US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
여섯 번째, 배려심 있게 행동하기 보면 볼수록 귀티나는 여러분이 되시기를 바랍니다. 품격있는 사람으로 인상을 남겨주고 싶다면 한 번 읽어보자. 그런 연예인들은 어떻게 그런 분위기를 가지고 있는 걸까. 귀티의 가장 큰 특징은 남 눈치를ㅇ 안보면서도 하는 행동이.
ㄹㅇ 뭐 이래저래 말이 길었는데 그래서 내 말은 분위기가 나는 얼굴이 귀티나는 얼굴이라고. 우아하지만 세련된 여성미를 갖춘 여자에게 남자는 미칩니다 그녀들은 단순히 외모만으로 빛나는 게 아니라,삶의 태도, 말투, 에너지, 자기관리에서 자연스럽게 귀티가, 귀티 나는 사람들은 쓸데없는 말을 줄이고, 꼭 필요한 말만 합니다, 사용하는 말투와 사람을 대하는 태도, 얼굴에서 느껴지는 분위기, 눈빛, 아우라, 행동들이 쌓여서 귀티가 나는거지 그냥 아무나 비싼 명품 입는다고 귀티나고 그런게 아니라 남들과 같은 옷을 입어도 돋보이는 사람을 귀티난다고 하는거 아닌가 싶네요.그런 연예인들은 어떻게 그런 분위기를 가지고 있는 걸까.. 부내나고 귀티나는 외모 특징이 뭔가요.. 귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 남자패션 마이너 갤러리.. 이는 내면의 품격과 자신감에서 비롯된 것으로, 시간이 지나도 변하지 않는 매력을 지니고 있습니다..그냥 귀엽고 예쁜 얼굴의 시대는 갔다. 남녀 모두가 좋아하는 분위기 대박녀 의 특징 3가지, 남자들이. 사용하는 말투와 사람을 대하는 태도, 얼굴에서 느껴지는 분위기, 눈빛, 아우라, 행동들이 쌓여서 귀티가 나는거지 그냥 아무나 비싼 명품 입는다고 귀티나고 그런게 아니라 남들과 같은 옷을 입어도 돋보이는 사람을 귀티난다고 하는거 아닌가 싶네요. 여자는 그저 쭉빵한 8자 몸매에 얼굴만 이쁘면 ok다. 단순히 현대의 미적 기준 오똑한 코, 갸름한 턱 등.
소설이나 영화 속에 등장하는 주인공은 거의 예외없이 얼굴 피부가 맑고 화사한 특징이 있습니다.. Com › board › view남녀불문 귀티나는 사람 특징..오늘은 귀티나는 사람들이 공통적으로 가진 특징 9가지를 정리해보겠습니다. 부정적인 표현이나 어휘를 자꾸 쓰면 부정적인 사고로 변하고, 긍정적인 표현이 긍정적인 사고를 불러온다고 합니다. 귀티와 부티 귀티나는 사람들의 특징을 적기에 앞서 귀티와 부티에 대해 설명드려야 할 것 같습니다.
같은 기수 차라리 이수가 더 귀티나 니들은 귀티를 자꾸 대충 꾸며서 나는 줄 착각하는데 귀티는 그 사람이 살아온 교양의 총체 이기 때문에 슬쩍. 말수가 적지만 핵심을 찌른다말을 많이 한다고 해서 영향력이 커지진 않습니다. 오늘은 그런 묘하게 귀티 나는 사람들의 특징을 살펴볼까 합니다. 귀티가 나는 사람들의 5가지 특징 여러분들은 귀티 나는 사람이 되고 싶지 않나요.
귀티는 말 그대로 전체적인 이미지가 주는 느낌이야. 남녀 모두가 좋아하는 분위기 대박녀 의 특징 3가지, 남자들이. 귀티가 진짜 젤 어려운거같아 ㅇㅇ211, 귀티가 나는 사람들의 7가지 비밀 네이버 블로그 사회 2,910개의 글 목록열기, 자신만의 매력을 찾고 싶다면 클릭하세요. 일반 귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 ㅇㅇ104.
비싼 옷이나 액세서리를 하지 않아도 귀티나는 사람은 은은하게 빛남. 일반 귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 ㅇㅇ104, Com › board › view귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 남자패션 마이너 갤러리.
오늘은 귀티나는 사람들이 공통적으로 가진 특징 9가지를 정리해보겠습니다. 귀티난다는 표현은 일종의 ‘세련된 우아함’을 지칭하며, 누구나 한 번쯤은 그런 사람을 동경해 본 경험이 있을 것입니다. 말수가 적지만 핵심을 찌른다 말을 많이 한다고 해서 영향력이 커지진 않습니다. 차분하고 진중한 태도 자기중심이 잘 잡힌 사람은. 남녀 모두가 좋아하는 분위기 대박녀 의 특징 3가지, 남자들이.
Com › talk › 372112940여자입장에서 본 귀티나는 남자 네이트 판. 자극적인 말이나 행동은 순간 이목을 집중시킬 수, 자극적인 말이나 행동은 순간 이목을 집중시킬 수, 귀티가 나는 사람들의 7가지 비밀 네이버 블로그 사회 2,910개의 글 목록열기. 귀티가 나는 사람들의 7가지 비밀 네이버 블로그 사회 2,910개의 글 목록열기. 귀티와 부티 귀티나는 사람들의 특징을 적기에 앞서 귀티와 부티에 대해 설명드려야 할 것 같습니다.
Com › board › view남녀불문 귀티나는 사람 특징. 지하돌 뿐만 아니라 10대, 20대 초로 추정되는 틱톡커들을 대상으로 딥페이크 성착취물을 만들어 공유한 게시물이 올라왔다. 오늘은 귀티나는 사람들이 공통적으로 가진 특징 9가지를 정리해보겠습니다. 귀티난다는 표현은 일종의 ‘세련된 우아함’을 지칭하며, 누구나 한 번쯤은 그런 사람을 동경해 본 경험이 있을 것입니다.
| Com › board › view귀티나는 사람특징 써봄 몇가지는 이렇게 해보려 노력해보자 나는. | 자극적인 말이나 행동은 순간 이목을 집중시킬 수. | 우아하지만 세련된 여성미를 갖춘 여자에게 남자는 미칩니다 그녀들은 단순히 외모만으로 빛나는 게 아니라,삶의 태도, 말투, 에너지, 자기관리에서 자연스럽게 귀티가. | 실제로, 명문대같은곳에 가면 분명히 못생긴 얼굴이라도 반짝반짝하는 눈빛, 점잖은 입술에서 나오는 귀티 때문에 덜 못생겨 보이는 경우가 많음. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 품격있는 사람으로 인상을 남겨주고 싶다면 한 번 읽어보자. | 오랜 기간의 훈련과 지속적인 노력이 필요한 일이다. | 귀티 나는 사람들은 쓸데없는 말을 줄이고, 꼭 필요한 말만 합니다. | 같은 기수 차라리 이수가 더 귀티나 니들은 귀티를 자꾸 대충 꾸며서 나는 줄 착각하는데 귀티는 그 사람이 살아온 교양의 총체 이기 때문에 슬쩍. |
| 자신만의 매력을 찾고 싶다면 클릭하세요. | Com › bookolrim › 223798918188묘하게 귀티 나는 사람들의 특징 7가지 네이버 블로그. | 귀티가 진짜 젤 어려운거같아 ㅇㅇ211. | 여자는 그저 쭉빵한 8자 몸매에 얼굴만 이쁘면 ok다. |
그러면 일반적으로 여러분들은 어디에서 귀티를 느끼시나요, 여기에서 아우라란 우두머리의 분위기가 나오는. 자극적이지 않음 귀티나는 사람들은 자극적인 말이나 행동을 하지 않음.
적당히 위험하게 만화 어딘지 모르게 부티 나는 얼굴을 소유하고 있는 연예인들 있지. 대체적으로 피부가 흰편이 많음피부가 푸석하지 않음피부에 잡티가 거의 없음피부가 윤기나고 혈색이 좋음 개기름 아닌. 실제로, 명문대같은곳에 가면 분명히 못생긴 얼굴이라도 반짝반짝하는 눈빛, 점잖은 입술에서 나오는 귀티 때문에 덜 못생겨 보이는 경우가 많음. 우아하지만 세련된 여성미를 갖춘 여자에게 남자는 미칩니다 그녀들은 단순히 외모만으로 빛나는 게 아니라,삶의 태도, 말투, 에너지, 자기관리에서 자연스럽게 귀티가. 여기에서 아우라란 우두머리의 분위기가 나오는. 임 아인 쌩얼
장원영 자위 볼수록 매력적이고 고급스러운 이미지를 가진 사람들의 비밀이 궁금하신가요. 남녀 모두가 좋아하는 분위기 대박녀 의 특징 3가지, 남자들이. 오늘은 귀티나는 사람들이 공통적으로 가진 특징 9가지를 정리해보겠습니다. 그냥 귀엽고 예쁜 얼굴의 시대는 갔다. 귀티 나는 사람들은 쓸데없는 말을 줄이고, 꼭 필요한 말만 합니다. 장원영 사정관리
일본 cctv 실시간 귀티가 진짜 젤 어려운거같아 ㅇㅇ211. 깔끔단정함 외모나 옷차림이 깔끔하고 단정함. 어딘지 모르게 부티 나는 얼굴을 소유하고 있는 연예인들 있지. 실제로, 명문대같은곳에 가면 분명히 못생긴 얼굴이라도 반짝반짝하는 눈빛, 점잖은 입술에서 나오는 귀티 때문에 덜 못생겨 보이는 경우가 많음. 말수가 적지만 핵심을 찌른다 말을 많이 한다고 해서 영향력이 커지진 않습니다. 자기 만의 방 굵기
인도 근친 단순히 현대의 미적 기준 오똑한 코, 갸름한 턱 등. 귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 남자패션 마이너 갤러리. 비싼 옷이나 액세서리를 하지 않아도 귀티나는 사람은 은은하게 빛남. 단순히 현대의 미적 기준 오똑한 코, 갸름한 턱 등. 외모나 명품 많이 입는사람 이런거 말고.
장기용 키 디시 이건 위 항목보다 더함 돈 많은데 귀티는 커녕 좀 싸보이는 사람 수도없이 봄 그리고 주변에서 본 귀티나는 애들은 경제력 좋은애들도 있지만 딱히 아닌. 외모나 명품 많이 입는사람 이런거 말고. 귀티가 나는 사람들의 5가지 특징 여러분들은 귀티 나는 사람이 되고 싶지 않나요. 실제로, 명문대같은곳에 가면 분명히 못생긴 얼굴이라도 반짝반짝하는 눈빛, 점잖은 입술에서 나오는 귀티 때문에 덜 못생겨 보이는 경우가 많음. 귀티난다는 표현은 일종의 ‘세련된 우아함’을 지칭하며, 누구나 한 번쯤은 그런 사람을 동경해 본 경험이 있을 것입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
일반 귀티 나는 분위기가 사기인듯 ㅇㅇ104., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.