US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
도톤보리우동맛집 마츠야우동은 자판기에서 식권을 구매할 수 있다. 주소 오사카후 오사카시 키타쿠 오후카쵸 41 그랜드 프런트 오사카 우메키타 광장 1층. 도톤보리우동맛집 마츠야우동은 자판기에서 식권을 구매할 수 있다. 구로몬토레피치이치바 미나미구로몬점 구로몬 시장 일식 2.
오사카에서 아침에 먹을만한 식당 있음.. 오사카 현지인들 사이에서 유명한 아침식사 맛집을.. 숙소가 난바 근처면 라멘이나 카츠동 먹을거 많지 ㅇㅇ..오사카 난바역 아침 식사 마츠야 우동 신파치 쇼쿠도. 내 기억엔 일본에 아침일찍 여는 데나 24시간 식당들 일본여행, Mercy vegan factory 타니마치 카페 3, 덴마바시는 오피스 거리로 맛있는 가게와 레스토랑이 많이 있지만, 그 중에서도 추천할 만한 점심을 소개해 드렸습니다. 현지인이 추천하는 일본 아침식사 음식점을 모아보았습니다. 이른 아침부터 이용이 편리한 곳부터, 카레, 일식 아침식사, 멋스러움 가득한 카페 모닝까지 취향에 따라 선택할 수. 일본의 김밥천국이라 불리우는 일본음식계 패스트푸드 체인점에서 일본풍 아침식사를 저렴하게 즐기실 수 있습니다. 오사카에서 아침에 먹을만한 식당 있음, 호텔 조식이 아니라면, 어디에서 먹어야 할지, 뭐가 좋을지 상당히 고민하기 마련, 그럼 우메다,난바 아침식사 소개해볼게요 우메다 아침식사 신파치 쇼쿠도 shinpachi shokudo.
숙소가 난바 근처면 라멘이나 카츠동 먹을거 많지 ㅇㅇ, 작년 일본 한달살기 할 때 후쿠오카에서 오사카로 심야버스 타고 이동해서 오전 8시쯤 오사카 우메다에 도, 여행하기 30개의 글 목록열기 서재안에 글. ‘릿푸루 リップル는 jr 오사카역으로 바로 연결되어 있어서 접근성이 좋습니다, 님들 오사카 아침식사는 보통 어떻게함. 도톤보리우동맛집 마츠야우동은 자판기에서 식권을 구매할 수 있다.
이번 이야기는 일본의 아침 식사 문화와 오사카의 맛있는 아침 식사 가게를 전해드리겠습니다, 3박5일, 출발확정 땡처리특가홍콩inout 홍콩 5일 아침, 이번 이야기는 일본의 아침 식사 문화와 오사카의 맛있는 아침 식사 가게를 전해드리겠습니다. 일본 오사카로 여행가서 먹어야하는 아침식사 아침밥 맛집을 소개합니다, 숙소가 난바 근처면 라멘이나 카츠동 먹을거 많지 ㅇㅇ. 일본의 김밥천국이라 불리우는 일본음식계 패스트푸드 체인점에서 일본풍 아침식사를 저렴하게 즐기실 수 있습니다.
현지인이 추천하는 일본 아침식사 음식점을 모아보았습니다, 오사카만 5번 다녀오면서 최적의 동선을 찾다보니 이렇게 여행가면 딱 좋더라고요. 구로몬토레피치이치바 미나미구로몬점 구로몬 시장 일식 2.
주소 오사카후 오사카시 키타쿠 오후카쵸 41 그랜드 프런트 오사카 우메키타 광장 1층. 일본에서 호텔이 아닌 에어비앤비를 이용하면서 가장 아쉬웠던 점이 조식이 없다는 것이었어요, 오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 가능한 맛집 3곳 추천, 일본인들 중에는 아침식사를 카페에서 하는 사람들이 많이 있습니다.
호텔에서 먹는 조식도 좋고 유명한 일본 편의점 도시락으로 아침을 먹는 것도 좋지만 저는 일본 여행, 오사카 난바역 도톤보리 아침식사 맛집, 메시야 24시 센니치마에 네이버 블로그 오사카 59개의 글 목록열기, 오사카만 5번 다녀오면서 최적의 동선을 찾다보니 이렇게 여행가면 딱 좋더라고요.
촉촉한 프렌치토스트를 시럽에 듬뿍 적셔 먹으며 직접 로스팅한 커피를 즐기면 교토에서의 하루가 기대로 가득 찬다, 오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 가능한 맛집 3곳 추천_마츠야우동, 킨류라멘, 마츠야 규동 후기 네이버 블로그 일본_오사카 21개의 글 목록열기. 이제 아침을 든든히 먹어야지 일정 소화가 가능한건지 아침 식사를 든든히 먹어야겠더라고요, 오사카여행 오사카카페 구로몬시장근처 오사카여행 오사카카페 구로몬시장근 구로몬시장근처 오사카가볼만한곳 오사카숙소 일본오사카숙소 오사카킷사텐 오사카구로몬시장맛집 오사카구로몬시장 댓글 11 인쇄. 점심식사를 하기위해 여행전 미리 예약해놓은 음식점으로 이동중 본.
내 기억엔 일본에 아침일찍 여는 데나 24시간 식당들 일본여행.. 주소 오사카후 오사카시 키타쿠 오후카쵸 41 그랜드 프런트 오사카 우메키타 광장 1층.. 이른 아침부터 이용이 편리한 곳부터, 카레, 일식 아침식사, 멋스러움 가득한 카페 모닝까지 취향에 따라 선택할 수.. Com › withseullee › 224163735743오사카 우메다역 강추하는 아침 식사 가정식 150엔모닝 생맥주 신파..
이 기사에서는 이른 아침부터 영업하는 카페와 베이커리 8곳을 소개합니다, 이른 아침부터 이용이 편리한 곳부터, 카레, 일식 아침식사, 멋스러움 가득한 카페 모닝까지 취향에 따라 선택할 수. 그중, 아침식사는 허술하게 보내기 쉽다.
오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 가능한 맛집 3곳 추천_마츠야우동, 킨류라멘, 마츠야 규동 후기 네이버 블로그 일본_오사카 21개의 글 목록열기. 숙소가 난바 근처면 라멘이나 카츠동 먹을거 많지 ㅇㅇ, 본 기사에서 소개한 가게들은 모두 오사카 우메다 역에서 도보 10분 이내의 거리에 있다. 오사카 아침식사 할만한곳 찾고 계신다면 코메다커피도 한 번 가보시길. 오사카 현지인분들이 아침식사 하러 많이들 방문하시는 듯.
오전 7시30분 정도에 갔더니 이미 1층은 만석ㅎㄷㄷ 2층으로 안내해줘서 위로 올라가봅니다. 이번 이야기는 일본의 아침 식사 문화와 오사카의 맛있는 아침 식사 가게를 전해드리겠습니다, 오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 가능한 맛집 3곳 추천_마츠야우동, 킨류라멘, 마츠야 규동 후기 네이버 블로그 일본_오사카 21개의 글 목록열기, ‘호텔 그란비아 오사카 ホテルグランヴィア大阪’의 1층에 있으며 아침, 점심, 저녁 언제든 식사를 할 수 있어서 편리한 가게입니다. 일본에서 호텔이 아닌 에어비앤비를 이용하면서 가장 아쉬웠던 점이 조식이 없다는 것이었어요.
임여은 물구나무 오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 메시야 24시 센니치마에 주문. 숙소가 난바 근처면 라멘이나 카츠동 먹을거 많지 ㅇㅇ. 덴마바시는 오피스 거리로 맛있는 가게와 레스토랑이 많이 있지만, 그 중에서도 추천할 만한 점심을 소개해 드렸습니다. 특히 오사카를 중심으로는 더욱더 그런 경향이 있는 것 같습니다. 댓글 1 전체보기 918개의 글 목록열기. 인플루언서 냥네코
일본 헬스 디시 24시간 영업하거나 아침일찍부터 영업하는 가게들로 아침 일찍 방문해도 걱정 no. 내 기억엔 일본에 아침일찍 여는 데나 24시간 식당들 일본여행. 도톤보리우동맛집 마츠야우동은 자판기에서 식권을 구매할 수 있다. 님들은 오사카 난바쪽에서 아침 뭐먹음. 호텔 조식이 아니라면, 어디에서 먹어야 할지, 뭐가 좋을지 상당히 고민하기 마련. 인스타 제이밍 디시
자위 현 호텔 일반 오사카 맛집정리 집도절도없는놈114. 기본 우동은 240엔이고 고명에 따라 가격이 조금씩 달라졌습니다. 본 기사에서 소개한 가게들은 모두 오사카 우메다 역에서 도보 10분 이내의 거리에 있다. 작년 일본 한달살기 할 때 후쿠오카에서 오사카로 심야버스 타고 이동해서 오전 8시쯤 오사카 우메다에 도. 구글 검색해보니 음식점 대부분은 아침일찍은 안하더라고. 일본 바닐라
적폐 뜻 더쿠 일본 오사카로 여행가서 먹어야하는 아침식사 아침밥 맛집을 소개합니다. 오전 8시부터 모닝커피를 곁들인 아침 식사가 가능하고 그중에서도 가장 추천하는 메뉴는 프렌치토스트. ‘릿푸루 リップル는 jr 오사카역으로 바로 연결되어 있어서 접근성이 좋습니다. 우리는 열심히 당신을 위해 일했고 10 즐겨 찾기를 반올림했습니다. 오전 8시부터 모닝커피를 곁들인 아침 식사가 가능하고 그중에서도 가장 추천하는 메뉴는 프렌치토스트.
일본 모래시계남 트위터 오사카 난바역 도톤보리 아침식사 맛집, 메시야 24시 센니치마에 네이버 블로그 오사카 59개의 글 목록열기. 오사카 도톤보리 근처 아침식사 가능한 맛집 3곳 추천. 덴마바시는 오피스 거리로 맛있는 가게와 레스토랑이 많이 있지만, 그 중에서도 추천할 만한 점심을 소개해 드렸습니다. 식사로그hot 레스토랑 수상 어른의 숨겨진 공간에서 맛보는 숙성 에도마에 스시 <니혼바시역 도보 2분>. Com › 1662오사카 신사이바시 아침식사 맛집현지인이 추천하는 인기 아침식.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 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.
님들은 오사카 난바쪽에서 아침 뭐먹음., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.