US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
전한길, 방한 앞둔 트럼프에 尹 꼭 면회하길 간곡히 부탁. 이재명 지시대로라면 디시인사이드가 제일 먼저 폐쇄되어야 함. 이재명 디시 정책 제안에 화답 금융도 공교육에 포함 오후엔 강원도 방문 더불어민주당 이재명 대통령 후보는 15일 온라인 커뮤니티인 디시인사이드에 글을 올리고 수요공급 같은 경제 이론뿐 아니라 현실에 활용할 수 있는 금융교육도 반드시 공교육에 포함. 포털 뉴스 댓글을 대상으로 민주당과 이재명 대표에게 유리하게 여론을 돌리려는 온라인 활동이 현재 진행 중이다.
| 서울뉴시스 김지은 신재현 기자 이재명 더불어민주당 대선 후보는 25일 충남 당진을 찾아 화력발전소는 국가 전체 차원에서 결국은 폐쇄해야. | 이재명 디시 정책 제안에 화답 금융도 공교육에 포함 오후엔 강원도 방문 더불어민주당 이재명 대통령 후보는 15일 온라인 커뮤니티인 디시인사이드에 글을 올리고 수요공급 같은 경제 이론뿐 아니라 현실에 활용할 수 있는 금융교육도 반드시 공교육에 포함. | 이미 무죄판결을 받은 발언이기 때문에 이재명 시장의 발언이 법적으로 문제가 될 가능성은 낮지만, 환빠 로 대표되는 국수주의 사관이 친일사관 못지 않게 위험하다는 사실을 잘 모르고 있는 것은 문제가 될 수도 있다. | 특히 두아 리파, 차일디시 감비노, 도이치 등 세계적인 아티스트와 협업으로 제작한 곡도 수록. |
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| 이스라엘북한 관련 가짜뉴스 살포 12. | 더불어민주당 가짜뉴스대응단 민주파출소 일일브리핑5. | 이미 무죄판결을 받은 발언이기 때문에 이재명 시장의 발언이 법적으로 문제가 될 가능성은 낮지만, 환빠 로 대표되는 국수주의 사관이 친일사관 못지 않게 위험하다는 사실을 잘 모르고 있는 것은 문제가 될 수도 있다. | 〈앵커〉 디시인사이드 우울증 갤러리를 고리로 한, 미성년자 상대 성범죄 사건이 지난해에 이어 올해도 계속되고 있었다고 전해드렸습니다. |
| 특히 피고인 이재명이라는 이미지 때문에 중도층 확장이 어렵다는 점을 강조합니다. | 지들 독단적으로 운영하고 본인들 마음에 안들면 수용하지도 않고 뭐만하면 31일 차단때리고 깡계로 글쓰면 고닉파오라고 차단. | 1분 뒤 삭제 넘쳐나는 강증경찰마저 그거 못 잡아요 sbs. | 그러면 디시 인사이드 먼저 차단 해야지아이쿠 그런데 개국공신 으로 포상을 했네 성착취 사이트에 포상을 하는 잼통 그리고 텔레그램도 차단해야지. |
| 지금 부엉선거 감시단 기자회견으로 부흥회 열고 허위사실 쉰 떡밥 퍼뜨리고 계시잖아. | Com › news › 202506111520303882대통령 당선에 일베 폐쇄론 재점화&mldr. | 지금 부엉선거 감시단 기자회견으로 부흥회 열고 허위사실 쉰 떡밥 퍼뜨리고 계시잖아. | 이재명트럼프 통화 가짜뉴스 음모론 살포 11. |
| 특히 피고인 이재명이라는 이미지 때문에 중도층 확장이 어렵다는 점을 강조합니다. | Com › 8448856514삭제된 글입니다. | Com › news › read민주파출소 이재명 허위 정보 퍼뜨린 좀비 채널 23개 폐쇄. | Kr › view › akr20241002073800017폐쇄 요청된 디시 우울증갤러리, 올해 방심위 시정요구 0건. |
2025년 현재에도 민갤에서는 이재명 마이너 갤러리를 그갤, 이름갤, 름갤이라고 돌려 부르면서 언급 자체를 꺼리며, 이재명 갤러리 또한 민주당 갤러리를 수박 갤러리 취급하며 언급 자체를 꺼리는 중이다.. 그러나 대법원은 이를 파기환송하여 현재 서울고등법원에서 재판이 진행 중입니다.. 경찰이 온라인 커뮤니티 디시인사이드 일부 갤러리에서 헌재 폭력 사태를 예고한 글 60건을 특정해 수사하고 있지만 문제가 된 갤러리는 활발하게 운영되고 있다..
포털 뉴스 댓글을 대상으로 민주당과 이재명 대표에게 유리하게 여론을 돌리려는 온라인 활동이 현재 진행 중이다.. 제95차 최고위원회의 모두발언 일시 2025년 3월 31일 월 오전 10시 30분 장소 광화문 앞 더불어민주당 천막당사 이재명 당대표 지금 이 대한민국의 혼란은 모두 최상목 전 권한대행, 그리고 한덕수 현 대통령 권한대행으로부터 시작된 것입니다..공직선거법 위반 재판 이재명 대표는 공직선거법 위반 혐의로 재판을 받고 있습니다, 하지만 십수년간 혐오 발언의 온상이었던 일베 등 온라인 커뮤니티의 폐쇄가 사실상 현행법상으로는 어려운 실정이다. 포털 뉴스 댓글을 대상으로 민주당과 이재명 대표에게 유리하게 여론을 돌리려는 온라인 활동이 현재 진행 중이다. 이재명 경기도지사가 도내 신천지 종교 시설을 강제 봉쇄하고 집회를 금지하는 긴급 행정명령을 시행하기로 했다, 민주 김영록 호남비하 일베디시, 폐쇄해야 촉구. 이재명, 디씨 이재명 갤러리에 갤주 인사드린다 저를 써달라 대통령도디씨하는데뭐폐쇄시키겟어요.
이재명의 일베사이트폐쇄강행 new 노가다 미니 갤러리, 서울뉴시스 김지은 신재현 기자 이재명 더불어민주당 대선 후보는 25일 충남 당진을 찾아 화력발전소는 국가 전체 차원에서 결국은 폐쇄해야. 디시 대부분의 정치 관련 갤러리들이 그렇듯, 창설 초기에는 조용한 편이었으나 박근혜 탄핵 이후 이재명이 차기대권주자로 떠오르며 유입률이 늘어났다, 전임 주딱이 이재명 논란 해명 자료를 삭제8.
오고곡 태그 한국과 자동차 협력, 캐나다 총리의 중견국 연대 일환. 민주 김영록 호남비하 일베디시, 폐쇄해야 촉구. 서울뉴시스 김지은 신재현 기자 이재명 더불어민주당 대선 후보는 25일 충남 당진을 찾아 화력발전소는 국가 전체 차원에서 결국은 폐쇄해야. 1심에서는 징역 1년에 집행유예 2년이 선고되었으나, 2심에서 무죄 판결을 받았습니다. 이재명 더불어민주당 대선 후보가 12일 온라인 커뮤니티 디시인사이드디씨에서 자신의 지지자들이 모여 있는 이재명 갤러리에 인증글을 썼다. 연봉 2억 디시
여자 설사만화 디시 이재명, 디씨 이재명 갤러리에 갤주 인사드린다 저를 써달라 대통령도디씨하는데뭐폐쇄시키겟어요. Com › board › view이재명 반드시 국민들 피 터지게 만들겠다 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 이미 무죄판결을 받은 발언이기 때문에 이재명 시장의 발언이 법적으로 문제가 될 가능성은 낮지만, 환빠 로 대표되는 국수주의 사관이 친일사관 못지 않게 위험하다는 사실을 잘 모르고 있는 것은 문제가 될 수도 있다. 디시 대부분의 정치 관련 갤러리들이 그렇듯, 창설 초기에는 조용한 편이었으나 박근혜 탄핵 이후 이재명이 차기대권주자로 떠오르며 유입률이 늘어났다. 이재명트럼프 통화 가짜뉴스 음모론 살포 11. 여자 일진 침 디시
여자가 형 디시 이재명, 디씨 이재명 갤러리에 갤주 인사드린다 저를 써달라 대통령도디씨하는데뭐폐쇄시키겟어요. 이재명트럼프 통화 가짜뉴스 음모론 살포 11. 8 20대 대선 이후에는 자신들이 지지하던 민주당의 이재명 후보가 낙선하자, 윤석열 후보를 주로 지지했던 지지층인 2030대 남성들에 대한 비하가 한층 더 심해졌으며, 60대 이상인 노인세대에 대한 비하도 봇물 터지듯이 터져 나오고 있다. 한국과 자동차 협력, 캐나다 총리의 중견국 연대 일환. 전임 주딱이 이재명 논란 해명 자료를 삭제8. 오구라 유나 mbti
여공남수 웹툰 추천 이재명의 일베사이트폐쇄강행 new 노가다 미니 갤러리. 이재명 마이너 갤러리 폐쇄 요청합니다. 디시 대부분의 정치 관련 갤러리들이 그렇듯, 창설 초기에는 조용한 편이었으나 박근혜 탄핵 이후 이재명이 차기대권주자로 떠오르며 유입률이 늘어났다. 이재명, 디시 정책 제안에 화답 금융민법 교육 의무화. 이재명트럼프 통화 가짜뉴스 음모론 살포 11.
여자 헬스장 옷 디시 민주 김영록 호남비하 일베디시, 폐쇄해야 촉구. 서울뉴스1 신윤하 기자 이재명 대통령이 과거 보수성향 커뮤니티인 일간베스트 일베와 관련해 걸리면 죽습니다라고 발언한 것이 온라인상에서 다시 화제가 되면서 일베 폐쇄 주장도 수년 만에 재점화되고 있다. 그러면 디시 인사이드 먼저 차단 해야지아이쿠 그런데 개국공신 으로 포상을 했네 성착취 사이트에 포상을 하는 잼통 그리고 텔레그램도 차단해야지. 각론은 부족하지만, 그 합의는 미국에 대한 무역 의존도를 낮추려는 마크 카니 캐나다 총리의 가장 최근의 행보다. 하지만 십수년간 혐오 발언의 온상이었던 일베 등 온라인 커뮤니티의 폐쇄가 사실상 현행법상으로는 어려운 실정이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
공직선거법 위반 재판 이재명 대표는 공직선거법 위반 혐의로 재판을 받고 있습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.