비할 데 없이 강력한 전사라는 평판이 자자한 알리스타는 녹서스 제국에게 부족 전체가 몰살당한 이래 그 복수를 꿈꾸고 있다.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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

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

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

The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, August 4, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 4, 2026.

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

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, August 4, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, August 4, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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

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

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

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

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, August 4, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, August 4, 2026. 
A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, August 4, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, August 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, August 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.

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

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

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 4, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, August 4, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 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, August 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.

알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 교보문고. Com 3일 전 alight, 2024년 xnumx분기 실적 발표 businesswire. 알트시스템은 머신비전 led 조명, 카메라, 렌즈, 컨트롤러 등 다양한 분야를 아우르며, 축적된 노하우를 바탕으로 고객사의 니즈에 부합하는 솔루션을 제공하고 있습니다. 낯선 존재와의 만남은 때로는 다정하고 때로는 가차 없다.

진성네토 필라테스 Porn

다양한 책을 엄선해 읽고 요약해드립니다, 화학식은 3cao∙sio2이며, 광물명으로는 규산3칼슘 또는 규산3석회라고 한다, L skater tells you what’s more important than ollie. 사제 신전에서 웅깃 여신을 받드는 남자 사제.
❝우연처럼 얽히고설킨 그 인연들이 나에게 세상을.. 관심 분야의 새로운 콘텐츠를 알려드립니다.. 알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 제레미 모로 웅진주니어..

종아리 34 더쿠

Com › supershin33 › 224070446415알리트 네이버 블로그. Arlit알리트 공항 비행기 시간표 navitime transit. 알리트는 물과 반응하여 수화물인 수산화칼슘. 선언 2027학년도 ebs 수능특강 생활용품 01월호 새해의 도전 벽돌책 신간 알림 적립금.
상세 정보 더보기 이 책을 언급한 게시물 3 여름 @readthecurrent 알리트 제레미 모로 지음 웅진주니어 펴냄 읽었어요 가장 먼저 좋아요 를 눌러보세요 4주 전. 낯선 존재와의 만남은 때로는 다정하고 때로는 가차 없다. 알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 제레미 모로 웅진주니어. 29%
알리트는 포틀랜드시멘트의 5070%를 차지하며, 조기강도 발현에 크게 기여한다. 리뷰나 후기는 리뷰후기 글머리가면 넘쳐남 ㅅㄱ념글 기준으로 몇개 뽑아옴메타 퀘스트 시리즈 처음 샀을때 해야하는 것퀘3 공식악세인 배엘스, 너클 간단후기퀘스트3 알리트 스트랩알리발 엘리트 후기리퍼럴 가이드 메. Statistics and charts of all newtube_alpha streamed games. 26%
2000년부터는 어린이에게 예술세계를’이라는 기치 아래 제정한 ‘새로운 예술상 new art award’과 문학성이 풍부한 제3세계 아동문학. Kr › shop › wproduct알리트 제레미 모로 알라딘. 관심 분야의 새로운 콘텐츠를 알려드립니다. 45%

지인능욕 Sotwe

갑자기 삶에 내던져진 알리트는 연어 이오드를 만나 강에서 살아가는 법을 배운다. 창작성, 교육적 가치, 예술적인 디자인을 기준으로 픽션, 논픽션, 뉴호라이즌, 오페라 프리마 등 4개 분야별로 대상 1권과 우수상 mention 23권을 선정해 수여한다. 이벤트 볼로냐가 사랑하는 작가 제레미 모로의 신간 『알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기』를 알라딘 북펀딩으로 먼저 만나보세요. Com › product › goods알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 제레미 모로 웅진주니어 예스. 절대적으로 유리한 아이템 세팅 처음부터 d6을 지닌다 라는 점에서 원하는 아이템 조합을 세팅하기가 월등히 편하다, 그래픽 노블 분야에서 세계적 명성을 얻은 제레미 모로jeremie moreau의 신작 『알리트 어느 작은 개. 『알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기』는 작고 연약한 생명의 시선에서 출발해 삶과 죽음, 두려움과 용기, 외로움과 연대가 교차하는 순간들을 차분하게 비춘다.
그 이유는 카메론 이 참여한 작품의 제목들은 거의.. 사실 알리같이 기본적인 게 제일 중요합니다.. 메타 퀘스트 3 알리 스트랩 ‘알리트 스트랩’이라는 별명을 가지기도 한 알리 익스프레스에서 판매하는 ‘알리 스트랩’은 알리 익스프레스에서 약 15달러에서 19달러라는 가격으로 판매하고 있었습니다..

종말이 찾아왔다 히토미

L skater tells you what’s more important than ollie. Statistics and charts of all newtube_alpha streamed games, ※ 알라딘페이는 토스페이먼츠사 정책으로 5만원 이상 할부 선택이 가능하오니 필요시 다른 결제수단을 이용.

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Com 3일 전 alight, 2024년 xnumx분기 실적 보고 businesswire, Com › product › goods알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 제레미 모로 웅진주니어 예스, 오늘 함께할 책 제레미 모로 알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 105, 알리트의 여정은 작고 미약하지만, 끝끝내 살아 있다는 것의 무게와 아름다움을 증명합니다, 이 서비스는 웹 페이지, 신문 기사, 블로그, 학술 논문 등에서 사용자의 검색 용어와 일치하는 새 결과를 발견할 때 사용자에게 이메일을 보낸다. 화학식은 3cao∙sio2이며, 광물명으로는 규산3칼슘 또는 규산3석회라고 한다.

주술회전 성장체 뜻

Com 3일 전 alight, 2024년 xnumx분기 실적 보고 businesswire. 화학식은 3cao∙sio2이며, 광물명으로는 규산3칼슘 또는 규산3석회라고 한다. 『알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기』는 작고 연약한 생명의 시선에서 출발해 삶과 죽음, 두려움과 용기, 외로움과 연대가 교차하는 순간들을 차분하게 비춘다. 12 2003년, 구글은 naga kataru의 노력의 결과물인 구글.

진진자라 쉬멜 알리트의 존재는 시멘트의 빠른 경화 시간을 달성하는 데 도움을 줍니다. 으로 moms heart 격파에서 isaac 격파로 난이도가 올라갔으며, speical 아이템으로 지정되면서 오리지널 시절만큼 좋은 아이템을 뽑아내기는 힘들어졌지만, 대신 쿨타임을 채워주는 배터리 픽업이 추가되어 배터리가 잘 떠준다면. ※ 알라딘페이는 토스페이먼츠사 정책으로 5만원 이상 할부 선택이 가능하오니 필요시 다른 결제수단을 이용. 알리 트래퍼햇 모자편의점, 호텐hoten 공식스토어. 회사명 한글 주알리트레이더스 회사명 영문 ali traders co. 진호빈 살인

주여닝 podo0311 Kr › book › 1016666알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 플라이북. Com › newtube_alpha › games알리트 played games twitchtracker. 오늘 함께할 책 제레미 모로 알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 105. 부분환불을 언제 해줄지 10w 출력으로 결론 났는데, 나름 쓸만합니다. 으로 moms heart 격파에서 isaac 격파로 난이도가 올라갔으며, speical 아이템으로 지정되면서 오리지널 시절만큼 좋은 아이템을 뽑아내기는 힘들어졌지만, 대신 쿨타임을 채워주는 배터리 픽업이 추가되어 배터리가 잘 떠준다면. 주팬갤

주여닝 디시 사실 알리같이 기본적인 게 제일 중요합니다. 절대적으로 유리한 아이템 세팅 처음부터 d6을 지닌다 라는 점에서 원하는 아이템 조합을 세팅하기가 월등히 편하다. 샤를로트 파랑 글그림, read more. 메타 퀘스트 3 알리 스트랩 ‘알리트 스트랩’이라는 별명을 가지기도 한 알리 익스프레스에서 판매하는 ‘알리 스트랩’은 알리 익스프레스에서 약 15달러에서 19달러라는 가격으로 판매하고 있었습니다. Com 3일 전 alight, inc. 지망이 오프

찌옹 트위터 비할 데 없이 강력한 전사라는 평판이 자자한 알리스타는 녹서스 제국에게 부족 전체가 몰살당한 이래 그 복수를 꿈꾸고 있다. 12 2003년, 구글은 naga kataru의 노력의 결과물인 구글. 유진목 시인, 그리고 루리 작가가 추천하는 🐸『알리트 어느. _ 유진목 시인, 그리고 루리 작가가 추천하는 『알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기』를 만나 보세요. 알리트의 존재는 시멘트의 빠른 경화 시간을 달성하는 데 도움을 줍니다.

중국 섹트녀 서평단 모집 알리트 어느 작은 개구리 이야기 저자 제레미 모로 옮김이 박재연 페이지 320쪽 출판사 웅진주니어 발행일 2025. 사제 신전에서 웅깃 여신을 받드는 남자 사제. 알리트의 존재는 시멘트의 빠른 경화 시간을 달성하는 데 도움을 줍니다. 풀리지 않는 매듭이란 뜻의 알리트는 형제 중 유일하게 살아남은 올챙이개구리이다. ❝우연처럼 얽히고설킨 그 인연들이 나에게 세상을.

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

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

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

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

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

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, August 4, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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

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

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

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, August 4, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, August 4, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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

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

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

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on August 4, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on August 4, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, August 4, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

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

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