Com › slove1188다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 instagram photos and videos.

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, July 30, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, July 30, 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, July 30, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, July 30, 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, July 30, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, July 30, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, July 30, 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, July 30, 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.

Com › search › bj다솜+업스케일bj다솜 업스케일 porn videos xhamster. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 bj다솜 모음 korean bj 1. 8 months ago 하롬 05 화질업스케일링 korean bj 4. Most viewed top 아프리카 역대급 방송사고 큰 맘먹고 보야줬더니 빨리 입으라고 korean bj.

Watch kbj 다솜 playlist for free on spankbang 36 movies and sexy clips. Com › watch의문의 아프리카bj bj다솜. 전혀 인기가 없는 bj도 아니었고 근근히 별풍선이 터지던 bj 였기 때문에 때문에 더욱 아쉬움이 큰 것 같습니다. `bj다솜 업스케일링` 검색 결과 wikitree tv 네이티브 광고 베스트 이슈 트리 카밥.
Com › slove1188다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 instagram photos and videos.. 99k followers, 247 following, 296 posts 다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 on instagram..

브뤼셀 암스테르담

Followers, 347 following, 1 posts bj다솜이 @dasom9756 on instagram 다솜다솜 가끔 방송합니다, Com › watch의문의 아프리카bj bj다솜. 채널에 대해서 1 채널이라는 게 매물대를 채널로 시각화한 것이라고 생각하면 됨이동평균 선은 곡선, 일목은 구름으로 시각화 된 것 처럼어쩄든 채널을 그리려면 작도 포인트를 잡아야 되는데,나는1 변곡점 역사적 고점,저점, 첫 조정2 캔들 크기3 거래량이 3가지를 주요 포인트로 잡음. Com › slove1188다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 instagram photos and videos. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 bj다솜 모음 korean bj 1. Com › 5hkci › playlistkbj 다솜 playlist hd porn videos spankbang. 하롬01 amateur, onlyfans & asian porn. 8 months ago 하롬 05 화질업스케일링 korean bj 4. 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj. 채널에 대해서 1 채널이라는 게 매물대를 채널로 시각화한 것이라고 생각하면 됨이동평균 선은 곡선, 일목은 구름으로 시각화 된 것 처럼어쩄든 채널을 그리려면 작도 포인트를 잡아야 되는데,나는1 변곡점 역사적 고점,저점, 첫 조정2 캔들 크기3 거래량이 3가지를 주요 포인트로 잡음. Bj의 정체 지고 싶어도 질 수가 없다. Com › kyang7525 › 221210945709요즘 왜 활동없나요 ㅠ bj국민다솜 근황 네이버 블로그. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 korean bj 1.

사쿠라이 미우 디시

전체보기 8개의 글 목록열기 서재안에 글 0. 뻘글 bj다솜정도 얼굴이랑 몸매면 솔직히 다 사귀지 않나요, Bj의 정체 지고 싶어도 질 수가 없다. Com › som0506다솜 @som0506 instagram photos and videos. Play trending and hottest kbj 다솜 movies.

사쿠라 Av

Kr › channels › 592733bj다솜 dasom24의 방송국 feeds 플렉스티비. 트위캐스에 대하여 개인정보보호정책 이용약관 속성 개발자 api 지원센터, 하롬01 amateur, onlyfans & asian porn. Com › search › bj다솜+업스케일bj다솜 업스케일 porn videos xhamster, 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 bj다솜 모음 korean bj 1.

하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj. 12 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj 3.

비비화보 사과 무료

37k subscribers subscribe.. 전혀 인기가 없는 bj도 아니었고 근근히 별풍선이 터지던 bj 였기 때문에 때문에 더욱 아쉬움이 큰 것 같습니다.. 사람의 얼굴도 인식해 얼굴 디테일을 살려줍니다..

최첨단 기술의 세계로 뛰어들어 ai 이미지 업스케일러로 이미지를 손쉽게 고해상도의 걸작으로 변환하는 방법을 발견하세요. Com › som0506다솜 @som0506 instagram photos and videos, Watch kbj 다솜 playlist for free on spankbang 36 movies and sexy clips.

8 months ago 하롬 05 화질업스케일링 korean bj 4, 전체보기 8개의 글 목록열기 서재안에 글 0. 12 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj 3, Com › search › bj다솜+업스케일bj다솜 업스케일 porn videos xhamster. Com › 5hkci › playlistkbj 다솜 playlist hd porn videos spankbang. 트위캐스에 대하여 개인정보보호정책 이용약관 속성 개발자 api 지원센터.

Com › kyang7525 › 221210945709요즘 왜 활동없나요 ㅠ bj국민다솜 근황 네이버 블로그. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 korean bj 1. 이미지 및 사진을 무료로 온라인에서 업스케일하고 확대하세요. 37k subscribers subscribe. 최첨단 기술의 세계로 뛰어들어 ai 이미지 업스케일러로 이미지를 손쉽게 고해상도의 걸작으로 변환하는 방법을 발견하세요.

뻘글 bj다솜정도 얼굴이랑 몸매면 솔직히 다 사귀지 않나요. 99k followers, 247 following, 296 posts 다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 on instagram, `bj다솜 업스케일링` 검색 결과 wikitree tv 네이티브 광고 베스트 이슈 트리 카밥.

이미지 및 사진을 무료로 온라인에서 업스케일하고 확대하세요, Com › board › view혹시 bj다솜 아는 사람 있냐, Kr › channels › 592733bj다솜 dasom24의 방송국 feeds 플렉스티비.

사네 기유 후회공

Play trending and hottest kbj 다솜 movies. 사람의 얼굴도 인식해 얼굴 디테일을 살려줍니다. Most viewed top 아프리카 역대급 방송사고 큰 맘먹고 보야줬더니 빨리 입으라고 korean bj, Com › board › view혹시 bj다솜 아는 사람 있냐, Followers, 347 following, 1 posts bj다솜이 @dasom9756 on instagram 다솜다솜 가끔 방송합니다. Most viewed top 아프리카 역대급 방송사고 큰 맘먹고 보야줬더니 빨리 입으라고 korean bj.

사카모토 데이즈 야짤 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj. 사람의 얼굴도 인식해 얼굴 디테일을 살려줍니다. 하롬01 amateur, onlyfans & asian porn. `bj다솜 업스케일링` 검색 결과 wikitree tv 네이티브 광고 베스트 이슈 트리 카밥. Com › watch의문의 아프리카bj bj다솜. 사이카테이

사정참기놀이 Watch kbj 다솜 playlist for free on spankbang 36 movies and sexy clips. 뻘글 bj다솜정도 얼굴이랑 몸매면 솔직히 다 사귀지 않나요. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 korean bj 1. Com › slove1188다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 instagram photos and videos. Play trending and hottest kbj 다솜 movies. 비트코인 관련 미국 주식 디시

브롤스타즈 콜레트 99k followers, 247 following, 296 posts 다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 on instagram. Watch kbj 다솜 playlist for free on spankbang 36 movies and sexy clips. Watch kbj 다솜 playlist for free on spankbang 36 movies and sexy clips. Kr › channels › 592733bj다솜 dasom24의 방송국 feeds 플렉스티비. 하롬 03 화질업스케일링 bj다솜 모음 korean bj 1. 사과 온리팬스

브롤스타즈 홀릿 술래잡기 Com › slove1188다솜솜이dasomsom @slove1188 instagram photos and videos. Com › search › bj다솜+업스케일bj다솜 업스케일 porn videos xhamster. `bj다솜 업스케일링` 검색 결과 wikitree tv 네이티브 광고 베스트 이슈 트리 카밥. 37k subscribers subscribe. Com › kyang7525 › 221210945709요즘 왜 활동없나요 ㅠ bj국민다솜 근황 네이버 블로그.

빕지팝 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj. 채널에 대해서 1 채널이라는 게 매물대를 채널로 시각화한 것이라고 생각하면 됨이동평균 선은 곡선, 일목은 구름으로 시각화 된 것 처럼어쩄든 채널을 그리려면 작도 포인트를 잡아야 되는데,나는1 변곡점 역사적 고점,저점, 첫 조정2 캔들 크기3 거래량이 3가지를 주요 포인트로 잡음. Com › som0506다솜 @som0506 instagram photos and videos. 사람의 얼굴도 인식해 얼굴 디테일을 살려줍니다. 12 하롬 04 화질업스케일링 korean bj 3.

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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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, July 30, 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 July 30, 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, July 30, 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 July 30, 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, July 30, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Download