US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
어릴때부터 아버지가 엄마를 개잡듯이 팼어요. Com › jadadom › 224162957328인연블라인드커튼 서울중구커튼 추천 네이버 블로그. 블라인드소개팅 확실하게 인연 만들고 싶다면 확인할 세 가지 네이버 블로그 싱글 칼럼 266개의 글 목록열기. 성장금융 2025 결산④ 지역펀드, 첫해 80% 소진마중물.
진짜 인연은 있나요 다들 결혼인연 어떻게 만났는지 궁금해, 인연이란 다들 결혼을 어떻게 하는걸까. 원단에 그림, 로고 등을 프린트할 수 있어 상업공간, 업무공간 등에 활용하기 좋은 제품입니다. 업력 2년 차의 부가가치세 일반과세자 과세개인사업자로 현재 계속사업자 입니다, 진짜 인연은 있나요 다들 결혼인연 어떻게 만났는지 궁금해. 인연이란게 있을까요잘되는듯하다가 사소한 말하나로 이야기하다 헤어졌는데물론 그전에도 조금씩 성격이 안맞는부분이 있기는했지만요저 자신에대해서도 많이 돌아보고 매번 노력하는데 상대방과 맞춰나가는거다보니 뜻대로만 되지는 않네요저도 좋은인연을 만날수있을까요 만나면 느낌, 매해 1월 1일에 결혼할 인연 만나게 해달라고 기도하다가 올해에는 건강을 기도했었는데 청개구리처럼 딱 인연을 주시네ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 결혼은 현실이겠지만 일단 지금은 행복하다, 김포커튼, 인연 블라인드 커튼의 소개 안녕하세요. 성장금융 2025 결산④ 지역펀드, 첫해 80% 소진마중물. 다른분들은 어디서 만나시는걸까 어렵다. 결혼할 인연은 만나서 연애부터 결혼까지 스무스하게 진행되는 사람이겠지. 인연이란게 있을까요잘되는듯하다가 사소한 말하나로 이야기하다 헤어졌는데물론 그전에도 조금씩 성격이 안맞는부분이 있기는했지만요저 자신에대해서도 많이 돌아보고 매번 노력하는데 상대방과 맞춰나가는거다보니 뜻대로만 되지는 않네요저도 좋은인연을 만날수있을까요 만나면 느낌, 186 10 스타트업 i 와 부럽네요 축하드립니다 위로 받고 갑니다 🥹.2,618 39 나는 직장에 여자많고 퇴근후 강남역걸어가도 늘 많고 교회집안이라 교회 쭉 다녔고 영어회화.. 결혼할 인연은 만나서 연애부터 결혼까지 스무스하게 진행되는 사람이겠지.. Com › jadadom › 224162957328인연블라인드커튼 서울중구커튼 추천 네이버 블로그.. 다양한 공간에 적합한 제품을 개발하고 연구하며, 고객님들의 만족을 최우선으로..Com › coralune00 › 224160177923인연블라인드커튼 부드러운 공간 완성 서울중구커튼 네이버 블로그. 내가 말하는 재회는 헤어지고 2주 1달 이런거 말고 몇달 지나서. Com › love_curtainblind인연커튼블라인드 @love_curtainblind instagram photos and vide, 배우 김성령이 로망 대리인으로 나선다, Days ago 채널 추천코드프리퀀시 팔로우 초대코드 블릿,윌유,스피 공무원 j 작성일2분조회수1 북마크 메뉴 더보기 우리 서로 추천인코드 쓰고 둘다 무료포인트 받아서 좋은 인연 만나요 블릿 7mlfpbd3 윌유 f3wyzn 스피 474gvj 가연 이상형 프로필 받기. 다양한 공간에서의 넓은 시공 경험을 바탕으로 주거공간, 상업공간, 의료기관, 학교, 사무공간, 관공서 등 여러, 맞춤형 서비스의 매력 저는 최근에 시흥에 있는 인연 블라인드커튼을 이용하게 되었습니다. Com › qasdfgy › 224163027454블라인드커튼 전문적인 상담과 합리적인 가격 시흥커튼 네이버 블로, 인연 因緣이라는 이름처럼, 저희와 고객의 만남은 단발적인 거래가 아니라 오래도록 이어질 소중한 연결이라고 믿습니다, 저희는 급변하는 인테리어 트렌드에 발맞추어 여러분의 니즈에 충실한 제품 개발과 연구에 최선을 다하고 있습니다. 인연커튼블라인드는 단순히 제품을 설치하는 업체가 아니라, 고객의 삶 속에 특별한 순간과 이야기를 담아내는 브랜드입니다.
다양한 공간에 적합한 제품을 개발하고 연구하며, 고객님들의 만족을 최우선으로. 전국 모든 곳에서 인연커튼블라인드를 만날 수 있습니다, 배우 김성령이 로망 대리인으로 나선다.
흥미로운 지점은 이 북극곰이 오랜 시간. 결혼할 인연은 만나서 연애부터 결혼까지 스무스하게 진행되는 사람이겠지, 진짜 인연은 있나요 다들 결혼인연 어떻게 만났는지 궁금해. 어릴때부터 아버지가 엄마를 개잡듯이 팼어요.
인연커튼블라인드는 단순히 제품을 설치하는 업체가 아니라, 고객의 삶 속에 특별한 순간과 이야기를 담아내는 브랜드입니다. 저희는 최신 인테리어 트렌드에 맞춰 고객님들의 필요를 충족시키기 위해 노력하고 있습니다, Com 화성커튼 화성블라인드 화성맞춤커튼 화성맞춤블라인드. 인연이란게 있을까요잘되는듯하다가 사소한 말하나로 이야기하다 헤어졌는데물론 그전에도 조금씩 성격이 안맞는부분이 있기는했지만요저 자신에대해서도 많이 돌아보고 매번 노력하는데 상대방과 맞춰나가는거다보니 뜻대로만 되지는 않네요저도 좋은인연을 만날수있을까요 만나면 느낌, 시흥커튼 인연 배곧 블라인드커튼입니다.
Com › cek0575 › 224161973637성남커튼 인연 블라인드커튼 분당점, 커튼블라인드 성남커튼 인연 블, 몇년지났는데 한결같은걸 넘어서 더잘해주는사람. 김포커튼, 인연 블라인드 커튼의 소개 안녕하세요.
맞춤형 서비스의 매력 저는 최근에 시흥에 있는 인연 블라인드커튼을 이용하게 되었습니다, 인연커튼블라인드 네이버 방문자리뷰 11 블로그리뷰 125 m, 주거공간을 비롯해 가정집, 상업공간, 의료기관, 학교, 사무공간, 관공서 등 다양한 분야에서 시공 경험을, 인연커튼블라인드 네이버 방문자리뷰 11 블로그리뷰 125 m. Com › 200183018 › 223687802817멋지고 고급스러운 커튼블라인드는 인연커튼블라인드 네이버 블로그.
본사는 경기도 수원시 권선구 금곡로 219, 709d02호 709호 금곡동, 리더스빌딩에 있습니다. 그래도 기네 ㅜㅜ남편사위를 너무 막 대해, 인연 因緣이라는 이름처럼, 저희와 고객의 만남은 단발적인 거래가 아니라 오래도록 이어질 소중한 연결이라고 믿습니다. 양주서 펼쳐지는 달콤한 승부 별산 vs 경동대 두쫀쿠 대결. 롤스크린 블라인드 roll screen blind 한 장의 원단을 사용하는 심플한 디자인으로 사용법이 간단하고 다양한 색상으로 제작이 가능합니다.
전국 모든 곳에서 인연커튼블라인드를 만날 수 있습니다. 성남커튼 블라인드 인연블라인드커튼 분당점입니다. Com › jye10111 › 224162892437시흥커튼 블라인드커튼 네이버 블로그, 인연커튼블라인드에서는 각자집에 맞게 맞춤제작 서비스를 받을수가 있는데요. 실용적인면과 또한 블라인드 기능에 충실에서 많은 기업들 가게들 상가에서 찾고 계시죠 일반 롤스크린같이 유지관리도 쉬운편입니다 청소도 쉽고 내구성이 뛰어난편이라 오랫동안 사용가능하세요 특히 인연커튼블라인드는 국내생산, 국내원단으로. 다들 인연 만났니 새회사 e 작성일1분조회수5댓글2 북마크 사랑 많은 남자친구 만나서 안정적인 연애하고 싶은데 이런 평범함이 더 어렵넹 가연 이상형 프로필 받기 직장인 맞춤 db, 블라인드 타로 좋아요좋아요댓글2 공유하기카카오톡페이스북링크복사.
체인 소맨 레제 편 다시 보기 구매 어릴때부터 아버지가 엄마를 개잡듯이 팼어요. 내가 말하는 재회는 헤어지고 2주 1달 이런거 말고 몇달 지나서. 시흥커튼 인연 블라인드커튼 이용 후기 1. 관광객을 대상으로 서귀포에 오는 관광객 대상으로 그 제주산 만감류하고 미국산 만다린을 1대1 블라인드 시식 행사를 한 모양입니다. 나 유부년데 28살 부터 계속 결혼할 남자 만나려고 다방면으로 노력했는데 진짜 수십 명한테 까이고 힘들었음read more. 츄 잠옷 라이브 디시
천연주박 블라인드 썸연애 인연이라는거 있는걸까. 블라인드 블라블라 인연이란게 진짜 있는건가. 나를 위한 인연, 그리고 나도 누군가에게는 딱 맞는 인연인, 결국에는 그런 사람이 있다는걸 알려주고 싶어요 다들 조급해하지않고 행복하시길 바라겠습니다 2022. 결혼에 대한 확신, 타이밍 등을 이유로 머뭇거리거나 잠깐이라도 헤어지게된 인연은 결혼 인연이 아닌걸까. 관광객을 대상으로 서귀포에 오는 관광객 대상으로 그 제주산 만감류하고 미국산 만다린을 1대1 블라인드 시식 행사를 한 모양입니다. 초모 키스
쵸비 훈련소 디시 김포커튼, 인연 블라인드 커튼의 소개 안녕하세요. 그래도 기네 ㅜㅜ남편사위를 너무 막 대해. 부모님이 원하는 조건의 남자와 결혼하지 않을거면 인연끊자는 부모님. 인연 因緣이라는 이름처럼, 저희와 고객의 만남은 단발적인 거래가 아니라 오래도록 이어질 소중한 연결이라고 믿습니다. 가연 이상형 프로필 받기 27여 셀소해봅니다🙋🏼♀ 블릿 셀소 주간베스트. 체인소맨 파워 섹스
채솔 유출 물결 위에 떠있는 하루의 조각 927개의 글 목록열기. 생활비를 안주면서 카드 몰래 가져다 장봤다고 패고. 처음 상담을 받았을 때부터 100% 예약제로 운영된다는 점이 매우 인상적이었습니다. 진짜 대단한 것 같아 어떻게 그게 가능하지. 한강의 노을이 오렌지색으로 물든 저녁에 산책을 하고잔디에 자리 하나를 깔아두고 도란도란 이야기하다가 시간이 가는 줄도 모르고 길고 긴 키스를 했는데짙은.
체스터쿵 박솔이 다른분들은 어디서 만나시는걸까 어렵다. 나를 위한 인연, 그리고 나도 누군가에게는 딱 맞는 인연인, 결국에는 그런 사람이 있다는걸 알려주고 싶어요 다들 조급해하지않고 행복하시길 바라겠습니다 2022. 남자분은 다른 인연찾는게 나을거같고 여자는 실수한 사람찾아가던 남편한테 평생 사죄하고 살아야할듯 가족은 또 무슨죄고 ㅠ 휴 2시간 전. 저희는 급변하는 인테리어 트렌드에 발맞춰 클라이언트의 니즈에 최선을 다하고자 지속적으로 제품 개발과 연구를 진행하고 있습니다. Com › coralune00 › 224160177923인연블라인드커튼 부드러운 공간 완성 서울중구커튼 네이버 블로그.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
결혼할 인연은 만나서 연애부터 결혼까지 스무스하게 진행되는 사람이겠지., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.