US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
노출중독녀에 이은 상간녀, 승무원, 조바니 등 그동안 보배드림 회원들의 구설수에 올랐던 화제의 주인공들 사연이 연이어 쏟아져 나오고 있기 때문. 서울 강남경찰서에 따르면 지난 25일 익명의 시민 a씨는 윤씨를 성폭력범죄처벌법위반통신매체이용음란죄 혐의로. 아시아나항공의 승무원 성 상품화 연례 행사. 21일 법조계에 따르면 서울중앙지법 민사합의60부부장판사 김정중는 대한항공과 소속 승무원 3.
항공기 객실승무원의 우주방사선 노출에 관한 고찰.. 아시아나항공의 승무원 성 상품화 연례 행사.. 우주항공 홈 우주항공 승무원, 우주방사선 5배 더 노출피폭우려에 안전조치 강화 이은주 기자 newsspace@naver..승무원들은 장시간 서서 근무하며 극심한 시차 적응과 운항 중 방사선 노출 등으로 신체적, 정신적 건강에 심각한 위협을 받고 있다고 호소했다. 항공기 객실승무원의 우주방사선 노출에 관한 고찰, 승무원들은 장시간 서서 근무하며 극심한 시차 적응과 운항 중 방사선 노출 등으로 신체적, 정신적 건강에 심각한 위협을 받고 있다고 호소했다. 밤사이 인터넷에서 화제가 된 뉴스를 살펴보는 실시간 e뉴스입니다. Ai에게 주제 추천받기 이 논문을 바탕으로 연구 주제를 추천해요. 알고리즘이 다릅니다 사장님도 보고 계십니다 상담계정 @ingis_sangdan 메인창링크 오픈채팅 문의 지금은 단순히 좋아요만 누른다고 추천게시물 상위에 올라가지 않습니다, 과도한 마케팅과 승무원 부담 해당 공연은 에어아시아가 올해 3월 출범시킨 여성 아이돌 그룹 베라 vera의 데뷔곡 틱톡 ticktock에 맞춰 진행되었습니다. 승무원 룩북 영상을 게재한 후 특정 직업군 성상품화 논란에 휩싸였던 a 씨는 채널에 게시한 영상 중 일부가 무단으로 캡처되어 특정 커뮤니티의. 영상에 등장한 승무원 엠마도 이 영상에 좋아요를 남겼다, 알고리즘이 다릅니다 사장님도 보고 계십니다 상담계정 @ingis_sangdan 메인창링크 오픈채팅 문의 지금은 단순히 좋아요만 누른다고 추천게시물 상위에 올라가지 않습니다. 미국 저비용항공사lcc에 탑승한 여성 승객들이 배가, 승무원 성상품화 속옷 노출 유튜버에대한항공 칼 빼들었다, 위사진들은 여승무원 노출사진들대부분 stewardess costumes 스튜어디스 커스텀사진들입니다. 이들은 에어아시아 소속 승무원 2명과 지상직 직원 3명으로 구성됐다.
| 이 과정에서 속옷 등을 그대로 노출하며 성 상품화 논란을 빚었지만, 단순히 옷을 갈아입는 과정을 보여주는 것만으로는 법적으로 책임을. | Days ago 속옷 노출 정도는 법적으로도 문제가 없는 게 사실이다. |
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| 최근 기내에서 여성 승무원들이 춤을 추는 영상이 공개되면서 논란이 일고 있습니다. | 이 공연은 승무원들이 서비스를 마친 뒤 진행한. |
| 항공기 객실승무원의 우주방사선 노출에 관한 고찰. | 걸그룹처럼 의상을 입은 여성 승무원들이 노래에 맞춰 춤을 춥니다. |
일명 ‘승무원 룩북’ 영상을 삭제해달라는 대한항공과 소속 승무원들의 가처분 신청에 대해 법원이 해당 영상을 비공개로 전환하고 다른 플랫폼에 재게시하지 않는 것을 조건으로 화해를 권고했다. 우주항공 홈 우주항공 승무원, 우주방사선 5배 더 노출피폭우려에 안전조치 강화 이은주 기자 newsspace@naver. 노출 의상 입고 춤추는 승무원에어아시아 논란 부른 영상.
2021년 12월 대한항공 승무원 옷처럼 보이는 의상을 입고 룩북을 진행했고, 이후 승무원 성 상품화 논란이 됐던 이블린.. 지난 25일 밤, 승무원들의 사진이 한 포르노 사이트에 올라오며 해당 여승무원들과 파업중인 노조들을 당황하게 만들었다.. 러시아 승무원, 기내서 가슴 노출 돌발행동 시끌..
영상에는 에어아시아가 올해 3월 선보인 여성 아이돌 베라의 멤버 엠마와 다른 승무원들이 데뷔곡 틱톡에 맞춰 공연을 선보이는 모습이 담겼다. 11 210338 url복사 목록 메일 프린트 스크랩 글씨크기 크게 글씨크기 작게. 에어아시아 소속 5인조 걸그룹 베라 vera에 소속된 승무원 엠마가 기내서 공연을 하고 있는 모습. 에어아시아 승무원이 비행 중 선보인 댄스공연 영상 화면캡쳐. 일명 ‘승무원 룩북’ 영상을 삭제해달라는 대한항공과 소속 승무원들의 가처분 신청에 대해 법원이 해당 영상을 비공개로 전환하고 다른 플랫폼에 재게시하지 않는 것을 조건으로 화해를 권고했다.
승무원 룩북 영상을 게재한 후 특정 직업군 성상품화 논란에 휩싸였던 a 씨는 채널에 게시한 영상 중 일부가 무단으로 캡처되어 특정 커뮤니티의, 동기들, 부기장 나체 사진 돌려봤다 폭로항공사 발칵 sbs, 실제로 이상돈 바른미래당 의원이 이날 국감, 13일 각종 온라인 커뮤니티에는 현재 승무원.
최근 소셜미디어 sns 틱톡의 한 이용자는 태국 방콕 돈므앙–푸켓 노선 기내 복도에서 여성 승무원이 춤을 추는 모습이 담긴 1분가량의 영상을. 와 같이 짧은 순간이었지만 오만가지 생각이 들었습니다. By 장여진 2018 — 항공기 객실승무원의 우주방사선 노출에 관한 고찰, 문제는 특정 직업을 성적으로 상품화했다는 점이며, 실제로 승무원들이 해당 영상으로 인해 온갖 희롱을 당하는 사례가 접수, 문제는 특정 직업을 성적으로 상품화했다는 점이며, 실제로 승무원들이 해당 영상으로 인해 온갖 희롱을 당하는 사례가 접수, Kr 좋아요 1 슬퍼요 0 화나요 0 후속기사.
스포츠서울닷컴 英 여승무원 노출사진 유출책임 묻겠다. 하지만 자녀를 키우는 부모 입장에서는 단순 노출이 아니라, 의도가 깔려 있는 노출이 너무 난무하기도 하고, 불편한 현실이기도 하다. 이번에 이슈가된 항공사 여승무원 성관계사진 내용은 한 항공사 여승무원이 나이트클럽에서 만난 30대중반 남자 김모씨와 연애를한 사진을 온라인에 올려서 항공사 여승무원의 명예를 실추시켰다는.
유튜버 구제역이 승무원 룩북 영상으로 유명해진 유튜버를 성매매특별법 위반 혐의로 고발했다고 밝혔다, 이 영상을 두고 누리꾼들의 반응은 엇갈렸다, 동기들, 부기장 나체 사진 돌려봤다 폭로항공사 발칵 sbs. Days ago 한갱 승무원 복장 바우치 하단캠 엉밑살 1.
밤사이 인터넷에서 화제가 된 뉴스를 살펴보는 실시간 e뉴스입니다. Ai에게 주제 추천받기 이 논문을 바탕으로 연구 주제를 추천해요, 지난 3월 에어아시아가 자체 결성한 걸그룹 베라의, 에어아시아 여성 승무원들이 비행 중 선보인 댄스. 와 같이 짧은 순간이었지만 오만가지 생각이 들었습니다.
그록 gpt 디시 아시아나항공의 승무원 성 상품화 연례 행사. 에어아시아가 회사 차원에서 이 영상에 대해 언급하진 않았다. 이번에 이슈가된 항공사 여승무원 성관계사진 내용은 한 항공사 여승무원이 나이트클럽에서 만난 30대중반 남자 김모씨와 연애를한 사진을 온라인에 올려서 항공사 여승무원의 명예를 실추시켰다는. 외항사 승무원이 되기 전에는 몰랐던 것들 1편. 알고리즘이 다릅니다 사장님도 보고 계십니다 상담계정 @ingis_sangdan 메인창링크 오픈채팅 문의 지금은 단순히 좋아요만 누른다고 추천게시물 상위에 올라가지 않습니다. 김도기 나이
김도훈 타투 부터 서비스가 마음에 들지 않아 컴플레인을 하려고 하는 건가. 영상에는 에어아시아가 올해 3월 선보인 여성 아이돌 베라의 멤버 엠마와 다른 승무원들이 데뷔곡 틱톡에 맞춰 공연을 선보이는 모습이 담겼다. 2일현지시간 영국의 대중지 미러는 승객들이 타고 있는 여객기 안에서 스튜어디스들이 찍은. 지난 2021년 대한항공 승무원을 연상케 하는 스튜어디스 복장으로 유튜브 룩북 콘텐츠를 진행해 논란이 됐던 이블린 근황이 최근 누리꾼들 사이에서 화제를 모으고 있다. 러시아 항공사 승무원들의 기이한 돌발행동이 화제다. 그 누구지
김노아 마그 러시아 항공사 승무원들의 기이한 돌발행동이 화제다. 미국 저비용항공사lcc에 탑승한 여성 승객들이 배가. 최근 소셜미디어 sns 틱톡의 한 이용자는 태국 방콕 돈므앙–푸켓 노선 기내 복도에서 여성 승무원이 춤을 추는 모습이 담긴 1분가량의 영상을. 이 영상을 두고 누리꾼들의 반응은 엇갈렸다. 오마이뉴스 국감장 선 대한항공 승무원 유니폼 때문에. 기타카미 소프랜드
근처 맥도날드 영상에는 에어아시아가 올해 3월 선보인 여성 아이돌 베라의 멤버 엠마와 다른 승무원들이 데뷔곡 틱톡에 맞춰 공연을 선보이는 모습이 담겼다. 고라니율 꼭지에 걸친 오프솔더 신들린 가슴 드리블 2. 유튜버 구제역이 승무원 룩북 영상으로 유명해진 유튜버를 성매매특별법 위반 혐의로 고발했다고 밝혔다. 비행기서 성관계 하다 딱걸렸다승무원이 영상 유출. 이 공연은 승무원들이 서비스를 마친 뒤 진행한.
그라비아 디시 지난 7월, 태국 방콕과 푸껫을 오가는 말레이시아 항공사, 에어. 이에 항공사는 개인정보 침해에 대한 수사에 착수한 것으로. 최근 소셜미디어 sns 틱톡의 한 이용자는 태국 방콕 돈므앙–푸켓 노선 기내 복도에서 여성 승무원이 춤을 추는 모습이 담긴 1분가량의 영상을. 그러나 한 승무원이 모바일 기기로 비디오를 녹화해 해당 영상을 유출한 것으로 전해졌다. 실제로 이상돈 바른미래당 의원이 이날 국감.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 20, 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.
아시아나항공의 승무원 성 상품화 연례 행사., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.