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.
Kr › article › 202303160815013조셉앤스테이시, new 니트백 ‘씨티 트래블로그’ 컬렉션 출시. 조셉앤스테이시의 2022 ss 시즌 ‘가든파티’ 화보 공개와 함께 조이현의 친필 사인이 담긴 ‘니트백’ 이벤트도 진행될 예정. 패션 브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시’josephandstacey가 국내 최초로 친환경 섬유인 생분해사biodegradable, 썩는 섬유를 소재로 한 에코백을 출시했다. 남편이 사주신 화이트데이 선물 ㅎㅎㅎ.
조셉앤스테이시가 골프 브랜드 앤드 골프and golf를 런칭했다. 지난 1월에는 국내 최초로 친환경 섬유인 생분해사. Kr › @@2sd3 › 25남자의 입장에서 바라본 조셉앤스테이시 니트백. Shopping 조셉앤스테이시 휘뚜루마뚜루 니트백 m 럭키 플리츠 니트 스태리 스카치 lucky pleats knit starry scotch 블링블링 hachi. Experience realtime purchase of rare kpop merch and korean preloved items on bunjang global site, Com › newsview › 22q7n37btb단독 니트 플리츠백 원조는 누구. 그 때 원하는 색이 품절이라 평소 좋아하던 겨자색 샀는데 다른 색들도 예뻐요, ⠀ hello kitty carnival ️ 5, 15일 업계에 따르면 조셉앤스테이시가 현지 대형 백화점 2곳에서 팝업스토어 이벤트를 기획했다, 조셉앤스테이시의 시그니처 제품인 럭키플리츠 니트백을 국립현대미술관의 컬러들을 활용해 디자인한 제품으로 파우치, 가방, 보틀백의 다양한 제품군으로.| 서울파이낸스 이지영 기자 kbs 드라마 ‘법대로 사랑하라’에서 열연중인 배우 이세영과 조셉앤스테이시가 함께한 ‘모던 헤리티지 뉴 프리미엄modern heritage, new premium’ 컬렉션이 공개됐다. | 조셉앤스테이시, 골프 브랜드 앤드 골프 런칭. | 근데 면세점이나 인터넷이나 가격 차이가 별로 없어서 조만간 다른색으로 더 구입하려구요. |
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| 당시 대부분 직접 투자로 진출, 자금 부담까지 더해진 상태였다. | 니트 플리츠백을 누가 먼저 개발했는지를 두고 양측의 분쟁이 시작된 것은 ‘조셉앤스테이시가 모방한 가방을 판매한다’는 내용이 플리츠마마 측에 제보된 후다. | 핵심 쟁점은 조셉앤스테이시가 플리츠마마의 ‘플리츠 주름’ 디자인을 모방했는지 여부다. |
| Joseph & stacey is a fashion forward accessories brand that places emphasis on bringing joy through expressions of color. | 갤럭시 노트20의 7가지 미스틱 컬러와 조셉앤스테이시의 플리츠 니트백을 매칭한 이미지. | 플리츠마마가 정식 제품 판매에 돌입한 지 한 달여가 지난 때였다. |
| 2014년 론칭한 패션브랜드 조셉앤스테이시는 섬세한 디자인과 감성으로 인기를 끌고있다. | Rising biz & star 허지숙 대표 품질만큼은 깐깐하게패피. | 조셉앤스테이시 휘뚜루마뚜루 니트백 m 럭키 플리츠 니트 스. |
무신사에서 조셉앤스테이시joseph&stacey 상품 리스트와 스타일, 룩북, 매거진 등 다양한 정보를 확인하세요. 경쾌한 디자인을 즐기며 우울한 기분을 조금이나마 날려버리자는 해석이다. 그러나, 이를 한 외주인력 직원이 가위 로고를 왜곡된 bi브랜드 아이덴티티로 소개하면서 곤혹을 치르고 있다. Kr › @sjm0105 › 25남자의 입장에서 바라본 조셉앤스테이시 니트백.
유니크한 컬러와 독특한 디자인으로 럭키플리츠백 캔버스백 등 다수의 히트 상품을 탄생시킨 조셉앤스테이시가 그 감성 그대로 앤드 골프에 담았다.. 브랜드의 깔끔한 가위 로고는 대표적인 심볼이다.. 오는 20일까지 jr 나고야 타카시마야 백화점에서 제품을 판매한다.. 지난 1월에는 국내 최초로 친환경 섬유인 생분해사..
Com › newsview › 22q7n37btb단독 니트 플리츠백 원조는 누구, 조셉앤스테이시 일상에서 영감을 얻어 실용성과 아름다이 공존하도록 디자인합니다. 공감신문 박문선 기자특허법인 오킴스는 조셉앤스테이시를 대리하여, p사가 제기한 조셉앤스테이시의 판매 상품 럭키플리츠백의 디자인권 분쟁의 방어에 성공했다고 밝혔다. 연예가화제전체 뉴스 스포츠경향 조셉앤스테이시 제공 ‘대세배우’로 떠오른 이세영이 패션브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시josephandstacey’ 모델로 발탁됐다.
여성시대* 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간, Kr › @@2sd3 › 25남자의 입장에서 바라본 조셉앤스테이시 니트백, 나의 원픽은 역시나 이세이미야케 플리츠백 ㅎ , Blog tag guest 전체보기 1,211개의 글 목록열기. 남자의 입장에서 바라본 조셉앤스테이시 니트백.
라이프스타일 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 헬로키티hello kitty와 함께 콜라보레이션 제품을 출시했다고 밝혔다, 전도연, 조셉앤스테이시 앰버서더 선정 여신의 자태. 그러나, 이를 한 외주인력 직원이 가위 로고를 왜곡된 bi브랜드 아이덴티티로 소개하면서 곤혹을 치르고 있다, 유니크한 컬러와 독특한 디자인으로 럭키플리츠백 캔버스백 등 다수의 히트 상품을 탄생시킨 조셉앤스테이시가 그 감성 그대로 앤드 골프에 담았다. 783 likes, 4 comments _trend_kr on 트렌드가 전하는 5월 1주차 신상리스트💌 조셉앤스테이시와 헬로키티의 새로운 제품부터 스타벅스 투명 우산 세트, 스타벅스 베르가못 콜드브루 등 다양한 제품들이 출시되었는데요. 유니크한 컬러와 독특한 디자인으로 럭키플리츠백 캔버스백 등 다수의 히트 상품을 탄생시킨 조셉앤스테이시가 그 감성 그대로 앤드 골프에 담았다.
핵심 쟁점은 조셉앤스테이시가 플리츠마마의 ‘플리츠 주름’ 디자인을 모방했는지 여부다. 조셉앤스테이시의 씨티 트래블로그 컬렉션 조셉앤스테이시의 씨티 트래블로그 컬렉션 ‘장애 4급’ 김희철 교통사고로 키 185cm→176cm로 작아졌다 래퍼 정상수, 충암고 축제서 윤 어게인 발언 논란학교 측 개인적 발언. 나의 원픽은 역시나 이세이미야케 플리츠백 ㅎ .
핵심 쟁점은 조셉앤스테이시가 플리츠마마의 플리츠주름 디자인을 모방했는지 여부다.. 가방 브랜드 ‘조셉앤스테이시’, 싱가폴 패션 브랜드 ‘링우ling wu’를 전개하는 마치 인터내셔널에서 팝업스토어를 실시한다고 15일 밝혔다..
Joseph and stacey us, Com › postview플리츠마마 vs 조셉앤스테이시 니트백 비교 네이버 블로그. 무신사에서 조셉앤스테이시joseph&stacey 상품 리스트와 스타일, 룩북, 매거진 등 다양한 정보를 확인하세요. 하지만 이세이미야케를 아이패드가방용으로 쓰긴 아까워서 유명한. 화보 속 신예은은 화이트 원피스에 조셉앤스테이시 2023 new 니트백 시리즈 city travelogue에서 처음 선보이는 럭키 플리츠 오프시티 버킷백을 착용하였으며, 올해의 컬러로 선정된 비바 마젠타 컬러로 산뜻한 바캉스룩을 완성하였다, 서울파이낸스 김현경 기자 패션브랜드 조셉앤스테이시가 국립현대미술관과 손잡고 mimuseum identity 익스클루시브 제품시리즈를 선보였다.
남편이 사주신 화이트데이 선물 ㅎㅎㅎ. 근데 면세점이나 인터넷이나 가격 차이가 별로 없어서 조만간 다른색으로 더 구입하려구요, 라이프스타일 백 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 헬로키티와 함께한 새로운 콜라보레이션 컬렉션 ‘hello kitty, carry the carnival’을 공개했다고 밝혔다. 여성시대* 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간. Joseph and stacey us, 조셉앤스테이시 니트백 m 럭키플리츠 가방 젤리그린 후기 네이버 블로그 상품리뷰 408개의 글 목록열기.
히토미 콴시 여성시대* 차분한 20대들의 알흠다운 공간. 조셉앤스테이시의 시그니처인 플리츠 디자인을 기반으로 다채로운 컬러, 다양한 연출이 가능한 디자인으로 클래식하면서도 고급스러운 분위기를 자아내며. 15, 월일 10002200 잠실 롯데월드몰 2층 where’s the popup. 하지만 이세이미야케를 아이패드가방용으로 쓰긴 아까워서 유명한. 당시 대부분 직접 투자로 진출, 자금 부담까지 더해진 상태였다. 히토미 최면신문
히토미 주술회전 15일 업계에 따르면 조셉앤스테이시가 현지 대형 백화점 2곳에서 팝업스토어 이벤트를 기획했다. Com › postview플리츠마마 vs 조셉앤스테이시 니트백 비교 네이버 블로그. 럭키 플리츠 니트 스몰 스테리 헬로키티 image_not_found 조셉앤스테이시와 산리오캐릭터즈의 콜라보 그 4번째로 have a good hello kitty 컬렉션이 1월 13일에 발매되었어요. 자세한 내용은 조셉앤스테이시 공식 인스타그램 에서 확인할 수 있다. 조셉앤스테이시의 시그니처 제품인 럭키플리츠 니트백을 국립현대미술관의 컬러들을 활용하여 디자인한 제품으로 파우치, 가방, 보틀백의 다양한 제품군으로. 히토미 클릭 광고
히토미 에토리 2018년 매출 80억원을 달성한 패션잡화 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시는 독특한 소재와 디자인에 기능성까지 겸비한 제품으로 2030 패피패션피플들 사이. 길 잃은 척 따라왔더니—헬로키티랑 조셉앤스테이시가 기다리고 있었어요 잠실 롯데월드몰 2f, 우리가 만날 장소. 2018년 6월 삼성물산 패션 브랜드 ‘빈폴’과 협업해 제품을 출시했다. 경쾌한 디자인을 즐기며 우울한 기분을 조금이나마 날려버리자는 해석이다. 이번 25ss 컬렉션을 통해 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트 포켓 크로스’와 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트 스트링 백팩’ 두 가. 히토미 타치바나 노모
히토미 블루록 하지만 이렇게 여자들이 조셉앤스테이시에 열광하는 이유는 뭘까. 나에겐 조셉앤스테이시 니트백은 초등학교 때 들고 다녔던 운동화 가방에 불과했다. 조셉앤스테이시의 시그니처 제품인 럭키플리츠 니트백을 국립현대미술관의 컬러들을 활용해 디자인한 제품으로 파우치, 가방, 보틀백의 다양한 제품군으로. 이뉴스투데이 김국진 기자 라이프스타일 브랜드 조셉앤스테이시joseph and stacey가 시그니처 라인인 ‘럭키 플리츠 니트백’의 새로운 라인업을 공개한다고 13일 밝혔다. 영상 2분29초2분35초 경 직원은 자사의 가위 심볼이 쩍벌녀를 의미.
히토미 호문쿨루스 전도연, 조셉앤스테이시 앰버서더 선정 여신의 자태. 영상 2분29초2분35초 경 직원은 자사의 가위 심볼이 쩍벌녀를 의미. Kr › article › 202303160815013조셉앤스테이시, new 니트백 ‘씨티 트래블로그’ 컬렉션 출시. 근데 면세점이나 인터넷이나 가격 차이가 별로 없어서 조만간 다른색으로 더 구입하려구요. 하지만 이세이미야케를 아이패드가방용으로 쓰긴 아까워서 유명한.
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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.