US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
2025 하얼빈겨울아시안게임 금메달리스트 김채연 19수리고은 23일 서울 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025 국제빙상경기연맹 isu 피겨스케이팅 사대륙. 김채연은 23일 서울목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025년 국제빙상경기연맹 isu 사대륙선수권대회 여자 싱글 프리. 액션 퍼포먼스 뮤지컬 나 혼자만 레벨업 on ice 오빠를 믿는 진아의 믿음은 진우의 마지막 희망으로 성진아 김채연 올해의 끝, 가장 차가운 세상이 가장 뜨겁게. 연합뉴스 전미선 기자 msjeon22@korea.
작년의 오늘 🛥️ 19살의 김채연 triples 트리플에스 chaeyeon 채연 triples officials image 1 on x, I remembered that signal episode aya palabrica. 불과 일주일 만에 두 대회에서 정상에 올랐다.
2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임 금메달리스트 김채연19군포 수리고등학교이 쇼트 프로그램에서 완벽한 연기를 펼치며 우승을 눈앞에 뒀다, Com › news › read金채연 시대 열었다, 안방서 사대륙 1위1위1위 한국일보. 전체 선수 21명 중 1위를 기록했다. 여자 피겨스케이팅 간판 김채연19수리고이 23일 서울 목동 아이스링크에서 끝난 isu국제빙상경기연맹 피겨스케이팅 사대륙 선수권대회 여자 싱글 정상에 올랐다.
같은 단편소설집 같은 경우에는 각각의 단편을 하나씩 모두 이야기합니다, 공지 엠봉 커뮤니티 일부변경안내 임베드 퍼오는법 13 23. 쇼트프로그램 개인 최고 점수를 받아도. 20일 방송되는 mbn 특종세상에서는 1990년대 후반에서 2000년. 김채연 results on x live posts & updates. Com › kokr › news대학 진학까지 미룬 신피겨퀸 7.
같은 단편소설집 같은 경우에는 각각의 단편을 하나씩 모두 이야기합니다. 13일 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임 여자 싱글 프리스케이팅에서 여자 피겨스케이팅의 새로운 간판으로 떠오른 김채연 19수리고이 세계 1위 사카모토 가오리 25일본에 역전승을 거뒀다. 2년 연속 메달을 노렸던 이해인은 최종 6위, 유영은 최종 12위를 차지했습니다, 납치 자작극 논란 김채연, 저는 납치 당했던 게 맞다20년 만에 눈물로 진실 고백특종세상 스포츠조선 이정혁 기자납치 소동이후 사라진 배우 김채연이 20여년이 흘러 납치자작극의 진실을 눈물로 고백했다.
하지만 지난 시즌을 돌아보면 롤러코스터였다고 한다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 비즈엔터홍지훈 기자특종세상 김채연사진mbn 방송화면 캡처배우 김채연이 특종세상에 출연해 나이 20대 때 벌어졌던 납치 자작극에 대한 이야기와 근황을 전한다, 김채연 19수리고은 23일 서울 양천구 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025 국제빙상경기연맹 isu 피겨스케이팅 사대륙선수권대회 여자 싱글 프리스케이팅에서 기술점수 tes 78, Org › wiki › 김채연_피겨김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 한국 여자 피겨 스케이팅의 간판스타 김채연 19수리고이 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임에서 정상에 올라 금메달을 획득해 화제가 되고 있습니다.
같은 단편소설집 같은 경우에는 각각의 단편을 하나씩 모두 이야기합니다, 김채연 19수리고은 전날 12일 쇼트프로그램을 끝내고 말했다. Org › wiki › 김채연_피겨김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 어제자 쪽 소리나게 뽀뽀하는 김채연 ㄷㄷ.
한국 여자 피겨 스케이팅의 간판스타 김채연 19수리고이 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임에서 정상에 올라 금메달을 획득해 화제가 되고 있습니다.. 김채연이 3월 22일현지시간 캐나다 몬트리올에서 열린 2024 isu 세계피겨선수권대회 여자 싱글 프리스케이팅에서 클린 연기로 시즌 최고점을 기록하고, 동메달을 목에 걸었습니다..
| 최근 살 빠진 트리플에스 김채연 근황 1 1. | 작년의 오늘 🛥️ ⠀ 19살의 김채연⠀ ⠀ triples 트리플에스⠀ chaeyeon 채연 ⠀. | Likes, 0 comments zereu_ on decem 251019 버추얼 라이브 페스티벌 triples 김채연 ️ 김채연 chaeyeon 트리플에스. | 여자 피겨스케이팅 간판 김채연19수리고이 23일 서울 목동 아이스링크에서 끝난 isu국제빙상경기연맹 피겨스케이팅 사대륙 선수권대회 여자 싱글 정상에 올랐다. |
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| 컨디션을 잘 관리해서 프리 스케이팅 후반에 있는 트리플트리플 점프에. | 한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 비즈엔터홍지훈 기자특종세상 김채연사진mbn 방송화면 캡처배우 김채연이 특종세상에 출연해 나이 20대 때 벌어졌던 납치 자작극에 대한 이야기와 근황을 전한다. | Days ago 공지 📢 찰카닥 vvip 할인판매 26. | 한국 여자 피겨 스케이팅의 간판스타 김채연 19수리고이 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임에서 정상에 올라 금메달을 획득해 화제가 되고 있습니다. |
| 2년 연속 메달을 노렸던 이해인은 최종 6위, 유영은 최종 12위를 차지했습니다. | Kr 김채연 19이 isu 4대륙선수권대회에서 개인 최고점을 기록하며 금메달을 차지했다. | Likes, 0 comments zereu_ on decem 251019 버추얼 라이브 페스티벌 triples 김채연 ️ 김채연 chaeyeon 트리플에스. | 한국 여자 피겨 스케이팅 간판 김채연19수리고이 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임에서 금메달을 획득했다. |
| 김채연19수리고 선수가 13일 한국 여자 피겨. | Triples officials image 2 on x. | 작년의 오늘 🛥️ 19살의 김채연 triples 트리플에스 chaeyeon 채연 triples officials image 1 on x. | 김채연은 21일 서울 양천구 목동 실내빙상장에서 열린 2025 국제빙상경기연. |
| 조회 수 642149 추천 수 336 댓글. | Kr › arti › international피겨 김채연 금메달세계 1위 사카모토 꺾고 역전. | 미들 블로커 2이주아 7김희진 12김채연 13최정민 세터 3최연진 4김윤우 5김하경 리베로 8김수빈 14김채원 17구혜인 18김세율 21남은서 임명옥 타 v리그 여자부 구단 명단 김채연의 수상 경력 v리그 챔피언 결정전 우승 2019 v리그 여자부영. | 최근 살 빠진 트리플에스 김채연 근황 1 1. |
최근 살 빠진 트리플에스 김채연 근황 1 1. 김채연19은 키스 앤 크라이 존에서 무덤덤한 표정을 지었다, 김채연이 3월 22일현지시간 캐나다 몬트리올에서 열린 2024 isu 세계피겨선수권대회 여자 싱글 프리스케이팅에서 클린 연기로 시즌 최고점을 기록하고, 동메달을 목에 걸었습니다. 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임 금메달리스트인 김채연19경기도빙상경기연맹이 7.
ymdd472 김채연은 7위에 오른 이해인과 함께 프리스케이팅 진출을 확정 지었습니다. 미들 블로커 2이주아 7김희진 12김채연 13최정민 세터 3최연진 4김윤우 5김하경 리베로 8김수빈 14김채원 17구혜인 18김세율 21남은서 임명옥 타 v리그 여자부 구단 명단 김채연의 수상 경력 v리그 챔피언 결정전 우승 2019 v리그 여자부영. 김채연 19수리고은 23일 서울 양천구 목동아이스링크에서 열린 2025 국제빙상경기연맹 isu 피겨스케이팅 사대륙선수권대회 여자 싱글 프리스케이팅에서 기술점수 tes 78. 한국 여자 피겨 스케이팅의 간판스타 김채연 19수리고이 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임에서 정상에 올라 금메달을 획득해 화제가 되고 있습니다. Org › wiki › 김채연_피겨김채연 피겨스케이팅 선수 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. x videos
yodomu hitomi 13일 김채연은 중국 하얼빈 헤이룽장 빙상. I remembered that signal episode aya palabrica. 사진 하얼빈연합뉴스 스포츠서울 김동영 기자 한국 피겨스케이팅 여자 싱글 ‘간판’ 김채연 19수리고이 동계아시안게임 금메달을 따냈다. 작년의 오늘 🛥️ 19살의 김채연 triples 트리플에스 chaeyeon 채연 jm vr. 어제자 쪽 소리나게 뽀뽀하는 김채연 ㄷㄷ 유머움짤이슈. yasasdong
yandex 이미지 미들 블로커 2이주아 7김희진 12김채연 13최정민 세터 3최연진 4김윤우 5김하경 리베로 8김수빈 14김채원 17구혜인 18김세율 21남은서 임명옥 타 v리그 여자부 구단 명단 김채연의 수상 경력 v리그 챔피언 결정전 우승 2019 v리그 여자부영. 13일 김채연은 중국 하얼빈 헤이룽장 빙상. 컨디션을 잘 관리해서 프리스케이팅 후반에 있는 트리플트리플 점프에. Com › news › read金채연 시대 열었다, 안방서 사대륙 1위1위1위 한국일보. 납치 자작극 논란 김채연, 저는 납치 당했던 게 맞다20년 만에 눈물로 진실 고백특종세상 스포츠조선 이정혁 기자납치 소동이후 사라진 배우 김채연이 20여년이 흘러 납치자작극의 진실을 눈물로 고백했다. x실시간랭킹
yonu1201 of leak 사진 하얼빈연합뉴스 스포츠서울 김동영 기자 한국 피겨스케이팅 여자 싱글 ‘간판’ 김채연 19수리고이 동계아시안게임 금메달을 따냈다. 20일 방송되는 mbn 특종세상에서는 1990년대 후반에서 2000년. 조회 수 642149 추천 수 336 댓글. 연합뉴스 전미선 기자 msjeon22@korea. Watch short videos about 김채연 19 from people around the world.
yako.0 김채연19은 키스 앤 크라이 존에서 무덤덤한 표정을 지었다. 301 지금, 여기 instrumental. 2025 하얼빈 동계 아시안게임 금메달리스트 김채연19군포 수리고등학교이 쇼트 프로그램에서 완벽한 연기를 펼치며 우승을 눈앞에 뒀다. 작년의 오늘 🛥️ 19살의 김채연 triples 트리플에스 chaeyeon 채연 jm vr. 김채연19수리고이 하얼빈 아시안게임에 이어 23일 서울 목동 아이스링크에서 열린 2025 국제빙상경기연맹isu 피겨스케이팅 사대륙선수권대회.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 11, 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.
Triples officials image 2 on x., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.