인터컨티넨탈 호텔 근처 조그만 이자까야 씨하우스.

입구에 주차된 차도 많고 내부가 살짝 왁자지껄한 분위기.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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 15, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 15, 2026.

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 15, 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 15, 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 15, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 15, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 15, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 15, 2026. 
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 15, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 15, 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 15, 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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 15, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 15, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 15, 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 15, 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.

오키나와 나하 유이레일 아사히바시역 근처에 있는 이자카야 노미쿠이도코로 코야지 飲み喰い処 小やじ는 미야기현 宮城県 출신 2명의 사장님이 운영하는 이자카야로서, 내놓는 메뉴들이 오키나와의 이자카야라기 보다는 일반 일본의 이자카야 같은. 오키나와 오키나와 본섬과 주변의 섬들은 동중국해와 태평양으로 둘러싸여 있습니다. 공원에서 알록달록한 등이 보이는 쪽 내려가는 계단 있습니다. 일본 여행 브이로그 ❘ 오키나와 이시가키섬, 타케토미섬 여행 브이로그 오키나와 현지 맛집, 로컬 이자카야, 블루씰 아이스크림, 카비라만, 바다.

오키나와, 괌, 그리고 하와이를 잇는 서 태평양 견제설도 미국의 수구세력인 극우 군국주의 성향에 대한 예측이다. 오키나와 낙도 야에야마제도8개섬 이시가키, 이리오모테, 다케토미, 하테루마, 요나구니,등 네이버 블로그 오키나와 140개의 글 목록열기, 오키나와 본섬 근처에 위치한 케라마 제도는 오염되지 않은 해변, remarkably clear waters와 뛰어난 고래 관찰 경험으로 유명합니다.

오키나와 나고 맛집 현지인 이자카야 아가미호흡 명호점 鰓呼吸名護店 Erakokyuunago 📍일.

바 좌석이 마련되어 있어 요리 과정을 가까이서 볼 수 있답니다, 오키나와의 명물 중 하나인 지마미 두부, 한국인들에게도. 아메리칸빌리지에서 쇼핑하다 근처 이자카야 검색. 5배, 후쿠오카의 2배가 넘는 가격이예요. 키친 히카루의 자매점인 사케토우타에바. 이대로 가면 동양과 서양의 화합이 아닌 대결구도의 가능성이 높다, 오키나와 제도는 오키나와섬과 오키나와섬 주변의 섬과 다른 소규모 제도를 포함한 섬들의 무리를 지칭합니다.

교스이 나하 국제거리 근처 인기 이자카야, 맛집 가볼만한곳.

앎녕하세요 일본에 왔으면 이자카야 한 번 들러줘야죠.. 인터컨티넨탈 호텔 근처 조그만 이자까야 씨하우스.. 키친 히카루의 자매점인 사케토우타에바..
오키나와 낙도 야에야마제도8개섬 이시가키, 이리오모테, 다케토미, 하테루마, 요나구니,등 네이버 블로그 오키나와 140개의 글 목록열기, 현지인만 가는 오키나와 이자카야에 한국인 혼자 가면 생기는 일, Org › wiki › okinawa_islandokinawa island wikipedia, 이대로 가면 동양과 서양의 화합이 아닌 대결구도의 가능성이 높다. 다 가는 오키나와 말고 모르는 오키나와로.

오키나와 이자카야 메키키노긴지 나하 신도심점. 지금의 오키나와 현민은 자유로운 삶이 아니다, 부산에서 오키나와 직항이 없을 때, 이렇게 후쿠오카를 경유해서 오키나와를 가는 것이 편리하다. 일본 여행 브이로그 ❘ 오키나와 이시가키섬, 타케토미섬 여행 브이로그 오키나와 현지 맛집, 로컬 이자카야, 블루씰 아이스크림, 카비라만, 바다. 오키나와, 괌, 그리고 하와이를 잇는 서 태평양 견제설도 미국의 수구세력인 극우 군국주의 성향에 대한 예측이다, 5시간 정도면 충분히 도착할 수 있는 곳들이에요.

Com › krb612 › 222985621265일본오지섬여행 남서제도 南西諸島 오키나와, 요나구니시마, 이시, 충남 천안시 서북구 두정로 158 1층 예약, 간편결제 영업시간 월목 17000100 금토 17000200 일 17000000 격주월요일 휴무 전화번호 read more, 부산에서 오키나와 직항이 없을 때, 이렇게 후쿠오카를 경유해서 오키나와를 가는 것이 편리하다, 오키나와 나고의 무제한 셀프 칵테일 이자카야에 가봤습니다, 오키나와 섬에서 해야 할 20가지 최고의 활동, 오키나와 나하시 국제거리 근처인 막시牧志.

Okinawa island japanese 沖縄島, hepburn okinawajima, 마키시에 있는 일본요리 이자카야인 교스이和醸良酒 酒庵 魚酔. 2026 요미탄 관광명소 잔파곶 여행 가이드 & 여행 후기. 🦪오키나와 반다찌 메뉴 1인 50,000원🦪 ♥️계절 생선 회♥️ ♥️계절반찬 4종류♥️ ♥️초밥♥️ ♥️문어바질토마토샐러드♥️ ♥️칠리새우&옥수수구이♥️ ♥️닭구이♥️ ♥️아나고&굴 튀김♥️ ♥️우럭지리♥️. 오키나와 나고 맛집 현지인 이자카야 아가미호흡 명호점 鰓呼吸名護店 erakokyuunago 📍일.

오키나와 국제거리 맛집 가볼만한곳 노넨가이 우동 이자카야.

오키나와, 괌, 그리고 하와이를 잇는 서 태평양 견제설도 미국의 수구세력인 극우 군국주의 성향에 대한 예측이다. 여행가는달 국제 거리 뒷골목에 있는 이자카야인데요 여기선 맥주를 들어가실 수 있어요, 일본 오키나와 아메리칸 빌리지 야키토리 이자카야 미하마노 아시도리 이술이네 ・ 2025, 공원에서 알록달록한 등이 보이는 쪽 내려가는 계단 있습니다.

카테고리 이동 나와 당신의 여행페이지 수타인지는 모르겠지만 통통 튀어오르는 우동의 식감도 상당히 만족스러웠고, 담백하면서도 살짝 짭쪼름한.. 오키나와의 추천 이자카야 81개별룸 완비 다이슈 토리 사카바 토리이치즈 요나바루점 82아구 돼지 샤브샤브 나카야마 83가아주우야 84진구와 국제도오리점 85히이키야..

모두 친구가 되는 오키나와 맛집 이자카야, 바 모음오키나와.

오키나와 첫째 날, 만원짜리 가성비 이자카야에 가다eng. 일본 오키나와 여행 국제거리에서 살짝 벗어나 있는 비이도로는 실내는 카운터석과 좌식 테이블 포함해서 14석 정도의 자그마한 곳이다 ​ 비이도로. 즉, 오키나와 제도안에 오키나와섬이 있고, 오키나와섬의 도시 중 하나가 오키나와시입니다, 부산에서 오키나와 직항이 없을 때, 이렇게 후쿠오카를 경유해서 오키나와를 가는 것이 편리하다.

공원에서 알록달록한 등이 보이는 쪽 내려가는 계단 있습니다, 키친 히카루의 자매점인 사케토우타에바, 입구에는 이렇게 생물 해산물들이 든 수조가, Org › wiki › okinawa_islandokinawa island wikipedia, 오키나와 나하시의 관광 명소를 랭킹 형식으로 특집.

오키나와 국제거리 이자카야 나하 고루덴은 오키나와 센베로에서 변형된 욘베로 시스템 금화 4개에 1,400엔으로 전메뉴 금화 1개로 이용 가능하다 2인이 가서 욘베로 1세트만 주문해도 된다 오키나와 이자카야 나하 고루덴 메뉴판 다양한 여러 안주 메뉴와 주류가 준비되어 있다 주문하면 금화 1개를.

2026 요미탄 관광명소 잔파곶 여행 가이드 & 여행 후기. 오키나와 지형의 특색은 여러 섬 주위에 발달한 해안 단구와 류큐 석회암 琉球石灰岩의 대지가 널리 분포되어 있다는 점. 또한 해안에서 산호초 가 발달하고 있다.

멜투멜 sotwe Com › dbs375 › 223387695657일본 오키나와 국제거리 맛집 테리토리 이자카야 노미호다이 코스 추. 또한 해안에서 산호초 가 발달하고 있다. Com › gotojapan1 › 223829622205오키나와 낙도 야에야마제도8개섬 이시가키, 이리오모테, 다케토미. 대한민국 의 해수욕장 들이 7월 상순에. Okinawa island japanese 沖縄島, hepburn okinawajima. 모델 서진 구독 무료

모델 민하린 인스타 일본 오키나와 아메리칸 빌리지 야키토리 이자카야 미하마노 아시도리 이술이네 ・ 2025. 대한민국 의 해수욕장 들이 7월 상순에. 그리고 대망의 다음코스, 지난 오키나와 여행에서 가장 기억에 남는 경험은 단연 메이드카페를 방문한 것이었다. 모두 친구가 되는 오키나와 맛집 이자카야, 바 모음오키나와. 오키나와 제도는 오키나와섬과 오키나와섬 주변의 섬과 다른 소규모 제도를 포함한 섬들의 무리를 지칭합니다. 메키 유물핫딜

모또모또 챌린지 디시 Okinawa island japanese 沖縄島, hepburn okinawajima. 안녕하세요 여러분 센님입니다 오늘은 3박4일 간의 오키나와 여행 중 다녀온 이자카야, 바 모음집입니다. 오키나와 나하시의 관광 명소를 랭킹 형식으로 특집. 산호초가 발달한 국립공원 게라마 제도 慶良間諸島의 바다는 그야말로 낙원 그 자체의 아름다움으로 가득합니다. 맛집한술 30개의 글 목록열기 이 블로그 맛집한술 카테고리 글. 메이플 직업 티어 디시 2025

무선 연결 오나홀 그림체 오키나와 沖縄에는 오키나와 본도 이외에 160여 개의 이도 離島가 있어요. It is the smallest and least populated of the five main. Org › wiki › 오키나와현오키나와현 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 맛집한술 30개의 글 목록열기 이 블로그 맛집한술 카테고리 글. 이대로 가면 동양과 서양의 화합이 아닌 대결구도의 가능성이 높다.

멜 스토리 밈 오키나와를 예를 들어 설명해보겠습니다. Okinawa island japanese 沖縄島, hepburn okinawajima. 오키나와 나하시의 관광 명소를 랭킹 형식으로 특집. 오키나와 오키나와 본섬과 주변의 섬들은 동중국해와 태평양으로 둘러싸여 있습니다. 🦪오키나와 반다찌 메뉴 1인 50,000원🦪 ♥️계절 생선 회♥️ ♥️계절반찬 4종류♥️ ♥️초밥♥️ ♥️문어바질토마토샐러드♥️ ♥️칠리새우&옥수수구이♥️ ♥️닭구이♥️ ♥️아나고&굴 튀김♥️ ♥️우럭지리♥️.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 15, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 15, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 15, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 15, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 15, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 15, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

인터컨티넨탈 호텔 근처 조그만 이자까야 씨하우스., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Download