US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
8cm 학력 성남신기초등학교, 정자중학교, 한솥고등학교 중퇴, 고등학교 졸업 학력 검정고시 종교 가톨릭 소속그룹 에스파 데뷔 2020년 11월 17일 출생 카리나 데뷔 스토리 그녀는 소녀시대 다시만난 세계에서 발차기 안무를 보면서. 5일 카리나는 어린이날을 맞아 해피 어린이날. 카리나는 어렸을 때부터 고양이 같은 또렷한 눈매와 귀여운 입매로 시선을 사로잡는다. Art2 @art2_amy crazy husband givingthanks husbands goofball lightenup hairylegs sillyboy.
에스파 카리나@katarinabluu가 나이키의 가족이 됩니다.. Com › entry › 중독성있는중독성 있는 상큼미..어린시절부터 현재까지의 카리나 사진들 모아봤어요. 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 스포츠조선 고재완 기자 에스파 카리나가 태어날때부터 완벽했던 미모를 자랑했다. 안녕하세요 오늘 소개해드릴 아이돌은 에스파의 카리나입니다 카리나가 데뷔 전부터 청순한 외모를 갖고 있었던 걸 알고계셨나요, 어렸을 때부터 발레, 수영, 태권도 등 스포츠를 접하며 집중력과 할 수 있다는 정신을 키웠다는 카리나는 나이키와의 인터뷰를 통해 가장 좋아하는 신발은. Tiktok video from amy.
엄청난 스압 예정이니 참고하세용 에스파 카리나는 이미 어린시절부터 외모 완성형임ㅠㅠ 천주교라고하더라구요.. 어린시절부터 현재까지의 카리나 사진들 모아봤어요..
Net › square › 1726297725더쿠 에스파 카리나 과거사진 모음. 햅삐어린이날 _징밍잉라고 글과 함께 여러장의 사진을 게재했다, 햅삐어린이날 _징밍잉라고 글과 함께 여러장의 사진을 게재했다.
한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 스포츠조선 고재완 기자 에스파 카리나가 태어날때부터 완벽했던 미모를 자랑했다, 대놓고 어글글에 카리나 악성안티글 올리면서 대응하는 인간이 이글엔 또 긁히네 그냥 어그로는 개무시 하는게 답이련만. 대놓고 어글글에 카리나 악성안티글 올리면서 대응하는 인간이 이글엔 또 긁히네 그냥 어그로는 개무시 하는게 답이련만.
카리나는 어릴 때 어떻게 이런 말을 하지, 5일 카리나는 어린이날을 맞아 해피 어린이날. 인기 인스타 스타 카리나의 학창시절부터 초기 활동까지의 사진과 이야기를 만나보세요, 맞아 두상+콧대 카리나는 신이에요 4년 전. 무림맹주의 영애 장원영 마교 교주의 딸 카리나 천하제일인 차은우, 카리나 어릴 때 만화에 과몰입해호기심 많은 성격.
Net › square › 1726297725더쿠 에스파 카리나 과거사진 모음. 에스파 카리나 팬들을 위한💓 어린시절부터 현재까지 모음 저도 에스파 카리나 팬이라ㅎ. 카리나 프로필 본명 유지민 나이 2000년 4월 11일 출생 키 167, 에스파 카리나와 윈터가 연습생 시절을 회상하면서 엔믹스 설윤을 은인 이라고 언급했는데 무슨 사연일까요. 그룹 에스파의 멤버 카리나가 어린 시절의 사진을 공개해 많은 이들의 이목을 집중시켰다. 어릴 때 만화에 푹 빠져서 과몰입한 경험이 있는지.
카리나 치아교정 에스파 카리나 단발 카리나 과거 뽀뽀 카리나 어렸을때 사진 카리나 과거사진 합성 카리나 셀카영상 에파 카리나 실물 240524 카리나, 카리나나 윈터나 예쁘게 나온 과거사진들 진짜 많은데 맨날 들고오는 사진들은 정해져있네요ㅋㅋ 어릴때 귀여웠던 사진들 많아요. 안녕하세요 오늘 소개해드릴 아이돌은 에스파의 카리나입니다 카리나가 데뷔 전부터 청순한 외모를 갖고 있었던 걸 알고계셨나요.
에스파 카리나는 데뷔 전 학창시절 때의 자연스러운 모습들의 사진들이 많이 있습니다, 햅삐어린이날 _징밍잉라고 글과 함께 여러장의 사진을 게재했다, Kr › site › data이 아이는 자라서 초미녀가 됩니다&mldr.
Com › @kinadfrlm1f › videokyrie @kinadfrlm1f’s videos with dulce navidad kxng. 5일 카리나는 어린이날을 맞아 해피 어린이날. 카리나 어릴 때 만화에 과몰입해호기심 많은 성격. 어렸을 때부터 발레, 수영, 태권도 등 스포츠를 접하며 집중력과 할 수 있다는 정신을 키웠다는 카리나는 나이키와의 인터뷰를 통해 가장 좋아하는 신발은. 고등학교 1학년때 캐스팅이 되어서 연습생 생활에 매진하기 위해서 고등학교를 자퇴했다, Explore moreعبارات صور عن 2026@dannae_glez1 mamá bebé maternidad maternidade pancita arte bodypaint bodypainting 카리나어렸을때사진howtorevivebluebonbonsphoto278361874jai perdu mon étincelle chagrindamour💔 tristesse souffrir separation souffrance citation sad chagrindamour.
제2의 카리나로 불리는 하이브 연습생 노윤아 알유넥스트 네이버 블로그 이모저모 1,300개의 글 목록열기. 연예인중에서 이렇게까지 과거사진이 많은 사람들이 많진 않죠, Explore moreعبارات صور عن 2026@dannae_glez1 mamá bebé maternidad maternidade pancita arte bodypaint bodypainting 카리나어렸을때사진howtorevivebluebonbonsphoto278361874jai perdu mon étincelle chagrindamour💔 tristesse souffrir separation souffrance citation sad chagrindamour. 맞아 두상+콧대 카리나는 신이에요 4년 전, Aespa karina past photos of karina, growth process.
Scw on tiktok 3012 likes, Edit delete reply 20251016 121513 3950027 카리나 174. 에스파 카리나 팬들을 위한💓 어린시절부터 현재까지 모음 저도 에스파 카리나 팬이라ㅎ, 8cm 학력 성남신기초등학교, 정자중학교, 한솥고등학교 중퇴, 고등학교 졸업 학력 검정고시 종교 가톨릭 소속그룹 에스파 데뷔 2020년 11월 17일 출생 카리나 데뷔 스토리 그녀는 소녀시대 다시만난 세계에서 발차기 안무를 보면서, 카리나는 어렸을 때부터 고양이 같은 또렷한 눈매와 귀여운 입매로 시선을 사로잡는다. 정자중학교 졸업식날인데 이사진에 초등학교 졸업식 박아서 초딩때로 둔갑시킴ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 수술하고 난후 고교입학전 17살때인데 초딩때인냥 눈속임.
베이비걸 영화 다시 보기 어렸을때 sm엔터테인먼트 소속사 선배들 소녀시대의 다시 만난 세계를 보고 아이돌 가수가 되고싶었다고 한다. 에스파 카리나 팬들을 위한💓 어린시절부터 현재까지 모음 저도 에스파 카리나 팬이라ㅎ. 제2의 카리나로 불리는 하이브 연습생 노윤아 알유넥스트 네이버 블로그 이모저모 1,300개의 글 목록열기. 정자중학교 졸업식날인데 이사진에 초등학교 졸업식 박아서 초딩때로 둔갑시킴ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 수술하고 난후 고교입학전 17살때인데 초딩때인냥 눈속임. моя пудра 142044104 энзимнаяпудра черныеточки сальныенити очищениекожи 후쿠오카캐널시티산리오샵 hellofriendsihopeeverybodysdayisgoinggreat redvsballistaalanbeckerfanart this is why the oilers lost the stanley cup 👀🏒 fyp foryou foryoupage nhl. 브레인롯 훔치기 핵 스크립트
번민해줘요 , 아담군 하지만 그녀는 성남시 분당구 정자동에서 성장하며 어린 시절을 보냈답니다. Немножко злойs short video with ♬ original sound. 카리나는 어릴 때 어떻게 이런 말을 하지. 어렸을 때부터 발레, 수영, 태권도 등 스포츠를 접하며 집중력과 할 수 있다는 정신을 키웠다는 카리나는 나이키와의 인터뷰를 통해 가장 좋아하는 신발은. 무림맹주의 영애 장원영 마교 교주의 딸 카리나 천하제일인 차은우. 보지 항공권
보지 자위 트위터 에스파 카리나의 어린시절부터 현재까지의 성장과정과 데뷔과정 성격과 취향 by cleanhub 2025. 어렸을 때부터 발레, 수영, 태권도 등 스포츠를 접하며 집중력과 할 수 있다는 정신을 키웠다는 카리나는 나이키와의 인터뷰를 통해 가장 좋아하는 신발은. Dulce navidad kxng & gamesgangz & chrizzz & gaara ff. Scw on tiktok 3012 likes. 어렸을때 sm엔터테인먼트 소속사 선배들 소녀시대의 다시 만난 세계를 보고 아이돌 가수가 되고싶었다고 한다. 브롤 멜로디 ㅗㅜ ㅑ
보법 意味 어렸을때 sm엔터테인먼트 소속사 선배들 소녀시대의 다시 만난 세계를 보고 아이돌 가수가 되고싶었다고 한다. Jpg 스압주의 123,526 72 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 하지만 그녀는 성남시 분당구 정자동에서 성장하며 어린 시절을 보냈답니다. 고등학교 1학년때 캐스팅이 되어서 연습생 생활에 매진하기 위해서 고등학교를 자퇴했다. 8cm 학력 성남신기초등학교, 정자중학교, 한솥고등학교 중퇴, 고등학교 졸업 학력 검정고시 종교 가톨릭 소속그룹 에스파 데뷔 2020년 11월 17일 출생 카리나 데뷔 스토리 그녀는 소녀시대 다시만난 세계에서 발차기 안무를 보면서.
부카케 레전드 에스파 카리나와 윈터가 연습생 시절을 회상하면서 엔믹스 설윤을 은인 이라고 언급했는데 무슨 사연일까요. @abwaan cabaas daacad @abwaan taqille @abdi subiye @iqro happy @kaarteeyefollow leska rabaa asxaabta. 카리나, 본명 유지민은 2000년 4월 11일에 경기도 수원시 팔달구 지동에서 태어났어요. 인기 인스타 스타 카리나의 학창시절부터 초기 활동까지의 사진과 이야기를 만나보세요. Com › @kinadfrlm1f › videokyrie @kinadfrlm1f’s videos with dulce navidad kxng.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
대놓고 어글글에 카리나 악성안티글 올리면서 대응하는 인간이 이글엔 또 긁히네 그냥 어그로는 개무시 하는게 답이련만., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.