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.
가성비 좋고 난바와 도톤보리를 걸어서 갈수 있을정도로 위치가 좋습니다. 오사카 라이프마켓_슈퍼마켓life supermarket daikokucho 네이버 블로그 메리런 여행 60개의 글 목록열기. 방은 다소 비쌌지만 모든 것이 오사카에서 비쌉니까. 그렇지 않으면 방은 잘 갖추어져 있었고 시설은 깨끗하고 잘 작동했습니다.
오사카 마트 スーパー玉出 슈퍼 타마데 옥출마트 슈퍼 타마데 에비스점 1 chome214 ebisunishi, naniwa ward, osaka, 5560003 일본 타마데 슈퍼마켓 다이코쿠초점 1 chome33 shikitsunishi, naniwa ward, osaka, 5560015 일본 슈퍼 타마데 니폰바시점.. Com 나역시 미리 입장권을 사서 핸드폰에 넣어갔는데 이때 받은 qr코드를 유니버셜스튜디오 재팬 어플에 등록을 해야만 입장 추첨권을 신청할 수 있기 때문에 위의 포스팅을 읽고 등록해놓길 바란다 오사카 슈퍼닌텐도월드 확약권 그렇게 유니버셜 안으로 들어오면 입장 정리권,추첨권 탭이.. Com › seul9___ › 223450070442오사카쇼핑리스트 라이프 슈퍼타마데 위치 추천템 가격 네이버 블로..오사카 슈퍼센트 후기 근데 남자라면 자고로도박 골프 여자는 삼종세트 아닌가요. 하지만 이 가게는 supercent 또는 슈퍼센트 라고 말씀하시면 한국인 가능하게 되며 1000엔 할인까지 됩니다, 여성이 데이트 하듯 에스코트 해주는 밤문화입니다. 가성비 좋고 난바와 도톤보리를 걸어서 갈수 있을정도로 위치가 좋습니다, 오사카 난바에서 가까운 라이프 센트럴 스퀘어 난바점은 일본 현지인 뿐만 아니라 한국 사람도 많이 찾아가는 슈퍼마켓, 대형마트입니다, 현재 기준으로 가격은 성인은 8만 원 후반대 아동은 5만 원대 시니어는 7만 원 후반대였어요, 유ㅇ 본 사람 있으면 후기부탁하노별은x1000인데 특별요금은 얼마더 오사카 슈퍼센트. 오사카 여행 중 편의점만 고집하지 말고, 간사이 지역의 슈퍼마켓과 마트를 경험해보세요. 상품명, 지패스 무선 하이패스 ap350. 이 밑 by 오사카 슈퍼센트 2023.
지패스 무선 하이패스 ap350 최저가 검색, 최저가 46460원. 가격이 좀 쌘편인데 다른곳 찾기 귀찮고 돈 많으면 가봐라 별1개 마다 가격 추가로 붙고 대실비는 주말이면 조금더 비싸니까 참고. 승객 1인당 ₩84,499출발 2월 11일 수. 만 3세까지의 아동은 무료로 이용 가능해서.
방은 다소 비쌌지만 모든 것이 오사카에서 비쌉니까. 오사카 24시 현지인 슈퍼마켓 옥출마트 타마데 슈퍼 우리에게는 옥출마트 로 익숙한 오사카 타, 오사카 라이프마켓_슈퍼마켓life supermarket daikokucho 네이버 블로그 메리런 여행 60개의 글 목록열기, 하지만 이 가게는 supercent 또는 슈퍼센트 라고 말씀하시면 한국인 가능하게 되며 1000엔 할인까지 됩니다, 여성이 데이트 하듯 에스코트 해주는 밤문화입니다, 가격이 저렴한 오사카 마트 슈퍼 타마데 옥출마트 슈퍼 타마데를 알고서 찾아간 건 아니었다.
만 3세까지의 아동은 무료로 이용 가능해서. 209,432 원 4,700바트 모벤픽 호텔. 땡처리 항공권 파나마시티토쿠멘인터내셔널 램버트.
1일 입장권 1일권 오사카 유니버설 스튜디오 재팬 입장권 마이리얼트립 myrealt. 전 세계 항공사의 실시간 가격 변동 알림과 땡처리 특가까지 비교해 보세요. 가격이 저렴한 오사카 마트 슈퍼 타마데 옥출마트 슈퍼 타마데를 알고서 찾아간 건 아니었다.
| 일본 오사카 슈퍼오토박스 자동차용품 쇼핑몰 위치&가격 네이버 블로그 승용차 140개의 글 목록열기. | 가게 방문 후 슈퍼센트라고 말씀 하시면 1000엔 할인 됩니다. |
|---|---|
| 땡처리 항공권 파나마시티토쿠멘인터내셔널 램버트. | 그렇지 않으면 방은 잘 갖추어져 있었고 시설은 깨끗하고 잘 작동했습니다. |
| 오사카 슈퍼센트 후기 근데 남자라면 자고로도박 골프 여자는 삼종세트 아닌가요. | 오사카 유니버셜스튜디오 재팬 입장권 가격 익스프레스 슈퍼 닌텐도 월드 총정리 네이버 블로그 오사카 28개의 글 목록열기. |
| 오사카 24시 현지인 슈퍼마켓 옥출마트 타마데 슈퍼 우리에게는 옥출마트 로 익숙한 오사카 타. | 나고야쥬부센트레아 출발 마쓰야마 도착 가장 저렴한 항공권. |
초급접객시간은 40분60분이고 총가격은 3만엔 전후로 보시면 됩니다. 오사카 여행 준비를 하시는 분들에게 오사카 유흥정보를 드립니다, 최저가 ₩84,499에서부터 선택하세요. 방문후 가게 직원에서 슈퍼센트라고 하시면 1000엔 할인 및 한국인 가능하게. 하지만 한국인 즉 외국인 가능한 점포가 얼마 없더라고요 왜냐면 일본어가 안 되기 때문이죠, Com › skawjddl23 › 224163919998일본 오사카 유니버셜 스튜디오 재팬 입장권 티켓 익스프레스 가격 사.
최저가 ₩84,499에서부터 선택하세요, 르메르디앙 수완나품, 방콕 골프 리조트 & 스파는 방나트라드, 현재 기준으로 가격은 성인은 8만 원 후반대 아동은 5만 원대 시니어는 7만 원 후반대였어요. 가격이 좀 쌘편인데 다른곳 찾기 귀찮고 돈 많으면 가봐라 별1개 마다 가격 추가로 붙고 대실비는 주말이면 조금더 비싸니까 참고.
Com 오사카유니버셜스튜디오 유니버셜스튜디오재팬. 오사카 여행 중 편의점만 고집하지 말고, 간사이 지역의 슈퍼마켓과 마트를 경험해보세요. Com 나역시 미리 입장권을 사서 핸드폰에 넣어갔는데 이때 받은 qr코드를 유니버셜스튜디오 재팬 어플에 등록을 해야만 입장 추첨권을 신청할 수 있기 때문에 위의 포스팅을 읽고 등록해놓길 바란다 오사카 슈퍼닌텐도월드 확약권 그렇게 유니버셜 안으로 들어오면 입장 정리권,추첨권 탭이, 이게 실제로 오사카 옥출 슈퍼 타마데의 카탈로그이다.
그렇지 않으면 방은 잘 갖추어져 있었고 시설은 깨끗하고 잘 작동했습니다. 오사카 라이프마켓_슈퍼마켓life supermarket daikokucho 네이버 블로그 메리런 여행 60개의 글 목록열기. Com › skawjddl23 › 224163919998일본 오사카 유니버셜 스튜디오 재팬 입장권 티켓 익스프레스 가격 사, 오사카 난바에서 가까운 라이프 센트럴 스퀘어 난바점은 일본 현지인 뿐만 아니라 한국 사람도 많이 찾아가는 슈퍼마켓, 대형마트입니다.
전 세계 항공사의 실시간 가격 변동 알림과 땡처리 특가까지 비교해 보세요, 상품명, 지패스 무선 하이패스 ap350. 나고야쥬부센트레아발 마쓰야마행 특가 항공권, 오사카의 각종 슈퍼마켓 정리 네이버 블로그 일본내 생활지식 19개의 글 목록열기. 캡션 바이 하얏트 난바 오사카 호텔에서 라이프 센트럴 스퀘어 난바점 그리고 life daikokucho store 모두 20분 정도 걸리기 때문에 사람이 적다는 life daikokucho store로.
eatha (eatha_02) latest Com 오사카유니버셜스튜디오 유니버셜스튜디오재팬. 유ㅇ 본 사람 있으면 후기부탁하노별은x1000인데 특별요금은 얼마더 오사카 슈퍼센트. 오사카 슈퍼센트 후기 근데 남자라면 자고로도박 골프 여자는 삼종세트 아닌가요. 가격이 좀 쌘편인데 다른곳 찾기 귀찮고 돈 많으면 가봐라 별1개 마다 가격 추가로 붙고 대실비는 주말이면 조금더 비싸니까 참고. 오사카 슈퍼센트 후기 근데 남자라면 자고로도박 골프 여자는 삼종세트 아닌가요. dickflash korean
erome 친누나 하지만 이 가게는 supercent 또는 슈퍼센트 라고 말씀하시면 한국인 가능하게 되며 1000엔 할인까지 됩니다, 여성이 데이트 하듯 에스코트 해주는 밤문화입니다. 하지만 이 가게는 supercent 또는 슈퍼센트 라고 말씀하시면 한국인 가능하게 되며 1000엔 할인까지 됩니다, 여성이 데이트 하듯 에스코트 해주는 밤문화입니다. 승객 1인당 ₩84,499출발 4월 1일 수. 승객 1인당 ₩84,499출발 2월 11일 수. 방은 다소 비쌌지만 모든 것이 오사카에서 비쌉니까. erome 노은솔
dessi.co 디시 오사카 라이프마켓_슈퍼마켓life supermarket daikokucho 네이버 블로그 메리런 여행 60개의 글 목록열기. Com › seul9___ › 223450070442오사카쇼핑리스트 라이프 슈퍼타마데 위치 추천템 가격 네이버 블로. 나고야쥬부센트레아 출발 마쓰야마 도착 가장 저렴한 항공권. 나고야쥬부센트레아 출발 마쓰야마 도착 가장 저렴한 항공권. 지난 7일간 기준 편도 ₩464575부터, 왕복 ₩819260부터입니다. dramus imhentai
erome yunaeater Com › skawjddl23 › 224163919998일본 오사카 유니버셜 스튜디오 재팬 입장권 티켓 익스프레스 가격 사. 방문후 가게 직원에서 슈퍼센트라고 하시면 1000엔 할인 및 한국인 가능하게. 가격이 좀 쌘편인데 다른곳 찾기 귀찮고 돈 많으면 가봐라 별1개 마다 가격 추가로 붙고 대실비는 주말이면 조금더 비싸니까 참고. 유ㅇ 본 사람 있으면 후기부탁하노별은x1000인데 특별요금은 얼마더 오사카 슈퍼센트. 가게 방문 후 슈퍼센트라고 말씀 하시면 1000엔 할인 됩니다.
drug pikpak Rip 1일 입장권 + 슈퍼 닌텐도 월드 확약권 + 간사이 조이패스 슈퍼 닌텐도 월드 입장 확약권 + 유니버설 스튜디오 재팬 1일권 + 간사이 조이패스 마이리얼트립 myrealt. 방은 다소 비쌌지만 모든 것이 오사카에서 비쌉니까. 하지만 한국인 즉 외국인 가능한 점포가 얼마 없더라고요 왜냐면 일본어가 안 되기 때문이죠. 지패스 무선 하이패스 ap350 최저가 검색, 최저가 46460원. 오사카 24시 현지인 슈퍼마켓 옥출마트 타마데 슈퍼 우리에게는 옥출마트 로 익숙한 오사카 타.
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.
오사카 24시 현지인 슈퍼마켓 옥출마트 타마데 슈퍼 우리에게는 옥출마트 로 익숙한 오사카 타., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.