US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
이것은 아사가 애착을 가진 대상에 대한 성적인 행동에. 덴지가 리드해주면서덴지가 아사 정신적 트라우마를 케어해주는 관계고요루는 요루가 리드하는데대딸에 키스에 덴지가 지금까지 제대로 못한 육체 풀만족. Com › mgallery › board덴지 정실히로인이 아사일수밖에 없는이유 ㅇㅇtxt 체인소맨 마이. 덴지는 여캐들이랑 뭔가 하나씩은 하네 체인소맨 마이너.
아사 수족관 데이트함, 키스함, 대딸받음사실 요루한테. Net661903132 왼쪽에서 오른쪽으로 읽기 ㄷㄷ, ㅇㅇ, 덴지는 즐겼어 심지어 얼굴도 붉히잖아. Com › etcs › board체인소맨 118화덴지에게 넘어간 요루2부 스포 주의, Com › etcs › board체인소맨 118화덴지에게 넘어간 요루2부 스포 주의. 체인소맨 아사가 덴지 대딸해주는거 마주한뒤로 못보는중. 아니, 그렇다고 그게 폭행이 아니라는 건 아냐.| 뉴스 블루 아카이브 채널 채널위키알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 99466명알림수신 1505명 @schale. | |
Com › 7109053634ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아, 뉴스 블루 아카이브 채널 채널위키알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 99466명알림수신 1505명 @schale. 덴지가 리드해주면서덴지가 아사 정신적 트라우마를 케어해주는 관계고요루는 요루가 리드하는데대딸에 키스에 덴지가 지금까지 제대로 못한 육체 풀만족, 29 1816 오토노세 대딸 쳐줬으면 정실이죠 1 1부가자상련들아 2025.
진짜 덴지 존나 한남스러워 하이퍼한남리즘 ㅠㅜ 이런 새끼가 왜 주인공, 05 2014 애초에 덴지 성격이 ㅂㅅ인거라 이 전개가 맞는데 1부 막판부터 대중픽 슬슬 받으면서 애니화 되고 노래도 뜨고 완전 메이져로 올라오는데 마침 내용도 덴지보다는 세계관 중심으로 흘러가니 운때 좋았던거지. 05 2014 애초에 덴지 성격이 ㅂㅅ인거라 이 전개가 맞는데 1부 막판부터 대중픽 슬슬 받으면서 애니화 되고 노래도 뜨고 완전 메이져로 올라오는데 마침 내용도 덴지보다는 세계관 중심으로 흘러가니 운때 좋았던거지. 대딸을 해준 사람은 아사인지 아니면 요루인지 묻는다. 자연스럽게 상황이 머릿속에서 재현이돼 펼쳐보기▽, 20250929 03 read more.
주변에서도 체인소맨에 열광하지만 덴지 자체는 벌레취급을 함 덴지는 그냥 일상을 살고 사랑도 하고 싶을 뿐인데 주변에서는 덴지가 아닌 체인소맨을 이용하고싶은 생각뿐임 결국 광폭화해서 날뛰고 있는데 한편으로는 전쟁의 악마도 있지. 특히 요루는 아마 덴지한테 어쨌든 들이댔을 거 같잖아. 아사 수족관 데이트함, 키스함, 대딸받음사실 요루한테, , 그때 요루가 난대없이 키스를 박더니 덴지한테 대딸을 쳐줌.
20250929 03 read more. 덴지는 여캐들이랑 뭔가 하나씩은 하네 체인소맨 마이너, 칼 꺼내서 고추 자르려고 하는데 덴지가 쫄아서 반항함, 그때 요루가 난대없이 키스를 박더니 덴지한테 대딸을 쳐줌. 아니, 그렇다고 그게 폭행이 아니라는 건 아냐, 오타쿠들 환상도 심어줄수있고 거기에 1부주인공 2부주인공 커플이라는것도 존나 상징적임 또 덴지입장에서도 여자들한테 들이대면 다들 받아줬지 밀어내는년은 거의 없어서 나쁜여자 느낌으로 매력포인트 요기다가 시발 생긴것도 솔직히 작화 올라가서. 이것은 아사가 애착을 가진 대상에 대한 성적인 행동에.
ㅇㅇ, 덴지는 즐겼어 심지어 얼굴도 붉히잖아, 대딸을 해준 사람은 아사인지 아니면 요루인지 묻는다. ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈, 특히 요루는 아마 덴지한테 어쨌든 들이댔을 거 같잖아, 덴지는 여캐들이랑 뭔가 하나씩은 하네 체인소맨 마이너, 덴지가 리드해주면서덴지가 아사 정신적 트라우마를 케어해주는 관계고요루는 요루가 리드하는데대딸에 키스에 덴지가 지금까지 제대로 못한 육체 풀만족.
그걸 확인해보고 싶으면 손을 먹으라는 요루의 말에 넙죽 무릎을 꿇으며 절하고는 진짜로 손을.. 진짜 덴지 존나 한남스러워 하이퍼한남리즘 ㅠㅜ 이런 새끼가 왜 주인공.. 그걸 확인해보고 싶으면 손을 먹으라는 요루의 말에 넙죽 무릎을 꿇으며 절하고는 진짜로 손을.. 아사가 덴지와 데이트를 하던 중, 요루는 키스를 시도하고, 아사는 그것을 막을 수 없습니다..
ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈, 고간을 주무르는데 그 순간 갑자기 덴지와 키스하고 싶다는 충동에 휩싸여 암컷타락하여 덴지와 진하게 키스를 나누며 대딸해준다, 오타쿠들 환상도 심어줄수있고 거기에 1부주인공 2부주인공 커플이라는것도 존나 상징적임 또 덴지입장에서도 여자들한테 들이대면 다들 받아줬지 밀어내는년은 거의 없어서 나쁜여자 느낌으로 매력포인트 요기다가 시발 생긴것도 솔직히 작화 올라가서.
아사가 덴지와 데이트를 하던 중, 요루는 키스를 시도하고, 아사는 그것을 막을 수 없습니다, 자연스럽게 상황이 머릿속에서 재현이돼 펼쳐보기▽, 체인소맨 최신화 어지럽다 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋ 순애 채널. 칼 꺼내서 고추 자르려고 하는데 덴지가 쫄아서 반항함, 그때 요루가 난대없이 키스를 박더니 덴지한테 대딸을 쳐줌. Net661903132 왼쪽에서 오른쪽으로 읽기 ㄷㄷ.
고간을 주무르는데 그 순간 갑자기 덴지와 키스하고 싶다는 충동에 휩싸여 암컷타락하여 덴지와 진하게 키스를 나누며 대딸해준다. Com › 7109053634ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. Com › mgallery › board덴지 정실히로인이 아사일수밖에 없는이유 ㅇㅇtxt 체인소맨 마이. 주변에서도 체인소맨에 열광하지만 덴지 자체는 벌레취급을 함 덴지는 그냥 일상을 살고 사랑도 하고 싶을 뿐인데 주변에서는 덴지가 아닌 체인소맨을 이용하고싶은 생각뿐임 결국 광폭화해서 날뛰고 있는데 한편으로는 전쟁의 악마도 있지.
29 1817 오토노세 덴지 정실의 결말은. 체인소맨 최신화 어지럽다 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋ 순애 채널. 체인소맨 아사가 덴지 대딸해주는거 마주한뒤로 못보는중.
유디 간호사 특히 요루는 아마 덴지한테 어쨌든 들이댔을 거 같잖아. Com › etcs › board체인소맨 118화덴지에게 넘어간 요루2부 스포 주의. Net661903132 왼쪽에서 오른쪽으로 읽기 ㄷㄷ. 체인소맨 최신화 어지럽다 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋ 순애 채널. ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈. 원피스 1102화 번역
운파이 누드 29 1816 오토노세 대딸 쳐줬으면 정실이죠 1 1부가자상련들아 2025. 29 1816 오토노세 대딸 쳐줬으면 정실이죠 1 1부가자상련들아 2025. 체인소맨 최신화 어지럽다 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋ 순애 채널. 고간을 주무르는데 그 순간 갑자기 덴지와 키스하고 싶다는 충동에 휩싸여 암컷타락하여 덴지와 진하게 키스를 나누며 대딸해준다. 덴지가 리드해주면서덴지가 아사 정신적 트라우마를 케어해주는 관계고요루는 요루가 리드하는데대딸에 키스에 덴지가 지금까지 제대로 못한 육체 풀만족. 월하노인이 되었다
위생사 디시 칼 꺼내서 고추 자르려고 하는데 덴지가 쫄아서 반항함, 그때 요루가 난대없이 키스를 박더니 덴지한테 대딸을 쳐줌. 20250929 03 read more. 뉴스 블루 아카이브 채널 채널위키알림알림 중구독구독 중구독 취소 구독자 99466명알림수신 1505명 @schale. Net661903132 왼쪽에서 오른쪽으로 읽기 ㄷㄷ. 29 1816 오토노세 대딸 쳐줬으면 정실이죠 1 1부가자상련들아 2025. 웹툰 업데이트 빠른 사이트 디시
원엑스벳 어플 아니, 그렇다고 그게 폭행이 아니라는 건 아냐. 진짜 덴지 존나 한남스러워 하이퍼한남리즘 ㅠㅜ 이런 새끼가 왜 주인공. 아니, 그렇다고 그게 폭행이 아니라는 건 아냐. , 그때 요루가 난대없이 키스를 박더니 덴지한테 대딸을 쳐줌. Com › 7109053634ㅅㅍ 체인소맨 최근 전개 완벽요약 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아.
우정잉 cumtribute 오타쿠들 환상도 심어줄수있고 거기에 1부주인공 2부주인공 커플이라는것도 존나 상징적임 또 덴지입장에서도 여자들한테 들이대면 다들 받아줬지 밀어내는년은 거의 없어서 나쁜여자 느낌으로 매력포인트 요기다가 시발 생긴것도 솔직히 작화 올라가서. 이것은 아사가 애착을 가진 대상에 대한 성적인 행동에. 체인소맨 최신화 어지럽다 진짜 ㅋㅋㅋ 순애 채널. 아니, 그렇다고 그게 폭행이 아니라는 건 아냐. Com › mgallery › board덴지 정실히로인이 아사일수밖에 없는이유 ㅇㅇtxt 체인소맨 마이.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
체인소맨 아사가 덴지 대딸해주는거 마주한뒤로 못보는중., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.