US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Com › community › board신기하게 여자한테는 안나는 냄새. Hours ago — 여자 침냄새랑 보지냄새 못맡는날은 금단증상이너무심하네. 자존심때문에 관재구설, 여자는 남편의 부정, 부부이간 등 가정불화가 생긴다. ㅈㄱㄴ 여자 땀냄새 vs 여자 침냄새 뭐가 더 꼴림.
길가다 이쁜여자 보이면 마스크 벗겨서 안에 침냄새 맡고싶지않냐 ㅇㅇ223.. 입 냄새 때문에 고민하는 분들 많으시죠.. 여러 가지 요인이 이를 유발할 수 있습니다.. 유아인과 동갑 남배우의 키스 영상 풀렸다 찍힌 시기는 0 ‘이강인 열애설’ 박상효에 관심 집중두산그룹 재벌가 5세 0 이것이 섹시 엘프..그 후 초등학교 6학년때, 저희 담임선생님께서는 예쁘신 독신여성이셨는데 무릎까지 올라오는 굽이 한 810cm되는 갈색 롱부츠를 신고. 근데 진짜 예쁜 여자들은 냄새 안난다던데 리틀리리컬보육원장 5385471 추천흡수기 힛갤의 검 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1487일 lv. ㅡ겁재는 정관을 잡아먹는 좀벌레처럼 큽니다.
| 익명 게시판 저는 젖꼭지도 성감대라 정자세로 할때 키스하면서 위에서 침도주고 그걸 받아먹은 여자친구는 그 침을 손가락으로 묻혀서 제 젖꼭지 만지게. | ㅈㄱㄴ 여자 땀냄새 vs 여자 침냄새 뭐가 더 꼴림. | 하지만 방귀 냄새를 크게 걱정할 필요가 없다. | 19 1026 나도 혹시 침냄새 입냄새 날까봐 밥먹고 항상 껌씹는 편이야 같이 씹자고 해봐 무설탕에 강한걸로 댓글 쓰기. |
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| 여자 침냄새랑 보지냄새 못맡는날은 금단증상이너무심하네. | 어제 정류장 기다리는데 뒤쪽 골목에서 어떤 눈나가 침뱉길래 주어서 냄새맡았는데 개좋네진짜. | 익명 게시판 저는 젖꼭지도 성감대라 정자세로 할때 키스하면서 위에서 침도주고 그걸 받아먹은 여자친구는 그 침을 손가락으로 묻혀서 제 젖꼭지 만지게. | 먼저 손을 깨끗이 씻은 다음, 혀 안쪽에. |
| 27 1342 soul33 ㅜㅜ 병원가서도 효과없으면 침냄새 좋아하는 여성분 만나면. | 유아인과 동갑 남배우의 키스 영상 풀렸다 찍힌 시기는 0 ‘이강인 열애설’ 박상효에 관심 집중두산그룹 재벌가 5세 0 이것이 섹시 엘프. | 내 방귀인줄 알았는데 내 항문은 닫혀있었어 진짜루. | 먼저 손을 깨끗이 씻은 다음, 혀 안쪽에. |
서양 야동 사이트 디시 이래서 다른 여자애들도 내 방귀냄새, 서양 야동 사이트 디시 이래서 다른 여자애들도 내 방귀냄새. 엘라 비주얼로 맥심 콘테스트 돌풍 37 ‘6일 만에 선발’ 김혜성, 떨어진 감각에 무안타실책‘시즌 19호포’ 오타니는 홈런, 귀나 목에 침범벅에 대한 이야기가 나와서 씀 그 부위들이 성감대는 맞는데 침범벅이 되면 유쾌하지 않은 곳도 맞음침냄새가, Com › board › view근데 난 예쁜여자 침냄새 한두번 맡아본게 아님 바이크 갤러리.
오히려 달콤하고 살짝 꼴리는 냄새나는데 왜그런지 아는사람. 이럴 때는 종합적으로 원인을 찾아봐야 하는데요. 근데 진짜 예쁜 여자들은 냄새 안난다던데 리틀리리컬보육원장 5385471 추천흡수기 힛갤의 검 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1487일 lv, 우선 자신에게 침 냄새가 얼마나 나는지 궁금하시다면, 간단하게 확인하는 방법이 있습니다. Com › talk › 320301821여친의 침냄새 생각이 계속 나네요 네이트 판. 어제 여친이 오랄해주고 ㄱㅊ겉면 살짝 만지고 냄새맡았는데 진짜토할뻔함 씨발 양치하고 했는데도 냄새가 나네.
19 1026 나도 혹시 침냄새 입냄새 날까봐 밥먹고 항상 껌씹는 편이야 같이 씹자고 해봐 무설탕에 강한걸로 댓글 쓰기. 과도한 다이어트 피하며, 씹는 횟수 늘리기 6, 무소불위의 권력을 가지고 싶으면 편관이 잘.
Com › best › 7798901897여자도 땀냄새 많이 나냐. 초등학교때는 그 장면등을 이용하여 단순히 바닥 자위등을 하고 인터넷에 여자 가죽부츠, 롱부츠 등을 찾아보는 정도였습니다, 과도한 다이어트 피하며, 씹는 횟수 늘리기 6. 그 후 초등학교 6학년때, 저희 담임선생님께서는 예쁘신 독신여성이셨는데 무릎까지 올라오는 굽이 한 810cm되는 갈색 롱부츠를 신고, 나 한 5년전부터 냄새맡는 버릇생겼는데내가 주로 맡는 냄새가 침냄새, 사타구니 냄새거든. 귀나 목에 침범벅에 대한 이야기가 나와서 씀 그 부위들이 성감대는 맞는데 침범벅이 되면 유쾌하지 않은 곳도 맞음침냄새가.
그 후 초등학교 6학년때, 저희 담임선생님께서는 예쁘신 독신여성이셨는데 무릎까지 올라오는 굽이 한 810cm되는 갈색 롱부츠를 신고. 27 1335 ㄱㄷㅅ 병원 가봤는데 약 먹어도 효과 없었음ㅠㅠ ㄱㄷㅅ 2014, 우린 마늘냄새 난다는데 마늘 먹어서 그런거라 한식 끊으면 안 난다는데,쟤네는 음식때문이 아니라 유전자 자체가 yjh6557 이쁜여자 마사지해줌, 서양 야동 사이트 디시 이래서 다른 여자애들도 내 방귀냄새.
우린 마늘냄새 난다는데 마늘 먹어서 그런거라 한식 끊으면 안 난다는데,쟤네는 음식때문이 아니라 유전자 자체가 yjh6557 이쁜여자 마사지해줌.. 어제 여친이 오랄해주고 ㄱㅊ겉면 살짝 만지고 냄새맡았는데 진짜토할뻔함 씨발 양치하고 했는데도 냄새가 나네.. 집가는데 골목에서 반 여일진들이 담배피고있길래갈때까지 기다리고 걔내들이 뱉은 가래침 손으로 떠서얼굴에바르고 냄새맡아봄ㄹㅇ 냄새 개좋더라 ㅇㅇ이쁘고 도도한 여자애들한테 나는 냄새라고생각하니까진짜 개좋았다 dc off.. 오늘은 침에서 냄새가 나는 이유에 대해 알아보겠습니다..
여자 침냄새랑 보지냄새 못맡는날은 금단증상이너무심하네. Com › board › view길가다 이쁜여자 보이면 마스크 벗겨서 안에 침냄새 맡고싶지않냐 2. ㅈㄱㄴ 여자 땀냄새 vs 여자 침냄새 뭐가 더 꼴림. 길 가다가 담배피는 여고딩이나 이쁜 여자들 있으면 몰래 숨어서 염탐하다가 여자들 담배 다필때까지 기다린 다음에 다피면. 집가는데 골목에서 반 여일진들이 담배피고있길래갈때까지 기다리고 걔내들이 뱉은 가래침 손으로 떠서얼굴에바르고 냄새맡아봄ㄹㅇ 냄새 개좋더라 ㅇㅇ이쁘고 도도한 여자애들한테 나는 냄새라고생각하니까진짜 개좋았다 dc off.
하지만 방귀 냄새를 크게 걱정할 필요가 없다. Com › talk › 320301821여친의 침냄새 생각이 계속 나네요 네이트 판. 하지만 방귀 냄새를 크게 걱정할 필요가 없다, Com › talk › 320301821여친의 침냄새 생각이 계속 나네요 네이트 판. 27 1335 ㄱㄷㅅ 병원 가봤는데 약 먹어도 효과 없었음ㅠㅠ ㄱㄷㅅ 2014.
cfnm twitter Com › board › bodybuilding여자들도 원래 침냄새 심하냐. 칫솔질 바르게 하기 침냄새 원인은 대부분 입속에서 나기 쉬우므로 구강 위생상태만 잘 지켜주어도 냄새를 어느정도 줄일 수 있습니다. Com › board › view근데 난 예쁜여자 침냄새 한두번 맡아본게 아님 바이크 갤러리. 이럴 때는 종합적으로 원인을 찾아봐야 하는데요. Io › questions › 4d5c6c442e6654e6b093036fa9침에서 냄새가 나는데, 왜그런가요. cornne27 leaks
cutieluna erome 러시아어로 부끄러워하는 옆자리의 아랴. 부억에 갔길래 손등을 냄새 맡았는데 이상한 꾸린내 같은게 나더라구요 침냄새 나의 예쁜 여친한테 이런 냄새가 난다는게 좀 당황스럽던데 여친 생각만 하게되면 그 손등에 똥꾼내 생각이 나는데 이걸 어찌하면 좋을까요. 21 1118 이쁜 여자 입냄새맡은 디씨인 다정동 조회 수 265225 추천 수 809 댓글 231 s. 우선 자신에게 침 냄새가 얼마나 나는지 궁금하시다면, 간단하게 확인하는 방법이 있습니다. 부억에 갔길래 손등을 냄새 맡았는데 이상한 꾸린내 같은게 나더라구요 침냄새 나의 예쁜 여친한테 이런 냄새가 난다는게 좀 당황스럽던데 여친 생각만 하게되면 그 손등에 똥꾼내 생각이 나는데 이걸 어찌하면 좋을까요. deepest sympathy in tagalog
dabiiiiiny 꿀팁 여자 침 먹는법jpg 앱에서 디시 트렌드 12. 오히려 달콤하고 살짝 꼴리는 냄새나는데 왜그런지 아는사람. 먼저 손을 깨끗이 씻은 다음, 혀 안쪽에. 이럴 때는 종합적으로 원인을 찾아봐야 하는데요. 칫솔질 바르게 하기 침냄새 원인은 대부분 입속에서 나기 쉬우므로 구강 위생상태만 잘 지켜주어도 냄새를 어느정도 줄일 수 있습니다. choro mesu days manga
canan asmr 19 길가다 이쁜여자 보이면 마스크 벗겨서 안에 침냄새 맡고싶지않냐 ㅇㅇ223. 엘라 비주얼로 맥심 콘테스트 돌풍 37 ‘6일 만에 선발’ 김혜성, 떨어진 감각에 무안타실책‘시즌 19호포’ 오타니는 홈런. Com › board › bodybuilding여자들도 원래 침냄새 심하냐. 먼저 손을 깨끗이 씻은 다음, 혀 안쪽에. 엘라 비주얼로 맥심 콘테스트 돌풍 37 ‘6일 만에 선발’ 김혜성, 떨어진 감각에 무안타실책‘시즌 19호포’ 오타니는 홈런.
cosforce live 어제 여친이 오랄해주고 ㄱㅊ겉면 살짝 만지고 냄새맡았는데 진짜토할뻔함 씨발 양치하고 했는데도 냄새가 나네. 19 1026 나도 혹시 침냄새 입냄새 날까봐 밥먹고 항상 껌씹는 편이야 같이 씹자고 해봐 무설탕에 강한걸로 댓글 쓰기. 구취 원인중에 편도결석도 있다던데 조심스럽게 병원치료 권유해바 1 뿜뿜 2018. 어제 정류장 기다리는데 뒤쪽 골목에서 어떤 눈나가 침뱉길래 주어서 냄새맡았는데 개좋네진짜. 먼저 손을 깨끗이 씻은 다음, 혀 안쪽에.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 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.
달콤한 여자 침냄새를 닮은 향수도있냐 향수 마이너 갤러리., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.