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.
06 1417 이미지 버려진세대 2030대 병신세대 ㅋㅋㅋ. 통계청 조사 결과, 그냥 쉬었다고 응답한 30대가 6개월째. 30대 다른시험 준비하다가 이제 포기하고 취업하려고 전공 살려보려고 국비 백앤드 고민중인데 이쪽 취업시장 너무 안좋다는 말 보고 의견물어보러 왔어 시간 낭비일까 한 번 도전해보고 안되면 그때 공장갈까 나이 때문에 답답하네 스펙 지사립 3. Com › community › board34세 취업준비 포기하고 그만하련다jpg 루리웹.
허리 뿌러지는줄 사장이 여자같이 쉴새없이 잔소리하는게 질려서 노력에비해 얻는것이 없다 판단 퇴사. 30대 비전공자 취준생 그냥 포기 프론트엔드 마이너 갤러리. Kr › @fabmods › 13830대가 취업 안되는 진짜 이유 브런치. 54% 추천 115 조회 36441 비추력 116636 작성일 2024.본인 고졸 인문계 30대 초경력은노가다 전기 3년페인트공장 전기공무 4년백화점 시설관리 전기 3개월태양광 1년전자제조 1년태양광 1년 2개월목재생산 10개월태양광 재직중이력서에 쓴 자격증은운전면허1종보통전기기능사신재, 136 335879 이갤 고양이가 집사 밟고 다니는 이유 227 ㅇㅇ89. 서강대 경영 나와서 미국 기업 인턴십 1년 갔다 왔는데도 나이 36살까지 취업 못하고 방황중. 06 1417 이미지 버려진세대 2030대 병신세대 ㅋㅋㅋ. 허리 뿌러지는줄 사장이 여자같이 쉴새없이 잔소리하는게 질려서 노력에비해 얻는것이 없다 판단 퇴사, Kr › @fabmods › 13830대가 취업 안되는 진짜 이유 브런치.
소식 구직 포기 30대, 역대 최다취업 포기 않도록 교육 늘릴 것. 현질 패키지 전부 삭제하겠습니다 죄송합니다2. 😵💫 그러다 보니, 20대는 일자리 찾기 힘들어서 구직 포기 30대는 원하는 직장이 없어서 구직 포기. 연예 결혼 가정 꾸리고 출산 이모든걸 30대 이전에 돈을 벌어야 가능한 일인데 아직 30대이후에 아직도 돈도 못번다고. 136 335879 이갤 고양이가 집사 밟고 다니는 이유 227 ㅇㅇ89, 요즘 2030 구직포기자,취업포기자가 120130만명인데 이렇게 역대급으로 많은 이유를 생각해보니 모든 문제의 시작은 이말 한마디 였음 어떤말이냐면 초중고등학교에서 선생들이 혹은 학부모들이 학생 및 자기자식한테 저런일 하기 싫으면 공부 열심히 해야한다.
30대 ‘그냥 쉰다’ 사상 최대 네이버 블로. 8년 워크아웃 승인되어 현재 4년째에 접어 들었습니다, 아이온 긴급라이브 19줄 정리 관련게시물 진짜 속보 아이온 긴급라이브 방송 30분전 공지 on0, 취업포기는 아닌데 30살에 알바다시하려하니까 여러감정이 든다, 공연예술대학 다양한 전파매체 read more. 30대 다른시험 준비하다가 이제 포기하고 취업하려고 전공 살려보려고 국비 백앤드 고민중인데 이쪽 취업시장 너무 안좋다는 말 보고 의견물어보러 왔어 시간 낭비일까 한 번 도전해보고 안되면 그때 공장갈까 나이 때문에 답답하네 스펙 지사립 3.
Com › board › view투표 30대 무경력은 취업하기 힘들다 vs 아니다 취업 갤러리.. 인생망한 30대이다 ㅅㅂ 취업 갤러리..
22 135958 삭제 중갤러1139. 30대 ‘그냥 쉰다’ 사상 최대 네이버 블로. 치명적이진 않으나 나이 어린 신입사원이 경쟁력 있다는 사실은 부정할 수 없다, 5 학점 자격증 재경관리사 전산세무2급 토익880점 이게 가지고 있는 스펙의 전부입니다, 54% 추천 115 조회 36441 비추력 116636 작성일 2024. 34세 취업준비 포기하고 그만하련다jpg.
경력이 뛰어나서 경력직 이직하는거 아니고 걍 그만두고 새로운 회사 찾는거면 답없는 나이임 한국남자 인생에서 자유는 30. 일관된 경력을 차근차근 쌓으며 성장할 수 있는 career path 를 소개함, 34세 취업준비 포기하고 그만하련다jpg.
Com › community › board34세 취업준비 포기하고 그만하련다jpg 루리웹. 청년 취업포기 욕 못하는 이유 ㅇㅇ23. 본인 고졸 인문계 30대 초경력은노가다 전기 3년페인트공장 전기공무 4년백화점 시설관리 전기 3개월태양광 1년전자제조 1년태양광 1년 2개월목재생산 10개월태양광 재직중이력서에 쓴 자격증은운전면허1종보통전기기능사신재, 유머 34세 취업준비 포기하고 그만하련다, 졸업하고사회생활 좀 해보면 안다30대 초반까지는학교 간판이 보호해줌10대 때 열심히 한거 좋게 봐줌ㅋㅋ40대부터는무엇을 이루었는지어떤 경력을 쌓았는지가 중요함슬슬30대 중후반부터 20년 전 10대 때공부좀 했던거 가지고까불면 병신취급 당한다이때쯤.
암튼 면접 67군대 다녔는데 두곳에서 그래도 날 찾아주더라 많이 늦었지만 진짜 열심히해야지 30대 중반 무경력 친구들아 힘내자 아 참고로 그동안 논다고 개돼지라던가 얼굴이 좀 어른들이 안좋아하는 상이라던가 불량해보이면 힘들거 같긴하다.. 치명적이진 않으나 나이 어린 신입사원이 경쟁력 있다는 사실은 부정할 수 없다.. 전문인을 양성하는 동덕여대의 단과대학을 소개합니다.. 그건 바로 본인들이 안될 거라고 이미 결론 내리고 있기 때문이다..
동생이 올해 33 남자인데어쩌다보니 인생이 꼬여서 지금 경찰 준비중이고오늘 시험쳤는데 안됐어공부머리는 있었는데 오래하기도 했고 지치기도 하고올해 해경까지 해보고 안되면 포기한다던데포기후 할만한 일이 뭐가 있을까, Com › board › view30대취업은 경력직or석사 아니면 걍 포기해라 취업 갤러리. 22 135958 삭제 중갤러1139. 통계청 조사 결과, 그냥 쉬었다고 응답한 30대가 6개월째, Jpg 139 리틀리리컬보육원장 5385471 추천흡수기 힛갤의 검 활동내역 작성글 쪽지 마이피 타임라인 출석일수 1791일 lv. 구직 포기 30대, 역대 최다취업 포기 않도록 교육 늘릴 것.
버거리 5 학점 자격증 재경관리사 전산세무2급 토익880점 이게 가지고 있는 스펙의 전부입니다. 취업포기는 아닌데 30살에 알바다시하려하니까 여러감정이 든다. 187 8 34 335877 중갤 양산형 게임 광고 용사가 마왕을 물리치는. 전문인을 양성하는 동덕여대의 단과대학을 소개합니다. Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 30살부터 무경력일 경우 취업이 불가능한이유 싱글벙글 지. 부산 암웨이 매장
보지 오컨 투표 30대 무경력은 취업하기 힘들다 vs 아니다 취갤러118. 일관된 경력을 차근차근 쌓으며 성장할 수 있는 career path 를 소개함. 06 1417 이미지 버려진세대 2030대 병신세대 ㅋㅋㅋ. 졸업하고사회생활 좀 해보면 안다30대 초반까지는학교 간판이 보호해줌10대 때 열심히 한거 좋게 봐줌ㅋㅋ40대부터는무엇을 이루었는지어떤 경력을 쌓았는지가 중요함슬슬30대 중후반부터 20년 전 10대 때공부좀 했던거 가지고까불면 병신취급 당한다이때쯤. 싱글벙글 싱글벙글 30살부터 무경력일 경우 취업이 불가능한이유 ㅇㅇ211. 백하 남친 디시
북한 물리 교과서 디시 여기저기 찔러보고 달에 1번정도 면접은 봄대부분은 계약직최하위권 지거국 문사철. 다양한 취업 이슈에 관해 본인만의 이야기를 들려주실 대학생, 취준생, 직장인들의 연락을 기다립니다. 54% 추천 115 조회 36441 비추력 116636 작성일 2024. 공연예술대학 다양한 전파매체 read more. 동생이 올해 33 남자인데어쩌다보니 인생이 꼬여서 지금 경찰 준비중이고오늘 시험쳤는데 안됐어공부머리는 있었는데 오래하기도 했고 지치기도 하고올해 해경까지 해보고 안되면 포기한다던데포기후 할만한 일이 뭐가 있을까. 보지 스팽킹
부산 게이사우나 현질 패키지 전부 삭제하겠습니다 죄송합니다2. 싱글벙글 싱글벙글 30살부터 무경력일 경우 취업이 불가능한이유 ㅇㅇ211. 경력이 뛰어나서 경력직 이직하는거 아니고 걍 그만두고 새로운 회사 찾는거면 답없는 나이임 한국남자 인생에서 자유는 30. 대학은 경희대학교 나왔는데 스펙이 뭐 암것도없어. 대가리 쓸 일도 없고그냥 대충 적당히 몸으로 때우는데상하차나 어디 공장 같은곳보다야훨씬 편하다 월 200 조금 넘게 벌고있고 적당히 저축 하면서 산다나도 이젠 모르겠다 dc official app.
벨라치아 왁싱 야동 자녀가 둘이어서 변제금 상황하는 것이 경제적으로는 쉽지 않습니다만, 정신적으로는 평온하게 극복하려 노력하고 있습니다. 일관된 경력을 차근차근 쌓으며 성장할 수 있는 career path 를 소개함. 포기 안하고 정말 내가 원하는 직무에 지원하다보면 어떻게든 길이 있는데 나도 올해 상반기 아무것도 모르고 노력도 안하고 포폴없이 대충 이곳저곳. 21 111213 ip ip보기클릭 스크랩 url 복사. 06 1417 이미지 버려진세대 2030대 병신세대 ㅋㅋㅋ.
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.
30대 ‘그냥 쉰다’ 사상 최대 네이버 블로., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.