US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
이이경 소속사는 이미 허위사실 유포 및 명예훼손으로 고소장을 접수한 상태다. 배우 이이경 향한 독일녀 폭로 사태 5개월간 설계된 악의의. 이이경 독일 가서라도 잡겠다사생활 루머 폭로자 고소 jtbc 성폭행범 될 뻔 친구가 찍어준 사진 한 장저를 살렸습니다 뉴스다. A 씨는 22일 최근 이이경 관련해서 이런 저런 사진을 많이 올렸다.
Com › star › 20251021이이경 더러워독일女 19금 성희롱 카톡 2차 주장→sns 악플 테러.. 27일 유튜브 채널 연예 뒤통령 이진호는 이이경 폭로녀 독일녀 사칭 a씨는 자신이 먼저 이이경에게 노출사진을 보낸 것은 아니라고 부인.. 여성 a는 20일 네이버 블로그에 이이경 소속사 반응 보니까..
미남 유명인에 교배 영상 보내이이경 폭로녀, 과거 행적. 독일인 여성 a씨는 26일 유튜브 채널 ‘연예뒤통령 이진호’를 통해 직접 인터뷰를 진행하며 자신이. 사진과 영상을 공개했으나, 최근 ai 사진을 사용했다고 스스로 자백했다. 이이경 독일녀 폭로 후폭풍 이유라는 제목의 영상이 공개됐다. 독일인 여성 a씨, 19일 완전 마지막이라며 입장 발표 이이경.
여성 a는 20일 네이버 블로그에 이이경 소속사 반응 보니까. 독일인 여성 a씨, 19일 완전 마지막이라며 입장 발표 이이경, 2m followers 534 following 374 posts @luvlk89. 사진은 조작이 쉽지만, 구동 영상은 차원이 다른 증거다.
제가 터트린 진짜 이유 이이경 독일 폭로녀, 최초 심경 고백이라는 제목의 영상이 업로드됐다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 엑스포츠뉴스 황수연 기자 배우 이이경의 사생활 루머를 폭로한 a씨가 한국어를 독학한 독일인이라고 밝힌 가운데, a씨의 출신에 대해 네티즌들의 의문이 커지고 있다, A씨가 먼저 노출 사진을 보냈다는 이이경 소속사 측의 주장에 대해서는 그건, 한눈에 보는 오늘 아이돌24시 뉴스 스포티비뉴스김현록 기자배우 이이경의 사생활 의혹을 제기한 독일인 여성이 재차 입장을 냈다.
A씨는 이이경의 소속사가 제기한 노출 사진을 먼저 보냈다는 주장에 대해서는 사실이 아니라고 반박했다, Kr › news › life이이경 사생활 폭로한다던 ‘독일女’, 돌연 재미로&mldr. Love on octo 최근 네이버 블로그 등에 이이경으로 추정되는 인물과 한 여성이 나눈 카카오톡, 인스타그램 dm 메시지가 담긴 게시물이이경님 찐모습 노출합니다이 확산되었습니다. Com › entertainment › 20251212e컵, 자신이 독일인 여성이라고 주장해온 a씨는 22일 오전 자신의 엑스 계정에 한국인 여러분 안녕하세요. Kr › society › generalsociety이이경 폭로녀의 사생활&mldr.
배우 이이경 향한 독일녀 폭로 사태 5개월간 설계된 악의의. 이이경 소속사는 이미 허위사실 유포 및 명예훼손으로 고소장을 접수한 상태다. 독일인 여성 a씨는 26일 유튜브 채널 ‘연예뒤통령 이진호’를 통해 직접 인터뷰를 진행하며 자신이, 독일인 여성 a씨의 사생활 폭로로 출연 중이던 mbc 놀면 뭐하니.
이이경 폭로녀 나는 26살 독일사람 제니한국인 오해, 27일 유튜브 채널 연예 뒤통령 이진호는 이이경 폭로녀 독일녀 사칭 a씨는 자신이 먼저 이이경에게 노출사진을 보낸 것은 아니라고 부인, Kr › news › pcai 사진으로 장난&mldr. 이이경 사생활 폭로 독일인 돈 달라고 한 적 없어xx. 이에 따르면 a씨는 누군가와 나눈 인스타그램 다이렉트 메시지 dm에서 이이경 회사에 메일 보내고 10억원 정도 요구하면 될까, 회사가 월급도 적게 주고 생활비도 부족하고 휴대전화도 팔았어, 챗 gpt에 물어보니까 처벌 안 받는대.
배우 이이경에 대한 사생활 폭로글을 올렸다 추후 ai로 조작한 사진이라며 고개를 숙였던 누리꾼 a씨가 앞선 입장을 번복하고 억울하다는 입장을 표했다.. 현재 이이경 측은 추가적인 법적 절차를 검토 중이며, sns상 허위 게시물 유포자들에 대한 조치도 병행할 예정이다..
이에 따르면 a씨는 누군가와 나눈 인스타그램 다이렉트 메시지 dm에서 이이경 회사에 메일 보내고 10억원 정도 요구하면 될까, 회사가 월급도 적게 주고 생활비도 부족하고 휴대전화도 팔았어, 챗 gpt에 물어보니까 처벌 안 받는대, 이이경 사생활 폭로자 ai사진으로 조작, 장난이었다 배우 이이경의 사생활 관련 폭로글을 게시해 온 네티즌 a씨가 장난으로 시작했던 글이라며 사과문을 올렸다, 17 on octo 이이경 더러워 독일女 19금 폭로에 악플 테러까지. 사진과 영상을 공개했으나, 최근 ai 사진을 사용했다고 스스로 자백했다.
| 이이경 폭로녀의 사생활유명인에게 남녀. | 본 적 없어 이이경 사생활 의혹 폭로자, dm 추가 공개. |
|---|---|
| 27일 유튜브 채널 연예 뒤통령 이진호는 이이경 폭로녀 독일녀 사칭 a씨는 자신이 먼저 이이경에게 노출사진을 보낸 것은 아니라고 부인. | 그는 폭로 이유에 대해 다른 피해자가 없었으면 좋겠다는 의. |
| 미남 유명인에 교배 영상 보내이이경 폭로녀, 과거 행적. | 이 메시지에는 여성에게 신체 사진을 요구하고 욕설, 성희롱, 음담패설을 한 내용이. |
| 제가 터트린 진짜 이유 이이경 독일 폭로녀, 최초 심경 고백. | Com › news › retrievenewsinfo이이경 사생활 폭로 후 사과했던 독일女, 돌연 ai 아냐&mldr. |
| 사진은 조작이 쉽지만, 구동 영상은 차원이 다른 증거다. | Kr › news › life이이경 사생활 폭로한다던 ‘독일女’, 돌연 재미로&mldr. |
이이경 사생활 폭로한다던 독일女, 돌연 재미로ai 사진 써. 유명인에게 남녀 성관계 영상 보내 성희, 16일 유튜브 채널 ‘연예 뒤통령이진호’에는 ‘왜 유재석이 욕을 먹는걸까 이이경 독일녀 폭로 후폭풍 이유’라는 제목의 영상이 게재됐다. 이이경 폭로녀의 사생활유명인에게 남녀. 최근 기자 출신 유튜버 이진호는 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 이이경의 사생활 루머를 폭로한 독일인 여성 a씨에 대한 영상을 공개했다.
육덕 트위터 그와 카톡과 인스타 디엠을 주고 받았다고 주장하는 인물이 카톡 내용을 캡처한 사진을 블로그에 공개했어요. 처음에는 장난으로 시작했던 글이 그렇게 많이 관심을 받을 줄 몰랐다. Com › star › 20251021이이경 더러워독일女 19금 성희롱 카톡 2차 주장→sns 악플 테러. A씨는 이이경과 그동안 나눴다는 카카오톡 대화와 인스타그램 dm 다이렉트 메시지 내역을 ‘증거’라며 올리기도 했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 아이돌24시 뉴스 스포티비뉴스김현록 기자배우 이이경의 사생활 의혹을 제기한 독일인 여성이 재차 입장을 냈다. 윤리 붕괴 개발부
윤가놈 헤가 27일 유튜브 채널 연예 뒤통령 이진호는 이이경 폭로녀 독일녀 사칭 a씨는 자신이 먼저 이이경에게 노출사진을 보낸 것은 아니라고 부인. 유명인에게 남녀 성관계 영상 보내 성희. 폭로글 게시자 a씨는 20일 자신의 블로그에 갑자기 제가 돈 달라고 했다는 얘기가 나왔다. 12일 a씨는 아직도 ai라고 생각하시는 분 계시면 손 진짜 완. 배우 이이경이 여성에게 신체 사진을 요구했다는 등 사생활을 폭로한다고 해온 a씨가 돌연 재미로 시작했던 것이라며 사과글을 올렸다. 윤공주 김소은 인스 타
음지 덕식 논란 돈 문제가 있었고, 부모님께 돈 달라고는 못 해서 물어본. 메시지에는 이이경으로 추정되는 인물은 a씨에게 신체 사진을 요구하고 욕설, 성희롱, 음담패설한 내용이 담겼다. 이이경 소속사는 이미 허위사실 유포 및 명예훼손으로 고소장을 접수한 상태다. 1년 반 연락, 야한 말 무서웠다이이경 폭로녀, 직접 입장. 배우 이이경 씨와의 대화를 공개했던 독일인 여성이 자신의 주장이 사실이라고 재차 입장을 밝혔다. 은빛자존심 트위터
윤아 erome 이이경 사생활 폭로자, 돌연 사과 이런뉴스. 21일 이이경은 자신의 sns를 통해 그동안 저의 입장을 이야기하지 않았던 이유는 변호사를 선임하고 유포자에 대한 형사 고소를 완료하기 전까지 언급을 자제해 달라는 소속사의 요청이 있었기 때문이라며 고소장과 함께 장문의 글을 게재했다. 그와 카톡과 인스타 디엠을 주고 받았다고 주장하는 인물이 카톡 내용을 캡처한 사진을 블로그에 공개했어요. 이이경 측은 허위사실이라고 즉각 반박하고 법적 대응에 나섰지만, a씨는 ai로 만든 거짓이라고 했다가 모든 증거는 다 진짜라고 자신의 입장을. 이이경 사생활 폭로 독일인 돈 달라고 한 적 없어xx.
이구로 미츠리 죽음 Com › news › entertainments이이경 사생활 폭로한다던 ‘독일女’, 돌연 재미로&mldr. 배우 이이경이 여성에게 신체 사진을 요구했다는 등 사생활을 폭로한다고 해온 a씨가 돌연 재미로 시작했던 것이라며 사과글을 올렸다. 배우 이이경이 사생활 의혹에 대한 입장을 밝혔다. 배우 이이경36이 사생활 루머 글을 작성한 독일인 여성 a씨에 대한 강경 대응을 예고한 가운데 a씨의 신원이 특정될 전망이다. 앞서 a 씨는 자신의 블로그를 통해 이이경이라고 주장하는 남성과 주고받은 메시지를 공개한 바 있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 11, 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.
27일 유튜브 채널 연예 뒤통령 이진호는 이이경 폭로녀 독일녀 사칭 a씨는 자신이 먼저 이이경에게 노출사진을 보낸 것은 아니라고 부인., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.