력 c교에 대항하여 지동설을 read more. 그런데 히토미 선생님의 양호실에 찾아오는 사람들은 혀가 길다란 여자애, 좀비 여자애, 투명한 여자애, 거구 여자애 등의 학생들입니다. 히토미hitomi 품번 네이버 블로그 전체보기 1,494개의 글 목록열기, 」 우리 반에 지금까지 본 적 없을만큼 젊은 신참 선생님이 찾아오셨다. 您正在查看隐藏内容 monimonimo tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과 korean。 请点击继续按钮以继续。. 선생님이 내 인스타를 팔로우한 순간부터, 야구장 사진 대신 공부하는 모습만 올리기 시작한 나 유핏토익 쌤들은 학생들의 피드와 스토리까지 살짝 염탐, 소장 500원 전권 소장 12,000원 19세 미만 구독불가 1화 무료 상세페이지 바로가기 짓궂은 말로 혼내주세요 3.
남쪽 지방에서 오신 선생님은 눈 내리는 풍경이 낯설고 여름이 서늘하다며 좋아. Si › read › si62150阅读 monimonimo tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과 korea, 반에서 가장 우수한 학생이 되고 싶다는 목표의 원인이 무엇이든 간에 본인 스스로에게 많은 발전이 있을 것이다, 혐짤🚷 싱글벙글 히토미 레전드 작품 순위jpg.
Net › blnovelwebtoon › 3525779606더쿠 bl만화 e북 맠다 14차 작가명 순으로 정렬 작가작품 순. 您正在查看隐藏内容 monimonimo tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과 korean。 请点击继续按钮以继续。, Sensei to 선생님과 by urec. Com › reel › 2742659696076427video, 본명은 지오토 giotto이지만, 주로 초대 初代를 뜻하는 이름인 봉고레 프리모 vongola primo 로 불리고 있다.
혹은 학교 생활의 한해를 최대한으로 활용해 보고 싶은가.. Vema116 20161118 102分(hd版:102分).. 👘🌸 발음과 리듬, 자주 쓰이는 구어체와 줄임말도 익힐 수 있어요.. 얼굴이 안 나오는 캐릭터 이며 묘쌤보다 키가 크고 근육질에 다부진 몸이다..
Read kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스 by gin eiji online at hitomi tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과. 저는 아이들과 친구 같은 선생님이 되고 싶었는데, 만만한. 立立저장하고 꺼내보세요 여행블로거 미스유가 아이와 가볼만한곳 알려드려요 ️ 비행기 멀리 날리기, 랜덤게임, 무궁화 꽃이. 리코의 친할아버지답게 매우 태평한 성격을 가지고 있으며, 리코처럼 주변에 고양이가 꼬인다.
Kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스. Ahegao ♀ beauty mark ♀ big breasts ♀ blowjob. 어릴 적 색각을 잃어 색을 구별할 수 없어진 뒤, 마음마저 닫은 채 고교생으로 성장한다.
Porn videos xxx comments on 친절한 선생님과 히토미. 남학생은 여학생보다 ‘친절한 선생님’과 ‘재미있는 선생님’을 더 존경하며, 여학생은 ‘공 정한 선생님’과 ‘열심히 가르치는 선생님’을 남학생보다 더 존경하는 것으로 나타났다. 혐짤🚷 싱글벙글 히토미 레전드 작품 순위jpg. Read sensei to 선생님과 by urec online at hitomi 선생님과 urec, 1화 마미와 팀을 이루고자 그녀에게 접근한 호무라, 그러나 얼떨결에 마미의 집에서 함께 사는 룸메이트가 된다.
저희 반은 동학년 다른 반에 비해서 많이 시끄러운 편입니다. 부부 금슬도 좋고 묘쌤의 친구들이 성탄절 에 집들이를 온다고 하자 직접 요리까지 준비해 놓는 등 이상적인 남편 상이다. 친절한 선생님과 어른망가, 웹툰, 웹툰망가, 어른만화, 번역만화, 번역망가, 일본만화, 일본망가, 성인만화, 망가, 동인지. Read kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스 by gin eiji online at hitomi tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과.
트위터 장미 본 계정 긴장을 풀고 즐기십시오 – 언어 학습은 재미있습니다. Read kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스 by gin eiji online at hitomi tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과. 초면인 남자에게 속아서, 섹스 목적 파티에 참가한 이야기. Porn videos xxx comments on 친절한 선생님과 히토미. 협찬 친절한 선생님과 함께하는 프로그램까지 있는곳 소개할게요. 트위터영상저
트위터 저위 Read kono mansion no yachin wa sex 이 집의 월세는 섹스 by gin eiji online at hitomi tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과. 선생님 건너편에 사는 빨래너는 여주 보면서 딸치다가 눈 마주쳐서 걸린 상태에 여주가 집으로 찾아와서 폭풍섹스하는 만화번호나 추정되는 작가좀 알려. 您正在查看隐藏内容 monimonimo tsugou no ii sensei to 친절한 선생님과 korean。 请点击继续按钮以继续。. 선생님이 내 인스타를 팔로우한 순간부터, 야구장 사진 대신 공부하는 모습만 올리기 시작한 나 유핏토익 쌤들은 학생들의 피드와 스토리까지 살짝 염탐. 협찬 친절한 선생님과 함께하는 프로그램까지 있는곳 소개할게요. 트위터 섹히
트위터순이 Net › blnovelwebtoon › 3525779606더쿠 bl만화 e북 맠다 14차 작가명 순으로 정렬 작가작품 순. 」 우리 반에 지금까지 본 적 없을만큼 젊은 신참 선생님이 찾아오셨다. Club › lists › suggestions친절한 선생님 만화 최선스피치연구소 함규정. Com › bbs › board친절한 선생님과 totogun. 1권 표지의 히토미 정말 부담스러운 비주얼이다. 트이터실시간
트위터 비계 보는 법 봉고레 프리모 vongola primo 봉고레 패밀리를 탄생시킨 초대 보스이자 츠나의 5대 선조 先祖에 해당하는 인물. 立立저장하고 꺼내보세요 여행블로거 미스유가 아이와 가볼만한곳 알려드려요 ️ 비행기 멀리 날리기, 랜덤게임, 무궁화 꽃이. 호무라와 마미는 함께 등하교를 하면서 서로 깊은 read more. Vema116 학교에서는 엄격한 담임 선생님, 집에서는 친절한 음란한 어머니. 토리야 코우 사하라 선생님과 토키군 토리오 리세 사디스트 배우는 도망치고 싶다 토리우미 요코 러브 파이트.
트위터 민서 Com › reel › 2742659696076427video. 43 likes, 33 comments happiness_haneul on ma 3월동안 평일 오후3시 이전 입장시 x2시간 이용. 저는 아이들과 친구 같은 선생님이 되고 싶었는데, 만만한. 선생님이 내 인스타를 팔로우한 순간부터, 야구장 사진 대신 공부하는 모습만 올리기 시작한 나 유핏토익 쌤들은 학생들의 피드와 스토리까지 살짝 염탐. Read with teacher jaina.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
Vema116 학교에서는 엄격한 담임 선생님, 집에서는 친절한., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.