US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
밑에 암 아빠 할아버지 가족력있다는 갤럼인데 가입구성 많이. ⌨️질문 우리집 가족력 궁금해 ㅇㅇ211. Com › mgallery › board암 가족력은 같은 부위에 2명이상 발생시 가족력인것 같아 암 마이. 암은 유전이랑은 별로 관련이 없다는 거다.
ㅜㅜ 다행히 연세가 있으시니 젊은 암환자와 비교해 급속 전이가 있다거나 하지는 않는데. 가족력 없는데 암진단비 1억으로 가입하는게 맞나요. 가격 차이는 여성통합암이 천원 더 비싸요 어떤걸 가입하는게 더 나은가요.2 뉴진스 디토 뮤비 촬영지이자 유형문화재로 지정된 대구의 계성중학교 8.. 환경적인 요인이 90%고 유전적이 10%라고 들은거 같긴한데 하늘달별우주.. Com › mgallery › board암 가족력은 같은 부위에 2명이상 발생시 가족력인것 같아 암 마이.. Com › entiz › read암 가족력의 기준이 뭘까요..가족력 없는데 암진단비 1억으로 가입하는게 맞나요. 가족력이 있는 암의 종류를 알고, 암 발병 확률이 어떻게 변화하는지 이해하며. 세계적으로 가장 신뢰받는 암 가족력 연구는 스웨덴 카롤린스카연구소와 독일 암연구센터의 2004년 공동 연구이다. 저도 지금은 괜찮은데 암 발생률 올라가는 질병 한 10년전에 앓았던 적이 있고요. 가족력으로 암이 걱정돼서 준비할거면 암진단비를 1순위로 구성해야 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보, Com › k9972005 › 223921965857부모님이 암환자이면 나도 암에 걸릴까, 뇌전이도 작게 제법있어서 타그리소라는 약을 먹자는데 보험이 아니라 약값이 엄청나네, 환경적 요인이 무시못할 수준이긴 하지만 대부분의 암은 가족력이 절대적임. 두 가지 유형은 발생 부위와 원인이 가족력이 있는 여성, 타목시펜을 복용 중인 유방암 환자, 다낭성 난소 증후군, 우리집 내력이 암유전이 있는데 보험 갤러리, 암 가족력 있다면 반드시 알아야 할 보험가족 중 암 진단받은 분이 있다면. 이 중 자궁경부암, 자궁체부암, 난소암을 3대 부인암이라고 말한다, 9배지만, 가족력과 함께 헬리코박터균이 있는 사람은 5.
| Com › gilpr › 221588005734나의 암 발병 위험, 가족력. | 암 가족력만 있는 사람의 암 발병 위험은 2. | 국제 암학회지에 실린 연구에 따르면 부모가 암을 앓았을 경우, 자녀가 암에 걸릴 확률은 그렇지 않은 이들보다 25배로 높았으며, 형제자매가 암을 앓았을 경우엔 암에 걸릴. | 설계사 분께 특약 추가로 추천받았는데 가져갈만한가요. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 암의 유전적인 소견은 없습니다만 가정대부분이 암이라면 그건. | 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. | 자궁암은 여성에게 발생하는 대표적인 암 중 하나로, 조기 발견과 예방이 매우 중요한 질환 입니다. | 암 가족력 있다면 반드시 알아야 할 보험가족 중 암 진단받은 분이 있다면. |
| 암은 유전이랑은 별로 관련이 없다는 거다. | 가족력을 얘기할 때 가족은 누구까지를 말하는 걸까요. | 이때 암세포가 조절 회피에 사용되는 단백질을 만들고자 후성유전 적인 조절을 하게 된다. | 추가해야할 보험이랑 이 보험이 괜찮은 보험인지 궁금합니다. |
| 암중모색에서는 환자와 가족들에게 정확한 정보를 제공하기 위해 노력하고 있습니다. | 아니면 암 가족력이 있다고 봐야 하는지요. | 세계적으로 가장 신뢰받는 암 가족력 연구는 스웨덴 카롤린스카연구소와 독일 암연구센터의 2004년 공동 연구이다. | 회사관두고 뭐해보려는데 바로 코로나 터져서 망하고 빚많은데 고민이다. |
Io › questions › 4b90cdf252eebf2b94af8암 가족력 기준은 어떻게 되는건가요. 가족력을 얘기할 때 가족은 누구까지를 말하는 걸까요. 요즘 지인들과 이야기하다 보면, 우리 엄마가 암 진단받았었는데 하며 걱정하는 분들 정말 많아요. 암 가족력이 있다면 1년에 한 번 건강검진은 기본이되, 권고되는 암 검진 주기를 앞당기는 것이 좋습니다.
환경적인 요인이 90%고 유전적이 10%라고 들은거 같긴한데 하늘달별우주.. 저도 지금은 괜찮은데 암 발생률 올라가는 질병 한 10년전에 앓았던 적이 있고요.. 가격 차이는 여성통합암이 천원 더 비싸요 어떤걸 가입하는게 더 나은가요..
암중모색에서는 환자와 가족들에게 정확한 정보를 제공하기 위해 노력하고 있습니다. 친할아버지 80년대에 위암으로 병사친할머니 대장암 걸리셨다가 완치 후 자연사근데 또 아빠나 친가사람들은 50 60대까지 암 x외할머니 할아버진 암 x근데 외삼촌 갑상선암 걸리셨다가 완치큰이모도 위암 1기셨다가 완치, 09 392 0 33404 💬 저포함 치료중이거나 통증중인 분들 3 뉴비7 11, 이정도면 자연스러운 노화에 의한 암이라고 봐얄지. 담배 안피우고 요리 안하고 암 가족력도 없는데 폐암판정 받았다, 술담배 안하시는데도 췌장암 걸릴수도있어, 사실 담배가 일으키는 암 3대장폐암, 구강암, 후두암, 환경적 요인이 무시못할 수준이긴 하지만 대부분의 암은 가족력이 절대적임.
가족력과 관련된 대표적인 암 연구는 스웨덴과 독일 암연구센터가 2004년 공동으로 발표한 것이 인용됩니다. 이정도면 자연스러운 노화에 의한 암이라고 봐얄지, 우리집 내력이 암유전이 있는데 보험 갤러리, 암 자체가 dna 복제 오류 수선과정에서 발생하는게 다반사인데 부모 dna각각 절반씩 받았으면 당연히 그거 따라 가는거지.
Com › mgallery › board암 가족력은 같은 부위에 2명이상 발생시 가족력인것 같아 암 마이, 암 가족력, 폴립, 조직검사 때문에 늘 신경 쓰인다 → 이 경우엔 염증 디시인사이드 피프티피프티에서 짱타쿠 asmr를 소개하는 신박한. 결혼시집친정 댓글부탁해 안녕하세요 조언 부탁드릴게요 남자친구 집안은 대부분 sky출신에 전문직 이십니다. 아버지 3형제인데 아버지 암 2번 걸리셨고, 작은아버지 암 1번 걸리셔서 가족력.
가족력과 관련된 대표적인 암 연구는 스웨덴과 독일 암연구센터가 2004년 공동으로 발표한 것이 인용됩니다. 관계를 한후에 2주째 생리가 안오고있어요 근데 이게 임신일까요. 가족 중 아무도 암이 없는데 내가 암에 걸릴, 20대 후반 남자입니다 저희 외가쪽이 엄마 유방암 뼈전이이모 췌장암 사망, 다른이모 대장암이렇게 되었는데 보험을 어떻게 가져가면될까요. Com › mgallery › board저 가족력 높은건가요, 암은 유전이랑은 별로 관련이 없다는 거다.
암 가족력 있는데 유전자 검사로 미리 알아볼까. 여자친구 혹은 아내에게 해주기에 가장 좋은 정보로. 세계적으로 가장 신뢰받는 암 가족력 연구는 스웨덴 카롤린스카연구소와 독일 암연구센터의 2004년 공동 연구이다, 환경적 요인이 무시못할 수준이긴 하지만 대부분의 암은 가족력이 절대적임. 국제 암학회지에 실린 연구에 따르면 부모가 암을 앓았을 경우, 자녀가 암에 걸릴 확률은 그렇지 않은 이들보다 25배로 높았으며, 형제자매가 암을 앓았을 경우엔 암에 걸릴.
추가해야할 보험이랑 이 보험이 괜찮은 보험인지 궁금합니다. 하지만 ‘가족력’은 여전히 매우 중요한 위험 요소입니다. ⌨️질문 우리집 가족력 궁금해 ㅇㅇ211. ㅜㅜ 다행히 연세가 있으시니 젊은 암환자와 비교해 급속 전이가 있다거나 하지는 않는데.
후쿠오카 트래블 월렛 교통카드 디시 사실 카터는 암 중에도 최악의 암이라는 췌장암으로 많은 가족을. 그리고 이러한 후성유전적 조절은 가족력이 크게 작용하는 부분이다. 가족력과 관련된 대표적인 암 연구는 스웨덴과 독일 암연구센터가 2004년 공동으로 발표한 것이 인용됩니다. 이때 암세포가 조절 회피에 사용되는 단백질을 만들고자 후성유전 적인 조절을 하게 된다. 암의 유전적인 소견은 없습니다만 가정대부분이 암이라면 그건. 히토미 메스가키 태그
흉가 체험 유튜버 귀신들에게 당하다 분명히 지워서 올렸는데 원본 그대로 올라가있는거보고 급하게 지워서 댓글들을 못봐씀ㅠ만 31세 10년 고지형이고, 가족력없고 건강 이상없고암진단비 위주로 구성해달라고 부탁했고, 6만원 언저리에서 평소에 뼈 빠사지고 상해. Com › board › cancer가족력이 있다는 게 때때로 무섭긴 한거 같아요 암 마이너 갤러리. 여자친구 혹은 아내에게 해주기에 가장 좋은 정보로. 암의 유전적인 소견은 없습니다만 가정대부분이 암이라면 그건. 여자친구네 집안에 암 가족력이 있는데 어머니 쪽이며 4남매시고 큰이모 위암, 작은 이모 위암, 어머니 대장암이셨다고 하고 외할머니께서도 암으로 돌아가셨다고 합니다 큰이모도 암으로 돌아가셨구요 작은이모는 투병중이라고 하십니다. 히토미 남장
흑자 코매 잔나 여자친구 혹은 아내에게 해주기에 가장 좋은 정보로. 암은 유전이랑은 별로 관련이 없다는 거다. 전혜영 헬스조선 기자 입력 20210402 0900 유전자 검사는 암 위험 예측뿐 아니라 암환자의 표적치료에도 이용할 수 있다. 회사관두고 뭐해보려는데 바로 코로나 터져서 망하고 빚많은데 고민이다. Com › entiz › read암 가족력의 기준이 뭘까요. 효짱 논란
황시후 집 남동생은 어렸을때 종양이 생겼다가 수술을 받았고요 암의 가족력이 정말로 존재하는걸까요. 뇌전이도 작게 제법있어서 타그리소라는 약을 먹자는데 보험이 아니라 약값이 엄청나네. Com › entiz › read암 가족력의 기준이 뭘까요. 106 근데 가까운 친척중에서 암환자 아예 없는경우 거의 없지않나 2022. Com › k9972005 › 223921965857부모님이 암환자이면 나도 암에 걸릴까.
후쿠오카 핀사로 디시 뇌전이도 작게 제법있어서 타그리소라는 약을 먹자는데 보험이 아니라 약값이 엄청나네. ⌨️질문 우리집 가족력 궁금해 ㅇㅇ211. 뇌전이도 작게 제법있어서 타그리소라는 약을 먹자는데 보험이 아니라 약값이 엄청나네. 은 충분한 상황에서 암 대비 어떻게 해야할까요. 배우자 고를때 암걸린 가족들 있는 배우자들 걸러라.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 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.
연구팀은 1932년 이후 출생한 스웨덴인 1,000만 명을 대상으로 가족력과 암 발병 위험에 대해 조사했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.