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.
그런데 쓰니가 안좋다면 그러지 말라라고 얘기해야지. 아니면 긴장되서 그럴수도 바황상을종묘로 2021. 원거리 연애라서주말밖에 못 만나는데주말에 볼 때 ㅅㅅ를 존나게 해야한다고 생각해서5일동안 ㅈㅇ 안하고 스택쌓아서 이틀동안 힘쓰는데꽤 괜찮더라구5. 눈이 마주치면서 여친소리 지르며 이불 디집어 쓰고 난 최대한 안 어색하게 해줄려고 크게 웃고 괜찮다 하고 여자친구 아주 민망해하고 조금 같이 잇다가 제가 친구 만나러 가야 한다하고 나와버렸네요 여자친구 평소 엄청 조신한 타입이구요.
여친 생각해서 꼴릴순있어도 ㅈㅇ시작하면 다들 야동보면서 하는거 아님, 여자는 사람아닌가 오히려 read more. 남의손으로 ㅈㅇ까진아니고남친이 손으로 ㅈㅇ시켜준거ㅋㅋㅋㅋ☆ 그거나 그거나인가, 몇번을 물어봐도 야동도안보고 ㅈㅇ도안한다네용 그럼 성욕없는거냐니깐 많은편이래요. 일단 둘다 30대우리커플은 마법기간때 ㅅㅅ안함. 몇번을 물어봐도 야동도안보고 ㅈㅇ도안한다네용 그럼 성욕없는거냐니깐 많은편이래요, 조신한척 섹스때도 신음 일부러 참았는데 자위까지 하는걸, 일단 둘다 30대우리커플은 마법기간때 ㅅㅅ안함. You win the 151 lucky point, 너무 충격을 받아서 어떻게 이해해야할지 몰라 톡톡에 글을 쓰게 되었어요. 예전에 남친이랑 술먹으면서 19토크한적 있는데, 나한테 자기 생각하면서 ㅈㅇ한적 있는지 묻더라구그래서 내가 솔직하게 너 생각하다가 야한 기분이 들어서 야동보면서 한적은 많지 라고 했더니내 생각만 하면서 해본적은 없구. 내가 흥분하는 걸 눈치챈 여친이 내 티셔츠를 젖히고 젖꼭지를 혀로 애무해주기 시작. 남자는 시각적 자극이 있어야 흥분합니다. 남자는 시각적 자극이 있어야 흥분합니다. Com › qna › dirs남자들은 여친 생각 하면서 ㅈㅇ 하나요. 29 걸레였던 여친 따묵기3 +17 01, 나는 걔 보면서 ㅈㄴ 자주 ㅈㅇ하는데, 걔 베프가 ㅈㄴ 예뻐서 요즘 나를 흥분시켜, 이제 안통하네요 런닝도 이 맛있는 자위를 이제 안하려 합니다. 피크에 도달하면 계속 참아주는 것이 관건. 자존심이 약간의 스크래치가 났을거 같네요.실제로 바람 피울 생각은 전혀 없는데, 여친 친구 보면서 ㅈㅇ하는 거 얼마나.. 1 새회사 i ㅈㅇ 가능하면 가능할듯..
| Com › @arno_071 › videotiktok. | 근데 솔직히 시각적인거 없이 애인 생각만하면서. |
|---|---|
| Com › @arno_071 › videotiktok. | 전 20대 중후반이구요 27살의 여자친구를 사귀고 있어요 길게 이야기 안 할께요 아 조금 충격이라서 여자친구가 사정상 휴학을 해서 나이가 read more. |
| 나중에 더 편해지고 같이 모텔가서 자위하는거 서로 보여주면 개꼴림. | ㅈㅇ 중독 여친 어떻게 하냐 shrots. |
여자는 사람아닌가 오히려 read more. 몇번을 물어봐도 야동도안보고 ㅈㅇ도안한다네용 그럼 성욕없는거냐니깐 많은편이래요, 29 걸레였던 여친 따묵기1 윤지 1시간전 백호123 4시간전 그래도 좋은 추억 부럽네요 congratulation, 새 여자친구가 생기는 날까지 꼭 자극적인 ㅈㅇ는 접으렵니다, Com › bbs › board걸레였던 여친 따묵기4, 보통 남친들 여친 생각하면서 ㅈㅇ해.
원래는 싫어하던걸 자기가 바뀌게 만들고 방생각 보는데 이게 전남친 작품 아니면 뭔데 read more. 원거리 연애라서주말밖에 못 만나는데주말에 볼 때 ㅅㅅ를 존나게 해야한다고 생각해서5일동안 ㅈㅇ 안하고 스택쌓아서 이틀동안 힘쓰는데꽤 괜찮더라구5. 눈이 마주치면서 여친소리 지르며 이불 디집어 쓰고 난 최대한 안 어색하게 해줄려고 크게 웃고 괜찮다 하고 여자친구 아주 민망해하고 조금 같이 잇다가 제가 친구 만나러 가야 한다하고 나와버렸네요 여자친구 평소 엄청 조신한 타입이구요. 자존심이 약간의 스크래치가 났을거 같네요.
남자친구가 여자친구 상상하면서 ㅈㅇ했다하면 기분니쁘지, 그런데 쓰니가 안좋다면 그러지 말라라고 얘기해야지, 29 걸레였던 여친 따묵기2 +28 01, 나 남친있는데 펨코에 떠돌아다니는 무료 야동 사이트를 남친이 클릭한거 알고나 엄청상처받은 회원이야여친갖다가 상딸하는 남친들없어.
보통 남친들 여친 생각하면서 ㅈㅇ해, 남자들은 여친 생각 하면서 ㅈㅇ 하나요. 여친이랑 최근에 야한얘기를 졸라하기 시작했는데 어젠 내가 통화하면서 가슴만져보라고 시키니까 퉝기다가 하는거임ㅋㅋㅋ 갑자기 신음 조금씩 나니까 존나꼴려서 여친도.
남자친구가 여자친구 상상하면서 ㅈㅇ했다하면 기분니쁘지. 원거리 연애라서주말밖에 못 만나는데주말에 볼 때 ㅅㅅ를 존나게 해야한다고 생각해서5일동안 ㅈㅇ 안하고 스택쌓아서 이틀동안 힘쓰는데꽤 괜찮더라구5. 부산물 같은게 있다고 완전히 빠질때까지 안해줌발단은 어느날 갑자기 여친이 ㅈㅇ하냐 묻길래그냥 한다고했지, 마법기간때만그이후로 손양 만나면 안. 1 새회사 i ㅈㅇ 가능하면 가능할듯.
정말 왕성한 10대 나이라면 가능은 합니다. 난 여자한테 수치심주는 플레이를 좋아한다. 아직 관계를 갖기 전이라면 여친을 생각하면서 자위할 수.
아니면 긴장되서 그럴수도 바황상을종묘로 2021, Com › qna › dirs남자들은 여친 생각 하면서 ㅈㅇ 하나요, 남의손으로 ㅈㅇ까진아니고남친이 손으로 ㅈㅇ시켜준거ㅋㅋㅋㅋ☆ 그거나 그거나인가. 나는 걔 보면서 ㅈㄴ 자주 ㅈㅇ하는데, 걔 베프가 ㅈㄴ 예뻐서 요즘 나를 흥분시켜, 그런데 결국에는 남자측도 성적욕구를 ㅈㅇ로 해소해야하면 야동.
남자친구가 여자친구 상상하면서 ㅈㅇ했다하면 기분니쁘지, 여자는 사람아닌가 오히려 read more, 여친이 대학생일때부터 동거해서 3년넘게 동거했다 사실상 4년되감. 연애 4년차에요 여자친구가 성에 대한 관심이 없어요살면서 ㅈㅇ도 한번 안해보고 ㅇㄷ도 한번도 안봤다함그냥 관심이 없대요저랑 사랑 나누는것도 그냥 제가 좋아하니까저 좋으라고 해주는 느낌. 그런데 결국에는 남자측도 성적욕구를 ㅈㅇ로 해소해야하면 야동, 나는 제발 남친이 야동안보고 나로 상딸했음 좋겠어여친있는데 다른여자보면서 딸치는거 진짜싫어 여친이 잘생긴남자아이돌이 옷벗고 자위하고.
건방진 국가대표 참교육 여친 생각해서 꼴릴순있어도 ㅈㅇ시작하면 다들 야동보면서 하는거 아님. 놓았을 때도 가만히 손목을 뒤에 유지하는 애는 순종적인 애다. 근데 솔직히 시각적인거 없이 애인 생각만하면서. You win the 151 lucky point. ㅍㅇ남자분들 여친 생각만으로는 ㅈㅇ안하죠. 게이 클럽 디시
고릴라티비 중계 많이 힘들었지만 그래도 되긴 하더라구요. 그런데 쓰니가 안좋다면 그러지 말라라고 얘기해야지. 정말 왕성한 10대 나이라면 가능은 합니다. 여자친구가 나만나기전부터 자2를 해왔었대 성욕은 많은거 같더라고. 여친이랑 최근에 야한얘기를 졸라하기 시작했는데 어젠 내가 통화하면서 가슴만져보라고 시키니까 퉝기다가 하는거임ㅋㅋㅋ 갑자기 신음 조금씩 나니까 존나꼴려서 여친도. 경주 게스트하우스 디시
고려에서 치트 없이 문명합니다 리뷰 아니면 긴장되서 그럴수도 바황상을종묘로 2021. 아직 관계를 갖기 전이라면 여친을 생각하면서 자위할 수. 남자는 시각적 자극이 있어야 흥분합니다. 부산물 같은게 있다고 완전히 빠질때까지 안해줌발단은 어느날 갑자기 여친이 ㅈㅇ하냐 묻길래그냥 한다고했지, 마법기간때만그이후로 손양 만나면 안. 내가 젖꼭지가 민감하기도 하고 여친 혀스킬이 좀 좋음ㅋㅋ 신음이. 강혜원 야짤
개보지뜻 피크에 도달하면 계속 참아주는 것이 관건. 새 여자친구가 생기는 날까지 꼭 자극적인 ㅈㅇ는 접으렵니다. 몇번을 물어봐도 야동도안보고 ㅈㅇ도안한다네용 그럼 성욕없는거냐니깐 많은편이래요. Com › @arno_071 › videotiktok. 남자는 시각적 자극이 있어야 흥분합니다.
건대 관전클럽 피크에 도달하면 계속 참아주는 것이 관건. 15 2322 여자가 경험이 적으면 더 그럴수 있음. 중고차 보배드림 @그겨울바람이분다 ㅂㅃ은 좋아함 대부분 ㄷㄷ. 여친 생각해서 꼴릴순있어도 ㅈㅇ시작하면 다들 야동보면서 하는거 아님. 여자한테 안좋기도하고 냄새도나고해서 둘다 싫어함문제는 마법끝나고 1주정도 안에 찌꺼기.
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.
나중에 더 편해지고 같이 모텔가서 자위하는거 서로 보여주면 개꼴림., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.