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.
남자5 여자5있는 우리 사무실에서 1층에서 무거운걸 들고 옮겨야 할 일이 생기자 여자들은 남자들 몫이라며 넘겨. 여성시대 하는애들 알아내는 특징 상세하게 알려준다. 직장인끼리 소개팅하러 가기💛 by 블라인드가 만든 소개팅앱 가연 이상형 프로필 받기 좋아요 14. 613 의사들 36주 낙태, 거짓이어도 법정 최고형 촉구 180 유머 이슈 2024.
광고 투에스리빙 사무용 푹신한 컴퓨터 의자 쑥맥인 여자 매력없어, 여시인스타툰 아몰랑 여혐단어 디엠 박제+조상신이 도운 30살 무직백수 여시남친이랑 있어도 바람의심+ 남동생 반응거지같음+공무원남친 선물거지. 아무리 익명이라도 혐오글은 자제하려고 하는데 며칠전 퇴근하는데 지하철안 제앞에 선 여자가 대충 스펙이 160cm 정도에 80kg 넘어보이는. 연애를 오랜시간 함께 해왔는데 그전에는 미쳐 몰랐던 일들로 부딪치고 있습니다. 연애를 오랜시간 함께 해왔는데 그전에는 미쳐 몰랐던 일들로 부딪치고 있습니다, 여시인스타툰 아몰랑 여혐단어 디엠 박제+조상신이 도운 30살 무직백수 여시남친이랑 있어도 바람의심+ 남동생 반응거지같음+공무원남친 선물거지. 남자5 여자5있는 우리 사무실에서 1층에서 무거운걸 들고 옮겨야 할 일이 생기자 여자들은 남자들 몫이라며 넘겨, 악녀 연민정 연기 음악의 신 2 7회에서는 경리 가 인용하기도 했다. 저도 뭐 펨코 눈팅하는것처럼 여시 눈팅하는거라 생각해도 무방할까요, 악녀 연민정 연기 음악의 신 2 7회에서는 경리 가 인용하기도 했다. 인데가끔 그 카페에 올라온 웃긴짤 같은거 보내주는데너무 웃긴게있어서 동기오빠한테 보여주니까기겁을 하네. 젊은여자애가 고자, 거세, 고추를 자른다.| Com › board › view여성시대 안 하는 여자들도 많지. | 여성시대를 공격하는 현상은 곧 연약한 여성에게 가부장적 폭압과 압제를 서슴지 않는 우리 사회의 마초이즘을 여실히 반영한다 자기집단 구성원. | 여성시대를 공격하는 현상은 곧 연약한 여성에게 가부장적 폭압과 압제를 서슴지 않는 우리 사회의 마초이즘을 여실히 반영한다 자기집단 구성원. |
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| 특별히 이쁘지도 않으면서 데이트비용에 집착. | 요즘보니까 마누라가 여시하는것 같다, 여친이 여시하는것같다는 글들이 올라오는데사귀기전 미리 차단할수 있는 방법 알려줄게보배, 디시, 일베, 펨코, 도탁스 같은곳에서 애인구합니다 라고 글을 올리고 거기서 고르면 사상이 올바른 사람 만날수 있다. | 요즘보니까 마누라가 여시하는것 같다, 여친이 여시하는것같다는 글들이 올라오는데사귀기전 미리 차단할수 있는 방법 알려줄게보배, 디시, 일베, 펨코, 도탁스 같은곳에서 애인구합니다 라고 글을 올리고 거기서 고르면 사상이 올바른 사람 만날수 있다. |
| 확인하는 개인정보 여성시대는 20세 39세 여성이 가입 가능한 카페로 이용자의 생년과 성별을 필수 항목으로 확인합니다. | 특별히 이쁘지도 않으면서 데이트비용에 집착. | 여자친구가 여시하는거 알았는데 조언점 연애상담. |
| 라는 단어 또한 남성차별적인 표현이지. | Com › board › view여성시대 하는애들 알아내는 특징 상세하게 알려준다. | 일상 여시하는 여자 실제로 본적 있으세요. |
8 대댓글 공무원 여시는 본인 신분증 들고 인증해서 글쓰는데야그런 걸 왜하는지 2021, 개드립 여자친구가 여성시대를 하는 것을 알았습니다. Com › board › view여성시대 안 하는 여자들도 많지.
저는 올해 30살 남자이며, 만난지 6개월 된 여자친구도 동갑입니다.. 확인하는 개인정보 여성시대는 20세 39세 여성이 가입 가능한 카페로 이용자의 생년과 성별을 필수 항목으로 확인합니다.. Com › anguss2009 › 221336708699여시 여성시대 인구수 회원수, 여시하는 여자는 얼마나 될까..
베ㅋㅋㅋ 어쩌면 더 심할지도 1 맛있는그라탕 2023, 자전거동호회 등산동호회 스터디 그룹등등 거기서 젊은여자 모이라는게 왜 문제냐. 연애를 오랜시간 함께 해왔는데 그전에는 미쳐 몰랐던 일들로 부딪치고 있습니다. 613 의사들 36주 낙태, 거짓이어도 법정 최고형 촉구 180 유머 이슈 2024.
안드로이드폰 유저분은 유튜브 앱에서 바로 가입 read more. 여시들 어쩌고 하며 글 작성하고 있더군요 멀쩡한 외모에 하는 여자도 있겠지만 그 여자는 너무나 전형적인 족발녀라 당황도 안했습니다 평소 생각하던 이미지와 똑같아서 진짜 지인중에 일상에서 멀쩡한척 하며 가면쓰고 여시하는 여자도 있겠죠. 이런드립 자주 치면 90퍼센트 이상 여시라고 보면 된다, 베ㅋㅋㅋ 어쩌면 더 심할지도 1 맛있는그라탕 2023.
여성시대하는 여자 특징 10가지 💌여시여자vs바람핀 여친💌.. 라민이 내 여자친구도 여시한다 다만 내가 글이랑 댓글 불신검문햇는데 남혐글이나 정치글은 없더라,, 그래서 걍 나도 펨코하는데 하면서 쌍방하는중 깨달은자 2024.. 그러나 항상 모든것은 대다수에 의해서 결정된다.. 어렸을때 디자인쪽 종사자들과 일했던적이 있어서 그쪽 친구들이 많습니다 그 친구들은 대부분 여시 하더군요..
여시카페는 여자가 직접 여자인거 인증하려고 자기얼굴+민증 인증해야하는데 여사친이나 여자형제를 통해 그 과정까지 통과해야함, 제가 편견인건지 아니면 여시자체는 진짜 아닌건지. Com › talk › 340520388여시하는 여자친구를 둔 사람입니다. 25 452 16 여친이 여시하는걸 어쩌다 폰보다 알았습니다 여시한다고 헤어질 생각 이런건 없는데 5, Com › board › view여성시대 하는애들 알아내는 특징 상세하게 알려준다.
결국 대한민국 2,30대 여성 10명중 1명은 여성시대 회원이라는것이다, 여성시대 하는애들 알아내는 특징 상세하게 알려준다, 정유정사건은 여성살인자에 피해자가 여자인데도 남자에 대한 피해의식 장난아닌듯 진짜 여시하는여자는 무조건걸러라 직장인끼리 소개팅하러 가기💛 by 블라인드가 만든 소개팅앱 가연 이상형 프로필 받기 2 5. 남자에게 매력 어필을 잘 하는 여성을 뜻하기도 합니다. 저도 뭐 펨코 눈팅하는것처럼 여시 눈팅하는거라 생각해도 무방할까요.
여성시대하는 여자 특징 10가지 💌여시여자vs바람핀 여친💌. 여자친구가 여성시대를 하는 것을 알았습니다. 라는 단어 또한 남성차별적인 표현이지.
디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제와 실시간 베스트 갤러리를 탐색하세요. 제가 편견인건지 아니면 여시자체는 진짜 아닌건지 조언점 부탁드립니다, 남자5 여자5있는 우리 사무실에서 1층에서 무거운걸 들고 옮겨야 할 일이 생기자 여자들은 남자들 몫이라며 넘겨, 인데가끔 그 카페에 올라온 웃긴짤 같은거 보내주는데너무 웃긴게있어서 동기오빠한테 보여주니까기겁을 하네.
나두 잠안온다 무물간다 남자 공무원이 결혼 못하는 이유, 여시여성시대 인구수 회원수, 여시하는 여자는 얼마나 될까, 나두 잠안온다 무물간다 남자 공무원이 결혼 못하는 이유.
트위터 스파이시로즈 블라인드 썸연애 여자친구랑 같이볼겁니다 의견부탁드려요. 5 등급이고 닉네임이 긍정적여시 여서 좀 귀엽더라구요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그래서 긍정적여시야 라고 놀렸는데. 젊은여자애가 고자, 거세, 고추를 자른다. 그리고 이것은 조금전에 확인한 여성시대 회원수다. 연애를 오랜시간 함께 해왔는데 그전에는 미쳐 몰랐던 일들로 부딪치고 있습니다. 틱톡커야동
특이점 갤러리 남자5 여자5있는 우리 사무실에서 1층에서 무거운걸 들고 옮겨야 할 일이 생기자 여자들은 남자들 몫이라며 넘겨. 연애를 오랜시간 함께 해왔는데 그전에는 미쳐 몰랐던 일들로 부딪치고 있습니다. 썸연애 여자친구가 여성시대를 하는 것을 알았습니다. 결국 대한민국 2,30대 여성 10명중 1명은 여성시대 회원이라는것이다. 그런데 이야기중 남자혐오에 관한 이야기를 할때가 많고 대부분 남자들은 그렇다더라 모든. 파파픽시의 전설
트윗다컴 특히 뭐 손고자니 뭐니 이런말 쓰는거 대부분 여시, 물론 아닌애도 있으나, 여시하는애들 고자라는 말을 접미어. 둥이 ㅎ여시 유입 많아졌다더니 여시하는애들 많이보이네 ㅋㅋㅋ 여시는 진짜 걸러라. 개드립 여자친구가 여성시대를 하는 것을 알았습니다. 여우짓을 잘 보통 여성시대를 하는 사람을 여시라고 합니다. 광고 투에스리빙 사무용 푹신한 컴퓨터 의자 쑥맥인 여자 매력없어. 트위터 코코 오프 디시
트위터 영상 저당 여시인스타툰 아몰랑 여혐단어 디엠 박제+조상신이 도운 30살 무직백수 여시남친이랑 있어도 바람의심+ 남동생 반응거지같음+공무원남친 선물거지. 새회사 커뮤를 드러내는게 문제지 드러내지 않으면 상관 없다고 생각해 내 여사친들 중에 심하게 하는애들은 말할때 티나더라 2024. 어렸을때 디자인쪽 종사자들과 일했던적이 있어서 그쪽 친구들이 많습니다 그 친구들은 대부분 여시 하더군요. Com › talk › 340520388여시하는 여자친구를 둔 사람입니다. 여성시대 줄임말인 건 알고 있는데 뜻이 뭔가요 그리고 막 여시들은 이러면서 욕하던데 여기서 쓰는 여시는 여우라는 건가요.
트위터 중국 디시 인데가끔 그 카페에 올라온 웃긴짤 같은거 보내주는데너무 웃긴게있어서 동기오빠한테 보여주니까기겁을 하네. 여자친구가 여시하는거 알았는데 조언점 연애상담. 5 등급이고 닉네임이 긍정적여시 여서 좀 귀엽더라구요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그래서 긍정적여시야 라고 놀렸는데. 나두 잠안온다 무물간다 남자 공무원이 결혼 못하는 이유. 5등급이고 닉네임 검색해서 댓글단거 봤는데 몇개없고 그냥 웃긴거에 달고 그랬는데괜찮을까요.
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.
정상적이고 평범한 여자는여시하는 여자 어떻게 생각함., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.