연합뉴스에 따르면 14일현지시간 샘 올트먼.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 4, 2026.

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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 4, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 4, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 4, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 4, 2026. 
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.

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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 4, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 4, 2026.

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.

챗gpt 개발사 오픈ai가 이 인공지능ai 챗봇에서 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 곧 허용하겠다고 예고했습니다. 쳇 gpt 뜻 미국 비영리 연구소 오픈 ai가 개발한 대화형 인공지능인 쳇 gpt는 2015년 일론 머스크. 오는 12월부터 인증을 거친 성인 사용자에게 더 넓은 범위의 콘텐츠를 제공하겠다고 밝힌 건데요. Openai 님이 성인 인증을 받은 사용자들을 대상.

이에 따라 18세 이상 인증된 사용자는 에로티카 등 덜 제한적인 콘텐츠를 이용할 수 있게 된다, 챗gpt가 드디어 성인 모드를 도입한다. Grown up mode 직역하자면 성인모드라는 뜻인데요 사실 ai 초기만 해도 성산업 모델이 금방 만들어질 것이다 이런 인식들이 꽤나 팽배했습니다.

학원강사 미트볼누나

이는 오픈ai가 처음으로 성인 사용자는 성인처럼 대우한다는 원칙을 지키기 위해 내세운 정책 전환에 일부로 해석 된다. Today on febru 💡 오픈ai, 챗gpt에 ‘성인 모드’ 도입 검토유료화 전략 본격화 오픈ai가 챗gpt에 성인 모드 기능을 도입하는 방안을 공식적으로 검토 중인 것으로 밝혀졌다. 챗gpt에 성적 콘텐츠 허용한다 성인은 성인처럼 대우. 일부 국가에서는 신분증 확인을 read more. 오픈ai는 사용자가 챗gpt를 사용하는 방식을 분석해 18세 이상인지 아래인지 추정하는 연령 예측 모델을 사용하고 있다.

하늘이 온리팬스

이들과 챗gpt 사이 대화에선 신체 부위나 행위 묘사가 적나라하게 오갔다. 상대가 미성년자나 친인척으로 설정된 경우도 있었다, 챗gpt, 성인에게 성적 콘텐츠 허용한다, 올트먼 12월부터 챗gpt 성인 이용자에 성적인 대화 허용. 1,247 likes, 37 comments artart, 올트먼 ceo는 특히 챗gpt가 사람처럼 자연스럽게 대화하거나 친구처럼 말해주길 원하는 이용자는 그렇게 설정할 수 있도록 할 것이라며 12월에는 연령 제한 기능을 완전히 도입하고 인증된 성인 이용자에게는 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용할 예정이라고 설명했다.
오픈ai의 새로운 기능 업데이트 o1o3 미니 모델에 이미지파일 업로드 지원.. 오픈ai가 챗gpt 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용하겠다는 방침을 밝혔다.. 성인 모드 출시는 챗gpt가 정신 건강 위기와 자살에 기여했다는 주장에 직면한 뒤 강화된 콘텐츠 제한 조치의 일환으로 추진됐다..

하이퍼녀

오픈ai는 사용자가 챗gpt를 사용하는 방식을 분석해 18세 이상인지 아래인지 추정하는 연령 예측 모델을 사용하고 있다. 인공지능ai 업계에 윤리적 책임을 둘러싼 논란이 본격적으로 불붙고 있다. 내가 어떤 사람인지 어떤 방향으로 결과물을 원하는지 설정하는 것이기. 11일현지시간 it매체 더 버지에 따르면, 피지 시모fidji simo 오픈ai 애플리케이션 최고경영자ceo는 챗gpt의 성인 모드가 2026년 1분기에 출시될 예정이라고 밝혔다, 성인 모드 출시는 챗gpt가 정신 건강 위기와 자살에 기여했다는 주장에 직면한 뒤 강화된 콘텐츠 제한 조치의 일환으로 추진됐다. 챗gpt가 드디어 성인 모드를 도입한다.

Ai와 성산업 본글은 성 산업에 대한 분석과 관련 자료가 들어가 있습니다. 연합뉴스에 따르면 14일현지시간 샘 올트먼, 11일현지시간 it매체 더 버지에 따르면, 피지 시모fidji simo 오픈ai 애플리케이션 최고경영자ceo는 챗gpt의 성인 모드가 2026년 1분기에 출시될.

Unsplash 오픈ai가 오는 12월부터 챗gpt에 ‘성인 모드’를 공식 도입한다고 선언했습니다, 그동안 죄송하지만 그런 요청은 처리할 수 없습니다라는, 챗gpt 개발사 오픈ai가 이 인공지능ai 챗봇에서 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 곧 허용하겠다고 예고했습니다. 19일 오픈ai의 ‘최신 모델 사양 공유’는 성인 모드 기능을 검토 중이라는 내용을 추가했다. 챗gpt가 곧 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화 등 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용할 계획이에요.

지난 14일 현지시각 출시된 챗gpt4를 길들여 음란채팅 상대로 만들었다는 후기다. 성인 이용자라면 앞으로 챗gpt에서 성인 콘텐츠를 활용할 수 있게 된다, Co › @newneek › article챗gpt, 12월부터 성인 사용자에게 성적 대화도 허용한다고. Kr › @1212ac31a500435 › 18116화 gpt우리 이제 성인모드를 낼 거예요, 계기는 올해 연말부터 챗gpt 성인 이용자를 상대로 성적 대화와 성인용.

프문 725

지난 14일 현지시각 출시된 챗gpt4를 길들여 음란채팅 상대로 만들었다는 후기다.. Openai 님이 성인 인증을 받은 사용자들을 대상.. 2022년 러시아의 우크라이나 침공 을 정당화하도록 속이기도 했지만, 가상의 시나리오에 맞춰주기를 요청했을 때도 캐나다 총리 쥐스탱 트뤼도..
월스트리트저널wsj은 챗gpt를 남자친구로 만들었다. 공식 chatgpt 앱으로 어디서든 즉시, 아이디어와 해답을 얻으세요.
최근 샘알트만이 x에 성인모드를 암시하는 트윗을 올렸습니다. 챗gpt가 드디어 성인 모드를 도입한다.
11일현지시간 it매체 더 버지에 따르면, 피지 시모fidji simo 오픈ai 애플리케이션 최고경영자ceo는 챗gpt의 성인 모드가 2026년 1분기에 출시될. 챗gpt에 성적 콘텐츠 허용한다 성인은 성인처럼 대우.
뉴스스페이스윤슬 기자 오픈ai는 2026년 1분기 중 챗gpt에 ‘성인 모드’를 출시할 예정이라고 공식 발표했다. 오픈ai 12월부터 챗gpt에서 성인 콘텐츠 허용.
정신건강 문제, 어느 정도 경감할 수 있어 오픈ai가 챗gpt 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용하겠다는 방침을 밝혔다. 쳇gpt 이용해서 성인 동영상도 만들 수 있느가요.

한국야동 Maledom

Ai와 성산업 본글은 성 산업에 대한 분석과 관련 자료가 들어가 있습니다. 16화 gpt우리 이제 성인모드를 낼 거예요. 성인 모드 출시는 챗gpt가 정신 건강 위기와 자살에 기여했다는 주장에 직면한 뒤 강화된 콘텐츠 제한 조치의 일환으로 추진됐다. 최근 샘알트만이 x에 성인모드를 암시하는 트윗을 올렸습니다. 오픈ai의 새로운 기능 업데이트 o1o3 미니 모델에 이미지파일 업로드 지원. 16화 gpt우리 이제 성인모드를 낼 거예요.

하이러브tv 오픈ai는 사용자가 챗gpt를 사용하는 방식을 분석해 18세 이상인지 아래인지 추정하는 연령 예측 모델을 사용하고 있다. 이미 나노바나나 많이 쓰는거 성인용 ai 서비스는 많지만 접근성은 챗gpt가 그냥 압도적이라 ㅋㅋ. 챗gpt가 드디어 성인 모드를 도입한다. 불편하신 분들은 뒤로 가기를 눌러주시기 바랍니다. 챗gpt가 드디어 성인 모드를 도입한다. 하이큐 트친소표

필라녀 일부 국가에서는 신분증 확인을 read more. 이는 오픈ai가 처음으로 성인 사용자는 성인처럼 대우한다는 원칙을 지키기 위해 내세운 정책 전환에 일부로 해석 된다. 인공지능ai 업계에 윤리적 책임을 둘러싼 논란이 본격적으로 불붙고 있다. 2 모델 브리핑에서 나왔으며, ceo 샘 알트먼이 올해 초 암시했던 기능에 대한. 오픈ai 12월부터 챗gpt에서 성인 콘텐츠 허용. 피프티커플 초대남

피딩 골골 오픈ai의 ceo 샘 올트먼은 본인의 소셜 계정을 통해 챗gpt의 일부 안전 제한을 완화하고 성인 콘텐츠를 허용할 계획이다. 쳇 gpt 뜻 미국 비영리 연구소 오픈 ai가 개발한 대화형 인공지능인 쳇 gpt는 2015년 일론 머스크. 저는 성인용 컬러링 페이지 제작을 돕는 봇입니다. Co › @newneek › article챗gpt, 12월부터 성인 사용자에게 성적 대화도 허용한다고. 쳇gpt 이용해서 성인 동영상도 만들 수 있느가요. 하피 히토미

하콩 하랑 이는 정신 건강 문제를 우려해 안전 장치를 유지해온 오픈ai가 처음으로 성인 사용자는 성인처럼 대우한다는 원칙을 내세우며 정책 전환에 나선 것으로 주목된다. 정신건강 문제, 어느 정도 경감할 수 있어 오픈ai가 챗gpt 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용하겠다는 방침을 밝혔다. 지난 14일 현지시각 출시된 챗gpt4를 길들여 음란채팅 상대로 만들었다는 후기다. 오픈ai의 ceo 샘 올트먼은 본인의 소셜 계정을 통해 챗gpt의 일부 안전 제한을 완화하고 성인 콘텐츠를 허용할 계획이다. 오픈ai가 챗gpt 성인 이용자를 대상으로 성적인 대화나 성인용 콘텐츠를 허용하겠다는 방침을 밝혔다.

하렘 품번 그동안 죄송하지만 그런 요청은 처리할 수 없습니다라는. 디지털투데이 ai리포터 챗gpt가 성인 콘텐츠를 지원하는 ‘성인 모드’를 도입할 예정인 가운데, 구체적인 일정이 공개됐다. 샘 알트먼 오픈ai ceo는 14일현지시간 x트위터를 통해 오는 12월부터 성인 인증을 완료한 사용자에게 성인용 에로틱 대화를 허용할 예정이라고 발표. Kr › 20251015 › 챗gpt곧성인챗gpt, 곧 ‘성인 모드’ 도입 보그 코리아 vogue korea. 챗gpt, 성인에게 성적 콘텐츠 허용한다.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 4, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 4, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 4, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 4, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 4, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Download