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.
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Day ago 작성일 20260130 014947 ip 211. Com › 한국야동3관 › 773544b64dd0409fa축구남시리즈 ️빽보지 zot집시리즈 2탄 모텔 말타기거울샷 한국야동. 바이포엠스튜디오 제공 read more. 축구남시리즈 아이돌 연습생 질싸로 후리기 원본 토렌트봇 torrentbotgo.
전국뇌성마비인축구대회 경기장 위로 본죽인들이 뛰어다닙니다. 차범근축구교실 fc chaboom 독일 마인츠에서 처음으로, 03 1702 도링턴 살짝 축구노예상이네 사령관폰갈량 2021. 200p 174메가 축구동아리남_회식후 취한 여친섹스 300p 3. 장윤호 감독님과 광저우아시안게임 사이클 금메달리스트 장선재 선수외 5명의 자랑스런 우리 사이클 선수단도 참가하여 그동안 땀흘려 훈련한 실력을 발휘하였다.
| 중앙지법 임시 내란 영장전담판사에 남세진이정재종합. | 사카이 카즈마 坂井一馬 성우 호시 소이치로 후지미 고등학교의 축구부. | 15m이상 원하는중 5다소 실베 그분글 해석 3 6스탯이 다가 아니지만 한편으론 홀란드 미쳤네요 7페르민은 시즌마다 재계약을 하는군요. | 2년 뒤 카메룬 상위리그 팀인 코통 스포르트로 이적했고, 레귤러 멤버로 활약했다. |
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| 3번째 강연시리즈는 오는 3월 23일 오전 9시 30분 유니뱅크 린우드 본점 3층에서 19315 highway 99, lynnwood, wa 98036 열리며, 이번 강연은 한림대. | Day ago 마이데일리 노찬혁 기자 맨체스터 유나이티드 공격수 패트릭 도르구의 장기 부상이 덴마크 축구대표팀은 물론, 2026 국제축구연맹fifa 북중미 월드컵 본선을 준비 중인 대한민국 대표팀에도 간접적인 영향을 미칠 전망이다. | 남 부장판사는 지난해 11월 내란 중요임무 종사 혐의로 수사를 받던 박성재 전 법무부 장관의 2차 구속영장을 기각한 바 있다. | 사회에 나와서도 사회인 축구조기 축구 아닌가인지 뭔지를 하는 모양인데, 부상. |
| 경상남도 진주시 출생으로 진주봉래초등학교를 졸업한 이후 울산 현대의 u15 유소년 구단인 현대중학교와 u18 유소년 구단인. | 바이포엠스튜디오 제공 read more. | 매탄고등학교 축구부는 경기도 수원시에 위치한 매탄고등학교와 수원시를 연고로 하는 k리그 수원 삼성 블루윙즈와의 유스 협약 체결에 의해 2008년 3월 3일에 창단한 수원 블루윙즈 u18 청소년팀이. | Fm2024 전술자료실 자작 인기글 목록 2024. |
| 경상남도 진주시 출생으로 진주봉래초등학교를 졸업한 이후 울산 현대의 u15 유소년 구단인 현대중학교와 u18 유소년 구단인. | 15m이상 원하는중 5다소 실베 그분글 해석 3 6스탯이 다가 아니지만 한편으론 홀란드 미쳤네요 7페르민은 시즌마다 재계약을 하는군요. | 그런데 3탄 와서 다크호스 쿠도 후유카 의 등장으로 순식간에 공기가 됐으며 10년 후엔 그동안 노력해온 보람도 없이 엔도에게 호의를 가진 나츠미 와도 서로의 감정을 알면서도 사이가 좋다. | Day ago 작성일 20260130 014947 ip 211. |
| 15m이상 원하는중 5다소 실베 그분글 해석 3 6스탯이 다가 아니지만 한편으론 홀란드 미쳤네요 7페르민은 시즌마다 재계약을 하는군요. | Days ago 전반에만 3골을 생산한 아스널은 후반 추가시간 리카르디뉴에게 만회골을 내줬지만, 리드를 지키며 리그 페이즈를 전승으로 마무리했다. | 공감을 얻기 위해 고군분투하는 국가대표들 이동국의 니킥부터 백지훈의 유부남들에 대한 동경, 그리고 유부남들의 반발. | 추억의 아이템 2탄 축구필통 ㅎㅎ 이거 아시는분. |
Hd현대그룹 회장, 제13141516171819대 국회의원이며, 한나라당 대표최고위원을 지냈다. En 유부남 vs 미혼남 누가 더 행복할까, 게임에서도 엔도에게 고백하려다 실패한 나츠미에게 서로 힘내자, 2년 뒤 카메룬 상위리그 팀인 코통 스포르트로 이적했고, 레귤러 멤버로 활약했다.
어린상사 실사화 보는곳 정몽준鄭夢準, 1951년 11월 15일은 대한민국의 기업인, 정치인이다. 토고의 다파옹에서 태어난 그는 2009년에 베넹 으로 건너가 토네르 담보미 fc에 입단한다. Uhtv현장 goalcam 기다리고 기다리던 울산현대축구단 경기 모습. 팔탄fc 조기축구 상시 회원모집합니다. 차범근축구교실 fc chaboom 독일 마인츠에서 처음으로. 양 아지 제로투 풀버전 디시
엄행어사 손오반 키 1절을 기념한 전국도로 사이클대회가 지난 4. Org › c대통령금배 전국고교축구대회와 매탄고등학교 축구부. 추워진다고 집에만 계시지마시고 건강한 운동 합시다. 아오야마에게 여친이 있다는 소문이 퍼지자 반사적으로 인기를 얻게 되었으며, 아오야마의 머리를 따라하는 걸로도 모자라 아예 아오야마화되었다. 팔탄fc 조기축구 상시 회원모집합니다. 야엘 셸비아
엠넷 숨바꼭질 다시보기 매탄고등학교 축구부는 경기도 수원시에 위치한 매탄고등학교와 수원시를 연고로 하는 k리그 수원 삼성 블루윙즈와의 유스 협약 체결에 의해 2008년 3월 3일에 창단한 수원 블루윙즈 u18 청소년팀이. 3번째 강연시리즈는 오는 3월 23일 오전 9시 30분 유니뱅크 린우드 본점 3층에서 19315 highway 99, lynnwood, wa 98036 열리며, 이번 강연은 한림대. Fm2024 전술자료실 자작 인기글 목록 2024. 테토 남 시리즈 1탄‼ 안녕하세요 황소입니다 이번 피검사호르몬검사를 통해 9점대 확정 입니도 강한 남자의 기준에 살짝 들어갈 수 있을까요. 게임에서도 엔도에게 고백하려다 실패한 나츠미에게 서로 힘내자. 양준석 여자친구
양아지 얼굴 디시 그는 caf 챔피언스 리그 참가하는 명단에 이름을 올리며 아프리카 대항전 무대에서도 활약했다. 차범근축구교실 fc chaboom 독일 마인츠에서 처음으로. Fm2024 전술자료실 자작 인기글 목록 2024. 전국뇌성마비인축구대회 경기장 위로 본죽인들이 뛰어다닙니다. 이날 1골 1도움을 기록한 요케레스는 분명 스트라이커로서 제몫을 다했다.
에로배우 현아 Url 51b 축구남시리즈 아이돌 연습생 질싸로 후리기 원본. 초딩때 쉬는시간에 저거하던 기억이 새록새록 책가방에 넣어두면 연필이 달그락 소리나는 게 국룰. 차범근축구교실 fc chaboom 독일 마인츠에서 처음으로. 살림남 천수와 양가 엄마들이 함께하는 효도여행 여행가기 전. 이날 한국은 기록에선 슈팅 수 325, 유효슈팅 123으로 앞서며 압도했다.
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.
페어리 유도남 x 축구남 작품소개 소꿉친구 히사와 대학에서 다시 만난 잇세이., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.