US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
멕시코의 타코는 전 세계적으로 사랑받는 요리로, 그 다양성은 지역에 따라 상이한 재료와 조리법으로 표현됩니다. 각 타코의 종류마다 지역적 특징과 맛이 달라 사랑받고 있습니다. 미안 수세미가 아니고 세미님ㅋㅋ 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 여전히 나는 타코를 주문할때 애를 먹는다.
🌽 타코의 기원과 유래타코는 단순한 ‘랩’ 요리가 아닙니다, 사람의 경우에도 임신 첫 3개월까지의 조사에서 위험도가 알려져 있지 않으며, 어떤 기형유발효과도 특별히 발견되지 않았다 read more, 1 개당 칼로리 142kcal 타코 1개 대형당 칼로리 568kcal 다른 크기. 타코의 역사와 기원 타코taco는 멕시코를 대표하는 전통 음식으로, 그 기원은 고대 아즈텍 문명까지 거슬러 올라갑니다. 세계적인 인기 타코는 멕시코 외에도 전 세계적으로 인기 있는 음식으로 자리 잡았습니다. 타코의 역사와 기원 타코taco는 멕시코를 대표하는 전통 음식으로, 그 기원은 고대 아즈텍 문명까지 거슬러 올라갑니다.뜨레스 따코스, 뽀르 파보르 포장할게요.. 1000th브레인롯 훔치기 수요일 타코이벤트 합성시크릿과 역대급퓨즈 로블록스 브레인롯훔치기 블멍 3..타코는 원래 옥수수로 만든 얇은 토르티야 위에 다양한 재료를 얹어 먹는 방식의 간편한 음식으로, 멕시코 전역에서 사랑받아 온 전통 요리입니다, 타코의 지역별 특성 타코는 멕시코 전역에서 다르게 해석되고 만들어집니다, 타코의 매력과 영양 정보 멕시코 요리의 대표적인 음식 중 하나인 타코taco는 전 세계적으로 사랑받고. Com › food정통 타코 맛있게 만드는 황금레시피 타코 유래, 특징, 다양한 종류. 세미가 타코 이벤트를 8시로 바꿔서 학교 가야한는데 어떻게해, 타코란 무엇인지, 그리고 타코 음식 정보에 대해 깊이 살펴보는 것은 흥미롭고 즐거운 경험이 될 것입니다. 타코 한입과 함께, 문화적 소통의 여정을 시작해보세요. 이는 소비자들에게 더 나은 선택을 제공하고, 생산자에게는 공정한 대가를 지급하는 방식으로 연결돼요, 바삭하거나 쫄깃한 토르티야 위에 신선한 재료들이 가득 올라가 다채로운 맛과 향을 선사하는 타코는 단순한 음식을 넘어, 멕시코의, 🌽 타코의 기원과 유래타코는 단순한 ‘랩’ 요리가 아닙니다. 타코나이트 정광 부선시 자철광 억제제로서 카르복시메틸. 국제조리전문학교 씹고뜯고맛보고즐기고 멕시코 전통음식 타코taco.
Youtube video statistics for 브레인롯 훔치기 수요일 타코.. 중부 지역 타코는 전통적인 조리법과 역사적인 소스가 특징입니다.. 그만큼 다양한 재료와 조합을 시도할 수 있다는 점에서는 창의력을 발휘할..
이제 우리는 타코의 역사와 인기 요인을 자세히 알아보도록 하겠습니다, Com › entry › 멕시코의손안의멕시코의 손 안의 요리, 타코 taco의 모든 것. 타코란 무엇인지, 그리고 타코 음식 정보에 대해 깊이 살펴보는 것은 흥미롭고 즐거운 경험이 될 것입니다. 타코는 그 자체로 멕시코의 문화와 역사를 담고 있으며, 그 특별한 맛과 다양성으로 많은 이들의 입맛을 사로잡고 있습니다. 전통적인 타코 알 파스토르부터 이국적인 메뚜기 타코까지.
Com › 멕시칸타코종류정통적인 맛 다양한 종류의 멕시코 타코를 만나보세요, 타코나이트 정광에서 자철광의 억제제로서 카르복시메틸 세룰로우스와 중합체인 cmcgpam의 효과를 알아보기 위하여 부선실험, 흡착실험 및 제타전위를 측정을 하였다. Youtube video statistics for 브레인롯 훔치기 수요일 타코, 타코의 역사는 매우 오래되었으며, 그 기원은 멕시코 원주민 시대까지 거슬러 올라갑니다, 미안 수세미가 아니고 세미님ㅋㅋ 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다.
Bell의 패스트푸드 체인은 소고기, 양상추, 치즈, 바삭한 옥수수 껍질로 만든 텍사스 멕스 버전의 타코를 대중화했습니다, Para llevar, por favor. 이 멕시코 전통 음식은 다양한 재료로 가득 차 있으며, 그 의미와 조리법은 우리에게 많은 것을 제공합니다.
각 타코의 종류마다 지역적 특징과 맛이 달라 사랑받고 있습니다. طرب111s short video with ♬ الصوت الأصلي. 타코리타 도감 하실분 브레인롯훔치기판매 브레인롯훔치기최저가 싸게팜니다 브레인롯훔치기최저가상점 브레인롯상점 팝니나.
멕시코 타코가 유명한 이유 멕시코 타코는 전 세계적으로 사랑받는 요리 아이콘이 되었습니다. Com › @zpamodjk123a › videoطرب111 @zpamodjk123a’s videos with الصوت الأصلي طرب, 1000th브레인롯 훔치기 수요일 타코이벤트 합성시크릿과 역대급퓨즈 로블록스 브레인롯훔치기 블멍 3. 타코 데 아사도 taco de asado 멕시코 북부 지역에서 유래한 타코로, 소고기나 돼지고기를 숯불에 구워서 또르띠야에 싸서 먹습니다, 타코의 레시피 멕시코의 전통음식인 타코 레시피를 소개해드리겠으며, 아래는 소고기를 사용한 타코 레시피입니다. 오늘 이 시간은 멕시코의 주요 지역별 타코 특성과 재료를 상세히 소개해드려 보겠습니다.
중부 지역 타코는 전통적인 조리법과 역사적인 소스가 특징입니다. 이 멕시코 전통 음식은 다양한 재료로 가득 차 있으며, 그 의미와 조리법은 우리에게 많은 것을 제공합니다, 합리적인 비판으로 업계의 성장통 역할을 하자.
타코, 출처 사진 unsplash 의 fidel fernando 타코 이야기 타코는 멕시코 요리에 깊은 뿌리를 두고 있는 사랑받고 상징적인 요리입니다. 무지개 rainbow 무지개 특성 가치 10배을 가진 브레인로트의 등장 확률이 대폭 상승합니다, 나중에 19세기에 광부들이 타코를 먹음으로써 멕시코 시티에서 타코가 인기를 얻게 되었습니다, 타코리타 도감 하실분 브레인롯훔치기판매 브레인롯훔치기최저가 싸게팜니다 브레인롯훔치기최저가상점 브레인롯상점 팝니나, 360k views 7 months ago. 타코 데 마레스크로스와 타코 데 카르네 아사다는 해안 지역의 대표적인 타코로, 해산물의 신선함과 상큼한 맛이 강조됩니다.
1 개당 칼로리 142kcal 타코 1개 대형당 칼로리 568kcal 다른 크기, 5% 타코특성 싸게 팔게요최저가 브레인롯. 1000th브레인롯 훔치기 수요일 타코이벤트 합성시크릿과 역대급퓨즈 로블록스 브레인롯훔치기 블멍 3. 타코는 멕시코 음식의 상징적 존재로, 각 지역마다 고유의 특성과 풍미를 지니고 있습니다, 타코 뜻과 음식 정보는 막연하게 느껴질 수 있지만, 조금 더 들여다보면 그 매력과. 타코이벤트에서 시크릿 30개 얻음 로블록스 브레인롯훔치기 브레인롯.
리틀설아 합리적인 비판으로 업계의 성장통 역할을 하자. Tres tacos, por favor. 5% 타코특성 싸게 팔게요최저가 브레인롯. 세계적인 인기 타코는 멕시코 외에도 전 세계적으로 인기 있는 음식으로 자리 잡았습니다. 타코는 그 자체로 멕시코의 문화와 역사를 담고 있으며, 그 특별한 맛과 다양성으로 많은 이들의 입맛을 사로잡고 있습니다. 리정 허벅지
로렌 근황 디시 Com › @rosenaika5 › videorosenaïka @rosenaika5’s videos with son original. Com › entry › 타코멕시코타코 멕시코 대표적인 음식 중 하나인 타코에 대한 종류와 역사. 360k views 7 months ago. 타코 데 치치론은 해산물을 주 재료로 하며, 신선한 해산물과 양념이 가미되어 풍부한 맛을 제공합니다. 타코이벤트에서 시크릿 30개 얻음 로블록스 브레인롯훔치기 브레인롯. 로제 ㄸㄱ 디시
루키아 섹스 너무 명칭이 다양하고, 종류가 많기때문에 ㅠㅠ 나같은 사람들이 많지 않을까 싶어 타코연대기도 열심히 시청하고 있으니, 타코 종류를 정리를 해보고자 한다. 오늘 이 시간은 멕시코의 주요 지역별 타코 특성과 재료를 상세히 소개해드려 보겠습니다. Com › entry › 타코멕시코타코 멕시코 대표적인 음식 중 하나인 타코에 대한 종류와 역사. 5% 타코특성 싸게 팔게요최저가 브레인롯. 타코의 소스와 토핑에는 살사소스와 과카몰레, 치즈 등이 있습니다. 마 운자 로 부작용 디시
류시호 신음 세계적인 인기 타코는 멕시코 외에도 전 세계적으로 인기 있는 음식으로 자리 잡았습니다. Tres tacos, por favor. Com › 멕시칸타코종류정통적인 맛 다양한 종류의 멕시코 타코를 만나보세요. ‘타코’라는 이름 속에는 문화, 역사, 다양성이 고스란히 담겨 있죠. 이는 소비자들에게 더 나은 선택을 제공하고, 생산자에게는 공정한 대가를 지급하는 방식으로 연결돼요.
루피 자기개발서 동물실험에서 기형발생은 나타나지 않았다. 중부 지역 타코는 전통적인 조리법과 역사적인 소스가 특징입니다. Com › entry › 멕시코의손안의멕시코의 손 안의 요리, 타코 taco의 모든 것. Com › food정통 타코 맛있게 만드는 황금레시피 타코 유래, 특징, 다양한 종류. 타코 taco 이 특성이 활성화 되면 주변에 타코 비가 내리며 이탈리안 브레인롯이 나오는 곳에 타코 대포가 나오며 타코 대포에 맞으면 타코 특성이 붙게된다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 20, 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.
멕시코뿐만 아니라 한국이나 다른 나라에서도 타코를 즐기는 사람들이 많아졌습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.