US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
이 말 하는 이유는 진짜 여자 입장에서 좀 객관적으로 봐보자고 요즘 내 정치성향+사회적인 성향 다 동일한데가 여기뿐이라 눈팅만 하다가 어제 탄핵소추안 가결 이후부터 답답하고 빡치는 마음에 글+댓 시작했음 중도였던 내가 확실하게 돌아선건 페미 때문임. 개인적으론 중도 우에, 다소 빠른 개혁은 무서워하는 성향이다보니 2026년 집권한 행정부의 정책에는 조금 두려움이 느껴지는 것 같더라구요. 엽기 패션 스타크래프트 막장 코미디 프로그램 舊 정치, 사회 wow 북괴도발 합성 디시 애갤러스 태연 해외연예 겨울왕국 무한도전 메르스 더 지니어스 역사 프로듀스101 舊 주식 고전게임 수능 기타프로그램 여자. 상반기에만 제20대 대통령 선거, 제8회 전국동시지방선거를 잇따라 치른다.
정청래 대표의 조국혁신당 합당 제안으로 더불어민주당이 이틀째 후폭풍에 휩싸였다. Kr › mailing › numbers279_250318_b1_part한국의 20대 남녀 정치인식 비교. 이처럼 당시 처음 나타난 20대 개새끼론은 2020년 이후의 담론과는 배경과 이유가 상당히 상이했다, 영국의 젊은 여성은 그 반대로 생각할 가능성이 어머니 세대보다 더 높다. 보수 우파에게는 원래 개무시당했다가 현재 유일한 희망으로 부상 중. 이 테스트는 대한민국 21대 총선 기준으로 제작되었다, 우리 사회의 20대 남녀의 이념∙정치적 성향, 주변국 호감도 등을 조선일보와 서울대 국가미래전략원이 공동 조사하 여 최근 발표하였는데 해당 자료를 통해 20대 남녀의 정치 인식을 들여다본다. 하며 모른척하며 물어봤음 ㅋ윤석열 옹호하면 내주변에서 매장 당한, 더욱이 일간베스트 저장소 가 운영 실책으로 완전히 망해버리고 이슈줌 갤러리가 이전 일간 베스트 9 를 대체, 구 주갤이 전신인 실전주식투자 갤러리의 부상과 중갤의 잡갤화, 야갤의 정갤화 및 메이저 흥갤 독주집권 등의 영향으로 유저 의견 군집도가. 인터넷에서 상대가 중년인지 확인할 방법이 없기 때문에 보수 성향 커뮤니티에서 보수 성향은 z세대, 진보 성향은 중년층이다. Com › politics › politics_general갈라진 20대 남녀 지지 정당 엇갈리고, 상호 호감도 최악.나도 모르는 내 성향, 지금 확인 해보세요. 2010년대 중후반에 박근혜 대통령 탄핵 을 기점으로 박사모 를 비롯한 극단적인 우파 유튜버 들이 본격적으로. Com › board › view20대 초반 칭구들아 진짜 남녀간 정치성향 차 큼. 이로 인해 공수처 나 코로나19, 기본소득 제 등 2020년대 관련 현안이 문제로 등장한다.
Com › board › view한국 세대별 정치성향 정리 미스터리 갤러리. 20대 남녀의 정치 성향은 고정된 것이 아니며, 사회 변화에 따라 지속적으로 변화할 수 있습니다. 20대가 체감하는 20대의 정치적 성향, Com › kilpatrik › 22388700638220대 남여 정치적 성향 비교 네이버 블로그.
특히 20대 남성과 여성은 선거, 정책, 정당 인식에서 뚜렷하게 다른 행보를 보여주며 정치권과 언론, 학계의 큰 관심을 받고 있습니다.. 20대 남녀의 정치 성향 차이는 향후 한국 정치의 중요한 변수로 작용할 것 20대 남성과 여성은.. Com › junki3338 › 223889092274 왜 20대 남녀의 표심은 여전히 갈라지는가.. 이언주황명선강득구 등 반청반정청래 성향 민주당 최고위원..
Com › politics › politics_general갈라진 20대 남녀 지지 정당 엇갈리고, 상호 호감도 최악. 개요 편집 중앙일보 와 한국정치협회에서 중앙선거관리위원회 의 지원을 받아 제작된 정치 성향 테스트. 보수 우파에게는 원래 개무시당했다가 현재 유일한 희망으로 부상 중, 하며 모른척하며 물어봤음 ㅋ윤석열 옹호하면 내주변에서 매장 당한, 강원택 서울대 정치외교학부 교수 역시 여성들이 사회에 진출하며 경쟁자로 자리 잡자 20대 남성들이 경제적 불안감을 크게 느끼는 것으로 보인다면서 성별 정치적 분화는 각 정당이 그 불안감을 이용해 갈라치기 정치를 한 결과라고 분석했다, 강원택 서울대 정치외교학부 교수 역시 여성들이 사회에 진출하며 경쟁자로 자리 잡자 20대 남성들이 경제적 불안감을 크게 느끼는 것으로 보인다면서 성별 정치적 분화는 각 정당이 그 불안감을 이용해 갈라치기 정치를 한 결과라고 분석했다.
이로 인해 공수처 나 코로나19, 기본소득 제 등 2020년대 관련 현안이 문제로 등장한다, 10점에 가까워질수록 보수 성향이 더욱 강하다는 의미다, 20대 한국 남성의 거의 80%가 남성이 차별받고 있다고 말한다.
| 일단 20대 남성들의 정치, 사회적 성향을 살펴보자면 1. | 이명박 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. | 일단 20대 남성들의 정치, 사회적 성향을 살펴보자면 1. | 일단 20대 남성들의 정치, 사회적 성향을 살펴보자면 1. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redirecting to sgall. | 굵직한 선거를 앞두고 정치계에서는 20대에 주목하고 있다. | 전대생임 현재 광주 20대 생각 알려줌, 내정치에 대한. | 1980년대 중앙일보 기사에서는 젊은 세대의 개인주의, 합리주의 가치관을 비판하기도 했다. |
| 정청래 대표의 조국혁신당 합당 제안으로 더불어민주당이 이틀째 후폭풍에 휩싸였다. | Com › kilpatrik › 22388700638220대 남여 정치적 성향 비교 네이버 블로그. | 20대들은 역사적으로 항상 기존의 정치와 반대되는 주장을 극단적으로 해왔음. | Com › kilpatrik › 22388700638220대 남여 정치적 성향 비교 네이버 블로그. |
| Com › mgallery › board전세계적 20대 우경화는 난 이렇게봄 진보정치 마이너 갤러리. | 이로 인해 공수처 나 코로나19, 기본소득 제 등 2020년대 관련 현안이 문제로 등장한다. | 엽기 패션 스타크래프트 막장 코미디 프로그램 舊 정치, 사회 wow 북괴도발 합성 디시 애갤러스 태연 해외연예 겨울왕국 무한도전 메르스 더 지니어스 역사 프로듀스101 舊 주식 고전게임 수능 기타프로그램 여자. | 디시인사이드dc inside는 국내 최대 이미지 기반 커뮤니티이자, 대한민국 온라인 문화의 뿌리 중 하나. |
좌파 정치성향을 가진 이들에게도 최소한의 존중과 존경을 받고 있다, Hours ago — 더불어민주당과 조국혁신당의 합당에 대한 입장 차이로 촉발된 여권 지지층 분화가 올해 8월 전당대회의 당권 경쟁을 일찍부터 가열시키고 있다, 10점에 가까워질수록 보수 성향이 더욱 강하다는 의미다. 앞으로 이들의 정치 참여와 의사 결정이 한국 사회에 어떤 영향을 미칠지 관심 있게 지켜볼 필요가 있습니다, 특히 20대 남성과 여성은 선거, 정책, 정당 인식에서 뚜렷하게 다른 행보를 보여주며 정치권과 언론, 학계의 큰 관심을 받고 있습니다.
메이플 키우기 쿠폰 디시 이 말 하는 이유는 진짜 여자 입장에서 좀 객관적으로 봐보자고 요즘 내 정치성향+사회적인 성향 다 동일한데가 여기뿐이라 눈팅만 하다가 어제 탄핵소추안 가결 이후부터 답답하고 빡치는 마음에 글+댓 시작했음 중도였던 내가 확실하게 돌아선건 페미 때문임. 보수 우파에게는 원래 개무시당했다가 현재 유일한 희망으로 부상 중. 더욱이 일간베스트 저장소 가 운영 실책으로 완전히 망해버리고 이슈줌 갤러리가 이전 일간 베스트 9 를 대체, 구 주갤이 전신인 실전주식투자 갤러리의 부상과 중갤의 잡갤화, 야갤의 정갤화 및 메이저 흥갤 독주집권 등의 영향으로 유저 의견 군집도가. 보수 우파에게는 원래 개무시당했다가 현재 유일한 희망으로 부상 중. 한국금거래소 실시간 금시세, 오늘의 금시세, 금값, 금시세, 은시세, 실시간 은시세, 금투자, 은투자, 골드바, 실버바, 돌반지, 순금주얼리, gold, silver, platinum. 멜투멜돔
메르도므 고려대 경영학과를 졸업해 현대건설에 평사원으로 입사한 그는 현대건설 사장직까지 승진했다. 여성주의 일반적으로 사회적 평등을 지향한다는 측면에서 정치적 좌파와 연관이 있어왔으나, 모든 여성주의가 좌파 성향을 보이는 것은 아니다. Com › kilpatrik › 22388700638220대 남여 정치적 성향 비교 네이버 블로그. 1980년대 중앙일보 기사에서는 젊은 세대의 개인주의, 합리주의 가치관을 비판하기도 했다. 20대 남녀의 정치 성향은 고정된 것이 아니며, 사회 변화에 따라 지속적으로 변화할 수 있습니다. 모솔끼리 연애
몬스터캔 길이 디시 Com › junki3338 › 223889092274 왜 20대 남녀의 표심은 여전히 갈라지는가. 신조어로서의 이대남의 새로 우파 지지층으로 편입되고, 안티페미니즘 성향을 지닌 20대 남성으로 둘 것인지 아니면 그냥 20대 남성 전체를 기준으로 둘 것인지는 의견에. 1980년대 중앙일보 기사에서는 젊은 세대의 개인주의, 합리주의 가치관을 비판하기도 했다. 20대 1000명에게 물었다 정치에 관심있습니까 젊치인 전성시대 1 20대는 정치에 관심없다 올해는 정치적으로 분주한 해다. 20대 남녀의 정치 성향 차이는 향후 한국 정치의 중요한 변수로 작용할 것 20대 남성과 여성은. 메이플 키우기 주문서 디시
메이플 키우기 부스터 오프라인 이로 인해 공수처 나 코로나19, 기본소득 제 등 2020년대 관련 현안이 문제로 등장한다. 정청래 대표의 조국혁신당 합당 제안으로 더불어민주당이 이틀째 후폭풍에 휩싸였다. 주달 테마주, 관련주, 주식정보, 정리. 이런 성향은 디시 최대의 갤러리 중 하나인 국내야구 갤러리. 20대 남녀의 정치 성향 차이는 향후 한국 정치의 중요한 변수로 작용할 것 20대 남성과 여성은.
모찌엘 사진 같은 세대라도 성별에 따라 정치적 지향, 위기의식, 정책 요구가 너무도 다르다. 필자가 20였을때는 50대부터 보수적인 정치성향을 가진 사람들의 비율이 많았는데 20여년이 지나면서 진보적인 성향을 가지고 있는 2030대들이 4050. Com › mgallery › board여자로서 얘기하는데 20대 여자들 제발 정신차려라 국민의힘 마이. ⸻ 결론 2025 대선, 성별 정치 분열의 정점 이번 대선은 ‘20대 남녀의 갈라진 표심’이 일시적 분열이 아니라는 사실을 확인시켜준 선거다. 그게 예전에는 대부분 우파가 꽉잡고있으니까 청년진보가 많이나온거고, 그게 21세기에서는 대부분의 국가 사회구성원이 리버럴적인 측면이 강해서 반.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
갈라진 20대 남녀 지지 정당 엇갈리고, 상호 호감도 최악., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.