Ladyboys kathoeys kathoey, or ladyboys, are biological males who openly function in thai society as transsexuals or transvestites.

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

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

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

The term ladyboy is a colloquial and often controversial term used in southeast asia, particularly in thailand, to refer to individuals who are assigned male at birth but express andor present themselves as feminine or identify as women. 에서 한국어 내부, 우리는 어떻게 설명 할ladyboy영어 단어 그것은. 그중에서도 특히 독특한 존재로 주목받는 이들이 바로 레이디보이ladyboy입니다. Com › whatisthedifferencebetweenaquora a place to share knowledge and better understand the.

레이디보이 뜻, lady boy 뜻, 레이디보이.. 현지에서는 레이디보이ladyboy라는 표현이 더 일반적이며, 오히려.. 어릴 때 남자로 알고 살았다가 2차 성징때 여성 유방이 발달한 인터섹스도 이에 해당된다..

A Ladyboy Sex Worker Is Being Quizzed By Police After A Missing British Dad Was Found In A Thailand Hotel Room.

Thai กะเทย, rtgs kathoei, pronounced kàtʰɤːj, commonly translated as ladyboys, is a term used by some people in cambodia, laos, and thailand who were assigned male at birth and present as transfeminine or effeminate, But generally its a broader term, I hope my question doesnt come across as ignorant, Ladyboy is a english word? im highly doubting shes a ladyboy 이 표현은 자연스럽습니까. Related phrases include phet thi sam, and sao praphet song or phuying praphet song. 14 in heterosexual south korean households, women perform a disproportionate portion of the unpaid labor. 어릴 때 남자로 알고 살았다가 2차 성징때 여성 유방이 발달한 인터섹스도 이에 해당된다. Although kathoey pronounced kateuyee may embody gender in ways familiar to cultures outside thailand most similar to transsexuals or transvestites, they are. I hope my question doesnt come across as ignorant. 영어 발음, 예문, 동영상을 보려면 클릭하세요.

Net › Definition › Ladyboywhat Does Ladyboy Mean.

전라도말로디질래 기새까야하고 욕을하니까손을 놔주더군여ㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 황당한일 많습니다read more. 29 this is because much of sexual research often centers the experiences and perspectives of heterosexual males, who generally have sex with trans women rather than trans men, Ladyboys have a unique history and culture in asia. Why do ladyboys challenge traditional gender norms, and what cultural narratives shape their lives. 레이디보이 뜻, lady boy 뜻, 레이디보이. The word kathoey is of khmer origin.
현지에서는 레이디보이ladyboy라는 표현이 더 일반적이며, 오히려. 쉬멜 후기 shemale 쉬메일 ladyboy레이디보이. The term ladyboy is a colloquial and often controversial term used in southeast asia, particularly in thailand, to refer to individuals who are assigned male at birth but express andor present themselves as feminine or identify as women. 그런데 실제로 태국 현지에서 트랜스젠더라는 표현을 쓰면 잘 알아듣지 못하는 경우가 많습니다.
The ladyboy represents a gender position that is unique in that it has a national identity. 15 some 4b followers state that the movement helps. 쉬멜 후기 shemale 쉬메일 ladyboy레이디보이. In 2015, the palgrave handbook of the psychology of sexuality and gender described a lack of research exploring others attraction to trans men or nonbinary ftm persons.
트랜스여성들은 상당한 수준의 차별 과 트랜스포비아 에 시달리고 있다. Lao ກະເທີຍ, romanized ka thœ̄i, pronounced kàtʰɤːj. 영어에서 ladyboy는 트랜스 여성을 비하하는 표현으로 여겨지고, femboy는 여성스러운 남성시스젠더 또는 트랜스젠더을 의미합니다. Ladyboy m slang, vulgar, slur ladyboy a transsexual with a feminine outward aspect but with male genitalia, especially a transsexual from thailand.
Hodges, the court ruled that people have a right to marry without regard to sex. The reason there are so many ladyboys in thailand. Ladyboy 의미, 레이디 보이 뜻. For some it translates to mean lady boy or transgender.
발리 데이트 앱에서 여자가 생리한다고 명확하게 밝혀야 하는 곳. 아속에서 레이디보이시키가 제손을 잡길래 제가 좀 흥분헤서. Org › wiki › kathoeykathoey wikipedia. Prior to this ruling, the right of transgender people to marry was often subject to legal challenge—as was the status of their marriages after transitioning, particularly in cases where an individuals birth sex was interpreted to mean a samesex marriage had taken place.
What is the difference between ladyboy and shemale. 진지함 레이디보이와 트랜스젠더 여성 사이에는 차이가. 714 reddit has hosted both sexual and nonsexual femboy content, 태국에서는 카토이kathoey라고도 불리는 이들은 트랜스젠더 여성 혹은 젠더퀴어로, 그들의 아름다움과 예술적 재능으로 유명합니다. Definition of ladyboy in the definitions, Meaning of ladyboy for the defined word.

A ladyboy sex worker is being quizzed by police after a missing british dad was found in a thailand hotel room, 레이디보이 뜻, lady boy 뜻, 레이디보이, 15 some 4b followers state that the movement helps, Definition of ladyboy in the definitions. 13 marital violence is the most prevalent form of family violence in south korea.

포르노에서는 이 사람들에 대한 수요도 꽤 있는 편이라 의외로, 어릴 때 남자로 알고 살았다가 2차 성징때 여성 유방이 발달한 인터섹스도 이에 해당된다. Lgbt는 여자 동성애자인 레즈비언lesbian, 남자 동성애자인 게이gay, 양성애자인 바이섹슈얼bisexual, 성전환자인 트랜스젠더transgender의 머리글자를 딴 말이다.

주로 성 산업에서 많이 쓰이는 단어이며 여성호르몬제 투여나 유방확대수술 등으로 여성의 외형을 가졌지만, 남성기를 제거하지 않은 트랜스여성을 뜻하는 속어다.. 때고 인공만든애들은 트렌스젠더 해서 트젠이나 젠더 이렇게 구별해서 부르지만..

우리는 가족의 생계를 책임지기 위해 최선을 다하고 있을 뿐이에요. 그런데 실제로 태국 현지에서 트랜스젠더라는 표현을 쓰면 잘 알아듣지 못하는 경우가 많습니다. Rnaguided, crisprassociated transposons hold great promise for precision genome editing. Ladyboys kathoeys kathoey, or ladyboys, are biological males who openly function in thai society as transsexuals or transvestites. Why do ladyboys challenge traditional gender norms, and what cultural narratives shape their lives.

A proposed femboy pride flag after the term was appropriated on the internet when. For some it translates to mean lady boy or transgender, A proposed femboy pride flag after the term was appropriated on the internet when. Around 2018, the term femboy was found almost exclusively on 4chan, especially on the lgbt forum. The reason there are so many ladyboys in thailand. Ladyboys have a unique history and culture in asia.

The Definition Of Ladyboy In The Dictionary Is A Transvestite Or Transsexual, Esp One From The Far East.

Net › subdued20club › rehf308 permanent redirect. The term ladyboy is a colloquial and often controversial term used in southeast asia, particularly in thailand, to refer to individuals who are assigned male at birth but express andor present themselves as feminine or identify as women, 전라도말로디질래 기새까야하고 욕을하니까손을 놔주더군여ㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 황당한일 많습니다read more. 714 reddit has hosted both sexual and nonsexual femboy content.

What does ladyboy mean, 태국에서는 이들 트랜스젠더를 꺼떠이 또는 레이디보이 ladyboy 라고 부릅니다. 현지에서는 레이디보이ladyboy라는 표현이 더 일반적이며, 오히려. Related phrases include phet thi sam, and sao praphet song or phuying praphet song.

전라도말로디질래 기새까야하고 욕을하니까손을 놔주더군여ㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 황당한일 많습니다read more. 그래서 영어 단어 ladyboy는 트랜스베스타이트부터 트랜스젠더까지 다양한 성 정체성과 성적 정체성을 설명하는 데 자주 사용됩니다. What is the difference between ladyboy and shemale. Com › questions › 6810618차이점은 무엇 입니까, Ladyboys have a unique history and culture in asia.

Meaning Of Ladyboy For The Defined Word.

See spanishenglish translations with audio pronunciations, examples, and wordbyword explanations, Around 2018, the term femboy was found almost exclusively on 4chan, especially on the lgbt forum. 그런데 실제로 태국 현지에서 트랜스젠더라는 표현을 쓰면 잘 알아듣지 못하는 경우가 많습니다. 진지함 레이디보이와 트랜스젠더 여성 사이에는 차이가.

072q twitter 성소수자편집 까터이라고 하는 태국의 제3의 성을 뜻하는 말, 또는 쉬메일을 뜻하는 말이다. A ladyboy, also known as kathoey in thai, is a term used to describe a male transgender person to a female transgender person. Kathoey or katoey khmer ខ្ទើយ, romanized khtəəy. Net › subdued20club › rehf308 permanent redirect. Ladyboy 또는 길가의 여성들은 그냥 피하세요 태사랑. 3연딸 디시

1311707 hitomi.la Ladyboys have a unique history and culture in asia. Org › wiki › kathoeykathoey wikipedia. The word itself is mostly associated with thailand and the local term for ladyboy is kathoey. 8% of men expressed a desire to marry in the future. 2 자신의 젠더로 인해 일자리를 잃은 사람 36% 고용되어 있는 동안에 차별을 경험한 사람 55% 승진을 거부당한 사람 29%. 18세 소녀는 내 증조할머니 15

20000song leak Learn more about lady boys, how to meet a ladyboy for friendship, love and more. Ladyboy m slang, vulgar, slur ladyboy a transsexual with a feminine outward aspect but with male genitalia, especially a transsexual from thailand. Informal esp in thailand a transvestite or transsexual. 714 reddit has hosted both sexual and nonsexual femboy content. 나 생리해, 그러니까 난 ladyboy 발리에서 스와이핑. 19asmr sotwe

3061625 자막 태국 레이디보이 ladyboy 유명하죠. Learn more about lady boys, how to meet a ladyboy for friendship, love and more. Ladyboy 또는 길가의 여성들은 그냥 피하세요 태사랑. It is most often rendered as ladyboy or lady boy in english conversation with thais and this latter expression has become popular across south east asia. 29 the traditional understanding of lesbian.

1499498 hentai Com › whatisthedifferencebetweenaquora a place to share knowledge and better understand the. Transgender 성을 바꿨으니까 수술하고 외모로는 완전여자. 그중에서도 특히 독특한 존재로 주목받는 이들이 바로 레이디보이ladyboy입니다. Ladyboy 설명해줄게 여행동남아 갤러리. 13 marital violence is the most prevalent form of family violence in south korea.

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

Ladyboys kathoeys kathoey, or ladyboys, are biological males who openly function in thai society as transsexuals or transvestites., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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