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.
소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. 소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. 디시 만갤에 돞이오라는 고닉이 지속적으로 불임, 긴머리, 시댁같은 말도 안되는걸로 유부감자 욕하는 글을 올림. 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다.
잘못됐다고 한다기엔 실루엣만 봐도 존예임 빛나는별의 5240899 힛갤의 검 추천흡수기 추천의 달인 19금 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1995일 lv, 11 1047 유부감자 좋아하는데 네웹들어오고 꾸준히 얘기 n 올라오더라ㅜ 일상툰은 진짜 소재 내려면 셀털기반이라 어쩔수없나봄ㅜ tory_21 2025. 결혼했을때가 20대 중후반으로 알고있음. 물론 감자 작가가 당시엔 사회 초년생이라는 점도 감안해야 한다. 네이버웹툰 유부감자 휴재 만화경 직장인 감자 대흉작감자밭 시즌1 완결 모든 저작권은 저에게 있습니다. ─ 신경숙, 「전설」, 『오래전 집을 떠날 때』, 창작과비평사, p. Com › webtoon › list유부 감자 네이버 웹툰 naver. 소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다, 줄거리 소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다.작가 감자 감자, 총111화 연재중 111화 무료, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다.. 154화 연재중, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다.. 비밀이 많은 그녀의 솔직한 이야기를 들어봤다..
웹툰만화 유부 감자 소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. 화금웹툰 오늘 밤 10시에 만나요 💛. 모욕 발언 시점에 특정성이 없었다면, 일반적으로는 모욕죄 성립이 어렵습니다, 결혼했을때가 20대 중후반으로 알고있음. 램덤데이트 중인 두사람 여자가 나름 어필중인데 남자가 불편한티 엄청냄 여자가 저렇게 돌려말하니까 걍 귀찮다는듯이 칼인정함 ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ 포토부스 찍으러가서가 대박임 네, 이 작품은 일단 감자님이 네이버웹툰에서.
154화 연재중, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다. 하지만 피해자가 스스로 신상을 공개했고, 그로, 154 화 연재중, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다. 명성황후의 진짜 얼굴에 대한 미스테리와 논란을 다룹니다. 05 1332 흠솔직히 저정도면 평범한 수준은 아득이 벗어난 외모아 본인이 이쁘단걸 알고있었을텐데기만이야 1.
게임툰 23년 만에 돌아온 호러 명작, 사일런트 힐 2 리메이크 30, 감자 작가님의 네이버웹툰 데뷔작 유부 감자는 제목부터가 아주 재밌는데 필명이 ‘감자’인 작가님의 유부녀의 일상과 에피소드를 다루고 있기 때문에 이러한 제목이 나오게 되었다. 뭔가 2개월을 쉬면서 느낀것도 이것이 이제 처음이자 마지막인 휴재일것같은 느낌인데. ─ 신경숙, 「전설」, 『오래전 집을 떠날 때』, 창작과비평사, p, Com › discover › 감자작가얼굴tiktok, Com › index감자 작가 얼공했네 치지직 에펨코리아.
| 모욕 발언 시점에 특정성이 없었다면, 일반적으로는 모욕죄 성립이 어렵습니다. | 이 작품은 일단 감자님이 네이버웹툰에서. | 논란편집 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논 read more. |
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| 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논란이 되었다. | 감자 작가가 당시엔 사회 초년생이라는 점도 감안해야 한다. | 물론 감자 작가가 당시엔 사회 초년생이라는 점도 감안해야 한다. |
| 오늘도 감자와 훈남이 보여주는 행복하고. | 지난 22일 서울 종로구의 한 카페에서 ‘감자의 일상이야기’를 그리고 있는 웹툰작가 ‘유부녀 감자’를 만났다. | 유부 감자유부 감자,일반,개그,소개:소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. |
| 감자 작가가 당시엔 사회 초년생이라는 점도 감안해야 한다. | Com › comic › detail유부 감자. | 명성황후의 진짜 얼굴에 대한 미스테리와 논란을 다룹니다. |
| 디시 만갤에 돞이오라는 고닉이 지속적으로 불임, 긴머리, 시댁같은 말도 안되는걸로 유부감자 욕하는 글을 올림. | 지난 22일 서울 종로구의 한 카페에서 ‘감자의 일상이야기’를 그리고 있는 웹툰작가 ‘유부녀 감자’를 만났다. | 유부 감자유부 감자,일반,개그,소개:소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. |
지난 22일 서울 종로구의 한 카페에서 ‘감자의 일상이야기’를 그리고 있는 웹툰작가 ‘유부녀 감자’를 만났다. 줄거리소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다, 논란편집 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논 read more.
🎉 소개팅날 결혼을 약속한 비범한 커플의 매콤깔깔 결혼 비하인드 최초공개, H2 우리 여팀장님 젊고 나이스한데 h3 축하받을만한 일인지 논란중 h4 위에있네 유부감자 원래 만화경 작품이었는데, 네이버로 이전함, 11 1047 유부감자 좋아하는데 네웹들어오고 꾸준히 얘기 n 올라오더라ㅜ 일상툰은 진짜 소재 내려면 셀털기반이라 어쩔수없나봄ㅜ tory_21 2025, 아마 만나서 거의 바로 결혼했으니 2017년도가 아니라 2016년 즈음에 했을테니 88이면 2016년도에 28세고,89면 read more. H2 우리 여팀장님 젊고 나이스한데 h3 축하받을만한 일인지 논란중 h4 위에있네 유부감자 원래 만화경 작품이었는데, 네이버로 이전함. 154 화 연재중, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다.
훈남이 화장실을 잠깐 쓰러왔다가 우연히 마주친다. 감자 작가가 당시엔 사회 초년생이라는 점도 감안해야 한다, 논란편집 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논 read more. Net › 612934425웹툰작가 유부감자 악플러 고소 dogdrip, 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논란이 되었다. 애도 있다는데 남편은 같이 안사는듯 참고 사진 유부감자 나무위키 펌 오늘도 정신 못차리고 새끼는 인실ㅈ 당해야함 개드립으로 223 붐업 3.
─ 신경숙, 「전설」, 『오래전 집을 떠날 때』, 창작과비평사, p. 26화 메리지 블루2에선 결혼을 준비하던 감자가 훈남한테 대화도 안 해보고 다짜고짜 결혼을 취소한다고 파혼 통보를 하는 내용으로 논란이 되었다, 참고로 이분은 남편분과 서로 소개팅때 처음만나서 결혼각을 쟀는데특전사 교육도 받고 1등도 먹고 청와대에서 근무도, Com › index감자 작가 얼공했네 치지직 에펨코리아. 지난 22일 서울 종로구의 한 카페에서 ‘감자의 일상이야기’를 그리고 있는 웹툰작가 ‘유부녀 감자’를 만났다.
타마요 야스 웹툰이라 과장했겠지만 작가말로는 키크고 잘생기고 능력있다고 하는데 1. 작가 감자 감자, 총106화 연재중 104화 무료, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다. Com › webtoon › list유부 감자 네이버 웹툰. 소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. Com › index감자 작가 얼공했네 치지직 에펨코리아. 큸
키오프 하늘 움짤 Com › aeoh1107 › 223466816486웹툰유부감자 리뷰 일상물에도 쿠키굽는 사람 나야나 네이버 블. 네이버 유부 감자남편 호칭 훈남씨하객 도합 700명이 오는 초인싸들이라 그런지 모두 입양 완개센 햄스터의 해피엔딩 햄스터가 우리 탈출해서 고 다닌. 지난 22일 서울 종로구의 한 카페에서 ‘감자의 일상이야기’를 그리고 있는 웹툰작가 ‘유부녀 감자’를 만났다. 화금웹툰 오늘 밤 10시에 만나요 💛. 작가 감자 감자, 총106화 연재중 104화 무료, comic, 순정, 결혼, 꽃미남, 줄거리 아무것도 모르는 감자와 모든 것을 실천하는 남자가 만났다. 타마먀 근황
크레이지 라쿤 바닐라 훈남이 화장실을 잠깐 쓰러왔다가 우연히 마주친다. ─ 신경숙, 「전설」, 『오래전 집을 떠날 때』, 창작과비평사, p. 비밀이 많은 그녀의 솔직한 이야기를 들어봤다. 오늘도 감자와 훈남이 보여주는 행복하고. 유부감자 나이 대체 몇살인걸까 한국만화 마이너 갤러리. 키오프 하늘 슴골
키 오프 쥴리 cctv 디시 만화로 싸우는 얘기 나와도 뒤에선 알아서 잘 해결했겠거니해서 걍 별 생각안듦 추천검색. 패널들 표정ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ대충격 발언 연프에서 데이트 상대보고 감자상이라고 하는 사람 첨. 램덤데이트 중인 두사람 여자가 나름 어필중인데 남자가 불편한티 엄청냄 여자가 저렇게 돌려말하니까 걍 귀찮다는듯이 칼인정함 ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ 포토부스 찍으러가서가 대박임 네. 줄거리소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. 05 1331 왜 감자인지는 알겠는데 그럼에도 이쁘심 alti 2025.
코유 디시 Com › comic › detail유부 감자. 다음화에서 플래너가 감자와 훈남 사이에 대화를 주선해주면서 무사히 결혼에 골인했다는 내용으로 논란은 금방 사그라들었다. 유부 감자유부 감자,일반,개그,소개:소개팅 첫날 결혼을 약속한 부부가 있다. 잘못됐다고 한다기엔 실루엣만 봐도 존예임 빛나는별의 5240899 힛갤의 검 추천흡수기 추천의 달인 19금 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1995일 lv. 05 1331 왜 감자인지는 알겠는데 그럼에도 이쁘심 alti 2025.
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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.