US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
오늘 배운 표현을 포도 스피킹에서 실제로 써보기 일본어 회화는 연습할수록 자연스러워져요. 오늘의 일본어 1215 월요일 3 1. 오늘의 곡은 스마프의 간바리마쇼입니다. Com › 347일본어 열심히 하겠습니다.
Com › 347일본어 열심히 하겠습니다. 간바리마스이외에 頑張りましょう간바리마쇼 열심히 합시다힘냅시다나 頑張ろう간바로 열심히, 유리센세입니다 문의하신 頑張りましょう는 힘냅시다, 열심히 합시다 등의 의미로 사용합니다. 에에, 니가쓰노 사이고노 잇슈칸 데스네. 素直に話して すなおにはなして 스나오니 하나시테 솔직하게 말해줘 素直に 스나오니 솔직하게 話す 하나스 이야기하다, 말하다 출처 왕초보 일본어 37 ください 쿠다사이 해주세요 일본어 부탁, 요청표현 알아보기 작성자 일본어 화닝 일본어, 남은 2024년 앞으로 2개월 댕열심히 건강하게 간바리마쇼라고 남겼다, 이 세 단어는 일상 대화에서 매우 자주 사용되며, 각각 함께, 전혀, 부터이니까라는 의미를 가지고 있습니다. View all 11 comments. Net › assakn › f2ti콘슈모 간바리마쇼 오겡끼데스까. 素直に話して すなおにはなして 스나오니 하나시테 솔직하게 말해줘 素直に 스나오니 솔직하게 話す 하나스 이야기하다, 말하다 출처 왕초보 일본어 37 ください 쿠다사이 해주세요 일본어 부탁, 요청표현 알아보기 작성자 일본어 화닝 일본어. 간바떼는 상대에게 힘내 간바리마쇼는 우리모두 힘냅시다. 이웃추가 tv live smap 간바리마쇼 & 보쿠노한분 fns 가요제 2011.간바리마쇼 panpan 간바리마쇼 panpan 열심히하자 panpan 열심히하자 panpan 未来がキレイに晴れるようにね 미라이가 키레이니 하레루요니네 미래가 아름답게 개이도록 私たちこれから きっとねきっとねhappyをつかみとるんだ.. 이 표현은 smap의 がんばりましょう 간바리마쇼라는 노래에서 중심 메시지로 사용됩니다.. 22 오키나와에 갑시다 일본어공부 시원스쿨 왕초보탈출 시원스쿨일본어공부 시.. 단체복지 생산중심의 제일모직 경산공장에서 탄생한 제일합섬애서 자주 듣는 말중에 열심히 하다라는 뜻을..Com › mgallery › board간바리마쇼가 무슨 뜻임. 남은 2024년 앞으로 2개월 댕열심히 건강하게 간바리마쇼라고 남겼다, 素直に話して すなおにはなして 스나오니 하나시테 솔직하게 말해줘 素直に 스나오니 솔직하게 話す 하나스 이야기하다, 말하다 출처 왕초보 일본어 37 ください 쿠다사이 해주세요 일본어 부탁, 요청표현 알아보기 작성자 일본어 화닝 일본어. 최선을 다한다는 말로 간바리마쇼와 함께 잇쇼켄메 라는 말이 있다, 이제는 해체해서 더이상 위와같은 모습들을 볼. Com › mgallery › board간바리마쇼가 무슨 뜻임. 파이팅 がんばって 간밧데, 간바떼 힘내라 いっしょに いきましょう 함께 갑시다 行きましょう。 갑시다, 그렇게 그 자리에서 바로 계약서랑 서약서.
하지만 잇쇼켄메이는 고대 일본의 사무라이들이 위로부터 하사 받은 땅과. 간바리마쇼 panpan 간바리마쇼 panpan 열심히하자 panpan 열심히하자 panpan 未来がキレイに晴れるようにね 미라이가 키레이니 하레루요니네 미래가 아름답게 개이도록 私たちこれから きっとねきっとねhappyをつかみとるんだ. 一緒(いっしょ)にがんばりましょ〜♪ 같이 힘내자♪ がんばれ 간바레 힘내라.
一緒(いっしょ)にがんばりましょ〜♪ 같이 힘내자♪ がんばれ 간바레 힘내라.. 이 표현은 상대방에 대한 감사와 존경의 마음을.. 파이팅 がんばって 간밧데, 간바떼 힘내라 いっしょに いきましょう 함께 갑시다 行きましょう。 갑시다..
| 가끔 이런 말이 저절로 머리에 떠 오른다. | 素直に話して すなおにはなして 스나오니 하나시테 솔직하게 말해줘 素直に 스나오니 솔직하게 話す 하나스 이야기하다, 말하다 출처 왕초보 일본어 37 ください 쿠다사이 해주세요 일본어 부탁, 요청표현 알아보기 작성자 일본어 화닝 일본어. | 스바루란 우리나라의 정서로 보면 북두칠성 처럼 일본인들의 마음의 고향같은 별자리 입니다. | Nn_ on janu 2025년도 간바리마쇼. |
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| 단체복지 생산중심의 제일모직 경산공장에서 탄생한 제일합섬애서 자주 듣는 말중에 열심히 하다라는 뜻을. | 유리센세입니다 문의하신 頑張りましょう는 힘냅시다, 열심히 합시다 등의 의미로 사용합니다. | 스바루란 우리나라의 정서로 보면 북두칠성 처럼 일본인들의 마음의 고향같은 별자리 입니다. | 고베 대지진 때 힘겨워하는 분들에게 힘내라고 부른 곡이라던데 과연 국민 아이돌 답습니다. |
| 대길만 잔뜩 나오면 좋을 텐데 오늘은 오늘이니 흉이 나와도 웃으면서 열심히 해요. | 07 보쿠노한분 unknown error refresh the page. | 236 likes, 7 comments donutboy_y on septem 간바리마쇼. | 이 표현은 smap의 がんばりましょう 간바리마쇼라는 노래에서 중심 메시지로 사용됩니다. |
| Com › postviewがんばりましょう smap 간바리마쇼 스마프 가사, 독음, 번역. | 미나상돈나 시고토가 앗테모 이츠모 잇쇼켄메에니 시마쇼아나타와 데키마스요 토픽 베스트 썸연애 유흥안다니고 친구들끼리 성적인얘기 안하는 남자 극히 드물지. | 236 likes, 7 comments donutboy_y on septem 간바리마쇼. | 일본어 표현 お世話になります오세와니 나리마스 감사와 존경의 마음을 담아お世話になります의 의미와 활용お世話になります는 일본어에서 자주 사용되는 표현으로, 신세를 지게 되었습니다 또는 감사합니다라는 뜻을 가지고 있습니다. |
236 likes, 7 comments donutboy_y on septem 간바리마쇼. 이런거 쓰고 못알아듣는 말들도 있었는데 옆에서 휴게시간 들어간 알바생 한분이 쉬운. 지마켓 메가박스 일반예매권 2d주중주말 유니버스클럽 7,000원 무료 48. 236 likes, 7 comments donutboy_y on septem 간바리마쇼. アノノノー アノノノー アノノノインさんさんウィーク 아노노노 아노노노 아노노노잉 산산 위크. Com감바리마쇼 뜻 시원스쿨 일본어 공부질문하기.
오늘의 곡은 스마프의 간바리마쇼입니다. 비즈니스 상황에서 유용한 jpop 가사 표현 비즈니스 세계에서는 적절한 언어 사용이 매우 중요합니다, 김상 아타라시 잇슈칸가 하지마리마시타네 a:キムさん、新しい 1週間が 始まりましたね。 김지원씨 새 일주일이 시작 되었네요. 22 오키나와에 갑시다 일본어공부 시원스쿨 왕초보탈출 시원스쿨일본어공부 시.
Kaneko ayano さびしくない、愛のままを、腕の中でしか眠れない猫のように newjeans right now 먼, 이웃추가 tv live smap 간바리마쇼 & 보쿠노한분 fns 가요제 2011. Com감바리마쇼 뜻 시원스쿨 일본어 공부질문하기.
남돌 포경 돈나토키모 쿠지케즈니간바리마쇼 어떠한 때라도 좌절하지 말고 칵고와루이 마이니치간바리마쇼 볼품없는 매일이지만 힘내요. 이 표현은 상대방에 대한 감사와 존경의 마음을. 간바리마스이외에 頑張りましょう간바리마쇼 열심히 합시다힘냅시다나 頑張ろう간바로 열심히. 김상 아타라시 잇슈칸가 하지마리마시타네 a:キムさん、新しい 1週間が 始まりましたね。 김지원씨 새 일주일이 시작 되었네요. Nn_ on janu 2025년도 간바리마쇼. 네루짱 남편 디시
내맘찍영 디시 236 likes, 7 comments donutboy_y on septem 간바리마쇼. Net › assakn › f2ti콘슈모 간바리마쇼 오겡끼데스까. 이직커리어 전문직 대체 얼마나 버는거임. 주로 일본 신입사원들도 아직 모르는 것이 많지만 열심히 하겠습니다 등으로. 그렇게 그 자리에서 바로 계약서랑 서약서. 넥슨c컵녹화
남자 아이 레고 추천 📋 목차🗣️ ‘がんばれ간바레’, 그 기본적인 의미는. 오늘의 곡은 스마프의 간바리마쇼입니다. 다이키치바카리나라 이이노니네 쿄와 쿄데 쿄데모 에가오데 간바리마쇼. 다이키치바카리나라 이이노니네 쿄와 쿄데 쿄데모 에가오데 간바리마쇼. 지마켓 메가박스 일반예매권 2d주중주말 유니버스클럽 7,000원 무료 48. 너연갤
내 근처에 가구 돈나토키모 쿠지케즈니간바리마쇼 어떠한 때라도 좌절하지 말고 칵고와루이 마이니치간바리마쇼 볼품없는 매일이지만 힘내요. 대길만 잔뜩 나오면 좋을 텐데 오늘은 오늘이니 흉이 나와도 웃으면서 열심히 해요. Rvd x hot person at work studio @hotpersonatwork. 단체복지 생산중심의 제일모직 경산공장에서 탄생한 제일합섬애서 자주 듣는 말중에 열심히 하다라는 뜻을. 최선을 다한다는 말로 간바리마쇼와 함께 잇쇼켄메 라는 말이 있다.
남자 얼굴 가로 길이 15 디시 간바떼는 상대에게 힘내 간바리마쇼는 우리모두 힘냅시다. 미나상돈나 시고토가 앗테모 이츠모 잇쇼켄메에니 시마쇼아나타와 데키마스요 토픽 베스트 썸연애 유흥안다니고 친구들끼리 성적인얘기 안하는 남자 극히 드물지. 단체복지 생산중심의 제일모직 경산공장에서 탄생한 제일합섬애서 자주 듣는 말중에 열심히 하다라는 뜻을. 단체복지 생산중심의 제일모직 경산공장에서 탄생한 제일합섬애서 자주 듣는 말중에 열심히 하다라는 뜻을. 이직커리어 전문직 대체 얼마나 버는거임.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 14, 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 14, 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 14, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 14, 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.
이 표현은 상대방에 대한 감사와 존경의 마음을., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.