배우 한석규윤계상추자현 등이 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당에 합류했다.

괸당의 어원은 동사 괴다밑을 받치다 support로, 서로 사랑하는 관계인 혈족, 친족이란 제주 방언이다.

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 17, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, August 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, August 17, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 17, 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 17, 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.

한석규윤계상, 제주 배경의 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당서 호흡. 육지에서는 흔히들 텃세라고도 하고, 좀 더 정확히 말하자면 괸당 문화 때문이다. 그래서 제주도인들의 괸당의식은 매우 견고하다. 아직 촬영 전으로 캐스팅 라인업만 공개됐지만 기대감이 생겨난다.

3사건 이후 더욱 강화된 이 문화는 현재까지도 제주 사회의 상부상조 정신을 대표하는 독특한 문화로 자리 잡았습니다. 한석규x윤계상x추자현, 넷플릭스 누아르 괸당 뭉친다 공식. 괸당 문화는 제주의 전통적인 사회 질서와 관습을 이해하는 데 있어 중요한 역할을 합니다.
궁금증을 자극하는 제목 ‘괸당’은 함께 제사를 지내는 친인척을 뜻하는 제주도 사투리에서 따왔다. 잔치와 행사에서의 역할 – 결혼식, 장례식 등에서 괸당들은 단순한 하객이 아니라 적극적으로 준비를 돕고 참여해요. 제주도에서는 가족과 친척 간의 유대감이 아주 중요한데, 괸당이라는 단어에는 단순한 혈연을 넘어서는 특별한 의미가 담겨 있어요.
다만 곁에서 보고 들은 괸당은 외지인이 도민의 이익을 침해하는 상황. 괴다 사랑하다 라는 뜻의 고어로 알고 있는데, 서로 괴는 사람들 뭐 이런 뜻으로 시작하지 않았을까 싶다. 박학다식에서도 8월에 방영할 유투브 녹화를 마치고 다녀갔다며 저에게 자랑까지 합니다.
제목 괸당 뜻은 친척을 뜻하는 제주도 방언이라는데 이게 단순히 혈연관계만을 의미하는 게 아니라 제주도라는 공간 안에서 얽히고설킨 복잡한 관계. Com › news › articleview기자수첩 제주도의 생활문화 ‘괸당’ 제주환경일보. 해당 드라마는 단순한 친척 관계를 넘어 제주도 지역 사회 내.

아버지 쪽과 어머니 쪽을 나누어 구분하기도 하는데, 친가를 성펜괸당, 외가를 웨펜괸당이라 한다.

괸당은 권당眷黨에서 비롯된 말로, 친인척을 뜻하는 제주도 사투리다. 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당 가제은 제주의 패권을 두고 가문과 가족을 지키기 위해 대립하는 부씨, 양씨, 고씨 세 일가의 이야기를 그린 느와르다. 엄밀히 말하자면, 나는 괸당으로 인해 배척을 당했다던지 직접적으로 불이익을 본 사람은 아니다. 방송 경험이 많아서인지 사진 찍는 포즈까지 일일이 조언을 해주십니다. 줄여 말하면 眷은 가권, 친속, 친척, 문중종씨를 말하고, 黨은 뜻을 같이하는 무리들이다, 괸당은 함께 제사를 지내는 친인척을 뜻하는 제주 사투리로, 제주 사회의 끈끈한 유대와 관계를 상징합니다, 정의 제주특별자치도 제주에서 ‘친인척’을 의미, 결론 제주도의 괸당문화는 오랜 역사와 환경적 요인 속에서 형성된 독특한 사회적 구조로, 제주 사람들의 삶에 깊은 영향을 미치고 있습니다. 그중에서도 괸당 문화는 제주의 전통적인 생활 방식과 깊은 관계를 맺고 있는 중요한 문화적 요소입니다. 방송 경험이 많아서인지 사진 찍는 포즈까지 일일이 조언을 해주십니다, 이와 더불어 제주도 특유의 지역주의, 연고주의를 표현할 때도 쓰인다, 돌보는 무리라는 뜻의 권당에서 유래했다는 설도 있다. 제주 특유의 괸당 관계 속에서 얽히고설킨 부씨, 양씨, 고씨 일가가 혈투를 벌이는 이야기를 담을 예정이다, 넷플릭스는 21일 새 시리즈 괸당 제작을 확정하고 한석규, 윤계상, 추자현, 유재명, 김종수, 고두심을 캐스팅했다고 밝혔다.
그중에서도 괸당 문화는 제주의 전통적인 생활 방식과 깊은 관계를 맺고 있는 중요한 문화적 요소입니다.. 괸당은 한자어 眷黨의 권당 제주식 발음이다..

그 원인으로 지역 공동체에 소속감을 못 느끼는 것이 대표적 원인이다.

생각하기 나름이겠지만 길다면 긴 시간일테고 짧다면 짧은 시간이겠지만 저한테는 길게 느껴지는 시간입니다.

괸당 문화 제주도 사람들의 괸당은 하나의 문화적 전통이다. Sbs연예뉴스 김지혜 기자 배우 한석규, 윤계상, 추자현, 유재명, 김종수, 고두심이 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당 가제으로 뭉친다, 현대화와 글로벌화의 흐름 속에서도 괸당문화는 여전히 제주도의 정체성을 대표하는 중요한 요소로 남아 있습니다, Com › musa2000 › 221156271630‘괸당문화’아픈 역사의 산물 네이버 블로그.

제주도의 독특한 문화적 특징 중 하나로 꼽히는 괸당문화 權黨文化는 제주 사회를 이해하는 데 있어 핵심적인 요소입니다, 드라마 관련 편집 제목인 괸당은 친척을 뜻하는 제주도 방언이다. 그래서 제주도인들의 괸당의식은 매우 견고하다, 제목 괸당 뜻은 친척을 뜻하는 제주도 방언이라는데 이게 단순히 혈연관계만을 의미하는 게 아니라 제주도라는 공간 안에서 얽히고설킨 복잡한 관계. 우리집 앞은 차 한대가 주차할수 있는 공간이 있다, 올바른 의미의 제주괸당문화는 독립국으로서의 지위를 가진 고대로부터 독특한 문화를 유지하면서 중앙권력과 외세의 침략에 저항했던 제주인들 특유의 자립정신까지 아우리는 말이다.

라이키 구독 뚫기 05화 직장에서 경험한 제주 괸당 문화. 괸당들의 은밀한 모임, 랜선으로 함께 해요. 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당 가제은 제주의 패권을 두고 가문과 가족을 지키기 위해 대립하는 부씨, 양씨, 고씨 세 일가의 이야기를 그린 느와르다. Com › entry › 제주도제주도 괸당문화란 유래 역사 총정리. 그래서 나는 괸당을 벗어나, 새로운 방식으로 제주에서 관계를 만들어가고 있다. 레스토랑 료고쿠 국기관

디시ncmec 그친구가 고등학교 때까지 제주도에서 살다가 서울로 오게되었는데요. 제주도에서는 가족과 친척 간의 유대감이 아주 중요한데, 괸당이라는 단어에는 단순한 혈연을 넘어서는 특별한 의미가 담겨 있어요. 옆집에 빤쓰팬티 쪼가리가 몇 장인지, 숟가락 젓가락이 몇 짝인지도 아는 우리들의. 제목인 괸당은 친척을 뜻하는 제주도 방언이다. 제주도의 독특한 문화적 특징 중 하나로 꼽히는 괸당문화權黨文化는 제주 사회를 이해하는 데 있어 핵심적인 요소입니다. 레쟌드야동

딥페 사이트 나무위키 괸당 문화 제주도 사람들의 괸당은 하나의 문화적 전통이다. 괸당의 어원은 동사 괴다밑을 받치다 support로, 서로 사랑하는 관계인 혈족, 친족이란 제주 방언이다. 방송 경험이 많아서인지 사진 찍는 포즈까지 일일이 조언을 해주십니다. 그가 말한 괸당문화라 함은 그저 공동체 이기주의에 불과할 뿐이다. 제주 특유의 상부상조 정신이 깃든 괸당문화의 진정한 가치를 함께 확인해보세요. 뚱녀 레제

레시피 읽어주는 여자 나이 디시 생각하기 나름이겠지만 길다면 긴 시간일테고 짧다면 짧은 시간이겠지만 저한테는 길게 느껴지는 시간입니다. Net › jeju › toc궨당 디지털제주문화대전. 박학다식에서도 8월에 방영할 유투브 녹화를 마치고 다녀갔다며 저에게 자랑까지 합니다. Com › entry › 제주도제주도 괸당문화란 유래 역사 총정리. 때문에 앞으로 제주에는 공적인 일에 잘못된 괸당문화가 개입하지 않고 예전같이 따뜻함이 남아있는 괸당문화로 전승되기를 바라 마지않는다.

레제 강간 그가 말한 괸당문화라 함은 그저 공동체 이기주의에 불과할 뿐이다. 3사건 이후 더욱 강화된 이 문화는 현재까지도 제주 사회의 상부상조 정신을 대표하는 독특한 문화로 자리 잡았습니다. 괸당 가제은 제주의 패권을 두고 가문과 가족을 지키기 위해 대립하는 부씨, 양씨, 고씨 세 일가의 이야기를 그린 느와르다. 괸당은 한자어 眷黨의 권당 제주식 발음이다. 현대화와 글로벌화의 흐름 속에서도 괸당문화는 여전히 제주도의 정체성을 대표하는 중요한 요소로 남아 있습니다.

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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 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 17, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

배우 한석규윤계상추자현 등이 넷플릭스 시리즈 괸당에 합류했다., 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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