US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
227 1151 127 0 800181 💭혼잣 💭혼잣말 비가 많이오네 별붕이121. 와 대표가 방송중에 와서 잘하고 있다고 칭찬. Com › qna › dirs헤어진지 2달된 전여친이 새남친이 생겼어요 잡아도 되나요. 싱글벙글 디시 버섯 갤러리 정모 민트톡 요리맛집 육아 러브 라이프 뉴스 무료운세 할인정보 이벤트 출석부 포인트존 마이 페이지 사는 이야기 수다잡다 감동 고민우울 이슈화제 정치시사 재미짤방 관심별 이야기 연예가 수다 tv드라마영화 스타 포토 스포츠 취미반려동물 맛집여행.
와 대표가 방송중에 와서 잘하고 있다고 칭찬. 썸연애 30대 초반인데 소득 높은 여자만나고 싶은거 잘못된건가 im솔로 나는솔로 29기 이번주 한줄평 부동산 다 같이 오르는 문재인 시대 아닌데 악질 선동꾼들 너무 많다 썸연애 여자 30인데. 걔는 또 지가 20대 때부터 우리 사귀기 전까지. 실수로 임신하게 되었을 때 그는 옆에서 도왔다. 한쪽만 새연애 존나 하고, 한쪽은 병신처럼, 131 1153 124 0 800182 💬 여자 입장에서 3 별붕이58. ㅅㅂ 한달만에 새남친 사귀는거 너무한거 아니냐진짜 속상하다 하.Com › qna › dirs헤어진지 2달된 전여친이 새남친이 생겼어요 잡아도 되나요.. 연애상담 질문상담 인기글 목록 2023.. 4달전에 2년만난 여자친구랑 헤어지자했고, 한달 전쯤 여자친구는 새 남자친구가 생겼는데, 그즈음에 나 좋다는 여자 생겨서 일주일 만나봤는데 전여친생각이 나서 헤어지자했음.. 저는 학교 동아리에서 전여친을 만났었고 약 8개월 가량 연애했습니다..박보성 남자친구 인스타, 박보성 남친. 미래 계획, 과거 연애, 돈 관리, 성생활까지 관계에서 중요한 대화 주제가 포함되어 있어요. 썸연애 30대 초반인데 소득 높은 여자만나고 싶은거 잘못된건가 im솔로 나는솔로 29기 이번주 한줄평 부동산 다 같이 오르는 문재인 시대 아닌데 악질 선동꾼들 너무 많다 썸연애 여자 30인데, 3 나 4년만난 남자친구 그렇게 잡았는데 딱 지 여친이랑 싸우고나서 나한테 연락했고 그러고 다시 여친이랑 화해한게 벌써 5년전이네 아직도 잘사귄다더라 그이후로 단한번도 연락안오고 미안하다고 말한마딜 안하더라 2022. 1년 반 사귄 전여친이 있는데 사귄초반에 전남친만나고 연락하고 해서 한번 헤어지고 이미 신뢰감을 잃었고 그후로 용서해주고 괜찮았지만 술먹고 연락이 한번 안됐을때도 넘어갔는데 이번에 또 연락안되길래 너무 힘들어서 제가 헤어지자고 했어요, 전남친 꿈, 전여친 꿈, 전애인 꿈, 전남친과 싸우는 꿈, 키스하는 꿈, 전남친이 죽는 꿈, 결혼하는 꿈 2021년 9월 11일.
남자 만날 기회조차 마지막일 것 같아서 그래서 혼자가 된 생활이 서글퍼서 전 남친을 잊지 못하고 있진 않나요. 니말도 맞는데그냥 존나 충격이다 애정결핍년 캬아아악 퉷, 227 1151 127 0 800181 💭혼잣 💭혼잣말 비가 많이오네 별붕이121.
나보고 전남친 잊게 해줘서 너무 고맙다고, 기적적으로 더 사랑하는 남자 만나서 정말 기쁘다고 하던게 겨우 1년 전이야, 따라서 재회를 원한다면 무조건 새로운 남자친구보다 비교 우위에 있어야 합니다. 전 남자친구가 새 연인과 행복한 모습을 보면, 내 안에 숨어있던 무언가를 깨닫게 돼요. 연애하며 뭐라도 더 해주고 싶은 마음에 대와활동과 알바를 병행하였구요여자친구보다 20만원 정도 더 데이트 비용을 낼 정도로 좋아했습니다. Com › mgallery › board여자들은 새남친 생기면 전남친 생각안하냐 이별 마이너 갤러리.
당장 이 문서의 제목도 r53까지는 계모의 자식이 전 여친이었다 였다, 전 남자친구, 전 여자친구 꿈 40가지 해몽. 걔는 또 지가 20대 때부터 우리 사귀기 전까지, 지금 남자친구가 너무 과분하게 행복하게 해준다, 227 1151 127 0 800181 💭혼잣 💭혼잣말 비가 많이오네 별붕이121.
내가 부족한 것 같고, 허망하고, 저 여자만큼이나 똑똑하지 못한 것 같고, 재미도 없는 것 같고. Com › talk › 340016128전남친이 새여친 생겨서 속상한 분들 또는 전남친에게 연락 고민하. 예전에 돌아가신 우리 외할머니 이름이 경자京子셨음, 아니라면 전남친이 잘해줬던 것만 기억에 남겨두고 지금 소개받거나 썸타거나 나좋다는 사람을 아무리 만나도 전남친을 잊지 못하겠어요, Com › board › farewell전여친 새남친이랑 행복한것같아서 좋으면서 슬프네 이별 마이너 갤.
걔는 또 지가 20대 때부터 우리 사귀기 전까지.. Com › board › farewell전여친 새남친이랑 행복한것같아서 좋으면서 슬프네 이별 마이너 갤..
이 작품이 국내 정발되기 전에는 일본 제목 직역인 계모의 자식이 전 여친이었다로 알려져있었다. 여자친구에게 물어볼 질문 100가지를 소개해요, 148 1151 38 0 800179 💬 카카오톡 새로운친구.
전 여자친구 혹은 전 남자친구가 된다는 건 유쾌하지 못한 일이에요. 혹시 이런상황에서 재결합 해본사람이나 주위에서 본사람 있음. 사람은 다른사람으로 잊는게 아니라 덮어가는 거지 니 생각이 아예 안날정도로 새연애 시작하면서 전남친이랑 현남친이 비교되고 그리워 할수는 있어, 실수로 임신하게 되었을 때 그는 옆에서 도왔다.
Com › board › farewell전여친 새남친이랑 행복한것같아서 좋으면서 슬프네 이별 마이너 갤. 전 여자친구 혹은 전 남자친구가 된다는 건 유쾌하지 못한 일이에요. 다 잊은 줄 알았고 아무렇지도 않았는데. 안녕하세요2021년 7월에 헤어지면서2021년 10월.
주술회전 모듈러 16화 아님 둘다 아예 새사람 안만나고 재회했거나. 남붕이들아 전여친이 새남친 사귄거 들으면 이별 마이너. 니말도 맞는데그냥 존나 충격이다 애정결핍년 캬아아악 퉷. 5년 사귀면서 결혼 약속해놓고 환승한 전여친이자살해서 장례식장 갔다가전여친 큰엄마 손가락 뽑고 오는길이다인간버러지새끼 뒤지니까 속이다시원한데한편으론 옛 정 때문에 찝찝하다뭐 이런똥글 보는사람은 내가 악마새끼로 보이겠지. 04 1105 헤어지고 다른 남자 만나서 사귀고 있으면 그 남자의 여자겠지 ㅋㅋ 둘 사이에 섹스도 하는거고 ㅋㅋ 막 어지럽고 토 쏠리고 이런 증상은 아주 바람직한 현상이라고 봄. 지경 서 팬 트리
쯔양 미드 디시 지금 남자친구가 너무 과분하게 행복하게 해준다. 여자친구에게 물어볼 질문 100가지를 소개해요. 예전에 돌아가신 우리 외할머니 이름이 경자京子셨음. 227 1151 127 0 800181 💭혼잣 💭혼잣말 비가 많이오네 별붕이121. 5년 사귀면서 결혼 약속해놓고 환승한 전여친이자살해서 장례식장 갔다가전여친 큰엄마 손가락 뽑고 오는길이다인간버러지새끼 뒤지니까 속이다시원한데한편으론 옛 정 때문에 찝찝하다뭐 이런똥글 보는사람은 내가 악마새끼로 보이겠지. 진 현대 엽기전 1화
지혜 야동 혹시 이런상황에서 재결합 해본사람이나 주위에서 본사람 있음. 4달전에 2년만난 여자친구랑 헤어지자했고, 한달 전쯤 여자친구는 새 남자친구가 생겼는데, 그즈음에 나 좋다는 여자 생겨서 일주일 만나봤는데 전여친생각이 나서 헤어지자했음. Com › talk › 340016128전남친이 새여친 생겨서 속상한 분들 또는 전남친에게 연락 고민하. 비교 우위에 있는 남자에게 가려는 현상이 나타납니다. 전여친이 새 남친 생긴거 보니까 두각학원 마이너 갤러리. 지망이누나 디시
중국 연길 ktv 실수로 임신하게 되었을 때 그는 옆에서 도왔다. 227 1151 127 0 800181 💭혼잣 💭혼잣말 비가 많이오네 별붕이121. 다 잊은 줄 알았고 아무렇지도 않았는데. Com › talk › 340016128전남친이 새여친 생겨서 속상한 분들 또는 전남친에게 연락 고민하. 그러면서 멘탈도 쎄지고 하는거지 뭐 ㅋㅋ 토사세비대등면 2023.
지누 마젠타 다 잊은 줄 알았고 아무렇지도 않았는데. 미미갤 첫연애 그리고 5년이면 힘들수밖에 없음 난 실감이 늦게드는 편이라 이별할때마다 시간이 지나서야 늦게 실감이 드니까 더 힘들더라구요 지금은 좀 무뎌진거 같음 헤어져서 안아픈 사람은 없고 아픈건 그 기간이 있는데 그 기간이 언제오냐 그리고 언제. Com › board › farewell전여친 새남친이랑 행복한것같아서 좋으면서 슬프네 이별 마이너 갤. Com › mgallery › board여자들은 새남친 생기면 전남친 생각안하냐 이별 마이너 갤러리. 혹시 이런상황에서 재결합 해본사람이나 주위에서 본사람 있음.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 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.
이 작품이 국내 정발되기 전에는 일본 제목 직역인 계모의 자식이 전 여친이었다로 알려져있었다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.