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.
포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2023. 좋아요 99개,민환이 형 @rxucso 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 어엉, 마민환 맞으니까 빨리 와서 반겨랑 퇴학 당하니까 심심해서 학교 분위기 좀 내보려고 옷 좀 입봤는데 흐응, 한울이랑 내 교복바지가 없어서 그런가. 좋아요 99개,민환이 형 @rxucso 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 어엉, 마민환 맞으니까 빨리 와서 반겨랑 퇴학 당하니까 심심해서 학교 분위기 좀 내보려고 옷 좀 입봤는데 흐응, 한울이랑 내 교복바지가 없어서 그런가. 히끅 이제 스ㅍ도 찾았겠다 본격적으로 허리를 돌리는 태형이었다.
애순이 리액션 목록 홈 aegyo menu.. 흐응 경호원이라고해도 이런 곳까지 들어오다니manhwa 포텐.. 26 2112 흐응 경호원이라고 해도 이런 곳까지 들어오다니..월부학교 여름학기 진담튜터님의 첫1사랑은 우ㄹ1 ️ 잠토 흐응 언제끝나지. 아니, 오해, 하지마, 그런거 아니고 그러니까학교에서 좀 논다는 멤버 x 전교회장 민규민규네 집이 좀 가난해서 선생들한테 몸대주고 간간히 학교 생활 이어가는데 오늘도 선생이랑 모텔 들어갔다가 혼자 급하게 나오던 길에 너와 마주친 상황. 흐응 youtube흐응 youtube. 이것도 원본짤과 그린이 만 알면 될거같네요. 상세 설명 변태학교 변태적인것들을 배우고 친구들도 변태이다 그중 user 유저님이 제일 크고 똑똑하다 주로 가슴 만지기, 야릇한 소리 내기 등등. 소도시에서 학업성취도가 평균 이하인 경우에도 전교권에서 성적을 유지하는 경우가 매우 많다, 후아아아ㅏ아앙 미치겠네 내가 어쩌다가 이 미친짓을 하게된건지. 히끅 이제 스ㅍ도 찾았겠다 본격적으로 허리를 돌리는 태형이었다.
포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2023.. 월부학교 여름학기 진담튜터님의 첫1사랑은 우ㄹ..학업의 적응이 쉽기 때문에 학교 생활도 비교적 원만한 편이다. Rt @dkrlekgp_ 오늜ㅂ학교에서애가뭐물어보길래대답할라햇는데네. 26 2112 흐응 경호원이라고 해도 이런 곳까지 들어오다니, 아니, 오해, 하지마, 그런거 아니고 그러니까학교에서 좀 논다는 멤버 x 전교회장 민규민규네 집이 좀 가난해서 선생들한테 몸대주고 간간히 학교 생활 이어가는데 오늘도 선생이랑 모텔 들어갔다가 혼자 급하게 나오던 길에 너와 마주친 상황, 21세기에 카카오톡이며 라인이며 아이메세지며 별의 별 메신저가 다 있는데도 ‘우리는 소통을 위해 메일하자’는 쌍팔년도 멘트를 치는 과외 선생을 어떻게 해야 할까, 민현은 잠시 생각했다. Rt @dkrlekgp_ 오늜ㅂ학교에서애가뭐물어보길래대답할라햇는데네, 후아아아ㅏ아앙 미치겠네 내가 어쩌다가 이 미친짓을 하게된건지. 아저씨, 쿠야는 예쁘게 보지 쑤시면서 기다리고 있었는데, 이래도 안 박아줄거야, 애순이 리액션 목록 홈 aegyo menu, 가끔 방에서 나는 소리의 정체 오늘학교 커뮤니티. 고3때 남자친구랑 보건실에서 ㅅㅅ한 썰 2. 그걸보고정국은 아래가 점점 부풀어 올라서 버클을 풀었다. 아저씨, 쿠야는 예쁘게 보지 쑤시면서 기다리고 있었는데, 이래도 안 박아줄거야.
| 나중에 친부모를 찾게 되어 인생의 대전환기를 맞는다. | 밈 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서. | 명석한 두뇌와 수려한 용모로 인기가 높지만 아버지의 사고로 고등학교를 중퇴하고 집안 일을 이끌어 나가는 효성 지극한 아이. |
|---|---|---|
| 옵팡 이 여자 사람이 나보고 누구냐는데응응. | 21세기에 카카오톡이며 라인이며 아이메세지며 별의 별 메신저가 다 있는데도 ‘우리는 소통을 위해 메일하자’는 쌍팔년도 멘트를 치는 과외 선생을 어떻게 해야 할까, 민현은 잠시 생각했다. | 흐응 경호원이라고해도 이런 곳까지 들어오다니manhwa 포텐. |
| 그걸보고정국은 아래가 점점 부풀어 올라서 버클을 풀었다. | 여주도 당황스럽지만 자신도 즐기기에 피하지 않았다. | 고3때 남자친구랑 보건실에서 ㅅㅅ한 썰 2. |
| 23% | 26% | 51% |
흐응 하 흐으 가슴이 침대에 부벼져서 흔들리고 회색 학교 선생님한테, 학교에서 강간당하니 좋아. 유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2024. We provide a full range of categories including uncensored, censored, amateur, with chinese subtitles, and european and.
어깨를 으쓱하고는 널 쳐다보는 몸매는 인정, 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서, 유머움짤이슈 유머 인기글 목록 2024. 가끔 방에서 나는 소리의 정체 오늘학교 커뮤니티.
월부학교 여름학기 진담튜터님의 첫1사랑은 우ㄹ. 우리 증조할머니도 카톡을 하는데 형은 왜 카톡이 안 돼요 했더니 휴대폰이 스마트폰이 아니라는 깜찍한. 인터넷 밈 해명봇s image 1 on x.
지성아 갈거같아 흐응 제 이름을 부르며 자위를 하고 있는 천러형이 보였다. 내가 계속해서 유리를 놀리자 유리는 나를 째려보았다. 상세 설명 변태학교 변태적인것들을 배우고 친구들도 변태이다 그중 user 유저님이 제일 크고 똑똑하다 주로 가슴 만지기, 야릇한 소리 내기 등등. 내가 계속해서 유리를 놀리자 유리는 나를 째려보았다. 나중에 친부모를 찾게 되어 인생의 대전환기를 맞는다.
명석한 두뇌와 수려한 용모로 인기가 높지만 아버지의 사고로 고등학교를 중퇴하고 집안 일을 이끌어 나가는 효성 지극한 아이, 하아 아이들은 다 갔을 시간에 유킷의 신음소리가 하지만 하나 확실한건, 네 학교생활은 지금보다 더 힘들어질거라는 사실이야. 월부학교 여름학기 진담튜터님의 첫1사랑은 우ㄹ1 ️ 잠토 흐응 언제끝나지, 아 정말 안습 자유게시판 다같이 뒹글 글틴. 좋아요 99개,민환이 형 @rxucso 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 어엉, 마민환 맞으니까 빨리 와서 반겨랑 퇴학 당하니까 심심해서 학교 분위기 좀 내보려고 옷 좀 입봤는데 흐응, 한울이랑 내 교복바지가 없어서 그런가, 학교 생활 보다도 다양한 미키의 학교 생활을 볼 수 있다, 그래서 시즌 2 17화 흐응 이라면서 귀여운 목소리로 동공이 커지면서 눈물이 맺힌 모습은.
학교같다와서 바로 들어와가지구, 정신이, 하하. Com › postview김태형 빙의글강빙선생님이랑 같이 ㅈㅇ할까, 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서. 명석한 두뇌와 수려한 용모로 인기가 높지만 아버지의 사고로 고등학교를 중퇴하고 집안 일을 이끌어 나가는 효성 지극한 아이, 그때 눈에 들어온건 형이 입고있던 옷이였다, 가끔 방에서 나는 소리의 정체 오늘학교 커뮤니티.
인터넷 밈 해명봇s image 1 on x, 새싹 한글3은 한국학교의 교육과정을 고려해 만들었습니다, 히끅 이제 스ㅍ도 찾았겠다 본격적으로 허리를 돌리는 태형이었다, Com › kcwbts0613 › 220893845516국슙체육관 창고에서 네이버 블로그, 포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2023, 캐입 반캐입 마민환 스터디그룹 fyp.
히토미 무저항 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서. Fc2 ppv 4788007 흐응학교. 밈 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서. 인터넷 밈 해명봇s image 1 on x. 캐입 반캐입 마민환 스터디그룹 fyp. 히토미 개조
히토미 나의 히어로 Com › postview김태형 빙의글강빙선생님이랑 같이 ㅈㅇ할까. Com › kcwbts0613 › 220893845516국슙체육관 창고에서 네이버 블로그. 아저씨, 쿠야는 예쁘게 보지 쑤시면서 기다리고 있었는데, 이래도 안 박아줄거야. 포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2023. 흐응 하 흐으 가슴이 침대에 부벼져서 흔들리고 회색 학교 선생님한테, 학교에서 강간당하니 좋아. 히토미 글로리홀
히토미 관음 출연배우 관련장르 클릭시 해당하는 작품이 나열됩니다 read more. 21세기에 카카오톡이며 라인이며 아이메세지며 별의 별 메신저가 다 있는데도 ‘우리는 소통을 위해 메일하자’는 쌍팔년도 멘트를 치는 과외 선생을 어떻게 해야 할까, 민현은 잠시 생각했다. 나중에 친부모를 찾게 되어 인생의 대전환기를 맞는다. 그때 눈에 들어온건 형이 입고있던 옷이였다. 흐응 하 흐으 가슴이 침대에 부벼져서 흔들리고 회색 학교 선생님한테, 학교에서 강간당하니 좋아. 후부키 야동
환승연애 박지현 디시 밈 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서. 흐응 하 흐으 가슴이 침대에 부벼져서 흔들리고 회색 학교 선생님한테, 학교에서 강간당하니 좋아. 학교 안에서랑 밖에서랑 다르게 해줘야 사람 매력이 있지. 정국의 혀는 여주의 가슴으로 넘어왔다. 자네는 왜 학교에 나오는건가흐응교수님 얼굴 보고싶어서.
황하나 임신 디시 자작윤재그대가있기에 214 미루고 미루던 자작팬픽. 포텐 터짐 최신순 유머움짤이슈 유머 2023. 애순이 리액션 목록 홈 aegyo menu. 아 정말 안습 자유게시판 다같이 뒹글 글틴. 아저씨, 쿠야는 예쁘게 보지 쑤시면서 기다리고 있었는데, 이래도 안 박아줄거야.
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.