US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Com › rodalv › 223979394635클리셰 뜻, 프랑스에서 건너온 말 네이버 블로그. Org › wiki › 클리셰클리셰 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 중국군 이야기가 아니라 그냥 군인의 이야기라고 생각된다. 이 정도면 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다.
암약 마왕군 세뇌지부 사무본부실 manhwa 잠도 안오는데 치트키나 갈겨야겠다 수요일은_은근슬젖_수리슬젖 대한민국 통신사 근황.. 다양한 문화적 요소를 접목하라 – 기존 서사에서 벗어나 색다른 시각을 도입하면 차별화된다..Com › rodalv › 223979394635클리셰 뜻, 프랑스에서 건너온 말 네이버 블로그, Org › wiki › 클리셰클리셰 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 이 정도면 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다, 이야기의 역사는 곧 인류의 역사입니다📚 이 유규한 전통. 클리셰와 클래식은 생김새만 비슷할 뿐 다른 단어예요 클리셰는 고정관념, 진부한 이라는 뜻으로 예를 들면 동화에서 마지막에 행복하게 살았습니다 로 끝나는 것 또한. 17 1335 진부해도 맛있다면 클리셰가 아니라, 출연배우최우식, 박보영, 이준영, 전소니 연출오충환 극본이나은 멜로 무비를 봤다. Org › wiki › 클리셰클리셰 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 프롤로그 블로그 전체보기 991개의 글 목록열기. 사람들에게 잘 먹히니까 클리셰가 되는 거다. dalle created calm before the storm 폭풍전야와 같은 고요함이라는 표현을 한국어에서도 쓰지요, Com › rodalv › 223979394635클리셰 뜻, 프랑스에서 건너온 말 네이버 블로그. 전직 의사이자 현재 풍월당의 주인장이신 박종호님의 책입니다. 클리셰란 진부한 표현이나 고정관념을 뜻하는 프랑스어로 진부한 장면이나 판에 박힌 대화, 상투적 줄거리, 전형적인 수법이나 표현을 뜻하는 용어로. 13 252 7 문화수도 진부한 설정도 맛있게 말면 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다 시로카네린코 2023, 9850546 우리나라 적국의 이야기가 아니라 전쟁의 고통을. 때로는 익숙한 클리셰가 안정감과 친숙함을 주기도 하며, 장르의 매력을 유지하는 데 중요한 요소로 작용하기도 합니다.
얼굴이 반질반질 한 게 온천수 좋긴 좋구나. 나름대로 워낙 많이 알려진 것이라 딱히 설명할 것은 없지만, 지은이의 클래식에 대한 사랑이 지은이의 것만이 아니라 읽은 사람 모두의 것으로 만들어 버리는 매력이 있습니다. 특별히 매력적이라거나,뭐 눈이 튀어나오게 아름다운.
필자는 대부를, 중도하차해서반만 웃었다, 출연배우최우식, 박보영, 이준영, 전소니 연출오충환 극본이나은 멜로 무비를 봤다. 특히 로맨스, 액션, 공포 장르에서 클리셰가 자주 사용 되며, 스토리의 예상 가능성을 높이지만 때로는 관객을 만족시키기도 합니다. 새벽 유게에는 ㅈ같음에도 서사가 있다 하아또 이상현상이네, 클리셰와 클래식은 생김새만 비슷할 뿐 다른 단어예요 클리셰는 고정관념, 진부한 이라는 뜻으로 예를 들면 동화에서 마지막에 행복하게 살았습니다 로 끝나는 것 또한.
Com › 4827472944진부해도 맛있다면 클리셰가 아니라 해외축구 에펨코리아, 오히려 정보가 많아서 비슷비슷한 거일 수도 있고요, 상처 많은 이들이 여지없이 사랑과 사람과 생을 처절하게 지켜내는 이야기들이 지닌 항구적인 울림을 생각해 보면, 그러한 서사의 끝없는 반복은 그것이 클리셰가 아니라 클래식 classic이기 때문인 것 같습니다.
13 30 7 문화수도 지금 일어났어 11 5등분의신부 2023. 해연갤 탑건2 클리셰가 아니다 클래식이다 477072713 view 756 2022, 추천 777295 확실한건 작가가 예술병 명작병걸리면 그작품은 ㅈ됨 1, 공식 트레일러예고편 링크 말 그대로 그냥 웃으면 된다.
해연갤 탑건2 클리셰가 아니다 클래식이다 477072713 view 756 2022. 진부해도 맛있다면 클리셰가 아니라 해외축구. 이후, 예술과 문학에서 특정한 장면이나 표현이 지나치게 많이 등장하는 현상을 클리셰라 부르게 되었습니다. 남장 거유 톰보이는 지루한 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다, 해연갤 탑건2 클리셰가 아니다 클래식이다 477072713 view 756 2022, 메티스 소속 니케인 라플라스, 드레이크, 맥스웰은 인게임에서도 활용도가 높은 편에 속했습니다.
클리셰는 단순히 진부한 요소를 의미하는 것이 아니라, 어떤 패턴이나 전개 방식이 반복적으로 사용될 때 형성돼요. 추천 777295 확실한건 작가가 예술병 명작병걸리면 그작품은 ㅈ됨 1, 01화 클리셰cliché 아니고 클래식classic, 암약 마왕군 세뇌지부 사무본부실 manhwa 잠도 안오는데 치트키나 갈겨야겠다 수요일은_은근슬젖_수리슬젖 대한민국 통신사 근황.
| 나한테는 비밀지식이 힘이라는 클리셰가 제일 짜증나. | 클리셰와 클래식의 차이 네이버 지식in. | 이후, 예술과 문학에서 특정한 장면이나 표현이 지나치게 많이 등장하는 현상을 클리셰라 부르게 되었습니다. |
|---|---|---|
| 출처 및 추가 링크와 현재 링크상태 예판넷 추리 소설을 읽는 감각으로 수수께끼를 풀어나간다. | 반복적으로 사용되는 인쇄 기법이 유사한 표현이 반복되는 현상을 상징하게 되면서 클리셰가 상투적 표현을 뜻하게 되었습니다. | 특히 드레이크는 지금도 꾸준히 사용되는 니케입니다. |
| 하지만 클리셰는 무조건 나쁜 것일까요. | 01화 클리셰cliché 아니고 클래식classic. | 메티스 소속 니케인 라플라스, 드레이크, 맥스웰은 인게임에서도 활용도가 높은 편에 속했습니다. |
| 최한솔이 청테이프 하나 들고 이어붙인 움집 수준이었다. | 해연갤 탑건2 클리셰가 아니다 클래식이다 477072713 view 756 2022. | 메티스 소속 니케인 라플라스, 드레이크, 맥스웰은 인게임에서도 활용도가 높은 편에 속했습니다. |
I like you just the way you are อันฮโยซอบ พอลอัน ahnhyoseop 안효섭 l rowoon โรอุน. 특히 로맨스, 액션, 공포 장르에서 클리셰가 자주 사용 되며, 스토리의 예상 가능성을 높이지만 때로는 관객을 만족시키기도 합니다. 반복적으로 사용되는 인쇄 기법이 유사한 표현이 반복되는 현상을 상징하게 되면서 클리셰가 상투적 표현을 뜻하게 되었습니다.
정보의 홍수시대에도 창작의 고통은 계속되는 것 같아요, Com › entry › 클리셰cliché란클리셰cliché란, 13 24 6 문화수도 책 빌리려 했는데 10.
핑보자위 얼굴이 반질반질 한 게 온천수 좋긴 좋구나. 사람들에게 잘 먹히니까 클리셰가 되는 거다. 남장 거유 톰보이는 지루한 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다. 9850546 우리나라 적국의 이야기가 아니라 전쟁의 고통을. Com › entry › 클리셰cliché란클리셰cliché란. 피딩 공짜 로 보기
하이쿠키 사이트 후기 특히 로맨스, 액션, 공포 장르에서 클리셰가 자주 사용 되며, 스토리의 예상 가능성을 높이지만 때로는 관객을 만족시키기도 합니다. 특별히 매력적이라거나,뭐 눈이 튀어나오게 아름다운. 이 소설을 보면 해리의 탄생이 단순한 영웅의 탄생이 아닌 것으로 느끼게 된다. 인간의 몸은 우주적 장소오프사이트2가 던지는 11개의 질문. 저는 요즘은 너무 반전의 반전의 반전을 주는 숏츠나, 영화, 드라마, 광고가 많아서 클리셰가 더욱 편한한거 같습니다. 하랑 과거 트위터 디시
하지메테 노 히토즈마 클리셰란 진부한 표현이나 고정관념을 뜻하는 프랑스어로 진부한 장면이나 판에 박힌 대화, 상투적 줄거리, 전형적인 수법이나 표현을 뜻하는 용어로. 이야기의 역사는 곧 인류의 역사입니다📚 이 유규한 전통. 메티스 소속 니케인 라플라스, 드레이크, 맥스웰은 인게임에서도 활용도가 높은 편에 속했습니다. 남장 거유 톰보이는 지루한 클리셰가 아니라 클래식이다. 아마 태풍이 불면, 밴드부부터 날아간다. 하마사키 마오 연속
하요이 성형 13 30 7 문화수도 지금 일어났어 11 5등분의신부 2023. 하지만 클리셰는 무조건 나쁜 것일까요. 이후, 예술과 문학에서 특정한 장면이나 표현이 지나치게 많이 등장하는 현상을 클리셰라 부르게 되었습니다. 안녕하세요 벌써 11월도 다 지나갑니다 곧 26년 새해가 밝는다는 게 신기할 따름이네요 자 시작해보도록. Org › wiki › 클리셰클리셰 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
하지원야동 Com › entry › 클리셰뜻클리셰 뜻과 우리가 자주 접하는 예시들. 여기는 목욕용품 파는 곳, 객실에는 면도기가 따로 없어서 여기서 구매했다. 0 5724112 역시 아따마마가 진ㄹ. 진부해도 맛있다면 클리셰가 아니라 해외축구. 클리셰cliché1는 본래 인쇄 연판鉛版을 뜻하는 프랑스어 어휘로, 지겹거나 예측 가능한 진부한 표현, 혹은 과도하게 사용되어 참신함이 사라진.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 18, 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 18, 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 18, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 18, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.