대낮부터 19글 죄송합니다ㅠ 어젯밤에 와이프랑 대화를 하다가 답답함이 생겨서 끌량 유부분들 의견이 듣고 싶어서 글 남깁니다.

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 16, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 16, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 16, 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 16, 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.

원래 섹스는 20대에 혈기 왕성할때 혹은 결혼 승낙받고 준비하면서 많이 하죠. Infj entp, 인프제 여자와 엔티피 남자의 연애 네이버 블로그. ㅇㅇ 숙소 공짜로 얻어먹고 여행이나 만나는 다른여자는 있는 그런애들임. 메모리 경쟁력 극대화실리콘밸리서 빅테크 깐부 굳히기.

난 코타키나발루에서 하루에 기억은 가뮬가뮬하지만 삽입 사정만 3번한듯 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ 마누라가 원피스 개이쁜거 입고와서 짐풀자마자 한번하고read more. 혼자 여행가는것도 아니고 결혼하고 처음부부가 돼서 평생 간직할 추억만드는 자리인데 본인이 감흥없다고 상대방도 이해해줄거라는건 이기적인듯 합니다. 결혼식 날 밤은 긴장해서 그런 거라고 생각했지. Net › service › board신혼여행지 추천 부탁드립니다 클리앙. 호텔에서 보낸 72시간 동안, 아마 1520번 정도 섹스했지. 강태화 워싱턴 특파원 역사의 현장에서 정치 이슈를 취재하고 있습니다. 지금 매우매우 엄청 많이 달달한 신혼생활을 하고있는 25살 여자사람입니당 우리 신랑은 올해로 28됬구요 ㅎㅎ 둘다 결혼하기엔 좀 이르지만 너무 사랑해서 결혼까지 골인, 보통 다른 신혼부부들은 몇번정도 관계를 하는지 궁금해집니다, 여행 좋아하고 평소에 많이다녀봤으면 신혼여행으로는 좀더 안가봤고 특별한곳 가고 싶어할 거 같은데 점찍어둔 곳 있음. 영국 총리 중국, 의원 6명 입국금지 등 제재 해제.

미샤 야동

Com › hmresort › 223691386202신혼여행핫한 2025년 신혼여행지 순위 top6 정리 네이버 블로그, 결론만 이야기하자면 푸꾹 너무 좋았어, 찾느라 너무 힘들었네요 눈뜨기가 너무 어려워서 영양제 사먹고 ㅋㅋ 홍삼. 원래 섹스는 20대에 혈기 왕성할때 혹은 결혼 승낙받고 준비하면서 많이 하죠, 신혼여행 중의 부부관계는 공식적인 부부가 된 이후로 첫 성관계가 되기 때문에 신혼여행에서 중요한 이벤트 중 하나로 꼽힌다. Com › board › view유럽여행와서 백마여친, 유럽양녀 만나는 애들은 성관계부분 각오하고. 신혼여행 출발 1년 이상일 경우 리조트 요금 출시 전이라 특가 견적 제공에 어려움이 있습니다 그러니 신혼여행 1011개월 전에 준비하시는 것이 좋습니다 현재 2025년 특가 확정과 금액이 오픈돼 있어 2025년 결혼을 앞두고 계시다면 지금부터 준비하시면 되겠습니다, 강태화 워싱턴 특파원 역사의 현장에서 정치 이슈를 취재하고 있습니다, Net › 542365953신혼 4개월째인데 관계 횟수 2회다 신혼여행 포함 dogdrip.

물렁 이 작가 디시

추천 1 조회 7,228 리플 19 글번호 998055 20120708 0247 ip 211. 중앙일보the joongang는 현장의 진실을 빠르게 전달합니다, Com › hmresort › 223691386202신혼여행핫한 2025년 신혼여행지 순위 top6 정리 네이버 블로그.

Net › service › board신혼여행지 추천 부탁드립니다 클리앙. 나는 여행블로거이지만 당분간 여행은 커녕 집 밖으로도 못나갈 것 같은 육아맘이제 한달을 갓 넘긴 왕초보 ㅎㅎ. Com › board › view유럽여행와서 백마여친, 유럽양녀 만나는 애들은 성관계부분 각오하고.

결혼식 날 밤은 긴장해서 그런 거라고 생각했지. 신혼여행 디시에 대한 소개 신혼여행은 많은 부부에게 인생에서 가장 특별한 순간 중 하나입니다. 신혼여행은 사랑하는 사람과의 특별한 시간을 더욱 로맨틱하게 만들어 주는 기회입니다.

그때 눈치챘어야 하는지 결혼한지 3년 안됐고 애도 없어, 원래 섹스는 20대에 혈기 왕성할때 혹은 결혼 승낙받고 준비하면서 많이 하죠, 영국 총리 중국, 의원 6명 입국금지 등 제재 해제. Com › hmresort › 223691386202신혼여행핫한 2025년 신혼여행지 순위 top6 정리 네이버 블로그. 결혼식 직후부터 오히려 덜하게 됩니다. Com › board › view유럽여행와서 백마여친, 유럽양녀 만나는 애들은 성관계부분 각오하고.

우리신랑 어떻게 자제시켜야하는지도 모르겟고 이걸 주변사람한테 물어보기도 살짝.. 미국이 베네수엘라 석유 이권을 통제하면서도 친미 질서 안에서만 시장 접근을 허용한 셈이다.. 강태화 워싱턴 특파원 역사의 현장에서 정치 이슈를 취재하고 있습니다.. 첫눈에 반해서 만난지 일주일도 안되서 연애를 시작하고 연애를 시작한지 한달만에 양가부모님께 인사를 드리고read more..

밍가19

신혼여행 디시에 대한 소개 신혼여행은 많은 부부에게 인생에서 가장 특별한 순간 중 하나입니다, ㅇㅇ 숙소 공짜로 얻어먹고 여행이나 만나는 다른여자는 있는 그런애들임. 지금 매우매우 엄청 많이 달달한 신혼생활을 하고있는 25살 여자사람입니당 우리 신랑은 올해로 28됬구요 ㅎㅎ 둘다 결혼하기엔 좀 이르지만 너무 사랑해서 결혼까지 골인. 난 코타키나발루에서 하루에 기억은 가뮬가뮬하지만 삽입 사정만 3번한듯 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ 마누라가 원피스 개이쁜거 입고와서 짐풀자마자 한번하고read more. 저 진짜 체력이 안돼서 피곤해 죽는 줄 알았어요 ㅜ.

신혼여행은 못 갔지만 결혼한 호텔에서 며칠 묵었어. 우리신랑 어떻게 자제시켜야하는지도 모르겟고 이걸 주변사람한테 물어보기도 살짝, 그래도 시간날떄마다 정리해서 올리도록 할게.

미국이 베네수엘라 석유 이권을 통제하면서도 친미 질서 안에서만 시장 접근을 허용한 셈이다.. 신혼여행은 시간이 흐를수록 관광보다는 휴양지에 가서 쉬는 비중이 더 늘어나고 있다..

25년 가장 행복했던 순간신혼여행 🩷 디시한번 가고싶은, Com › board › view결혼 2년차 섹스 없는 신혼부부 大 참사 jpg 초개념 갤. Com › board › view한녀와 결혼해서 신혼을 맘껏 즐기는 퐁퐁이들 실시간 베스트 갤러.

우리신랑 어떻게 자제시켜야하는지도 모르겟고 이걸 주변사람한테 물어보기도 살짝, 중앙일보the joongang는 현장의 진실을 빠르게 전달합니다. 대표적인 한국인 신혼부부들이 많이 가는 신혼여행지몰디브발리 인도네시아하와이 미국칸쿤 멕시코푸켓, 코사무이 태국그 외 신혼여행지나트랑 베트남롬복 인도네시아타히티, 보라보라 프랑스령 폴리네시아오키, 26 153002 조회 40705 추천 102 댓글 509 1 이미지 순서 on. 강태화 워싱턴 특파원 역사의 현장에서 정치 이슈를 취재하고 있습니다.

미나토 하루 소프 디시 결혼 2년차 섹스 없는 신혼부부 大 참사 jpg 초개념. 신혼여행은 시간이 흐를수록 관광보다는 휴양지에 가서 쉬는 비중이 더 늘어나고 있다. 26 153002 조회 40705 추천 102 댓글 509 1 이미지 순서 on. Com › board › view결혼 2년차 섹스 없는 신혼부부 大 참사 jpg 초개념 갤. 결혼하고 2개월뒤 아기를 가져서 지금은 육아휴직중입니다. 미사브

민또 경또 tv 추천 1 조회 7,228 리플 19 글번호 998055 20120708 0247 ip 211. 신혼여행은 못 갔지만 결혼한 호텔에서 며칠 묵었어. 신혼때부터 그랬고 일주일 휴양지 신행에서도 한번했어. 25년 가장 행복했던 순간신혼여행 🩷 디시한번 가고싶은. 26 153002 조회 40705 추천 102 댓글 509 1 이미지 순서 on. 민프로 트위터

무이치로 인기 자상하고 저밖에모르는 저만바라보는 그런 해바라기같은 남자입니다. 신혼여행은 사랑하는 사람과의 특별한 시간을 더욱 로맨틱하게 만들어 주는 기회입니다. 난 코타키나발루에서 하루에 기억은 가뮬가뮬하지만 삽입 사정만 3번한듯 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ 마누라가 원피스 개이쁜거 입고와서 짐풀자마자 한번하고read more. 신혼부부 시간&경제력에 따라 나눠진다는 신혼여행지 ㅇㅇ 2024. 지금 매우매우 엄청 많이 달달한 신혼생활을 하고있는 25살 여자사람입니당 우리 신랑은 올해로 28됬구요 ㅎㅎ 둘다 결혼하기엔 좀 이르지만 너무 사랑해서 결혼까지 골인. 민유미 아이돌

무토 아야카 Com › 7164755299일반 커플이 4박5일 여행갔을때 평균 ㅅㅅ횟수. 결론만 이야기하자면 푸꾹 너무 좋았어. 원래 신혼여행 다녀와서 일기를 쓰려고 했었는데, 이래저래 바쁜 일상을 보내다 보니 계획대로 되질 못했네. 원래 섹스는 20대에 혈기 왕성할때 혹은 결혼 승낙받고 준비하면서 많이 하죠. 자상하고 저밖에모르는 저만바라보는 그런 해바라기같은 남자입니다.

무인텔 줌마 Com › 7164755299일반 커플이 4박5일 여행갔을때 평균 ㅅㅅ횟수. 그래도 시간날떄마다 정리해서 올리도록 할게. 첫눈에 반해서 만난지 일주일도 안되서 연애를 시작하고 연애를 시작한지 한달만에 양가부모님께 인사를 드리고read more. 난 코타키나발루에서 하루에 기억은 가뮬가뮬하지만 삽입 사정만 3번한듯 ㄷㄷㄷㄷㄷ 마누라가 원피스 개이쁜거 입고와서 짐풀자마자 한번하고read more. 머 연애때야 만나기만하면 ㅅㅅ 하고싶어서 안달나는건 니들도 다 마찬가지일거라 얘기할것도없고그렇게 서로 좋아죽어 결혼해서 신혼집에 들.

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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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.

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