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.
5cm에도 크게 뒤떨어지는 수준은 아니니 일게이들은 그만 좆무룩 하고 자신감있게 ㅅㅅ 하길. 09 1808 12에 잘 느끼며 만족하는 여자가 있고 잘 못느끼는 여자가 있음 저 남자는 후자를 만나서 존심 상했겠다ㅠㅠ 이강인 2020. 그 주변 지방이 껴있는정도가 사람마다 달라서 ㅇㅇ. 유행을 뒷받침하는 1차적인 요인 중 하나는 당연히 연예계의 남자 배우, 남자 아이돌 등이 2000년대 유행한 샤기컷 울프컷 의 쇠퇴를 뒤로하고 일제히 투블럭을 하고 나온 것이었지만, 애초에 샤기, 울프컷이 유행하던 시절에도 이런 일본식 긴 머리에 대한 부정.
키작남⦁키큰녀 커플인 배우 다니엘 레드클리프와 에린 다크출처보그 코리아 배구 여제 김연경 선수는 남자친구의 키가 192cm 인 자신보다 12cm 정도는 작아도 좋다고 밝힌, 그 주변 지방이 껴있는정도가 사람마다 달라서 ㅇㅇ. 한국남자 고추크기 평균은 12센치이다 200512202110. 01 2020 12도 문제지만 확률적으로 짧을수록 얇으니까 남자 많이 만나본 여자면 얇은고추랑은 하고싶지가 않지 현타오거든 여자들이 키큰남자 키큰남자 노래를 부르는 것도. 올해 스무살이고 지금 남친이 첫경험 상대이고다른 남자경험 없어요할때마다 좋긴한데 그게 막 상상하는것만큼 안좋아요ㅇㄷ보면 막 자지러지고 그러던데 그건 다 연기인건가.여자가 고추크기로 상처주는말은 안한다 한국의 대부분 커플들임 돈없고 못생겨도 그럭저럭살아나간다 14cmㅡ16미만 12.. 치골 꾹 눌러서 영끌 12cm인데 좆된거임..한국남자 고추크기 평균은 12센치이다 200512202110, ㅎㅎ 남성 크기에 관해 저렇게 깊게 설명한 게시물을 본적이없음, 평균이하긴한데 신경 쓰지마 davis. 09 1801 동굴보지 금수랑 2020.
유행을 뒷받침하는 1차적인 요인 중 하나는 당연히 연예계의 남자 배우, 남자 아이돌 등이 2000년대 유행한 샤기컷 울프컷 의 쇠퇴를 뒤로하고 일제히 투블럭을 하고 나온 것이었지만, 애초에 샤기, 울프컷이 유행하던 시절에도 이런 일본식 긴 머리에 대한 부정, 아직 오선생이 뭔지도몰라요남친 사이즈는 길이 11, 나 진짜 너무 스트레스 받아 ㅇㅇ118. 저희 비뇨기과 오시는 많은 분들이 현재 내 음경둘레가 00인데필러를 몇cc를 주입해야하냐고 자주 물어봅니다. Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 고추 12cm 넘으면 개추 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너 갤러리.
5cm에도 크게 뒤떨어지는 수준은 아니니 일게이들은 그만 좆무룩 하고 자신감있게 ㅅㅅ 하길.. 5cm에도 크게 뒤떨어지는 수준은 아니니 일게이들은 그만 좆무룩 하고 자신감있게 ㅅㅅ 하길.. 키작남⦁키큰녀 커플인 배우 다니엘 레드클리프와 에린 다크출처보그 코리아 배구 여제 김연경 선수는 남자친구의 키가 192cm 인 자신보다 12cm 정도는 작아도 좋다고 밝힌.. 그러나 11cm 내외만 된다면 여성의 질을 채우는 데에는 문제가 없으며 세계남성들의 굵기 평균 12..
왜냐면 세계평균이 13+@ 라 작다 소리는 들을 수 있어도 너무 작다는 소리는 듣기 힘듬, 길이측정법 자지의 뿌리치골 부터 귀두 끝까지 위에서 측정 파오후들은 치골 살짝 누르는것이 정확함5 장애수준 micropenis69 여성 임신가능 성생활 힘들수도9 성생활에 지장은 없는정도10. 시이발 12에 잘 느끼며 만족하는 여자가 있고 잘 못느끼는 여자가 있음 저 남자는 후자를 만나서 존심 상했겠다ㅠㅠ. 5cm미만 ㅅㅌㅊ레벨진입 여자가 남자에게 함부로 못한다 얼굴 재산ㅍㅌㅊ ㅍㅎㅌㅊ만되어도 여자가 좋아해, 09 1801 동굴보지 금수랑 2020.
저희 비뇨기과 오시는 많은 분들이 현재 내 음경둘레가 00인데필러를 몇cc를 주입해야하냐고 자주 물어봅니다. 만족이 아니라 임신이 가능이라는거였나. Com › board › view대한민국 남자 사이즈 정리해준다 200509202108 힙합 갤러리 갤러.
| 남자꼬추 풀발12cm에 휴지심 프리패스면 작은거냐 힙합. | 09 1836 작긴하지 근데 매콤쌈무 2020. | 반대로 뿌리부터 재서 12라고 말한거면 제대로 쟀을때 910이 되고 그러면 너무 작음. | 축구는처음이라 9cm인가 그거만 넘어가면 기술만 있음 만족 가능하다 들은거 같은데. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 평균이하긴한데 신경 쓰지마 davis. | 반대로 뿌리부터 재서 12라고 말한거면 제대로 쟀을때 910이. | 나 진짜 너무 스트레스 받아 ㅇㅇ118. | 12센티가 엄청 크다고 하는 유게이들이 있어 찾아봄. |
| 반대로 뿌리부터 재서 12라고 말한거면 제대로 쟀을때 910이. | 11 ㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴ작음. | 5인치 12센티보다 조금 모자란 정도의 둘레임. | 둘레 11이랑해도 조일줄 알아서 그런지 나도 10분 박으면 쌀거 같더리 생리끝나자마자 오라고 톡온거 보면 11이여도 여자 잘만나면 둘다 좋은듯. |
| 길이측정법 자지의 뿌리치골 부터 귀두 끝까지 위에서 측정 파오후들은 치골 살짝 누르는것이 정확함5 장애수준 micropenis69 여성 임신가능 성생활 힘들수도9 성생활에 지장은 없는정도10. | 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. | 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. | ㅎㅎ 남성 크기에 관해 저렇게 깊게 설명한 게시물을 본적이없음. |
Ign 골드행 한 붉은사막 최적화 심화 단계 돌입. 남자꼬추 풀발12cm에 휴지심 프리패스면 작은거냐 힙합. 올해 스무살이고 지금 남친이 첫경험 상대이고다른 남자경험 없어요할때마다 좋긴한데 그게 막 상상하는것만큼 안좋아요ㅇㄷ보면 막 자지러지고 그러던데 그건 다 연기인건가. 5cm미만 ㅅㅌㅊ레벨진입 여자가 남자에게 함부로 못한다 얼굴 재산ㅍㅌㅊ ㅍㅎㅌㅊ만되어도 여자가 좋아해, 11 ㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴㅈㄴ작음, 아직 오선생이 뭔지도몰라요남친 사이즈는 길이 11.
국밥 디시 아직 오선생이 뭔지도몰라요남친 사이즈는 길이 11. 축구는처음이라 9cm인가 그거만 넘어가면 기술만 있음 만족 가능하다 들은거 같은데. Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 고추 12cm 넘으면 개추 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너 갤러리. 시이발 12에 잘 느끼며 만족하는 여자가 있고 잘 못느끼는 여자가 있음 저 남자는 후자를 만나서 존심 상했겠다ㅠㅠ. 그러나 11cm 내외만 된다면 여성의 질을 채우는 데에는 문제가 없으며 세계남성들의 굵기 평균 12. 곽혈수 일베
교내사생 다시보기 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 09 1808 12에 잘 느끼며 만족하는 여자가 있고 잘 못느끼는 여자가 있음 저 남자는 후자를 만나서 존심 상했겠다ㅠㅠ 이강인 2020. 아직 오선생이 뭔지도몰라요남친 사이즈는 길이 11. 12센티가 엄청 크다고 하는 유게이들이 있어 찾아봄. 남자꼬추 풀발12cm에 휴지심 프리패스면 작은거냐 힙합. 고스트 여자친구
귀칼 같이보기 녹화 그러나 11cm 내외만 된다면 여성의 질을 채우는 데에는 문제가 없으며 세계남성들의 굵기 평균 12. 왜냐면 세계평균이 13+@ 라 작다 소리는 들을 수 있어도 너무 작다는 소리는 듣기 힘듬. 09 1836 작긴하지 근데 매콤쌈무 2020. 왜냐면 세계평균이 13+@ 라 작다 소리는 들을 수 있어도 너무 작다는 소리는 듣기 힘듬. 만족이 아니라 임신이 가능이라는거였나. 공유 하우스가있는 개인 실 카나가와
군믹스 디시 Com › board › view대한민국 남자 사이즈 정리해준다 200509202108 힙합 갤러리 갤러. 09 1836 작긴하지 근데 매콤쌈무 2020. 내가 13초중반이라 평균이 12 13이라 하면 나야 기분좋음 근데 내 경험상 아무리봐도 그건 아니니까 하는말임 여자가 내꺼 크기가 아쉽다고 말한건 나만의 경험이기보다 그 여자가 만난 남자들의 크기까지 반영된거임 원나잇녀라해도 만난애들 다 대물이니. 발기시 길이는 1112센티가 평균이고, 굵기는 약 12센티 정도가 가장 많습니다. 성기가 너무 왜소하거나 상대에게 만족을 주지 못하면 정말 스트레스받게 되죠.
고희 서 팬 트리 후기 왜냐면 세계평균이 13+@ 라 작다 소리는 들을 수 있어도 너무 작다는 소리는 듣기 힘듬. 유행을 뒷받침하는 1차적인 요인 중 하나는 당연히 연예계의 남자 배우, 남자 아이돌 등이 2000년대 유행한 샤기컷 울프컷 의 쇠퇴를 뒤로하고 일제히 투블럭을 하고 나온 것이었지만, 애초에 샤기, 울프컷이 유행하던 시절에도 이런 일본식 긴 머리에 대한 부정. 180센치 85킬로 남자다이어트 필요할까. 5cm에도 크게 뒤떨어지는 수준은 아니니 일게이들은 그만 좆무룩 하고 자신감있게 ㅅㅅ 하길. 올해 스무살이고 지금 남친이 첫경험 상대이고다른 남자경험 없어요할때마다 좋긴한데 그게 막 상상하는것만큼 안좋아요ㅇㄷ보면 막 자지러지고 그러던데 그건 다 연기인건가.
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.
Com › board › view대한민국 남자 사이즈 정리해준다 200509202108 힙합 갤러리 갤러., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.