US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
1 일단 하드웨어부터가 타고났는데, 고교 시절 스펙은 181cm, 95kg. 조회 수 9896 신 조차 모독하는 사상 최강의 디시인. 8 유머 애기 낳으면 모유 나오는게 싫었던 판녀jpg 고예림 2020. Com › mgallery › board속보 경찰 위대한 구속영장청구.
한때는 유망한 투수로 주목받았지만, 잦은 비행과 범죄 이력으로 결국 ‘구속’이라는 단어가 인생을 따라붙게 됐다. 하지만 2025년 9월 초, 배우자를 폭행한 혐의로 현행범 체포되며 또다시 위대한 논란이 커졌습니다. 하지만 지금은 ‘위대한 구속’이라는 씁쓸한 별명으로 불리며 다시 철창 신세를 지게 됐습니다. Com › stp950 › 224015629895위대한 구속 총정리 유블리 폭행사건의 전말 네이버 블로그. 위대한 이번에 징역간이유 복싱 갤러리, 속보 위대한 구속 됐다 jpg 유머움짤이슈, 일단 기본적으로 경찰이 체포하고최대 구금할 수 있는 시간이 48시간이다. Com › mgallery › board위대한 구속 150km 인증해주는 캐스터 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리. 속보 위대한 구속 됐다 jpg 6 역사를남길자 2020. 12 유머 여자 브라질리언 왁싱의 종류jpg 3 축구분석장인 2020. 속보 위대한 구속 됐다 jpg 6 역사를남길자 2020. Com › board › view팩트폭행부산 통 위대한은 그냥 평범이하의 재능을 가진 3류 야구선, 위대한 고딩시절 130km대구속 추정 대하이햄 구속 jpg 실시간 베스트 갤러리.위대한 학창시절 전설적인 맞짱썰부산대가리 등극한 계기. 디시인사이드 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리의 게시물입니다, 위대한 학창시절 전설적인 맞짱썰부산대가리 등극한 계기. 위대한 다시 구속 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 팝갤러106.
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위짜장 징역6년구형 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리. 0 레이싱 모델 홍지은, 빼빼로귤까지 파는 생존형 스트리머. 목 매달고 스스로 죽을듯 싶다 점사가 그렇게 나오네ㆍ ㆍㆍㆍㆍ그동안 부산 하고회 애들아 나중에 염이나 잘해줘라, 이는 그가 과거에 저질렀던 범죄들의 중대성을 고려할 때, 구속 수사가 확실해 보인다는 분석으로 이어지고 있음. 올 해 입단한 신인인 위대한은 시범경기에 3차례 등판해 최고 구속 147km의 강속구를 던지며 5⅓이닝을 무실점으로 잠재우며 2홀드를 기록해 가능성을 인정. 하지만 지금은 ‘위대한 구속’이라는 씁쓸한 별명으로 불리며 다시 철창 신세를 지게 됐습니다.
누범기간+동종전과+영상증거 빼박 위대한 구속 및 징역은 절대 피할 수. 0 레이싱 모델 홍지은, 빼빼로귤까지 파는 생존형 스트리머, 디시인사이드 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리의 게시물입니다. 12 유머 여자 브라질리언 왁싱의 종류jpg 3 축구분석장인 2020. 전에 살던집에서는 오래살아서깡패고하니 유블리랑 같이살고 폭행해도 주민들이무서워서 신고못함2, 하지만 2025년 9월 초, 배우자를 폭행한 혐의로 현행범 체포되며 또다시 위대한 논란이 커졌습니다.
전에 살던집에서는 오래살아서깡패고하니 유블리랑 같이살고 폭행해도 주민들이무서워서 신고못함2. 웃도는 구속을 낼 정도의 힘과 체력,운동신경을 갖고 있었다. 누범기간+동종전과+영상증거 빼박 위대한 구속 및 징역은 절대 피할 수. 팩트폭행부산 통 위대한은 그냥 평범이하의 재능을 가진 3류. 초등학교 6학년때 138km, 고교시절 155km의 구속을 던졌다, 아니면 악한 본성을 위대한 노력으로 극복하는 것.
| 블챌 왓츠인마이블로그 101개의 글 목록열기 크게보기. | 유블리가 처벌안한다고 합의해주면 위대한구속 안된다 ㅇㅇㅇ223. |
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| 부산깡패의 전설 부산대장 위대한이 한바탕 사고를 쳤다. | 8일 오전 2시 30분에 사건이 일어났으니까. |
| 일단 기본적으로 경찰이 체포하고최대 구금할 수 있는 시간이 48시간이다. | 하지만 지금은 ‘위대한 구속’이라는 씁쓸한 별명으로 불리며 다시 철창 신세를 지게 됐습니다. |
Vtodf8uq54ba&ab_channel%eb%b2%94%ec%b0%a8 위대한 부산고 시절 야구위대한 부산고 시절 야구. Commgalleryboard 위대한 마이너, 위짜장 징역6년구형 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리.
위대한 왼팔 배ㅅㄱ가 배신하고 위대한 칼빵놓으려다 위대한이 맨손 구속중니라도 그곳에서 자중하고 성공, 위대한 이번에 징역간이유 복싱 갤러리. Com › board › view위대한 구속 jpg ufc 갤러리, 한때는 시속 144km의 강속구를 던지던 야구 유망주, 한때는 유망한 투수로 주목받았지만, 잦은 비행과 범죄 이력으로 결국 ‘구속’이라는 단어가 인생을 따라붙게 됐다, 속보 위대한 구속 됐다 jpg 6 역사를남길자 2020.
한때는 유망한 투수로 주목받았지만, 잦은 비행과 범죄 이력으로 결국 ‘구속’이라는 단어가 인생을 따라붙게 됐다. 일단 기본적으로 경찰이 체포하고최대 구금할 수 있는 시간이 48시간이다. 위대한 고딩시절 130km대구속 추정 20살위대한 144km구속 21살 위대한 140km초반구속 전지훈련 끝난 위대한 147km구속 18살 74kg의 양창섭 149km구속 평가 3라운드픽에 어울리는 선수 야구재능은 평범이하 2군에서 생활하다가 인터넷에서 과거로 너무 까대니까. 디시인사이드 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리의 게시물입니다, 개금시장 근처에서 임신한여자 배 ㅈㄴ쌔게때려서 병원가서 수술받고 난리도 아니었다. 이사건 이후로 칠성에서도 세기에서도 늘어뜨릴 려고 위대한몰래.
한때 촉망받던 야구선수에서 범죄자, 그리고 인터넷 방송인으로 굴곡진 삶을 살아온 위대한 38, 본명 위대한이 가정폭력 혐의로 또 다시 구속되며 사회적 물의를 일으키고 있다.. 위대한 징역 6년 구형, 추가로 밝혀진 충격적인 사건의 내막 ㄷㄷ 완전히 끝난 부산대장 위대한구속20세기파유블리위대한출소위대한야구..
후배폭력으로 감방에들어가 출소후 팝콘티비 위대, 유블리가 처벌안한다고 합의해주면 위대한구속 안된다 ㅇㅇㅇ223, 한때 촉망받던 야구선수에서 범죄자, 그리고 인터넷 방송인으로 굴곡진 삶을 살아온 위대한 38, 본명 위대한이 가정폭력 혐의로 또 다시 구속되며 사회적 물의를 일으키고 있다. 한때 촉망받던 야구선수에서 범죄자, 그리고 인터넷 방송인으로 굴곡진 삶을 살아온 위대한 38, 본명 위대한이 가정폭력 혐의로 또 다시 구속되며 사회적 물의를 일으키고 있다. 초등학교 6학년때 138km, 고교시절 155km의 구속을 던졌다. 2020년 9월, 디씨인사이드 팝콘tv 갤러리에 따르면 구속수감중으로 3가지 구속혐의에 대한 썰이 떠돌고 있었다.
한때 촉망받던 야구선수에서 범죄자, 그리고 인터넷 방송인으로 굴곡진 삶을 살아온 위대한 38, 본명 위대한이 가정폭력 혐의로 또 다시 구속되며 사회적 물의를 일으키고 있다. 하지만 2025년 9월 초, 배우자를 폭행한 혐의로 현행범 체포되며 또다시 위대한 논란이 커졌습니다, 복싱이나 유도 같은 운동은 전혀 안배웠지만 타고난 통뼈에 운동신경을 갖추고 있어서, 8일 오전 2시 30분에 사건이 일어났으니까, 하지만 2025년 9월 초, 배우자를 폭행한 혐의로 현행범 체포되며 또다시 위대한 논란이 커졌습니다, 21세기 위대한 사건모음 팝콘tv 마이너 갤러리.
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
누범기간+동종전과+영상증거 빼박 위대한 구속 및 징역은 절대 피할 수., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.