US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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, August 15, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 15, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
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, August 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 15, 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, August 15, 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, August 15, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, August 15, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, August 15, 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, August 15, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, August 15, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, August 15, 2026.
⑥ 우울장애 – 일반적인 사지의 무거움을 호소할 수 있는데, 전환장에의 소약함은 보다 국소적이고 두드러진다. 키수술 받고싶은 애들은 신체이형장애 치료 부터 받아봐라. 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disoder는 실제보다 외모의 결함을 과장되게 인식하며 지속적인 스트레스와 강박 행동을 반복하는 정신질환입니다. Bdd 신체이형장애라는 정신병 보통 이거에 걸리면 성형중독에 빠짐.
신체이형장애body dysmorphic disoder는 실제보다 외모의 결함을 과장되게 인식하며 지속적인 스트레스와 강박 행동을 반복하는 정신질환입니다.. 루키즘으로 보는 신체이형장애 식이장애 마이너 갤러리.. 신체이형장애는 외모에 실제로는 존재하지 않는 결함이 있다는 생각에 사로잡히거나 사소한 결함을 과장되게 지각하여 집착하는 정신과 질환이다.. 만약 다른 의학적 상태 예, 파킨슨병, 비만, 화상이나 손상에 의한 신체 훼손가 있다면, 공포, 불안, 회피는 이와 무관하거나 혹은 지나칠..Sns, 필터, ai 보정 기술이 이상적인 얼굴을 쉽게 보여주면서, 현실과의 간극이 점점 커지고 있기 때문입니다. 11 때문인지 요즘은 성형외과와 정신과가 같이 붙어있는 경우도 종종 있다. 개요신체 이형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder는 자신의 외모에 대한 하나 이상의 결함이나 흠에 대해 끊임없이 생각하는 정신 건강 질환입니다. 이런말만 씨부리고 전 간단히 대답하면 진료 시간은 끝납니다. 신체이형장애가 있다면 자신의 외모에 대한 왜곡된 인식으로 극도의 불안과 우울감을 느낄 수 있습니다.
개요신체 이형 장애body dysmorphic disorder는 자신의 외모에 대한 하나 이상의 결함이나 흠에 대해 끊임없이 생각하는 정신 건강 질환입니다, 신체이형장애 강박 앓고 있는데 ㅇㅇ106. Psychologs health 작성 2024년 5월 6일 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disorder, bdd는 외모에 대한 집착이 있는 사람들 사이에서 비교적 흔한 질환이다, 스크랩 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년.
Org › wiki › 신체이형장애신체이형장애 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 이처럼 신체이형장애는 디지털 시대에 더 흔하게 드러나고 있습니다. 스크랩 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년.
Com › 369korea369 › 223304867499신체 이형 장애의 유형과 증상, 슬픈 원인과 치료 네이버 블로그. 2017년엔 죄다 대박 터트렸지만, 80억 번 사람은 흔치 않았음. 개요신체 이형 장애body dysmorphic disorder는 자신의 외모에 대한 하나 이상의 결함이나 흠에 대해 끊임없이 생각하는 정신 건강 질환입니다. Com › bodydysmorphicdisordertest신체이형장애 테스트. 신체이형장애 bdd는 자신의 외모와 체중에 대한 과도한 관심이나 집착을 특징으로 하는 심각한 형태의 신체 이미지 장애로 정의됩니다, Sns, 필터, ai 보정 기술이 이상적인 얼굴을 쉽게 보여주면서, 현실과의 간극이 점점 커지고 있기 때문입니다.
| 실제도 미미한 신체적 결함이 있을수는 있으나 이를 확대, 왜곡하는 망상을 가지고 있다. | 이처럼 신체이형장애는 디지털 시대에 더 흔하게 드러나고 있습니다. | Dsm5 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition는 정신건강과 관련된 질병을 진단하고 분류하기 위한 국제적으로 통용되는 표준이자 매뉴얼입니다. | 신체이형장애는 하나 이상의 신체적 외모의 결함을 의식하고 이에 대해 지나치게 집착합니다. |
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| Org › wiki › 신체이형장애신체이형장애 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. | Kr › news2 › 13133용인정신병원 네이버포스트 외모 강박증 신체이형장애, 내 얼굴. | 신체이형장애 탁쳐서떨구기 미니 갤러리. | 뇌에 관한 책을 읽는데 신체이형장애라는 정신병이 있던데 뭐 대충 보통사람들 자기신체에 관한 콤플렉스 정도로 생각하면 될것같아 근데 이게 심해. |
| 예를 들어, 질환은 감염성 질환 또는 면. | Com › 187신체 이형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder, bdd. | Com › board › view신체이형장애bdd 떄문에 그래요 시발 성형 갤러리. | 한 달 전부터 팔자주름에 과도하게 집착하고 있습니다. |
조증 이나 주요우울 삽화가 일어나는 경우, 이들은 망상기의 지속 기간에 비해 상대적으로 짧다.. 공개특허 1020140140650 1.. 조증 이나 주요우울 삽화가 일어나는 경우, 이들은 망상기의 지속 기간에 비해 상대적으로 짧다..
이러한 결함은 다른 사람들에게는 사소해 보이거나 보이지 않을 수도 있습니다. 내 주요 트라우마나, 심지어 트라우마 자체가 외모나 겉모습에 관한 적이 없는데 말이야. Com › 369korea369 › 223304867499신체 이형 장애의 유형과 증상, 슬픈 원인과 치료 네이버 블로그, 강박성 성격장애 obsessivecompulsive personality disorder와는 다르다. Bdd 신체이형장애라는 정신병 보통 이거에 걸리면 성형중독에 빠짐, 그 밖에도 외 모는 상대적인 관심이며 외모지상주의는 바르지 않다는 것을 인식하고 스스로의 자존감을 높여야 합니다.
신체이형장애는 외모에 실제로는 존재하지 않는 결함이 있다는 생각에 사로잡히거나 사소한 결함을 과장되게 지각하여 집착하는 정신과 질환이다, Com › innoyard › 224001063141신체이형증 신체이형장애란. 하루하루가 지날수록 팔자주름이 더 깊어질까봐. 개요신체 이형 장애body dysmorphic disorder는 자신의 외모에 대한 하나 이상의 결함이나 흠에 대해 끊임없이 생각하는 정신 건강 질환입니다, 내 주요 트라우마나, 심지어 트라우마 자체가 외모나 겉모습에 관한 적이 없는데 말이야. 신체변형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder 는 자신의 외모가 기형적이라고 잘못된 집착을 하는 경우를 말하며.
주변인들한테 계속 물어봐도 팔자주름이 안 보인다고 하는데 제 눈에는 선명하게 보입니다, 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disoder, 과도한 외모. 그 밖에도 외 모는 상대적인 관심이며 외모지상주의는 바르지 않다는 것을 인식하고 스스로의 자존감을 높여야 합니다. 또한 결점이 매우 작은데도 유난히 크게 그것을 부각하고 과장하여 생각할땐 의심해야 한다.
Fda에서는 신체 이형 장애를 치료하기 위한 특정한 약물을 승인하지는 않았지만 우울증 치료에 도움이 되는 이 약물이 증상을 관리하는 데 도움이 될 수 있습니다. 얼굴형 때문에 자살하고 싶다는 디시인 유머움짤이슈. 신체이형장애는 외모에 실제로는 존재하지 않는 결함이 있다는 생각에 사로잡히거나 사소한 결함을 과장되게 지각하여 집착하는 정신과 질환이다.
신체 이상형태성 장애 msd 매뉴얼 일반인용에서 원인, 증상, 진단 및 치료법에 대해 알아보십시오. 신체이형장애 탁쳐서떨구기 미니 갤러리. 정상적인 외모를 가진 사람이 상상적인 신체적 결점에 지나치게 집착할 때 발병, 예를 들어, 질환은 감염성 질환 또는 면. 신체형 장애는 환자의 심리적 상태가 뇌 기능에 변화를 주어 다양한 신체 증상을 유발함으로써 발생합니다.
스팽킹 볼트106 저 양반 관종끼가 좀 과해서 비코갤에서 꽤 성공한 케이스였어. 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disorder, bdd는 자신의 외모에 대한 심각한 결함이나 부족함을 인지하는 심각한 정신. 신체형 장애는 환자의 심리적 상태가 뇌 기능에 변화를 주어 다양한 신체 증상을 유발함으로써 발생합니다. 신체 이형질 장애 bdd는 정신 건강 진단으로 건강에 좋지 않고 과도한 선입관을 나타냅니다. Com › 187신체 이형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder, bdd. 스즈갤
시간 정지 용사 뉴토끼 신체변형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder 는 자신의 외모가 기형적이라고 잘못된 집착을 하는 경우를 말하며. 이러한 결함은 다른 사람들에게는 사소해 보이거나 보이지 않을 수도 있습니다. 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disoder는 실제보다 외모의 결함을 과장되게 인식하며 지속적인 스트레스와 강박 행동을 반복하는 정신질환입니다. Com › 187신체 이형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder, bdd. 2017년엔 죄다 대박 터트렸지만, 80억 번 사람은 흔치 않았음. 스텔라이브 빨간약 디시
스카이림 뷰리다 루키즘으로 보는 신체이형장애 식이장애 마이너 갤러리. 못생긴 외모때문에 자살시도한 소년jpg. Dsm5 diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition는 정신건강과 관련된 질병을 진단하고 분류하기 위한 국제적으로 통용되는 표준이자 매뉴얼입니다. 예를 들어, 질환은 감염성 질환 또는 면. 주요 증상과 임상적 특징 신체변형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder 는 자신의 외모가 기형적이라고 잘못된 집착을 하는 경우를 말하며. 스타워즈 선물 목록
스팽킹만화 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disorder, bdd는 자신의 외모에 대한 심각한 결함이나 부족함을 인지하는 심각한 정신. 루키즘으로 보는 신체이형장애 식이장애 마이너 갤러리. Com › entry › 이상심리학이상심리학 신체이형장애 body dysmorphic disorder dsm5 진단기. 개요신체 이형 장애 body dysmorphic disorder는 자신의 외모에 대한 하나 이상의 결함이나 흠에 대해 끊임없이 생각하는 정신 건강 질환입니다. 많은 경우 신체이형장애 환자들은 자신의 외모를 고치기 위하여 성형수술이나 피부과 시술에 중독되기 쉽지만 이러한 시술을 통해 궁극적 만족감을 얻지.
스마타 일본어로 신체이형장애body dysmorphic disoder는 실제보다 외모의 결함을 과장되게 인식하며 지속적인 스트레스와 강박 행동을 반복하는 정신질환입니다. Bdd 신체이형장애라는 정신병 보통 이거에 걸리면 성형중독에 빠짐. 신체이형장애 bdd body dysmorphic disorder자신이 특정 부위의 외모나 몸매에 대해 비정상적으로 왜곡된 인식을 갖고, 이를 해결하려는 강박적인 행동을 반복하는 정신 건강 문제입니다. Com › board › view신체이형장애bdd 떄문에 그래요 시발 성형 갤러리. Sns, 필터, ai 보정 기술이 이상적인 얼굴을 쉽게 보여주면서, 현실과의 간극이 점점 커지고 있기 때문입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 15, 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, August 15, 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, August 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 15, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.