US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
여시뉴스데스크차은우, 이태원 클럽 방문 인정사과 경솔한 행동깊이 반성 중공식. 그룹 아스트로 차은우사진 측이 이른바 ‘이태원 방문 아이돌’ 보도를 인정하고, 사과했다. 차은우 성격에 대해 내가 느낀점 이드페이퍼 idpaper 뉴스. 이태원 아이돌, bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규였다.
가 실체가 없고, 이를 통해 세금을 줄였다는 의혹이 제기되면서 온라인에서 크게 화제가 되고 있거든요, 지난 5일, 이태원 클럽발 지역 전파가 시작된 것, 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 사회적 거리두기가 강조되던 지난달 말 이태원 유흥주점에 있었다는 보도가 나왔다. 정국, 차은우, 재현, 민규 사진한경db 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 지난달 말 이태원을 방문한 아이돌이라는, 차은우, 이태원 클럽 방문 인정사과 경솔한 행동깊이 반성. 화물고정조치 위반 2 nct 재현, astro 차은우, 세븐틴 민규 3 이태원 일대 방문자 기준 자발적 검사가 권고된 대상은 4월 29일 22시5월 6일까지의 방문자였다. 인사이트 지동현 기자 그룹 아스트로 차은우가 이태원 방문 의혹에 공식 입장을 밝히고 사과했다, 20 0113 차은우 인스타그램, 아스트로 공식 트위터. 다만 각 멤버들 소속사 측은 사회적 거리두기를 지키지 못했다며 사과했다. 97년절친 차은우 정국 이태원클럽도갔지 코로나때 다들 식당도못가고 마스크쓰고다닐때. 스포츠조선 백지은 기자 이태원 클럽에 방문한 인기 아이돌 측이 공식사과를 전했다. 인터넷 매체 디스패치는 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 지난달 25일 이태원 음식점 등에서 모임을 가졌다고 18일 보도했다. 이태원 아이돌 정국차은우 측, 뒤늦은 사과닷새 전 해명, 18조회수39,807 목록 댓글 190. 이태원 아이돌, bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규였다.내가 생각하는 그런 바면 클럽처럼 미친듯이 사람이 많진 않아도 충분히 위험하긴 함. 특히 차은우는 아스트로 컴백 활동을 펼쳤으며, nct 재현은 sbs 인기가요 mc로 활동 중인만큼 지난 달 26일, 그리고 지난 3일과 10일 생방송에 임했다, Days ago 최근 연예계 핫이슈 중 하나가 바로 차은우 세금 관련 논란이에요. 인사이트 지동현 기자 그룹 아스트로 차은우가 이태원 방문 의혹에 공식 입장을 밝히고 사과했다.
지난 5일, 이태원 클럽발 지역 전파가 시작된 것. 03 193503 조회 22400 추천 101 댓글 250 3. 18일 디스패치는 방탄소년단bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 지난 황금연휴4.
| 군대 간 차은우, 갑자기 살려달라 연락무슨 일. | 같은 기간 정국과 민규는 공식 스케줄은 없었다고 전했다. |
|---|---|
| 정국, 차은우, 민규 등 97라인사진세븐틴 민규 인스타그램 연예계 황금 인맥에서 생각없이 유흥을 즐긴 이태원 아이돌로 전락했다. | Net › ktalk › 4073933508더쿠 민규 재현 차은우 정국 이태원 터졌을때도 차은우가 제일 타격. |
| 18일 디스패치는 방탄소년단bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 지난 황금연휴4. | 정국민규차은우재현, 이태원 방문 자필사과문까지 확진자 나오기 1주일 전깊이 반성종합 osen김은애 기자 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 세븐틴 민규, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현이 이태원을 방문한 것과 관련해 진심 어린 사과를 전했다. |
18일 디스패치에 따르면 이태원에 모인 아이돌은 97모임 멤버 방탄소년단 정국, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규, 아스트로 차은우였다, 소속사 판타지오는 18일 차은우가 지난달 25일 이태원에 다녀온 것으로 확인됐다며 당사의 관리 소홀로 인해 모두와의 약속인 ‘사회적 거리두기’를 지키지 못하고 심려를 끼쳐 죄송하다고. 정국, 차은우, 재현, 민규 사진한경db 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 지난달 말 이태원을 방문한 아이돌이라는.
이태원 아이돌, bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규였다, 내가 생각하는 그런 바면 클럽처럼 미친듯이 사람이 많진 않아도 충분히 위험하긴 함. 20 0113 차은우 인스타그램, 아스트로 공식 트위터.
그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 사회적 거리두기가 강조되던 지난달 말 이태원 유흥주점에 있었다는 보도가 나왔다.. 4 개드립, 인벤, 에펨코리아, 인스티즈, 디씨인사이드 스타인뉴스 갤러리, 루리웹.. 이 사실은 18일 디스패치의 단독 보도로 처음 밝혀졌다..
방탄정병싸움에 차은우 왜 끌어들이냐며 크게 주목못받음, 차은우 는 대한민국 남자 아이돌 아스트로 구성원이다, 이 과정에서 차은우도 함께 있었다는 새로운 제보가 등장하지만. 18일 디스패치에 따르면 이태원에 모인 아이돌은 97모임 멤버 방탄소년단 정국, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규, 아스트로 차은우였다.
방탄소년단 정국과 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규 측은 18일 각각 공식 입장문을 통해 지난달 25일 이태원에 방문한 사실을 인정, 사과했다, 이들이 이태원의 음식점과 유흥업소에 방문한 땐 사회적 거리두기 기간 와중이다, 뛰어난 외모와 바른 이미지로 팬들의 사랑을 받은 차은우가 사회적 거리두기 지침을 어기고 이태원을 방문한 것에 대해 고개를 숙였다. 차은우 방탄 정국이랑 이태원 클럽 걸렸을때부터 구렸어. 18조회수39,807 목록 댓글 190. 이 과정에서 차은우도 함께 있었다는 새로운 제보가 등장하지만.
코로나19 집단 감염이 발생한 이태원 클럽 방문은 아니었다는 것, 차은우, 이태원 클럽 방문 인정사과 경솔한 행동깊이 반성, 노벨피아실시간으로 응애가 되가는 디시인 동물과 유대감이 뛰어난 차은우로 이태원 클라쓰 다시 찍자. Com오렌즈 아름답고 건강한 아이 스타일링.
pikpak gay 생각보다 이미지 나락 가진 않았네생각해 보면 탑급연예인은 맨날 끌올되어서 욕먹고 이미지 나락가서 영상뜰때마다 언급될텐데. 이태원 아이돌, bts 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규였다. Com › board › view차은우 최근 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › site › data종합 정국민규차은우 이태원 클럽 방문 사실, 코로나19 음성&mldr. Com › board › view차은우 최근 실시간 베스트 갤러리. ranmai leaked
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pikpak shared from 얼마전에 업소녀가 차은우 원정성매매 까발리기도 했잖아 흐지부지 됐었지 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 정국과 차은우, 재현, 민규가 이태원 방문을 인정하고 사과했다. 가 실체가 없고, 이를 통해 세금을 줄였다는 의혹이 제기되면서 온라인에서 크게 화제가 되고 있거든요. 최근 이태원 술집을 방문한 아이돌의 목격담이 온라인 커뮤니티를 통해 확산된 가운데 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현, 세븐틴 민규가 관련. 정국과 차은우, 재현, 민규가 이태원 방문을 인정하고 사과했다. pikpak 버디
rance hitomi 차은우는 코로나 시절에도 이태원 클럽가서 기사났던거 같은데. 정국민규차은우재현, 이태원 방문 자필사과문까지 확진자 나오기 1주일 전깊이 반성종합 osen김은애 기자 그룹 방탄소년단 정국, 세븐틴 민규, 아스트로 차은우, nct 재현이 이태원을 방문한 것과 관련해 진심 어린 사과를 전했다. 방탄소년단 소속사 빅히트엔터테인먼트는 소속사 빅히트엔터테인먼트는 18일 정국이 이태원에 방문한 것은 사실이다. 차은우, 이태원 클럽 방문 인정사과 경솔한 행동깊이 반성. 한편 정국, 차은우 등이 이태원 바를 방문했다는 목격담을 최초로 유포했던 네티즌은 지난 13일 허위 사실을 유포해 죄송하다며 자필 사과문을 게재했다.
quatvn net 이태원 아이돌 정국차은우민규 줄줄이 인정 방문 사실, 코로나19는 음성, 이태원 아이돌로 지목된 97모임 정국차은우재현민규 실명 거론. 당시는 코로나19 감염 예방을 위한 사회적 거리두기 기간이었던데다, 최근 이태원 클럽발 코로나19 확진자가 다수 발생해 당국이 4월24일부터 5월6일까지 서울 이태원 일대 방문자는 증상 유무 관계없이 익명 검사가 가능하니 외출을 자제하고 보건소 상담 바란다. Com › site › data종합 정국민규차은우 이태원 클럽 방문 사실, 코로나19 음성&mldr. 핵심은 이 구조예요👇 차은우 본인은 판타지오 소속. 차은우 성격에 대해 내가 느낀점 이드페이퍼 idpaper 뉴스.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
정국과 차은우, 재현, 민규가 이태원 방문을 인정하고 사과했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.