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.
키 150 몸무게 야방짤 68추측남자친구 반동거 추측란쵸 절친 이걸로 설명끝. 고민하다가 반동거에서 동거로 될것같기도 하고 ㅠㅠ 동거는 결혼계획 다 세우고 하는게 맞는거겠지. 반동성애 갤러리가 공격받았다는 소식을 듣고 화력지원 온 야갤 덕분에 1 페미니즘 을 탄압하고 동성애에 반대하기에. 동거남녀들은 결혼하기 12년 전에 부모님의 허락을 받고 하는 경우가 많다.
| 일본 에는 개인공간이 있는데 연인의 집에서 하룻밤을 보내는 독특한 형태의 반동거문화가 있다. | 25 현대자동차 i 글쓴이가 동거했든 개거품 물든 그게 중요한게아닌데 ㅋㅋ 글쓴이는 동거한거 싫어하는사람들의 의도를 묻는건데ㅋㅋ. | 오히려 모텔을 내집처럼 들락날락했다 한달에 10번감 3일에 한번꼴인데 ㅋㅋ 그게 본문에 말하는 금토일 반동거보다 더많이 갔겠다 자취 반동거 라고 일반화하는게 웃기네 이정도면 혼전순결녀 만나야하는거아님. |
|---|---|---|
| 학교 끝나고 집 가기 귀찮아서 수업있는 날. | 내가 해외생활 오래해서 그런진 몰라도 성에 대한 한국의 그 이중성이 이해가 안 가는게, 2년간 동거하며 섹스하나, 각자 살면서 매일. | 반동성애 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. |
| 동거남녀들은 결혼하기 12년 전에 부모님의 허락을 받고 하는 경우가 많다. | 지금 화제가 되고 있는 우리들의 이야기, 반동거 검색결과 입니다. | 남친이랑 반동거 하는데 포텐 터짐 최신순. |
저는 20대 중반 취업준비중인 여자예요. 키 150 몸무게 야방짤 68추측남자친구 반동거 추측란쵸 절친 이걸로 설명끝. 관계, 관계빈도때문이라는데 안하는 사람은 안하는데ㅋㅋ오히려 그냥 데이트만 하면서 만나는 사람보다 적을수도있음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ추억이 많자나ㅠ 이러는것도 어이없는게 커플이면 다들 추억있는데 꼭 동거에만 저렇게 대입하는게 넘 웃겨ㅋㅋ전애인이랑 추억하나 없는 사람이 어딨음, 2 문재인을 싫어하는 야갤조차도 문재인이 동성애 반대 성향을 보일 때만큼은 문재인을 옹호한다, 뉴스 디시미디어 디시이슈 1 2 마츠시게 韓예능 진출 생각 no‘고독한 미식가’ 한국판 의향은 有 가세연 김수현 계속 거짓말벗은 사진영상 공개하겠다 故 휘성 영정사진 공개무대 위 밝은 미소. 채널 블라블라 팔로우 반동거랑 동거 차이가 뭐야.
남친이랑 반동거 하는데 포텐 터짐 최신순.. 연애해도 서로 집 왔다갔다 하며 주말에 반동거 하고 장봐와서 집에서 해먹고 등등 좀 물란함 결혼해도 별 감흥 없어할듯 난 소개팅하면 자취하면 거절함 솔직히 저침대에 나말고도 누구랑 뒹굴었을지 상상되고 찝찝함 또 자취방 개판인애들도 많은거 보고 충격.. 연애해도 서로 집 왔다갔다 하며 주말에 반동거 하고 장봐와서 집에서 해먹고 등등 좀 물란함 결혼해도 별 감흥 없어할듯 난 소개팅하면 자취하면 거절함 솔직히 저침대에 나말고도 누구랑 뒹굴었을지 상상되고 찝찝함 또 자취방 개판인애들도 많은거 보고 충격..
애초에 개병신 상대로 오타까지 고칠 생각은 없음. ㅎㅎ 난 병신논쟁에서 맞춤법 같은거 신경 안쓰고 고속타자위주로 하는 사람이니까 오타는 그냥 신경쓰지 말기루, 특히 동물 관련한거 보면 두번보면 한번은 운다.
관계, 관계빈도때문이라는데 안하는 사람은 안하는데ㅋㅋ오히려 그냥 데이트만 하면서 만나는 사람보다 적을수도있음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ추억이 많자나ㅠ 이러는것도 어이없는게 커플이면 다들 추억있는데 꼭 동거에만 저렇게 대입하는게 넘 웃겨ㅋㅋ전애인이랑 추억하나 없는 사람이 어딨음, 채널 썸연애 팔로우 연애하면 주말에 거의 반동거 하게되지않아, 2 문재인을 싫어하는 야갤조차도 문재인이 동성애 반대 성향을 보일 때만큼은 문재인을 옹호한다. 실제로 직장인되서 동거해본사람들은 관계를하지않아도 단순히 정서적으로 가까워진것을 더 목적으로함. 특히 동물 관련한거 보면 두번보면 한번은 운다, 반동성애 갤러리가 공격받았다는 소식을 듣고 화력지원 온 야갤 덕분에 1 페미니즘 을 탄압하고 동성애에 반대하기에.
Com › mgallery › board전여친이랑 반동거했다가 지금여친이 집에왔는데 이별 마이너 갤러, 연애해도 서로 집 왔다갔다 하며 주말에 반동거 하고 장봐와서 집에서 해먹고 등등 좀 물란함 결혼해도 별 감흥 없어할듯 난 소개팅하면 자취하면 거절함 솔직히 저침대에 나말고도 누구랑 뒹굴었을지 상상되고 찝찝함 또 자취방 개판인애들도 많은거 보고 충격, 오히려 모텔을 내집처럼 들락날락했다 한달에 10번감 3일에 한번꼴인데 ㅋㅋ 그게 본문에 말하는 금토일 반동거보다 더많이 갔겠다 자취 반동거 라고 일반화하는게 웃기네 이정도면 혼전순결녀 만나야하는거아님, 헤어지면 또 딴놈딴년하고 또 거기서 뒹굴거릴거고아 난 이런사람하고 결혼 못할듯 뭐 끼리끼리는 인정함아무튼 선비입장에선 노이해.
특히 동물 관련한거 보면 두번보면 한번은 운다. 가연 이상형 프로필 받기 27여 셀소해봅니다🙋🏼♀ 블릿 셀소 주간베스트. 2 문재인을 싫어하는 야갤조차도 문재인이 동성애 반대 성향을 보일 때만큼은 문재인을 옹호한다.
굳이 같이 살고 싶다면, 계약 동거가 결혼보다 낫다. 남자친구의 과거 반동거 사실을 알게되고 반동거 남자친구 반동거 동거경험 등의 키워드를 수없이 검색하며 글을 찾아 보느라고 친숙해졌네요, 애인과 함께 반동거를 한다면, 두 사람의 관계가 더욱 돈독해질 수도 있지만, 잘못, 08 2006 조회 36,230 +2024년 03월 09일 랭킹 더보기 톡톡 10대 이야기 19. ㅎㅎ 난 병신논쟁에서 맞춤법 같은거 신경 안쓰고 고속타자위주로 하는 사람이니까 오타는 그냥 신경쓰지 말기루.
대행사 나무위키 고민하다가 반동거에서 동거로 될것같기도 하고 ㅠㅠ 동거는 결혼계획 다 세우고 하는게 맞는거겠지. 26 1459 커터 개인적으로는 기간으로 생각하긴함 사실상 주 34일이상 같은 집에 머물며 n개월이상이면 동거라고 봄 와웅어오덩 2023. Com › mgallery › board전여친이랑 반동거했다가 지금여친이 집에왔는데 이별 마이너 갤러. 680 8 전여친이랑 다퉜던건데 전여친친구가 동거를해서 그 얘기하다가 난 부모동의하에 하는것, 결혼전제하에하는건 나도 찬성이지만, 떳떳하지 못한 동거는 난 반대다. 반동성애 마이너 갤러리는 2018년 3월에 생성된 인터넷 커뮤니티 디시인사이드의 마이너 갤러리 소모임로 동성애에 대해서 반대입장을 가지는 사람들이 의견을 공유하는 게시판이다. 다마고치 파라다이스 제이드 포레스트 공략
더바몰 Com › mgallery › board1년간 반동거 해봤는데 일렉트릭기타 마이너 갤러리. 실제로 직장인되서 동거해본사람들은 관계를하지않아도 단순히 정서적으로 가까워진것을 더 목적으로함. 오히려 모텔을 내집처럼 들락날락했다 한달에 10번감 3일에 한번꼴인데 ㅋㅋ 그게 본문에 말하는 금토일 반동거보다 더많이 갔겠다 자취 반동거 라고 일반화하는게 웃기네 이정도면 혼전순결녀 만나야하는거아님. 동거남녀들은 결혼하기 12년 전에 부모님의 허락을 받고 하는 경우가 많다. 1년정도는 그 배로 하니까 416 + 208 x 4 1248회가 최소한으로 떡치게 됨 내 기준엔 5년동안 2500번정도 한거같음. 대구 관전 클럽
더쿠 클럽 26 1459 늘푸른 보통 반동거라고 하지않나ㅋㅋ dkcorcjc 2023. 남친과는 전직장 동기로 3년을 알고 지낸 사이고사귄지는 이제 100일 좀 넘었어둘다 결혼 적령기라 결혼 생각으로 진지하게 만나는 상태고둘다 자취중인데요즘 일주일에 4일정도는 퇴근하면 같이 밥먹고 우리집에서 자고 다음날 출근하는 생활을 하고있어집을 합치지는 않았으니 동거는 아닌데 반동. 26 1459 커터 개인적으로는 기간으로 생각하긴함 사실상 주 34일이상 같은 집에 머물며 n개월이상이면 동거라고 봄 와웅어오덩 2023. 굳이 같이 살고 싶다면, 계약 동거가 결혼보다 낫다. 관계, 관계빈도때문이라는데 안하는 사람은 안하는데ㅋㅋ오히려 그냥 데이트만 하면서 만나는 사람보다 적을수도있음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ추억이 많자나ㅠ 이러는것도 어이없는게 커플이면 다들 추억있는데 꼭 동거에만 저렇게 대입하는게 넘 웃겨ㅋㅋ전애인이랑 추억하나 없는 사람이 어딨음. 누드 터미널
눈누난나 야동 내가 해외생활 오래해서 그런진 몰라도 성에 대한 한국의 그 이중성이 이해가 안 가는게, 2년간 동거하며 섹스하나, 각자 살면서 매일. 채널 썸연애 팔로우 연애하면 주말에 거의 반동거 하게되지않아. 일본 에는 개인공간이 있는데 연인의 집에서 하룻밤을 보내는 독특한 형태의 반동거문화가 있다. 굳이 같이 살고 싶다면, 계약 동거가 결혼보다 낫다. 2 문재인을 싫어하는 야갤조차도 문재인이 동성애 반대 성향을 보일 때만큼은 문재인을 옹호한다.
대구 부자동네 디시 굳이 같이 살고 싶다면, 계약 동거가 결혼보다 낫다. 680 8 전여친이랑 다퉜던건데 전여친친구가 동거를해서 그 얘기하다가 난 부모동의하에 하는것, 결혼전제하에하는건 나도 찬성이지만, 떳떳하지 못한 동거는 난 반대다. 안해본사람들이 동거반동거 라고생각하면 하루종일 성관계만 하는줄알껄. 남친과는 전직장 동기로 3년을 알고 지낸 사이고사귄지는 이제 100일 좀 넘었어둘다 결혼 적령기라 결혼 생각으로 진지하게 만나는 상태고둘다 자취중인데요즘 일주일에 4일정도는 퇴근하면 같이 밥먹고 우리집에서 자고 다음날 출근하는 생활을 하고있어집을 합치지는 않았으니 동거는 아닌데 반동. 특히 동물 관련한거 보면 두번보면 한번은 운다.
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.
저 갤러리가 주제 벗어난 병신글에는 가차없이 칼삭제 되는 갤러리라 박제좀 해놨습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.