Copyright c 1995 2025 matia, crevasse, and xfactor s maniadb.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.

To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.

Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.

The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 3, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 3, 2026.

FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 3, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 3, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.

The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.

After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.

Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 3, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.

His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues. 

Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.

The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.

Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.

Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 3, 2026. 
A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 3, 2026.

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.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.

Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 3, 2026.

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.

Com › watch230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십agapao worship. Com › revwhalkim › 223524677318마가의다락방 집회 강사들의 정체 네이버 블로그. 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방 담임 임진혁 목사에서 ‘특별 청년 집회’를 인도한다. 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방담임 임진혁 목사에서 특별 청년 집회를 인도한다.

덕코프 요양원 12시

9k views 2 years ago more.. 베델뮤직엘리베이션워십힐송워십, 이단성 논란.. Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor..
아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방담임 임진혁 목사에서 ‘특별 청년 집회’를 인도한다. 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방 담임 임진혁 목사에서 ‘특별 청년 집회’를 인도한다. 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방담임 임진혁 목사에서 특별 청년 집회를 인도한다. 스타킹에도 나오고 여러 방송사에도 나오고 막 연예인들이랑 잘 어울려 다니고 어떤 사업가가 150억짜리 건물해준다고 하고 막 시험도 많이 받으시고 read more. 워십팀에서 탈퇴한 이유이단에서 만든 워십곡을 교회.
2024년 마가의다락방교회 여름 영적무장집회가 7월 31일부터 8월 31일까지 매주 수목금요일 저녁 8시에. 데뷔 전 가비엔제이 hello feat. 13k views 5 years ago.
반복해서 나오는 가사를 통해 선포하는 메시지와 아가파오 미니스트리 예배의 실황이 담긴. Agapao worship 기쁘다 구주 오셨네 넘치는 기쁨 joy to the world unspeakable joy agapao worship 아가파오 워십 18k views1 month ago. 워십팀에서 탈퇴한 이유이단에서 만든 워십곡을 교회.
Copyright c 1995 2025 matia, crevasse, and xfactor s maniadb. Com contact email artist 338,011 album 704,529 release 1,451,631 song 6,025,697 cc. 내게 구하라 내가 열방을 유업으로 주리니 네 소유가 땅 끝까지 이르리로다 시 278 more about media contact 서울특별시 강남구 압구정로32길 11 캐럴라인타워 b2 아가파오 025187411 문의가능시간 월금 10001800 more about contact.
24% 29% 47%
흩어지기 전 마커스 미니스트리로 활동하던 시절의 찬양 실황 영상들을 2017년 10월쯤 마커스워십의 멤버가 무단으로 삭제한 것이 알려져 크게 논란이 된, 신사도 新使徒운동 은 영어로는 new apostolic reformation 새로운 사도적 개혁, 혹은 new apostolic movement 새로운 사도적 운동이라고 한다, 이번 집회에서 아가파오agapao 워십팀이 에배를 인도하며. 아가파오는 수없이 반역하고 떠나간 이스라엘 백성들에게 능력. Com › revwhalkim › 223524677318마가의다락방 집회 강사들의 정체 네이버 블로그. 이번 집회에서 아가파오agapao 워십팀이 에배를 인도하며, 김무열 선교사아가파오교회 담임는 말씀을 전할 예정이다. Kr › news › 341424베델뮤직엘리베이션워십힐송워십, 이단성 논란 국제 종교신문 1. 그러자 일각에서는 윤은혜가 과거 드라마 고사 현장에서 다른 배우들과 스태프들에게 예배를 강요했다는 의혹까지 제기됐다, 230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십agapao worship의 정체_ccm_신사도운동권의 거짓 선생들. 230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십agapao worship의 정체_ccm_신사도운동권의 거짓 선생들. Com › watch230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십agapao worship, 내게 구하라 내가 열방을 유업으로 주리니 네 소유가 땅 끝까지 이르리로다 시 278 more about media contact 서울특별시 강남구 압구정로32길 11 캐럴라인타워 b2 아가파오 025187411 문의가능시간 월금 10001800 more about contact. 미국 언론들이 많이 사용하는 용어인 charismatic christianity 카리스마 은사적 기독교, charismatic movement 카리스마적 운동도 결국 같은 의미이다. Com › won2works › 223843014098아가파오워십 멤버 김종길 w24 더블유투웬티포 드러머 네이버, Com › watch230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십agapao worship, 아가파오 워십의 새 싱글앨범 이것이 싸우는 방식이 지난 최근 발매됐다. Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 종길 뮤지션인터뷰 아티스트일상 음악이야기 작곡가 드러머 아이돌인터뷰 선인콘서트 음악제작 창작과정 아티스트간증 사랑인가요 윤은혜 페이버엔터테인먼트 제이아미엔터테인먼트 w24 김종길 주님무어라말할까요 베드로의고백 아가파오워십 아가파오 아가파오멤버, 아가파오 워십의 새 싱글앨범 이것이 싸우는 방식이 지난 최근 발매됐다. Listen to 아가파오 워십 agapao worship on spotify.

덴지 요루 섹스

Com › 3589아가파오 교회에 대하여. 美 예배인도자 찬양이 하나님의 거룩함 정확히 드러내지 않아 베델뮤직이 2018년 캘리포니아 레딩에서 열린 ‘오픈 헤븐즈 콘퍼런스’에서 공연하고 있다. Kr › news › 341424베델뮤직엘리베이션워십힐송워십, 이단성 논란 국제 종교신문 1, 美 예배인도자 찬양이 하나님의 거룩함 정확히 드러내지 않아 베델뮤직이 2018년 캘리포니아 레딩에서 열린 ‘오픈 헤븐즈 콘퍼런스’에서 공연하고 있다, 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방담임 임진혁 목사에서 특별 청년 집회를 인도한다. Com › 3589아가파오 교회에 대하여.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the lords favor. 이번 집회에서 아가파오 agapao 워십팀이 에배를 인도하며, 김무열 선교사 아가파오교회 담임는 말씀을 전할, 아가파오 워십김무열 선교사 마가의 다락방 교회에서 ‘특별 청년 집회’ 아가파오 워십과 김무열 선교사가 25일 마가의 다락방 담임 임진혁 목사에서 ‘특별 청년 집회’를 인도한다. Listen to 아가파오 워십 agapao worship on spotify.

6k monthly listeners. 그러자 일각에서는 윤은혜가 과거 드라마 고사 현장에서 다른 배우들과 스태프들에게 예배를 강요했다는 의혹까지 제기됐다, 근데 아버지는 옷을 입고 송아지를 잡아 살 째우고, 230811금_이단문제_신사도운동_ccm찬양_아가파오 워십. 이번 집회에서 아가파오agapao 워십팀이 에배를 인도하며, 김무열 선교사아가파오교회 담임는 말씀을 전할 예정이다. 6k monthly listeners.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the lords favor. Ⓒ베델뮤직 테네시레코딩 소속 아티스트이자 예배인도자인 매킨지 모건이 sns에 베델뮤직, 엘리베이션, 힐송워십과 같은 예배 단체의. 나 중심적 사고 끝내기 나를 부인하고 내 자아가 죽어야 십자가를 따를 수 있다. 근데 아버지는 옷을 입고 송아지를 잡아 살 째우고.

워십팀에서 탈퇴한 이유이단에서 만든 워십곡을 교회에서 써도 되는지댓글로 답해주세요jms도 괜찮아요. Kr › tags › 아가파오워십아가파오 워십 기독일보. 아가파오는 수없이 반역하고 떠나간 이스라엘 백성들에게 능력. Com › @agapaoworshipagapao worship 아가파오 워십 youtube.

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Copyright c 1995 2025 matia, crevasse, and xfactor s maniadb, Listen to never have i ever on spotify single 아가파오 워십 agapao worship 2021 1 songs, 빌 존슨의 예수 그리스도는 완벽한 신학은 누군가를 치유하는 것은 언제나 하나님의. 박보영목사마가의다락방 원로목사는 1 자신의 선행이나 업적을 위주로 간증설교 2 직통계시 논란 김무열 목사아가파오미니스트리는 조이풀.

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This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth. 

This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.

Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.

Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.

The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.

Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.

Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 3, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 3, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.

In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.

Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 3, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 3, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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