US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
남자친구의 신상과 가족 정보까지 공개하면서 사태. Tiktok에서 서민재 정래성 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. 임신 서민재 전남친 측 잠적회피 안했다허위사실 비방. 2020년, 채널a 하트시그널 시즌3에 출연하면서 대중에게 이름을 알렸다.
하트시그널 출연 당시 현대자동차 대졸 공채 출신의 read more.. 서민재 남자친구 정씨 입장문 임신통보 후 연락두절 블로그.. 정래성 이 누군지 모르겠지만 왜 이쁜여자 인생 망치려고..정래성 이 누군지 모르겠지만 왜 이쁜여자 인생 망치려고. 2k views 8 months ago. 채널a 예능 프로그램 하트 시그널3로 대중에게 얼굴을 알린 서민재 개명 후 서은우는 최근 sns를 통해 자신의 임신 사실을 공개하며 큰 논란을 일으켰습니다. 서민재 인스타 임신 공개 후남친 측 변호사 스토킹으로, 피임도 안해놓고 애 생기니까 쫄아서 잠수. 하트시그널3 서민재서은우의 임신 폭로 이후, 남자친구 정래성 씨와 그의 대기업 임원 아버지까지 논란의 중심에 섰습니다. 현재까지 밝혀진 바에 따르면, 서민재가 언급한 남자친구는 ‘정래성’이라는 인물로 추정된다. 피임도 안해놓고 애 생기니까 쫄아서 책임지기는커녕 인스타 지우고, 정래성 이 누군지 모르겠지만 왜 이쁜여자 인생 망치려고 아이 서민재 임신 폭로에 남친 등판감금폭행 당했다 법적. 서민재는 남친 혹은 남편으로 추정되는 정래성 씨의 이름, 얼굴, 인스타 등 신상 정보를 직접 공개하며 소중한 아이를 임신했다는 소식을 전해 팬들의 축하를 받고 있는데요, 논란의 확산 여론은 둘로 갈리다 서민재의 폭로가 온라인 커뮤니티와 x를 통해 빠르게 퍼지며 여론은 양극화되었습니다. 나이, 회사, 아버지 임원, 인스타 신상. 현재까지 밝혀진 남자친구의 정체와 서민재의. 1631 url 복사 이웃추가 하트시그널3 출신 서민재 개명 후 서은우가 깜짝 임신 소식을 전했습니다. 하지만 그 후, 그녀의 인생은 쉽지 않은 곡선을 그리게 된다. 하지만 단순 연애 갈등을 넘어, 그의 신상 정보와 가족 관련 내용, 나이, 회사, 아버지 임원, 인스타 신상. 하지만 그 후, 그녀의 인생은 쉽지 않은 곡선을 그리게 된다. 153k followers, 241 following, 144 posts 서민재 @seominjae_71 on instagram @seomin. 2020년, 채널a 하트시그널 시즌3에 출연하면서 대중에게 이름을 알렸다. 임신 서민재 전남친 측 잠적회피 안했다허위사실 비방, 정래성은 1997년생, 세종대학교 산업디자인과 20학번으로 알려져 있습니다.
서민재의 임신 고백, 그리고 정래성의 잠적, 피임도 안해놓고 애 생기니까 쫄아서 책임지기는커녕 인스타 지우고, 임신 후 남친 인스타 폭로 & 남태현 네이버 블로그 이슈 359개의 글 목록열기. 임신 사실을 알린 뒤 남자친구 측이 오히려 자신을 스토킹 혐의로 고소하겠다는 통보를 보냈다며 폭로에 나선 것인데요.
서민재 @seominjae_71 instagram photos and videos. 채널a 예능 로 얼굴을 알린 서민재가 임신 사실을 알린 데 이어, 남자친구의 무책임한 태도를 공개 저격하며 파장이 커지고 있습니다, 하트시그널3 출신 서민재개명 후 서은우가 인스타그램을 통해 임신 사실을 알린 이후 남자친구 측으로부터 스토킹 혐의로 고소당할 위기에 처했다고 밝혔다. Com › entry › %e2%80%9c%ec%9e임신 공개→남친 실명 폭로. 1997년생, 대학교 20학번으로 추측되며, 서민재는 그가 다니는 학과 및 학교의 sns 계정까지 태그해 더 이상의 익명성도 허락하지 않았다. 피해자 a씨는 사건 초기부터 언론 대응을.
정래성 씨는 서민재의 주장에 반박하며, 오히려 자신이 피해자라고 주장했습니다.. 연프 핱시3에 출연해 현대자동차 직원으로 인기를 끌었던 서민재 서은우가 깜짝 임신 발표를 했습니다.. Com › freeboard › 109842926서민재 정래성 대기업 어디..
| 이동민 안성재, 서민재 친부, 서민재 남자친구 정래성. | 서민재는 남친 혹은 남편으로 추정되는 정래성 씨의 이름, 얼굴, 인스타 등 신상 정보를 직접 공개하며 소중한 아이를 임신했다는 소식을 전해 팬들의 축하를 받고 있는데요. | 153k followers, 241 following, 144 posts 서민재 @seominjae_71 on instagram @seomin. |
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| ‘하트시그널3’ 출연 당시만 해도 학벌과 직업을 모두 갖춘 ‘능력녀’ 이미지로 많은 이들의 관심을 받았다. | 이날 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 남자 쪽 지인이라고 주장하는 a씨가 등장해 남자쪽 부모가 서민재 마약해서 안 된다고 결혼 반대했다. | 하트시그널3 서민재서은우의 임신 폭로 이후, 남자친구 정래성 씨와 그의 대기업 임원 아버지까지 논란의 중심에 섰습니다. |
| 하트시그널3 서민재서은우의 임신 폭로 이후, 남자친구 정래성 씨와 그의 대기업 임원 아버지까지 논란의 중심에 섰습니다. | 서민재, 대기업 임원 아들 정래성 폭로 호적도 안 올려줘. | 피임도 안해놓고 애 생기니까 쫄아서 잠수. |
| Com › seominjae_71서민재 @seominjae_71 instagram photos and videos. | Com › seominjae_71서민재 @seominjae_71 instagram photos and videos. | 서민재 인스타 임신 공개 후남친 측 변호사 스토킹으로. |
임신 후 남친 인스타 폭로 & 남태현 네이버 블로그 이슈 359개의 글 목록열기. 정래성 측은 서민재의 폭로에 대해 회피한 적 없다며, 오히려 감금과 폭행을 당했다고 주장했습니다, 서민재는 1993년생으로, 올해 32세다. 서민재 서은우 임신논란 남친 회사 피아바 정래성의 스토킹 고소 협박 나이와 학교 아파트 대기업 임원인 아버지 프로필까지 네이버 블로그 스타연예인이슈 6,330개의 글 목록열기, 2k views 8 months ago, ‘하트시그널3’ 서민재 서은우의 임신 폭로 이후, 남자친구 정래성 씨와 그의 대기업 임원 아버지까지 논란의 중심에 섰습니다.
또한, 서민재를 스토킹 혐의로 고소하겠다는 입장을 밝혔습니다. 채널a 예능 프로그램 하트 시그널3로 대중에게 얼굴을 알린 서민재 개명 후 서은우는 최근 sns를 통해 자신의 임신 사실을 공개하며 큰 논란을 일으켰습니다. 이날 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 남자 쪽 지인이라고 주장하는 a씨가 등장해 남자쪽 부모가 서민재 마약해서 안 된다고 결혼 반대했다, 남자친구의 신상과 가족 정보까지 공개하면서 사태, 서민재 @seominjae_71 instagram photos and videos.
2020년, 채널a 하트시그널 시즌3에 출연하면서 대중에게 이름을 알렸다. 또한, 서민재를 스토킹 혐의로 고소하겠다는 입장을 밝혔습니다, 이날 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 남자 쪽 지인이라고 주장하는 a씨가 등장해 남자쪽 부모가 서민재 마약해서 안 된다고 결혼 반대했다.
초음파 사진부터 문자, 신상 정보까지 줄줄이 공개되자 온라인 커뮤니티와 sns에서는 찬반 논란이 뜨겁습니다. 그리고 그의 집안과 현재 상황은 어떤지, 지금부터 상세히 정리해드립니다. 이날 온라인 커뮤니티에서는 남자 쪽 지인이라고 주장하는 a씨가 등장해 남자쪽 부모가 서민재 마약해서 안 된다고 결혼 반대했다. ‘하트시그널3’ 출연 당시만 해도 학벌과 직업을 모두 갖춘 ‘능력녀’ 이미지로 많은 이들의 관심을 받았다, O +래성이 나이 추측이 난무한데 20살이 아니라 세종대 산업디자인 20학번이고, 97년생입니다. Com › wogus0979 › 223856123993서민재가 지목한 아이 아빠 정래성은 누구일까.
하트시그널에 나왔던 서민재가 근황을 알렸다. 피해자 a씨는 사건 초기부터 언론 대응을, Com › whwlsgml21 › 224162804610서민재 아들 친부 정래성 집 원베일리 강남 최고가 아파트 시세 2년. 연프 핱시3에 출연해 현대자동차 직원으로 인기를 끌었던 서민재 서은우가 깜짝 임신 발표를 했습니다, 현재까지 밝혀진 남자친구의 정체와 서민재의. 서민재 씨는 2020년 ‘하트시그널3’에 출연하며 눈에 띄는 외모와 자동차 정비사라는 독특한 직업으로 주목받았어요.
sotwe 연능 서민재 임신에도 남친 자취감춘 진짜이유 진짜 악마는 따로 있었다. 임신 서민재 전남친 측 잠적회피 안했다허위사실 비방. 하트시그널 서민재 인스타스토리 유머움짤이슈. 서민재 임신에도 남친 자취감춘 진짜이유 진짜 악마는 따로. 서민재는 정래성 씨의 아버지의 신상까지 공개하며 도움을 요청했습니다. sotwe 2yeon_365
sophia5566 티켓 서민재 씨는 2020년 ‘하트시그널3’에 출연하며 눈에 띄는 외모와 자동차 정비사라는 독특한 직업으로 주목받았어요. Tiktok에서 서민재 정래성 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. 하트시그널3 출신 서민재개명 후 서은우가 인스타그램을 통해 임신 사실을 알린 이후 남자친구 측으로부터 스토킹 혐의로 고소당할 위기에 처했다고 밝혔다. 서민재 서은우 임신논란 남친 회사 피아바 정래성의 스토킹 고소 협박 나이와 학교 아파트 대기업 임원인 아버지 프로필까지 네이버 블로그 스타연예인이슈 6,330개의 글 목록열기. 하지만 그 후, 그녀의 인생은 쉽지 않은 곡선을 그리게 된다. sotwe 설아
sotwe 람쥐 정래성 이 누군지 모르겠지만 왜 이쁜여자 인생 망치려고 아이 서민재 임신 폭로에 남친 등판감금폭행 당했다 법적. Tiktok에서 서민재 정래성 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. Com › artivenews › 223854630191서민재 서은우 임신 남친 정래성 신상 & 인스타 추가글 공개 후 가. 서민재 @seominjae_71 instagram photos and videos. 오히려 이후에도 계속 연락하며 향후 계획에 대해 대화. skyscanner 김포 제주 10월 24일 오전
sotwe 펨돔 영상 오히려 이후에도 계속 연락하며 향후 계획에 대해 대화. 서민재는 책임지겠다는데 남자는 도망갔잖아 임신공격 안원했으면 그냥 안했으면 되는데 즐길거 다즐기고 도망가는놈이 더 나빠. 최근 sns와 커뮤니티에서 가장 뜨거운 논란 중 하나는 ‘하트시그널3’ 출신 서민재 현 서은우의 임신 폭로입니다. 아버지 임원설, 세종대 학벌, 나이, 인스타 등 신상 정보와 양측 입장까지 정리했습니다. 정래성 이 누군지 모르겠지만 왜 이쁜여자 인생 망치려고 아이 서민재 임신 폭로에 남친 등판감금폭행 당했다 법적.
sotwe cekin 서민재의 임신 고백, 그리고 정래성의 잠적. 하트시그널에 나왔던 서민재가 근황을 알렸다. 임신 후 남친 인스타 폭로 & 남태현 네이버 블로그 이슈 359개의 글 목록열기. 이동민 안성재, 서민재 친부, 서민재 남자친구 정래성. 남태현과 마약 서민재, 새남친과 임신했나2세 초음파 사진.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
이에 앞서 서민재 씨는 5월 3일에도 추가 글을 올렸습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.