알렉스 모니카 벨루치와 마르쿠스 뱅상 카셀이 침대에서 일어난다.

집에 가기 위해 택시를 잡던 알렉스는 길가에 서 있던.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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 7, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 7, 2026.

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 7, 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 7, 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 7, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 7, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 7, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 7, 2026. 
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 7, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 7, 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 7, 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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 7, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 7, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 7, 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 7, 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.

오늘 은 문제작 의 줄거리, 결말, 그리고 논란의 중심에 선 모니카 벨루치 배우에 대해 이야기해 볼게요. 영화는 잔혹하고, 냉혹하지만, 한 번쯤은 볼 만한 가치가 있어. 이 영화는 파격적인 역순 서사와 강렬한 이미지로 많은 논란과 찬사를 동시에 받은 작품입니다. 한편으로 그들의 대화가 의미심장해 보였던 건 확실했다.

가스파 노에, 모니카 벨루치, Irréversible에 대해 이야기하다 베니스 영화제 2019 누가 가스파 노에의 돌이킬 수 없는을 합리화해 줄 수 있나요.

알렉스는 파티 도중 마르쿠스와 다투게 되고 홀로 집으로 향했다. 이 영화는 ‘시간은 모든 것을 파괴한다 le temps détruit tout’라는 문장으로 시작되고, 같은 문장으로 끝이 난다. 파격적인 연출 기법 ‘돌이킬 수 없는’은 이야기의 결말에서 시작해 사건의 원인으로 거슬러 올라가는 역순 서사를 사용했습니다. 여주인공을 맡았던 모니카 벨루치는 강간범은 죽어 마땅하다고 했던 기억이 난다, 영화는 혼돈과 파괴의 클라이맥스 에서 출발합니다, 마르쿠스의 친구 피에르 알베르 듀폰텔는 알렉스의 전 애인이다, 《돌이킬 수 없는》 프랑스어 irréversible은 2002년 개봉한 프랑스의 심리 스릴러 영화이다, 모니카벨루치가 대단한게 남편인 벵상카셀은 이 영화를 본인이 고집하여 영화를 강행했다고 한다.
Irreversible 2002 gaspar noé. Irreversible 2002 gaspar noé.
연달아 다음작품으로 을 주연으로 출연하게 되며 10분이 넘는 롱테이크 강간 시퀸스와 폭행장면을 연달아 촬영하며, 배우로서 깡따구와 가능성을 인정받았다. 11분동안의 편집없는 롱테이크 강간 장면 때문에 많은 관객들이 충격을 받았다고 한다.
Com › 119영화 돌이킬 수 없는 2002, 시간은 되돌릴 수 없는가. 지난 2019년, 76회 베니스 국제영화제 스페셜 스크리닝 섹션에 시간순으로 재편집한 버전 이.
관객은 이미 벌어진 파국을 목격한 뒤, 시간이 거꾸로 흘러가며 그 참혹한 원인과 선택들을 마주하게 됩니다. 관객을 향한 무차별 테러영화돌이킬 수 없는.

이어서 여주인공 모니카 벨루치엘렉스역가 옷이 다 찢겨진 채로 거친 콘크리트 바닥에서 끔찍하게 폭행을 당하는 문제의 성폭행신이 편집없이 9분여간에.

Irreversible 2002 gaspar noé, 가스파 노에, 모니카 벨루치, irréversible에 대해 이야기하다 베니스 영화제 2019 누가 가스파 노에의 돌이킬 수 없는을 합리화해 줄 수 있나요, 각본감독 가스파 노에 출연 모니카 벨루치뱅상 카셀 제작연도 2002년 상영시간 95분 등급 18살 관람가 개봉 4월4일 강간에 대한 복수, 충격과 공포, 가스파 노에 감독 4월4일 개봉예정 링0 버스데이. 영화 줄거리 파격적인 시간 역순 구성, 충격적인 사건의 전말 영화는 시간 역순으로 구성되어 있어요. Com › 119영화 돌이킬 수 없는 2002, 시간은 되돌릴 수 없는가, 영화는 잔혹하고, 냉혹하지만, 한 번쯤은 볼 만한 가치가 있어. 관객을 향한 무차별 테러영화돌이킬 수 없는. 상영시간 1시간 37분, 관람등급은 청불입니다. 영화가 시작되고, 크레디트의 끝부분 카피라이트 노티스, 배급사 로고부터 위에서 아래로 떨어지기 시작하는 영화 의 이야기는 시간 역순으로 전개됩니다. 알렉스 모니카 벨루치와 마르쿠스 뱅상 카셀이 침대에서 일어난다.
출연, 모니카 벨루치 뱅상 카셀 알베르 뒤.. 영화는 잔혹하고, 냉혹하지만, 한 번쯤은 볼 만한 가치가 있어..

파격적인 연출 기법 ‘돌이킬 수 없는’은 이야기의 결말에서 시작해 사건의 원인으로 거슬러 올라가는 역순 서사를 사용했습니다.

가스파 노에, 모니카 벨루치, irréversible에 대해 이야기하다 베니스 영화제 2019 누가 가스파 노에의 돌이킬 수 없는을 합리화해 줄 수 있나요. 가스파 노에, 모니카 벨루치, irréversible에 대해 이야기. 분노와 복수심으로 끓어오른 두 남자는 직접 앙갚음하기 위해 강간범을 찾아 나선다. 모니카 벨루치가 옷이 다 찢겨진 채로 거친 콘크리트 바닥에서 끔찍하게 폭행을 당하는 문제의 강간씬은 그 사실적인 연기로 인해 실제 상황이라는 루머가. 영화 줄거리 파격적인 시간 역순 구성, 충격적인 사건의 전말 영화는 시간 역순으로 구성되어 있어요. 노약자 임신부, 심신이 허약한자는 가급적 읽지 말아주세요 모니카 벨루치 영화 중 이라는 영화가 있습니다.

제작, 크리스토프 로시뇽 리샤르 그랑피에르. 판타지를 위한 강간이 현실이 되어 나타날 때, 네 누이나 애인의, 영화가 시작되고, 크레디트의 끝부분 카피라이트 노티스, 배급사 로고부터 위에서 아래로 떨어지기 시작하는 영화 의 이야기는 시간 역순으로 전개됩니다, 분노와 복수심으로 끓어오른 두 남자는 직접 앙갚음하기 위해 강간범을 찾아 나선다. 집에 가기 위해 택시를 잡던 알렉스는 길가에 서 있던. When a woman is brutally violated, her angered boyfriend and exboyfriend team up to track down the rapist and take justice into their own hands.

시간은 모든 것을 파괴한다 2002년 에 개봉한 프랑스 영화.

영화는 잔혹하고, 냉혹하지만, 한 번쯤은 볼 만한 가치가 있어. 칸 영화제를 충격에 빠트린 화제작 모니카 벨루치와 벵상 카셀이 주연으로 출연한 2002는 잔인한 폭력장면으로 영화사에 기록된 작품입니다. 판타지를 위한 강간이 현실이 되어 나타날 때, 네 누이나 애인의. 이 영화는 파격적인 역순 서사와 강렬한 이미지로 많은 논란과 찬사를 동시에 받은 작품입니다, 집에 가기 위해 택시를 잡던 알렉스는 길가에 서 있던.

모니카 벨루치, 돌이킬 수 없는irréversible, 2002 넷플릭스. 그녀는 화장실에서 임신 테스트를 한 후 그에게 붉은 터널에 서있는 꿈을 꿨다고 말한다, 오늘 은 문제작 의 줄거리, 결말, 그리고 논란의 중심에 선 모니카 벨루치 배우에 대해 이야기해 볼게요, 피투성이가 된 그녀의 모습에 이성을 잃은 그녀의 애인과 옛 애인, 2002년 칸 영화제에서 이 상영되었을 때 몇몇은 구토 증세로, 소화기로 얼굴을 내리찍는 살인 장면과 여주인공 모니카 벨루치가 옷이 다 찢겨진 채로 거친 콘크리트 바닥에서 끔찍하게 폭행을 당하는 문제의 강간신은 실제 상황이라는 루머까지 낳으며 화제를 모았다.

모니카벨루치가 대단한게 남편인 벵상카셀은 이 영화를 본인이 고집하여 영화를 강행했다고 한다. 집에 가기 위해 택시를 잡던 알렉스는 길가에 서 있던, How much do you love me 등이 있다.

역삽 가격 디시 Com › 119영화 돌이킬 수 없는 2002, 시간은 되돌릴 수 없는가. 이 영화는 2002년 칸 영화제 경쟁 부분 후보에 올랐으나 단 두 장면만으로 인간의 폭력성에 대한 추악함을 말하고 있습니다. 오늘 은 문제작 의 줄거리, 결말, 그리고 논란의 중심에 선 모니카 벨루치 배우에 대해 이야기해 볼게요. 돌이킬 수 없는, 지금 시청하세요 넷플릭스. 마르쿠스의 친구 피에르 알베르 듀폰텔는 알렉스의 전 애인이다. 여사친 딸감 디시

옛날 일본 보추 만들기 2002년 칸 영화제 경쟁부문 진출작이기도 하다. 이 영화는 현재 넷플릭스에 공개되어 있습니다. When a woman is brutally violated, her angered boyfriend and exboyfriend team up to track down the rapist and take justice into their own hands. 지난 2019년, 76회 베니스 국제영화제 스페셜 스크리닝 섹션에 시간순으로 재편집한 버전 이. 모니카 벨루치, 돌이킬 수 없는irréversible, 2002 넷플릭스. 여친 따먹

여자친구 욕 디시 칸 영화제를 충격에 빠트린 화제작모니카 벨루치와 벵상 카셀이 주연으로 출연한 2002는 잔인한 폭력장면으로 영화사에 기록된 작품입니다. 돌이킬 수 없는, 지금 시청하세요 넷플릭스. 이번 포스팅에서는 돌이킬 수 없는의 줄거리. 모니카 벨루치가 옷이 다 찢겨진 채로 거친 콘크리트 바닥에서 끔찍하게 폭행을 당하는 문제의 강간씬은 그 사실적인 연기로 인해 실제 상황이라는 루머가. 모니카 벨루치가 옷이 다 찢겨진 채로 거친 콘크리트 바닥에서 끔찍하게 폭행을 당하는 문제의 강간씬은 그 사실적인 연기로 인해 실제 상황이라는 루머가. 여자래퍼 마약 디시

여돌 딥페이크 모니카 벨루치의 영화 모니카 벨루치의 영화 모니카 벨루치의 영화 모니카 벨루치의 영화 2002년작 남자가 밭에서 약혼한 처녀를 만나 욕보이면 그 남자만 죽이라. 마르쿠스의 행동에 언짢아진 알렉스모니카 벨루치가 마르쿠스와 다툰 후 파티장을 나섭니다. 더 보기 2003년 1h 33m 90% 출연 모니카 벨루치, 뱅상 카셀, 알베르 뒤퐁텔 감독 가스파 노에. 피투성이가 된 그녀의 모습에 이성을 잃은 그녀의 애인과 옛 애인. 칸 영화제를 충격에 빠트린 화제작모니카 벨루치와 벵상 카셀이 주연으로 출연한 2002는 잔인한 폭력장면으로 영화사에 기록된 작품입니다.

여성향 야동 트위터 출연, 모니카 벨루치 뱅상 카셀 알베르 뒤. 관객을 향한 무차별 테러영화돌이킬 수 없는. 제작, 크리스토프 로시뇽 리샤르 그랑피에르. 2002년 칸 영화제에서 이 상영되었을 때 몇몇은 구토 증세로. 영화는 혼돈과 파괴의 클라이맥스 에서 출발합니다.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 7, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 7, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 7, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 7, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 7, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 7, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

알렉스 모니카 벨루치와 마르쿠스 뱅상 카셀이 침대에서 일어난다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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