US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 6, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 6, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 6, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 6, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 6, 2026.
Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예. 이날 키움은 하영민, kt는 고영표를 선발투수로 내세웠다. Shorts subscribe 연예계소식 이슈 유머 한선화 임지연 박민영 내남편과결혼해줘 유인나 티아라 이성경 소연 제시카 소녀시대 김사랑. Shorts subscribe 연예계소식 이슈 유머 한선화 임지연 박민영 내남편과결혼해줘 유인나 티아라 이성경 소연 제시카 소녀시대 김사랑.
그의 초콜릿 복근과 청바지 사이로 살짝 보이는 이너웨어로, 2쿼터 작전타임 치어리더 이예빈이 멋진 공연을 펼치고 있다, 엑스포츠뉴스 최원영 기자 치어리더 이예빈이 청순가련한 근황을 공개했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 농구배구 뉴스 osen용인, 김성락 기자 22일 오후 경기도 용인시 용인시실내체육관에서 우리은행 우리won 20232024 여자프로농구 삼성생명 블루밍스와 하나원큐의 경기가 진행됐다, 성형티 많이 난다고 생각했는데성형을 했어도 4년전에 저 폼이면, 1,079 likes, 17 comments kolexent on octo 퐖퐄퐋퐂퐎퐌퐄 2425시즌 코렉스에 새롭게 합류하게 된 이예빈 치어리더를 소개합니다 이예빈 치어리더에게 많은 기대와 열정적인 응원 부탁드립니다, 성형티 많이 난다고 생각했는데성형을 했어도 4년전에 저 폼이면, Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예.| 2쿼터 작전타임 치어리더 이예빈이 멋진 공연을 펼치고 있다. | 이예빈은 지난 3일 자신의 인스타그램 계정에 사진 3장을 게시했다. | 박나래, 새벽 합의자리서 전 매니저 구토하니 나도 구토해계속 놀자 하락2 피아니스트 임동혁 극단선택 암시에 경찰 출동병원 이송 동일 뜨거운 음료 사 와서, 후배 때려팝핀현준 폭행 미투 터졌다 동일. | 배우의 프로필 이미지를 연상케하는 맑고, 아름다운 이예빈의 모습이 담겨있었다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 과거 방송된 mbc 황금어장라디오스타에서는 묻지마 과거 특집이 그려져 강예빈, 배수정, 정창욱, 허각이 출연했습니다. | 방송인 강예빈이 성형 전 사진을 공개했습니다. | 롯데는 스트레일리1승 4패가 선발로 나서 팀 연승에 도전한다. | 이날 키움은 하영민, kt는 고영표를 선발투수로 내세웠다. |
| Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예. | 배우의 프로필 이미지를 연상케하는 맑고, 아름다운 이예빈의 모습이 담겨있었다. | 걸그룹 쥬얼리 출신 배우 예원이 7개월 만에 유튜브 활동을 재개하며 깜짝 성형 고백으로 화끈한 복귀 신호탄을 쐈다. | 박나래, 새벽 합의자리서 전 매니저 구토하니 나도 구토해계속 놀자 하락2 피아니스트 임동혁 극단선택 암시에 경찰 출동병원 이송 동일 뜨거운 음료 사 와서, 후배 때려팝핀현준 폭행 미투 터졌다 동일. |
| 물론 치어리더로서는 루키였지만 춤 하나 만큼은 다양한 길을 거쳐오며 오랜 시간 꾸준히 내공을 쌓아온 실력자이기 때문에 그녀의 치어리더 데뷔 전 스토리에 비춰보면 그리 놀라운 일은 아니라 볼 수 있다. | Shorts subscribe 연예계소식 이슈 유머 한선화 임지연 박민영 내남편과결혼해줘 유인나 티아라 이성경 소연 제시카 소녀시대 김사랑. | Com › komartin › 224159482221태어날 때부터 예뻤는데 성형의혹에 졸업사진 공개한 여배우의 차기작. | Com › view › 20231227n31393사진치어리더 이예빈,건강미 네이트 스포츠. |
해당 게시글에 이예빈은 특별한 코멘트를 남기진 않았다. 지난 7일, 유튜브 채널 ‘예원’에는 ‘뭔가 달라진 모멘트를 풍기며. 이날 강예빈은 화상캠 하두리 모델 시절에 대해. 최근 슈퍼스타아이에서 공개한 섬머 화보 촬영에서 패션집착남 화성인으로 유명한 정명섭이 섹시한 복근을 드러냈다, 01 월별보기 스타연예인 7개의 글 목록열기.
Com › komartin › 224159482221태어날 때부터 예뻤는데 성형의혹에 졸업사진 공개한 여배우의 차기작.. 엑스포츠뉴스방송연예팀 화성인 정명섭과 레이싱모델 이예빈의 탄력 몸매가 드러난 화보 촬영현장이 공개됐다.. 그래서 전 평소 피부과 시술보단 홈케어로 관리하는 편이지만 일년에 한번정도 슈링크 는 해주고 있어요 한달전에 저스트성형외과 에서 슈링크.. 이날 강예빈은 화상캠 하두리 모델 시절에 대해..
01 월별보기 스타연예인 7개의 글 목록열기. 최근 슈퍼스타아이에서 공개한 섬머 화보 촬영에서 패션집착남 화성인으로 유명한 정명섭이 섹시한 복근을 드러냈다. 22일 kbs2 살림하는 남자들2에서는. 이예빈은 지난 3일 자신의 인스타그램 계정에 사진 3장을 게시했다.
롯데는 스트레일리1승 4패가 선발로 나서 팀 연승에 도전한다, 그래서 전 평소 피부과 시술보단 홈케어로 관리하는 편이지만 일년에 한번정도 슈링크 는 해주고 있어요 한달전에 저스트성형외과 에서 슈링크, Shorts subscribe 연예계소식 이슈 유머 한선화 임지연 박민영 내남편과결혼해줘 유인나 티아라 이성경 소연 제시카 소녀시대 김사랑. 지난 7일, 유튜브 채널 ‘예원’에는 ‘뭔가 달라진 모멘트를 풍기며, Com › shorts › d6zxr1o3av0자연스럽게 성형 잘된 여자연예인 성형 전,후 성형 short 성형수술, 22일 kbs2 살림하는 남자들2에서는.
해당 게시글에 이예빈은 특별한 코멘트를 남기진 않았다, 그의 초콜릿 복근과 청바지 사이로 살짝 보이는 이너웨어로, 오랜 시간 자신의 트레이드 마크였던 ‘귀염상’ 이미지에서 벗어나고 싶어 코 성형수술을 감행했다는 것, 물론 치어리더로서는 루키였지만 춤 하나 만큼은 다양한 길을 거쳐오며 오랜 시간 꾸준히 내공을 쌓아온 실력자이기 때문에 그녀의 치어리더 데뷔 전 스토리에 비춰보면 그리 놀라운 일은 아니라 볼 수 있다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 농구배구 뉴스 osen용인, 김성락 기자 22일 오후 경기도 용인시 용인시실내체육관에서 우리은행 우리won 20232024 여자프로농구 삼성생명 블루밍스와 하나원큐의 경기가 진행됐다. Com › view › 20231227n31393사진치어리더 이예빈,건강미 네이트 스포츠.
그록ㅈ갤 그래서 전 평소 피부과 시술보단 홈케어로 관리하는 편이지만 일년에 한번정도 슈링크 는 해주고 있어요 한달전에 저스트성형외과 에서 슈링크. Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예. Com › komartin › 224159482221태어날 때부터 예뻤는데 성형의혹에 졸업사진 공개한 여배우의 차기작. Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예. 엑스포츠뉴스 최원영 기자 치어리더 이예빈이 청순가련한 근황을 공개했다. 그록 ㄲㅈ
김국내 디시 오랜 시간 자신의 트레이드 마크였던 ‘귀염상’ 이미지에서 벗어나고 싶어 코 성형수술을 감행했다는 것. 그의 초콜릿 복근과 청바지 사이로 살짝 보이는 이너웨어로. 걸그룹 쥬얼리 출신 배우 예원이 7개월 만에 유튜브 활동을 재개하며 깜짝 성형 고백으로 화끈한 복귀 신호탄을 쐈다. 해당 게시글에 이예빈은 특별한 코멘트를 남기진 않았다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 농구배구 뉴스 osen용인, 김성락 기자 22일 오후 경기도 용인시 용인시실내체육관에서 우리은행 우리won 20232024 여자프로농구 삼성생명 블루밍스와 하나원큐의 경기가 진행됐다. 그록 이미지 공개
그록 펠라 디시 1,079 likes, 17 comments kolexent on octo 퐖퐄퐋퐂퐎퐌퐄 2425시즌 코렉스에 새롭게 합류하게 된 이예빈 치어리더를 소개합니다 이예빈 치어리더에게 많은 기대와 열정적인 응원 부탁드립니다. 이예빈은 지난 3일 자신의 인스타그램 계정에 사진 3장을 게시했다. Com › view › 20231227n31393사진치어리더 이예빈,건강미 네이트 스포츠. 22일 kbs2 살림하는 남자들2에서는. Welcome 이예빈 이예빈치어리더 코렉스치어리더 코렉스 코렉스엔터테인먼트. 김리리 야동
그록 가슴크기 오랜 시간 자신의 트레이드 마크였던 ‘귀염상’ 이미지에서 벗어나고 싶어 코 성형수술을 감행했다는 것. 이날 키움은 하영민, kt는 고영표를 선발투수로 내세웠다. Com › view › 20250924n13660치어리더 이예빈, 과감한 핫팬츠에 각선미가 그대로 네이트 연예. 한눈에 보는 오늘 농구배구 뉴스 osen용인, 김성락 기자 22일 오후 경기도 용인시 용인시실내체육관에서 우리은행 우리won 20232024 여자프로농구 삼성생명 블루밍스와 하나원큐의 경기가 진행됐다. 해당 게시글에 이예빈은 특별한 코멘트를 남기진 않았다.
기유 여생 최근 슈퍼스타아이에서 공개한 섬머 화보 촬영에서 패션집착남 화성인으로 유명한 정명섭이 섹시한 복근을 드러냈다. 이날 강예빈은 화상캠 하두리 모델 시절에 대해. Com › shorts › d6zxr1o3av0자연스럽게 성형 잘된 여자연예인 성형 전,후 성형 short 성형수술. 2쿼터 작전타임 치어리더 이예빈이 멋진 공연을 펼치고 있다. 01 월별보기 스타연예인 7개의 글 목록열기.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 6, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
1,079 likes, 17 comments kolexent on octo 퐖퐄퐋퐂퐎퐌퐄 2425시즌 코렉스에 새롭게 합류하게 된 이예빈 치어리더를 소개합니다 이예빈 치어리더에게 많은 기대와 열정적인 응원 부탁드립니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.