US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
난 13장으로 짧게 여러명 다 ㅋㅋㅋ. 운전도 어렵지 않으니 초보자도 걱정안하셔도 됩니다. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 지하1층 입장료 제외 6만정도 태움 이름은 기억안나고 5장씩 여러명한테 줌 ㅁㅊㅅㅁ ㅅㅊ 서비스 나쁘지 않고 필로우토크 좋더라 뭐. ㅂㅂ금지말고 주의할게있나 ㅇㅁㅋㄹ상황극 첨가는 복잡한 룰 더 많더라 read more.
목요일에 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가는데 버츄얼 리카 미니 갤러리. 본판하려는건 아니고 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 예전에 오사카 갔을때 친구랑 다녀왔었는데 재밌었어서 그런 식으로 놀고싶은데 추천가능. 운전도 어렵지 않으니 초보자도 걱정안하셔도 됩니다, ㅂㅂ금지말고 주의할게있나 ㅇㅁㅋㄹ상황극 첨가는 복잡한 룰 더 많더라 read more. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 시스템 간략설명 여행일본 갤러리. 쇼타임이 명목상으로 메인인 가게이고 폐점 한시간쯤 전에 2. Com › 10857275965정보 일본의 밤문화 옵빠이 퍼브 일간베스트 일베저장소, Com › mini › board목요일에 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가는데 버츄얼 리카 미니 갤러리. 버츄얼 아이돌 리카에 대한 이야기를 하는 갤러리 입니다, 지하1층이건 4층이건 2시간간격으로 세번 진행되는. 나는 유학생이라 ㄱㅊ했는디 일본어 못하면 빡실듯. 초심자말고 가게 좀 다니려는애들을 위해서, 오늘 갈건데 고민 ㅈㄴ되네 뭐가야되냐. 첫날에 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가봣는데 눈나들 너무 이쁘더라 ㅁㅁㄹ안되는거 빼고는 아주좋앗노 둘째날은 ㅁㅊㅅㅁㅅㅊ 가봣고 나는 그냥그랫음 내가 별로였는지 본방말고는 못하게하더라 셋째날은 ㅎㅌㅎㄹ 함가봣는데 좀 비싸긴해도 해달라는거. 현재의 건물은 1931년에 재건되었으며, 성내에는 역사와 문화에 관한 박물관이 있습니다, 오사카 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ vs ㅂㅂ 추천좀 오사카 마이너 갤러리, 나는 유학생이라 ㄱㅊ했는디 일본어 못하면 빡실듯. 운전도 어렵지 않으니 초보자도 걱정안하셔도 됩니다. 일본을 ㅅㅂ 이곳저곳 여러번와보긴했는데맨날 여친이랑만와서 형식적인 관광밖에 못했었거든근데 헤어지고나서 이번. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가격이 얼만가요 여행일본 갤러리. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 지하1층 입장료 제외 6만정도 태움 이름은 기억안나고 5장씩 여러명한테 줌 ㅁㅊㅅㅁ ㅅㅊ 서비스 나쁘지 않고 필로우토크 좋더라 뭐. 급하다 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 보통 몇시에 많이가냐 여행일본 갤러리. Com › board › view3일간 오사카 유흥 종류별로 다 즐겨봤다 질문받는다 여행일본 갤, 버츄얼 아이돌 리카에 대한 이야기를 하는 갤러리 입니다. ㅂㅂ금지말고 주의할게있나 ㅇㅁㅋㄹ상황극 첨가는 복잡한 룰 더 많더라 read more. 왜 ㅇㅍㄹ는 ㄱㅊ고 ㅅㅍ도 괜찮은데 ㅋㅂ는 잘리노 dc app.현재의 건물은 1931년에 재건되었으며, 성내에는 역사와 문화에 관한 박물관이 있습니다, 본판하려는건 아니고 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 예전에 오사카 갔을때 친구랑 다녀왔었는데 재밌었어서 그런 식으로 놀고싶은데 추천가능. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ한번쯤가볼만하고취향맞으면좋음 ㅁㅊㅅㅁㅅㅊ여기는ㅇㅈ잘골라야되는데꿀팁이없음 ㅎㅌㅇㅋㄹ호텔,데리둘다하는곳인데 난좋앗음, 스크랩 이미지 ㅅㅂ 오사카 가는거 늦어져서 10시에 아포로 들어가겠네. 요즘 뉴비유입이 좀 줄어든거 같아서 초행길에 도움좀 되라고 예전에 올렸다 잘린거다시 써보려고 함층 선택은 지하1층 or 4층 두개만 생각해라지하1층이 와꾸고점, 쇼타임 퍼포먼스가 압도적이고4층이 수위, 자연미드캐리많음.
ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가 뭔말임 여행일본 갤러리, 첫날에 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가봣는데 눈나들 너무 이쁘더라 ㅁㅁㄹ안되는거 빼고는 아주좋앗노 둘째날은 ㅁㅊㅅㅁㅅㅊ 가봣고 나는 그냥그랫음 내가 별로였는지 본방말고는 못하게하더라 셋째날은 ㅎㅌㅎㄹ 함가봣는데 좀 비싸긴해도 해달라는거. 지상 8층 건물인 오사카 성은 각 층마다 성과 도요토미 히데요시와 관련된 전시를 관람할 수 있습니다. 일본을 ㅅㅂ 이곳저곳 여러번와보긴했는데맨날 여친이랑만와서 형식적인 관광밖에 못했었거든근데 헤어지고나서 이번.
오사카 텐만구는 일본 학문의 신을 모시는 신사로, 특히 학업 성취를 기원하는 이들이 자주 찾는 장소입니다, 2층에서는 원하는 사람은 시대극 코스프레 체험도 가능합니다. 검색좀 해보니 예약의달이다, 공사 끝이다, 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 꿈 후기 3월천만원시작 2024.
이번에 첨 가보려고 오사카로 비행기잡앗는데, 오사카성은 오사카시에 있는 역사적인 성입니다, Kr › attractionsg298566오사카 관광명소 best 10 tripadvisor 트립어드바이저, Com › board › view아포로비루 후기 여행일본 갤러리. 2층에서는 원하는 사람은 시대극 코스프레 체험도 가능합니다.
지상 8층 건물인 오사카 성은 각 층마다 성과 도요토미 히데요시와 관련된 전시를 관람할 수 있습니다. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 지하1층 입장료 제외 6만정도 태움 이름은 기억안나고 5장씩 여러명한테 줌 ㅁㅊㅅㅁ ㅅㅊ 서비스 나쁘지 않고 필로우토크 좋더라 뭐. 관광객들을 위한 상품이 잘 되어있는 편이고 현대와 과거가 공존해 있는 곳이라 매력적인 도시임이 분명하더라고요.
Com › tingky423 › 223665531252일본 오사카 꼭 가볼만한곳 best 5 추천 네이버 블로그. Com › board › viewㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 시스템 간략설명 여행일본 갤러리. 난 13장으로 짧게 여러명 다 ㅋㅋㅋ, 15 1110 이미지 오사카에서 ㅋㅇㅈ 만나니까 반갑네. 칸사이 지역, 문화, 여행 뭐든지 자유롭게 이야기 하세요.
일본의 지역, 오사카를 위한 공간입니다.. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ는 나름 호불호 갈리긴함 근데 배달은 도쿄쪽이 훨 좋아보이..
ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ한번쯤가볼만하고취향맞으면좋음 ㅁㅊㅅㅁㅅㅊ여기는ㅇㅈ잘골라야되는데꿀팁이없음 ㅎㅌㅇㅋㄹ호텔,데리둘다하는곳인데 난좋앗음, 가게 계속 다닐거면 빨리 만드는게 좋다, Com › 10857275965정보 일본의 밤문화 옵빠이 퍼브 일간베스트 일베저장소, Com › mgallery › board오사카 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ vs ㅂㅂ 추천좀 오사카 마이너 갤러리. 담에 오사카가면 우버나 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ가보고 싶네 버츄얼. 0 이면 즐길만하다했는데 다 즐기고나니 4.
sotwe 고문 오늘 갈건데 고민 ㅈㄴ되네 뭐가야되냐. 지하1층이건 4층이건 2시간간격으로 세번 진행되는. 담에 오사카가면 우버나 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ가보고 싶네 버츄얼. Com › board › view아포로비루 후기 여행일본 갤러리. 관광객들을 위한 상품이 잘 되어있는 편이고 현대와 과거가 공존해 있는 곳이라 매력적인 도시임이 분명하더라고요. sotwe 바이탑
sotwe 偽娘 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 꿈 후기 3월천만원시작 2024. 오사카 텐만구는 일본 학문의 신을 모시는 신사로, 특히 학업 성취를 기원하는 이들이 자주 찾는 장소입니다. Com › board › view아포로비루 후기 여행일본 갤러리. Com › mini › board목요일에 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가는데 버츄얼 리카 미니 갤러리. Kr › attractionsg298566오사카 관광명소 best 10 tripadvisor 트립어드바이저. snos-021
sotwe 관장 일본의 지역, 오사카를 위한 공간입니다. 운전도 어렵지 않으니 초보자도 걱정안하셔도 됩니다. 오늘 갈건데 고민 ㅈㄴ되네 뭐가야되냐. 급하다 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 보통 몇시에 많이가냐 여행일본 갤러리. 담에 오사카가면 우버나 ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ가보고 싶네 버츄얼. sm 모노 뜻
sotwe69 2층에서는 원하는 사람은 시대극 코스프레 체험도 가능합니다. 오사카 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Com › board › viewㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 시스템 간략설명 여행일본 갤러리. Com › board › view아포로비루 후기 여행일본 갤러리. 요즘 뉴비유입이 좀 줄어든거 같아서 초행길에 도움좀 되라고 예전에 올렸다 잘린거다시 써보려고 함층 선택은 지하1층 or 4층 두개만 생각해라지하1층이 와꾸고점, 쇼타임 퍼포먼스가 압도적이고4층이 수위, 자연미드캐리많음.
sotwe 펠라 근데 거기 좀외진곳이던데 치안 ㄱㅊ음. ㅇㅍㄹㅂㄹ 가격이 얼만가요 여행일본 갤러리. Kr › attractionsg298566오사카 관광명소 best 10 tripadvisor 트립어드바이저. 유명한 관광지부터 숨은 명소까지 – s. 전국 시대에 도요토미 히데요시에 의해 세워졌고, 후쿠가와 이에야스에 의해 재건되었습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
오사카 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.