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.
지난 2010년 10월 개봉한 영화 나탈리는 베일에 싸인 신비로운 조각상 나탈리의 모델박현진을 사이에 두고 그녀를 예술적 동반자로 사랑했던 조각가. 지난 2010년 10월 개봉한 영화 나탈리는 베일에 싸인 신비로운 조각상 나탈리의 모델박현진을 사이에 두고 그녀를 예술적 동반자로 사랑했던 조각가. 완벽한 아름다움으로 세간의 관심을 받은 명품 조각상 나탈리의 실제 모델에 대해 궁금해하는 사람들이 많아지는 가운데, 조각가 황준혁은 자신의 개인전을 찾아온 평론가 장민우에게 나탈리의 실제 모델, 오미란과의 러브 스토리를 들려준다. 영화 나탈리 이성재 수위높은 베드신, 촬영때 생리적 문제.
현의 노래를 촬영하기 전 3d 기술을 시험하기 위한 시험작으로 만들어졌다고 한다, 전시회 마지막 날, 준혁은 자신을 찾아온 평론가 장민우에게 나탈리의 실제 모델, 오미란과의 격정적인 사랑의 기억을 들려주게 되지만, 민우는 그녀가 자신을 사랑, 지난 2010년 10월 개봉한 영화 나탈리는 베일에 싸인 신비로운 조각상 나탈리의 모델박현진을 사이에 두고 그녀를 예술적 동반자로 사랑했던 조각가. 한국 최초의 3d 영화인 나탈리는 이모션 3d 멜로라는 알쏭달쏭한 장르를 표방한다. 국내 최초 3d 에로영화인 나탈리는 2010년 10월 개봉작으로 두 남자와 한 여자의 엇갈린 사랑, 왜곡된 기억, 그리고 예술의 본질과 욕망에 대한 질문을, 사람의 감정까지 입체적으로 표현해 전달하는 사랑이야기라는 설명.A sculptor junhyeok, an art critic minwoo, and a modern dance student miran, 이성재 나온 나탈리 영화 진짜 야하네요, A mystery melodrama about the love and secrets of the three people, 괴팍한 조각가 황준혁이 10년 만에 전시회를 연다. 산부인과 의사 까뜨린느는 사업가 베르나르와 결혼한 지20년이 되었다. 하지만 실제 모델이 누군지 등 일체 알려진 바 없이 베일에 싸여있던 ‘나탈리’가 거장 조각가 황준혁의 개인전에서 10년 만에 다시 공개된다.
Org › wiki › 나탈리_영화나탈리 영화 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 하지만 실제 모델이 누군지 등 일체 알려진 바 없이 베일에 싸여있던 ‘나탈리’가 거장 조각가 황준혁의 개인전에서 10년 만에 다시 공개된다. 희곡 장르에 장벽을 느껴온 사람들에게 입문작으로, 아주 우연히 그녀는 호스테스바에 가게 되는데, 그 곳에서 마를렌이라는 귀여운 호스테스를 만난다.
6m 충격적인 반전영화를 소개합니다 결말포함 영화리뷰 불륜영화.. 현의 노래를 촬영하기 전 3d 기술을 시험하기 위한 시험작으로 만들어졌다고 한다.. 치명적인 아름다움으로 스포트라이트를 받아온 명품 조각상 ‘나탈리’..
나탈리는 준혁이 사랑하였던 오미란을 모델로 한 작품이라고 한다, 영화 나탈리 이성재 수위높은 베드신, 촬영때 생리적 문제. 나탈리natalie 2010 네이버 블로그. 나탈리는 2010년 10월 28일에 개봉된 주경중 감독의 대한민국의 로맨스 영화이다.
완벽한 아름다움으로 세간의 관심을 받은 명품 조각상 나탈리의 실제 모델에 대해 궁금해하는 사람들이 많아지는 가운데, 조각가 황준혁은 자신의 개인전을 찾아온. Mhn 임세빈 기자 배우 나탈리 포트만이 영화 ‘블랙 스완’ 촬영 당시 갈비뼈와 관련된 부상을 입었던 경험을 전했다. 나탈리 영화 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 치명적인 아름다움으로 스포트라이트를 받아온 명품 조각상 ‘나탈리’, 아주 우연히 그녀는 호스테스바에 가게 되는데, 그 곳에서 마를렌이라는 귀여운 호스테스를 만난다. 영화보면서 시간 아까운 케이스였구요, 이성재가 그랬어요.
영화 나탈리감독 주경중는 국내 최초의 3d 멜로 영화로 화제가 된 작품.. 원래 소설이였는데 원작을 읽고 출연 오케이 한거라고..
지난 2010년 10월 개봉한 영화 나탈리는 베일에 싸인 신비로운 조각상 나탈리의 모델박현진을 사이에 두고 그녀를 예술적 동반자로 사랑했던 조각가, A sculptor junhyeok, an art critic minwoo, and a modern dance student miran. 치명적인 아름다움으로 스포트라이트를 받아온 명품 조각상 나탈리. 사람의 감정까지 입체적으로 표현해 전달하는 사랑이야기라는 설명, 그동안 화려한 액션이나 애니메이션 등을 통해 3d를 경험한 관객들에게 과연.
| 치명적인 아름다움으로 스포트라이트를 받아온 명품 조각상 나탈리. | 아주 우연히 그녀는 호스테스바에 가게 되는데, 그 곳에서 마를렌이라는 귀여운 호스테스를 만난다. | 완벽한 아름다움으로 세간의 관심을 받은 명품 조각상 나탈리의 실제 모델에 대해 궁금해하는 사람들이 많아지는 가운데, 조각가 황준혁은 자신의 개인전을 찾아온. | 전시회 마지막 날, 준혁은 자신을 찾아온 평론가 장민우에게 나탈리의 실제 모델, 오미란과의 격정적인 사랑의 기억을 들려주게 되지만, 민우는 그녀가 자신을 사랑. |
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| 찾아보니 2010년 영화 당시에 국내 최초 이모션 3d라는 타이틀을 내세우며 개봉했었다. | 한 여자를 사랑한 두 남자, 그들의 엇갈린 사랑의 기억. | 그동안 화려한 액션이나 애니메이션 등을 통해 3d를 경험한 관객들에게 과연. | Com › movietalk › 93794460익스트림무비 블랙 스완 나탈리 포트만 촬영 중 갈비뼈가 어긋날. |
| 나탈리 번 내털리 번 영어 natalie burn, 우크라이나어 наталі берн 나탈리 베른, 2000년 은 우크라이나 출신의 배우, 영화 제작자, 각본가, 무용가, 가수, 안무가, 작곡가, 스턴트 배우, 모델이다. | 제목 나탈리 natalie 장르 멜로, 로맨스, 미스터리 개봉일 2010년 10월 28일 감독 주경중 출연 김지훈, 이성재, 박현진 등 영화 《나탈리》는 한국 영화 역사에서 비교적 파격적인 설정과 독특한 미스터리적 구조를 통해 관객들에게 색다른 시도를 보여준 작품. | 그동안 화려한 액션이나 애니메이션 등을 통해 3d를 경험한 관객들에게 과연. | Days ago 영화 으로 아카데미 여우주연상을 수상한 나탈리 포트만이 촬영 당시 겪었던 부상과 극한의 훈련 과정을 직접 밝혔다. |
| Com › pkladin › 223893098467한국 영화 나탈리 감상평 네이버 블로그. | 그녀는 남편에 대해 배신감을 느끼고, 하나의 생각을 떠올리게 된다. | 현의 노래를 촬영하기 전 3d 기술을 시험하기 위한 시험작으로 만들어졌다고 한다. | 국내 최초 3d 에로영화인 나탈리는 2010년 10월 개봉작으로 두 남자와 한 여자의 엇갈린 사랑, 왜곡된 기억, 그리고 예술의 본질과 욕망에 대한 질문을. |
| 23 the films title refers to a famous female nude piece by sculptor junhyuk lee sungjae. | 000637왜 그렇게 나탈리 여인 갖고 싶어해요. | 그는 갈비뼈가 제자리를 벗어난 것 같더라면서 갈비뼈가 안 쪽으로 들어간 거다. | 한국 최초의 3d 영화인 나탈리는 이모션 3d 멜로라는 알쏭달쏭한 장르를 표방한다. |
선댄스 영화제에서의 프레스 일정을 소화하며 나탈리 포트만이 착용한 옷은 이자벨 마랑 isabel marant의 레오파트 프린트 재킷과 오픈워크 스웨터, 문 부츠 moon boot의 루나 로고 프린트 부츠이며 제나 오르테가의 의상은 디올 dior의 2026년 봄 컬렉션 중 하나다, 영화 나탈리감독 주경중는 국내 최초의 3d 멜로 영화로 화제가 된 작품. 나탈리는 2010년 10월 28일에 개봉된 주경중 감독의 대한민국의 로맨스 영화이다.
hitomi orusu 출연진 이성재 준혁 역 김지훈 민우 역 박민경 미란 역 김기연 박효림 역 김은경 강진주 용혜련 정이수 주희 김선아 김은우 조수진 이가연 양지원 김소은 김소진 신수빈 윤혜선 임정수 김예지 임소은 전병주 황희숙 외부 링크 나탈리 한국영화 데이터베이스. 하버드대 졸업한 나탈리 포트만의 비참한 결혼생활. 전시회 마지막 날, 준혁은 자신을 찾아온 평론가 장민우에게 나탈리의 실제 모델, 오미란과의 격정적인 사랑의 기억을 들려주게 되지만, 민우는 그녀가 자신을 사랑. 괴팍한 조각가 황준혁이 10년 만에 전시회를 연다. 그녀는 최근 점점 혼란스러움을 느낀다. hitomi onlyfans
hitomi 비슷 It was the first south korean 3d film. 제목 나탈리 natalie 장르 멜로, 로맨스, 미스터리 개봉일 2010년 10월 28일 감독 주경중 출연 김지훈, 이성재, 박현진 등 영화 《나탈리》는 한국 영화 역사에서 비교적 파격적인 설정과 독특한 미스터리적 구조를 통해 관객들에게 색다른 시도를 보여준 작품. 나탈리는 2010년 10월 28일에 개봉된 주경중 감독의 대한민국의 로맨스 영화이다. 국내 최초 3d 에로영화인 나탈리는 2010년 10월 개봉작으로 두 남자와 한 여자의 엇갈린 사랑, 왜곡된 기억, 그리고 예술의 본질과 욕망에 대한 질문을. 괴팍한 조각가 황준혁이 10년 만에 전시회를 연다. hitomi jk
hitomi 8번출구 그는 갈비뼈가 제자리를 벗어난 것 같더라면서 갈비뼈가 안 쪽으로 들어간 거다. 23 the films title refers to a famous female nude piece by sculptor junhyuk lee sungjae. 영화 나탈리감독 주경중는 국내 최초의 3d 멜로 영화로 화제가 된 작품. A sculptor junhyeok, an art critic minwoo, and a modern dance student miran. 국내 최초 3d 에로영화인 나탈리는 2010년 10월 개봉작으로 두 남자와 한 여자의 엇갈린 사랑, 왜곡된 기억, 그리고 예술의 본질과 욕망에 대한 질문을. hitomi fate stay night
hotomi.la 나탈리natalie 2010 네이버 블로그. 완벽한 아름다움으로 세간의 관심을 받은 명품 조각상 나탈리의 실제 모델에 대해 궁금해하는 사람들이 많아지는 가운데, 조각가 황준혁은 자신의 개인전을 찾아온. 지난 2010년 10월 개봉한 영화 나탈리는 베일에 싸인 신비로운 조각상 나탈리의 모델박현진을 사이에 두고 그녀를 예술적 동반자로 사랑했던 조각가. 치명적인 아름다움으로 스포트라이트를 받아온 명품 조각상 ‘나탈리’. 제목 나탈리 natalie 장르 멜로, 로맨스, 미스터리 개봉일 2010년 10월 28일 감독 주경중 출연 김지훈, 이성재, 박현진 등 영화 《나탈리》는 한국 영화 역사에서 비교적 파격적인 설정과 독특한 미스터리적 구조를 통해 관객들에게 색다른 시도를 보여준 작품.
hell_dam_2 video 찾아보니 2010년 영화 당시에 국내 최초 이모션 3d라는 타이틀을 내세우며 개봉했었다. 찾아보니 2010년 영화 당시에 국내 최초 이모션 3d라는 타이틀을 내세우며 개봉했었다. Com › pkladin › 223893098467한국 영화 나탈리 감상평 네이버 블로그. A sculptor junhyeok, an art critic minwoo, and a modern dance student miran. 이성재 나온 나탈리 영화 진짜 야하네요.
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.
Mhn 임세빈 기자 배우 나탈리 포트만이 영화 ‘블랙 스완’ 촬영 당시 갈비뼈와 관련된 부상을 입었던 경험을 전했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.