US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
原名:선배부부와 교환섹스 简体中文名:和前辈夫妇的交换 又名:senior couple and exchange sex 导演:최성길 主演:민도윤 강민우 김초희 类型:剧情 制片国家地区:韩国 语言:韩语 年份:2019 上映日期:20191213 韩国 片长:60分钟 剧情简介:后辈到家里作. 한국 에로배우 무심한 듯 따뜻한 민도윤 출연한 성인영화. 빛나는 여동생 2024 주연부석역 영화 포스터. 闵度允(민도윤,doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔,韩国男演员,主要活跃于情色电影领域。其代表作品包括《仙女之泣》《我朋友的老姐3》《已婚妇女换夫》《不良侦探食物链》等。2018年至2019年间,闵度允参演了《小姨子》《善良的嫂子3》《夜车司机全程》《岳母的诱惑》等多部作品.
빛나는 여동생 2024 주연부석역 영화 포스터.. Net › korean_min_doyoonfilmographymin doyoon 민도윤 filmography hancinema..침묵예능, 아이콘택트 매주 수요일 저녁 9시 50분 방송, 아이콘택트에 출연한 김영희 민도윤 ‘아이콘택트’에 성인영화 감독 데뷔를 앞둔 개그우먼 김영희와 ‘성인영화계의 이병헌’으로 불리는 배우. Net › korean_min_doyoonfilmographymin doyoon 민도윤 filmography hancinema, 3학년 재학 중이었던 1994년 mbc 인기 드, 성인 배우 민도윤 우리도 배우입니다 화보 촬영 현장, 그리고 온리팬즈를 하는 이유 오정쇼 처음 듣는 이야기들에 정미녀는 멘붕. 闵度允(민도윤、doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔。韩国男演员,情色电影男主角,代表作品《仙女之泣》《继父与母女》《三个傻瓜》等。. 2010년 그는 대학로 한 카페에서 일했다. 3학년 재학 중이었던 1994년 mbc 인기 드. 한국 에로계 공장장으로 유명한 이채담비주얼로 화제 됐던 윤율아이돌 출신 에로배우로 유명했던 채승하. 성인영화 감독에 도전하려는 김영희, 그녀는 절친이자 베테랑 배우인 민도윤을 잡을 수 있을까. 闵度允 min doyoon的全部作品(81) 按时间排序 按评价排序 按角色查看 不良侦探:失踪 2019 演员 导演 리차드 킴 主演 민도윤 주혜원 조은영 유종해.
민도윤은 정성스럽게 경건한 마음으로 붓글씨를 쓰듯이 해야 한다고 진지하게 설명했다, Com › people › 15065min do yoon 민도윤 mydramalist. Com › person › p000111337민도윤. 좋아요 1좋아요 1명이 이 인물을 좋아합니다. 에로배우 민도윤이 화두를 모으고 있다.
2020년 5월 방송한 kbs 예능 프로그램 스탠드 업에 출연. 2012년 데뷔하여 현재까지 300편 이상의 작품에 출연하여, 한국의 시미켄급이다, 수상한 가족 2024 주연 영화 포스터. 민도윤은 영화 〈기생춘〉 등 다양한 작품에 참여한 인물입니다.
한국 에로배우 무심한 듯 따뜻한 민도윤 출연한 성인영화. 김영희는 26일 방송된 채널a ‘아이콘택트’에 출연해 자신이 연출할 영화의 남자 주인공을 ‘영화계의. 성인영화 감독에 도전하려는 김영희, 그녀는 절친이자 베테랑 배우인 민도윤을 잡을 수 있을까. 김영희는 26일 방송된 채널a ‘아이콘택트’에 출연해 자신이 연출할 영화의 남자 주인공을 ‘영화계의. 수상한 가족 2024 주연 영화 포스터.
민도윤 예쁜식모2 취집전략 예쁜식모2 가정부인 친구누나2 여자친구 내 남편의 가정교사 내 남편의 가정교사무삭제 사슬두여자의유혹. Started fullscale actor business at the age of 27. 原名:선배부부와 교환섹스 简体中文名:和前辈夫妇的交换 又名:senior couple and exchange sex 导演:최성길 主演:민도윤 강민우 김초희 类型:剧情 制片国家地区:韩国 语言:韩语 年份:2019 上映日期:20191213 韩国 片长:60分钟 剧情简介:后辈到家里作, Com › person › p000111337민도윤. 2019년부터 운동을 하여, 2020년도 작품에서는 탄탄한 몸을 과시하고 있다.
좋아요 1좋아요 1명이 이 인물을 좋아합니다. 성인영화 감독 꿈나무 김영희 vs 베테랑 성인배우 민도윤. 영화계 이병헌’으로 불리는 배우 민도윤1983년생이 화제랍니다.
| 민도윤 화면 구성은 감각적이며 빠르게 전개되는 컷 편집은 이야기의 흐름을 경쾌하게 만든다. | 영화계 이병헌’으로 불리는 배우 민도윤1983년생이 화제랍니다. | 감독 데뷔를 준비 중인 개그우먼 김영희가 작품의 주연 배우로 민도윤을 낙점했다고 밝히면서 그에 대한 관심이 높아답니졌다. |
|---|---|---|
| 갑작스러운 사건이나 돌발적인 반응은 웃음을 유도하기. | 2020년 5월 방송한 kbs 예능 프로그램 스탠드 업에 출연. | 아이콘택트에 출연한 김영희 민도윤 ‘아이콘택트’에 성인영화 감독 데뷔를 앞둔 개그우먼 김영희와 ‘성인영화계의 이병헌’으로 불리는 배우. |
| Adult actor min doyoon we are actors too. | 2012년 데뷔하여 현재까지 300편 이상의 작품에 출연하여, 한국의 시미켄급이다. | 배우민도윤 tiktok 틱톡 에서 배우민도윤에 대한 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. |
| 74k views 5 years ago. | 한국의 시미켄으로 불리우며 지성이라는 예명으로도 활동했다. | 闵度允(민도윤、doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔。韩国男演员,情色电影男主角,代表作品《仙女之泣》《继父与母女》《三个傻瓜》等。. |
배우민도윤 tiktok 틱톡 에서 배우민도윤에 대한 최신 동영상을 시청하세요. 7k+ followers 112 following 77 posts @min_do_yun contact dm. 2019년부터 운동을 하여, 2020년도 작품에서는 탄탄한 몸을 과시하고 있다.
또 함께 출연한 트로트 가수 노지훈은. Started fullscale actor business at the age of 27, Adult actor min doyoon we are actors too.
闵度允(민도윤,doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔,韩国男演员,主要活跃于情色电影领域。其代表作品包括《仙女之泣》《我朋友的老姐3》《已婚妇女换夫》《不良侦探食物链》等。2018年至2019年间,闵度允参演了《小姨子》《善良的嫂子3》《夜车司机全程》《岳母的诱惑》等多部作品. Com › people › 15065min do yoon 민도윤 mydramalist, 나는 쏠려 나는 solo 성인 ver. 어느 날, 그곳에 자주 오던 영화감독이 민씨에게, The play started with a child actor, and he belonged to the drama club even in high school.
原名:선배부부와 교환섹스 简体中文名:和前辈夫妇的交换 又名:senior couple and exchange sex 导演:최성길 主演:민도윤 강민우 김초희 类型:剧情 制片国家地区:韩国 语言:韩语 年份:2019 上映日期:20191213 韩国 片长:60分钟 剧情简介:后辈到家里作.. 갑작스러운 사건이나 돌발적인 반응은 웃음을 유도하기.. 민도윤은 영화 〈기생춘〉 등 다양한 작품에 참여한 인물입니다.. 감독 데뷔를 준비 중인 개그우먼 김영희가 작품의 주연 배우로 민도윤을 낙점했다고 밝히면서 그에 대한 관심이 높아답니졌다..
한국의 시미켄으로 불리우며 지성이라는 예명으로도 활동했다. 闵度允 min doyoon的全部作品(81) 按时间排序 按评价排序 按角色查看 不良侦探:失踪 2019 演员 导演 리차드 킴 主演 민도윤 주혜원 조은영 유종해. 74k views 5 years ago, 어느 날, 그곳에 자주 오던 영화감독이 민씨에게.
남서울대 유출 闵度允(민도윤,doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔,韩国男演员,主要活跃于情色电影领域。其代表作品包括《仙女之泣》《我朋友的老姐3》《已婚妇女换夫》《不良侦探食物链》等。2018年至2019年间,闵度允参演了《小姨子》《善良的嫂子3》《夜车司机全程》《岳母的诱惑》等多部作品. 민도윤은 정성스럽게 경건한 마음으로 붓글씨를 쓰듯이 해야 한다고 진지하게 설명했다. 성인영화 감독에 도전하려는 김영희, 그녀는 절친이자 베테랑 배우인 민도윤을 잡을 수 있을까. 빛나는 여동생 2024 주연부석역 영화 포스터. 민도윤 화면 구성은 감각적이며 빠르게 전개되는 컷 편집은 이야기의 흐름을 경쾌하게 만든다. 남자 크기 체감 디시
남장갤 Adult actor min doyoon we are actors too. 闵度允(민도윤、doyun min),1989年8月24日出生于韩国首尔。韩国男演员,情色电影男主角,代表作品《仙女之泣》《继父与母女》《三个傻瓜》等。. 성인영화 감독 꿈나무 김영희 vs 베테랑 성인배우 민도윤. 나는 쏠려 나는 solo 성인 ver. 한국 에로배우 무심한 듯 따뜻한 민도윤 출연한 성인영화. 노바라 참교육
네이 증 Started fullscale actor business at the age of 27. 闵度允 min doyoon的全部作品(81) 按时间排序 按评价排序 按角色查看 不良侦探:失踪 2019 演员 导演 리차드 킴 主演 민도윤 주혜원 조은영 유종해. The play started with a child actor, and he belonged to the drama club even in high school. Com › people › 15065min do yoon 민도윤 mydramalist. 한국의 시미켄으로 불리우며 지성이라는 예명으로도 활동했다. 노예일지 무료
남자 화보 나는 쏠려 나는 solo 성인 ver. 빛나는 여동생 2024 주연부석역 영화 포스터. 성인 배우 민도윤 우리도 배우입니다 화보 촬영 현장, 그리고 온리팬즈를 하는 이유 오정쇼 처음 듣는 이야기들에 정미녀는 멘붕. 한국의 시미켄으로 불리우며 지성이라는 예명으로도 활동했다. 성인영화 감독 꿈나무 김영희 vs 베테랑 성인배우 민도윤.
남사친 밴드 야동 原名:선배부부와 교환섹스 简体中文名:和前辈夫妇的交换 又名:senior couple and exchange sex 导演:최성길 主演:민도윤 강민우 김초희 类型:剧情 制片国家地区:韩国 语言:韩语 年份:2019 上映日期:20191213 韩国 片长:60分钟 剧情简介:后辈到家里作. 또 함께 출연한 트로트 가수 노지훈은. 한국 에로계 공장장으로 유명한 이채담비주얼로 화제 됐던 윤율아이돌 출신 에로배우로 유명했던 채승하. 김영희는 26일 방송된 채널a ‘아이콘택트’에 출연해 자신이 연출할 영화의 남자 주인공을 ‘영화계의. 민도윤 예쁜식모2 취집전략 예쁜식모2 가정부인 친구누나2 여자친구 내 남편의 가정교사 내 남편의 가정교사무삭제 사슬두여자의유혹.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.