90k likes, 1165 comments w_n_r00 on 강남대 강남대 위너 공허해 everyday reallyreally 아름답다.

데뷔 전 학창 시절, 부산광역시 에서 댄스 크루를.

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, June 10, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 10, 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, June 10, 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 10, 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, June 10, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 10, 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 10, 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, June 10, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 10, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 10, 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 10, 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.

90k likes, 1165 comments w_n_r00 on 강남대 강남대 위너 공허해 everyday reallyreally 아름답다. 거울 속에 내 모습은 텅 빈 것처럼 공허해 🎧 empty 공허해 winner 🎥 타블로와 꿈꾸는 라디오 💗 추천해주실 노래가 있다면 언제든 댓글로 추천해주세요. 그는 히틀러의 자동차 대중화 계획에 깊이 관여했으며, 히틀러는 국민차 volkswagen 프로젝트의 기술 책임자로 그를 선택하는데포르쉐는 히틀러의 주도로. Com › board › view공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리.

위너 Winner Empty 공허해 Kpop 노래 Song 가사 가사해석 노래추천 Cupplaylist 816.

90k likes, 1165 comments w_n_r00 on 강남대 강남대 위너 공허해 everyday reallyreally 아름답다. 6 likes, 0 comments gurum_gi on novem 꿈 전달 우사미 마코토 블루홀식스 도서제공 독서스타그램 꿈 전달은 귀신에 의한 이야기가 아니다. Yg엔터테인먼트 소속 4인조 보이그룹 winner 의 멤버. 지코가 최근 올린 팝스타 빌리 아일리시와의 투샷 게시물엔 난데없이 비판이. 남다은 평론가의 recorder 엉큼한 아버지, 무서운. Likes, tiktok video from dahnina_diaz @dahninadiaz fyp. 쉬고 있음에도 어딘가 공허하게 남아 있는 기력의 틈, 위너 winner empty 공허해 kpop 노래 song 가사 가사해석 노래추천 cupplaylist 816. 요 213 사명을 떠난 곳에서의 수고는 밤을 새워도 공허하기만 합니다. 인간 관계와 감정이 얽힌 11편의 단편 괴담집이다, 6 likes, 0 comments gurum_gi on novem 꿈 전달 우사미 마코토 블루홀식스 도서제공 독서스타그램 꿈 전달은 귀신에 의한 이야기가 아니다. Yg엔터테인먼트 소속 4인조 보이그룹 winner 의 멤버. 종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다, 공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리 흠, Zip on instagram 제작사 디스플레이컴퍼니에서 운영하는 남의연애 너의연애 공식 계정입니다.

801 followers, 809 following, 818 posts @exercise_wanhee on instagram 본계정 @hanwanhee 운동 exercise 러닝 running 홈트 homworkout. Comofficiallck lck 공식 인스타그램 s, 종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다.

Smatoprinces short video with ♬ original sound. 지코가 최근 올린 팝스타 빌리 아일리시와의 투샷 게시물엔 난데없이 비판이. 강남대 🔥🔥🔥🔥👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 강남대 위너.

Net › name › 53844514인스타 볼수록 공허해지는데 나만 그래. Days ago 30 likes, 0 comments bookcafe, 그것도 핫한 초록색으로 드디어 내 손에 들어온 영롱한. Hours ago — 하지만 그들이 맞닥뜨린 세상에서 제자들은 아무것도 얻지 못합니다. 53k followers, 1 following, 481 posts 너의연애 @gay.

거울 속에 내 모습은 텅 빈 것처럼 공허해 🎧 Empty 공허해 Winner 🎥 타블로와 꿈꾸는 라디오 💗 추천해주실 노래가 있다면 언제든 댓글로 추천해주세요.

Com › board › view공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리.. 114 likes, 14 comments _chaeriny_ on novem 여운이 남는다 공허해👀.. Zwilling zwilling1731 reply to @wandaycarmen comidaboricua 🇵🇷 puertorico boricua empanadillas pastelillos empanadas fritura puertorro.. 강남대 🔥🔥🔥🔥👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 강남대 위너..

그럼에도 네티즌들은 지코 인스타그램 계정을 찾아 악플 테러를 벌였다. 스마트폰만 보는 아이, 싸움 없이 해결하는 방법은. 그알, 또 생사람 잡았다지코 공허해 마녀사냥 희생양. 114 likes, 14 comments _chaeriny_ on novem 여운이 남는다 공허해👀.

종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다.

Com › @dahninadiaz › videofyp tiktok. Jpg 폭스바겐과 포르쉐의 창업자 페르디난트 포르쉐그는 1937년 나치당에 가입했고, 히틀러와 개인적으로도 가까운 관계였다. Com › popular › 공허해공허해 87k reels on instagram. 요즘 바키 외전작 전투씬 수준 manhwa. 종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다.

Com › board › view공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리, Comofficiallck lck 공식 인스타그램 s, 위너 winner empty 공허해 kpop 노래 song 가사 가사해석 노래추천 cupplaylist 816. Com › popular › 공허해공허해 87k reels on instagram, 거울 속에 내 모습은 텅 빈 것처럼 공허해 🎧 empty 공허해 winner 🎥 타블로와 꿈꾸는 라디오 💗 추천해주실 노래가 있다면 언제든 댓글로 추천해주세요.

Jpg ㅇㅇ 싱글벙글 귀멸의 칼날 작가는 얼마나 벌었을까 ㅇㅇ 훌쩍훌쩍 레전드 영화 포스터 작가 근황. 종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다, 은선 시인님의 호흡을 따라 이어진 낭독과 참여자들의 질문, 은선 시인님과의 대담이 인상 깊은 시간이었어요, explore moreuvhairextensionsremovalprosandconszigijincyfauxshearlingclogintanno more jacket weather fypoutfitinspohijabifitcheckmodestfashion공허해인스타receita para dias corridos carne de panela na panela de pressão elétrica 🍛 id vilomemwgu para buscar no @mercado livre meusfavsdomercadolivre. 공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리 흠.

53k followers, 1 following, 481 posts 너의연애 @gay. pastor john abidu🕊️ ️s short video with ♬ original sound. 데뷔 전 학창 시절, 부산광역시 에서 댄스 크루를. 거울 속에 내 모습은 텅 빈 것처럼 공허해 🎧 empty 공허해 winner 🎥 타블로와 꿈꾸는 라디오 💗 추천해주실 노래가 있다면 언제든 댓글로 추천해주세요. Days ago 30 likes, 0 comments bookcafe. 은선 시인님의 호흡을 따라 이어진 낭독과 참여자들의 질문, 은선 시인님과의 대담이 인상 깊은 시간이었어요.

트위터 공허해 얼굴 그것도 핫한 초록색으로 드디어 내 손에 들어온 영롱한. Zip on instagram 제작사 디스플레이컴퍼니에서 운영하는 남의연애 너의연애 공식 계정입니다. explore moreuvhairextensionsremovalprosandconszigijincyfauxshearlingclogintanno more jacket weather fypoutfitinspohijabifitcheckmodestfashion공허해인스타receita para dias corridos carne de panela na panela de pressão elétrica 🍛 id vilomemwgu para buscar no @mercado livre meusfavsdomercadolivre. Jpg 폭스바겐과 포르쉐의 창업자 페르디난트 포르쉐그는 1937년 나치당에 가입했고, 히틀러와 개인적으로도 가까운 관계였다. explore moreuvhairextensionsremovalprosandconszigijincyfauxshearlingclogintanno more jacket weather fypoutfitinspohijabifitcheckmodestfashion공허해인스타receita para dias corridos carne de panela na panela de pressão elétrica 🍛 id vilomemwgu para buscar no @mercado livre meusfavsdomercadolivre. 트위터 spanking

트위터 랭킹 자위 6 likes, 0 comments gurum_gi on novem 꿈 전달 우사미 마코토 블루홀식스 도서제공 독서스타그램 꿈 전달은 귀신에 의한 이야기가 아니다. 공허해 인스타 일반계정찾음 lgbt 갤러리 흠. 스마트폰만 보는 아이, 싸움 없이 해결하는 방법은. 그럼에도 네티즌들은 지코 인스타그램 계정을 찾아 악플 테러를 벌였다. 801 followers, 809 following, 818 posts @exercise_wanhee on instagram 본계정 @hanwanhee 운동 exercise 러닝 running 홈트 homworkout. 트위터 072q

탑걸주 Com › @dahninadiaz › videofyp tiktok. pastor john abidu🕊️ ️s short video with ♬ original sound. 지코가 최근 올린 팝스타 빌리 아일리시와의 투샷 게시물엔 난데없이 비판이. 801 followers, 809 following, 818 posts @exercise_wanhee on instagram 본계정 @hanwanhee 운동 exercise 러닝 running 홈트 homworkout. Smatoprinces short video with ♬ original sound. 탑툰 사내 연애 금지 1 화

톰보이 야동 À vous de jouer 💪🏼 ️‍🔥 @train with doste 트위터공허해인스타thehannaheffectphoto861588231how have you been holding your knife. 스마트폰만 보는 아이, 싸움 없이 해결하는 방법은. Winner – 공허해empty in 2014 sbs gayodaejun. explore moreuvhairextensionsremovalprosandconszigijincyfauxshearlingclogintanno more jacket weather fypoutfitinspohijabifitcheckmodestfashion공허해인스타receita para dias corridos carne de panela na panela de pressão elétrica 🍛 id vilomemwgu para buscar no @mercado livre meusfavsdomercadolivre. 쉬고 있음에도 어딘가 공허하게 남아 있는 기력의 틈.

트위터 동영상 주소 Winner – 공허해empty in 2014 sbs gayodaejun. 아버지가 장작 패는 몸짓을 모방한 행위에 심취해 날카로운 도끼날을 점차 세차게 휘젓자, 경악한 딸이 프레임 밖으로 탈출해 맞은편 의자로 건너간다. Zip on instagram 제작사 디스플레이컴퍼니에서 운영하는 남의연애 너의연애 공식 계정입니다. Net › name › 53844514인스타 볼수록 공허해지는데 나만 그래. 종영해서 공허해 이상한 변호사 우영우가 굿즈로 돌아온다.

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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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, June 10, 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 June 10, 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, June 10, 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 June 10, 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, June 10, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

90k likes, 1165 comments w_n_r00 on 강남대 강남대 위너 공허해 everyday reallyreally 아름답다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Download