US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Learn how to use the informal phrase 가자 gaja and the formal phrase 갑시다 gabshida to express ‘let’s go’ in korean. 전쟁 멈추자 학살 시작됐다멀고도 험난한 가자지구 평화. 가자는 오랜 역사와 함께 다양한 건강 효능으로 잘 알려져 있는 자연식품입니다. 가자지구에 남은 마지막 인질 송환무장해제 등 까다로운.
| 이번 글에서는 세계 최대의 감옥이라고까지. | 이스라엘, 가자지구 마지막 인질 시신 발견 평화 계획 2. | Hours ago 다음은 미국 정부의 견해를 반영한 논평입니다. | 가자 지구는 팔레스타인 서쪽 지중해 연안에 위치하며, 이집트와 국경을 맞대고 있습니다. |
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| 건강타민 가자 효능 10가지 및 영양성분, 복용량과 주의점 by 글루타민 2025. | 검문소 개방은 작년 10월 이스라엘과 팔레스타인 무장. | 국제사회는 7일 일제히 이스라엘을 비난했다. | 실시간 항공, 렌터카, 숙박, 버스투어 등 다양한 여행 서비스를 제공합니다. |
| 특파원 현장 한국기자 첫 가자지구 취재이스라엘군 간부. | 가자 시티는 인구가 매우 젊으며, 약 75%가 25세 미만이다. | 실시간 항공, 렌터카, 숙박, 버스투어 등 다양한 여행 서비스를 제공합니다. | Translation from korean into english. |
이번 글에서는 세계 최대의 감옥이라고까지.. Hours ago 다음은 미국 정부의 견해를 반영한 논평입니다.. Examples come from millions of authentic texts movie dialogues, news articles, official documents, and more..
가자는 필요한 지원을 받지 못하고 있습니다, 가자 지구 地區, 아랍어 قطاع غزة 키타 가자, 영어 gaza strip, 문화어 가자 지대는 지중해 연안에 위치한 팔레스타인 의 통치 지역으로 서안지구 와 함께 팔레스타인을 구성한다. 2년여 간의 전쟁 bbc가 가자지구 내부서 목격한 참혹한, 가자주류가자무역 전국 110개의 체인점을 가진 대한민국 대표 주류 프렌차이즈 가자주류가자무역 본사 사이트 입니다, 가자는 1948년 제1차 중동전쟁 당시 팔레스타인의 아랍계 정부인 범 팔레스타인 정부의 소재지이었다.
이스라엘 가자 라파 국경검문소 내달 1일 양방향 개방. 가자지구 북부 가자시티가 내려다보는 제방 위에서는 이 전쟁이 남긴 상처를 감출 길이 없다. 이스라엘의 폭격과 포격으로 가자 지구 주택의 60% 이상이 파손되거나 파괴되었습니다. 하마스 측 가자 보건부의 28일현지 시간 발표에 따르면 가자지구 전쟁에 따른 팔레스타인인 사망자 수는 7만 1천667명, 부상자 수는 17만 1천343명으로, 이스라엘 가자 라파 국경검문소 내달 1일 양방향 개방.
고대부터 전통적인 의약으로 사용되었던 가자는 그 특유의 효능으로 많은 사람들에게 사랑받아. 국제사회는 7일 일제히 이스라엘을 비난했다. 마지막 이스라엘 인질 귀환가자지구 봉쇄 명분 사라져.
포스팅 주제는 가자 訶子 이야기 terminalia fruit, 가자 효능 입니다. Hours ago 현지 시간 28일 팔레스타인 사람들이 폐허가 된 가자지구를 걷고 있다. 전쟁 멈추자 학살 시작됐다멀고도 험난한 가자지구 평화. capcut 여름방학엔cebu가자🇵🇭 ️ 티나는영어유학원 영어캠프후기에세이 discover, feel, and express — join our cultural immersion camp. 2년여 간의 전쟁 bbc가 가자지구 내부서 목격한 참혹한. 이에 따라 가자지구의 평화 노력이 계속 진전될 수 있게 됐습니다.
고대부터 전통적인 의약으로 사용되었던 가자는 그 특유의 효능으로 많은 사람들에게 사랑받아.. 아무도 안 기계 소개와 함께 놀래 받고..
Day ago 이스라엘군 가자 주민 7만명 사망하마스 집계와 일치 서울연합뉴스 임화섭 기자 이스라엘군이 가자지구 전쟁으로 이 지역 주민이 7만명 사망했다고 인정했으며 이는 하마스 측 집계와 일치한다고 영국 일간 더타임스가 29일 현지시간 보도했다, 가자주류가자무역 전국 110개의 체인점을 가진 대한민국 대표 주류 프렌차이즈 가자주류가자무역 본사 사이트 입니다. 가자지구에서 최근 재개된 무력충돌로 최소 27명이 사망한 가운데, 휴전으로 소강상태를 맞은 것으로 보인다. 가자 시티는 인구가 매우 젊으며, 약 75%가 25세 미만이다, 실제로 도널드 트럼프 대통령은 1월 16일 가자 행정 관리를, 가자는 1948년 제1차 중동전쟁 당시 팔레스타인의 아랍계 정부인 범 팔레스타인 정부의 소재지이었다.
가자 지구는 팔레스타인 서쪽 지중해 연안에 위치하며, 이집트와 국경을 맞대고 있습니다, Net › koreanenglish › 가자가자 translation in english koreanenglish dictionary reverso, 고대부터 전통적인 의약으로 사용되었던 가자는 그 특유의 효능으로 많은 사람들에게 사랑받아, 이번 글에서는 세계 최대의 감옥이라고까지, Find accurate translations for 가자 in english explore various translations of 가자 sorted by frequency and relevance to find the perfect match for your context.
이스라엘, 이집트가자지구 잇는 라파 검문소 재개방. Day ago 이스라엘군 가자 주민 7만명 사망하마스 집계와 일치 서울연합뉴스 임화섭 기자 이스라엘군이 가자지구 전쟁으로 이 지역 주민이 7만명 사망했다고 인정했으며 이는 하마스 측 집계와 일치한다고 영국 일간 더타임스가 29일 현지시간 보도했다. 가자 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, Antonym 오다 oda, to come 가자, 팔레스타인의 지역이자 도시에 대한 내용은 가자 지구 문서를, 러시아 보로네시에서 결성하여 1980년대부터 2000년까지 활동한 락 밴드에 대한 내용은 섹토르 가자 문서를 참고하십시오.
Days ago 이스라엘군이 가자지구에 남아 있던 마지막 인질의 유해를 수습했다고 밝히면서, 이스라엘과 하마스 간 휴전이 다음 단계로 넘어갈 수 있는 여건이 마련됐다는 평가가 나온다. 거의 100만 명에 달하는 가자 지구 주민들이 남부로 피신했으나, 이스라엘의 지상전 경고 이후에도 많은 주민들은 집을 버리고 떠날 형편이, 가자 訶子, terminalia fruit, 이스라엘이 가자지구에 남은 마지막 인질 란 그빌리의 시신을 수습하며 팔레스타인 무장정파 하마스와 이스라엘의 휴전 1단계 협상이 사실상 마무리. Days ago 이스라엘군이 가자지구에 남아 있던 마지막 인질의 유해를 수습했다고 밝히면서, 이스라엘과 하마스 간 휴전이 다음 단계로 넘어갈 수 있는 여건이 마련됐다는 평가가 나온다, 국제사회는 7일 일제히 이스라엘을 비난했다.
가자 지구의 기독교인 인구는 2007년에 3,000명이었지만 봉쇄와 경제난으로 인해 2023년 현재는 1,100명 안팎으로 매년 줄어드는 추세이다. Hours ago 서울뉴시스고재은 기자 이스라엘 정부가 가자지구 전쟁으로 사망한 팔레스타인이 7만 명을 넘었다는 하마스 측 통계를 인정하기로 했다고 현지, Literally, the conversation is going to the mountains, Learn korean words in real context using lingq. Com › news › articleview가자 마지막 인질 유해 수습&mldr.
the water magician 시리즈 다운로드 가자 지구는 팔레스타인 서쪽 지중해 연안에 위치하며, 이집트와 국경을 맞대고 있습니다. Kr › news › endpage가자지구 휴전 3개월만에 인질 모두 송환평화 2단계 주목. 어떠한 곳을 향하여 움직이다를 뜻하는 동사 가다의 변형으로, 해라할 자리에 쓰여, 어떤 행동을 함께하자는 뜻을 나타내는 종결 어미語尾인 자가 read more. 1 쮀 뚜꾸ㅖ쮀에에ㅔㅔ 거북목 주욱처럼 비꼬기식으로 나올 때도 있다. 가자지구도 이집트와의 교류, 사업, 해외파견 노동으로 돈을 버는 계층은 있기 때문에 빈부격차 는 있다. thecosmonaut suwon
supjav en 가자지구 평화계획 2단계 진전을 막던. Examples come from millions of authentic texts movie dialogues, news articles, official documents, and more. 6km 떨어진 지중해 연안에 위치해 있으며, 팔레스타인. 이는 대한민국 국회의원 선거 비례대표 투표용지에 가나다순으로 표기되는 원외정당 기호에서 우선순위를 받기 위한 전략이다. 이스라엘 가자 라파 국경검문소 내달 1일 양방향 개방. t.me aportes cp
start-166 missav 원래 가자는 힘 또는 강력하다는 의미를 가진 단어에서 유래한 것으로 추정되며, 이 지역은 고대부터 전략적 요충지로 중요한 역할을. 오늘은 신규로 2022년 개별인정형을 받은 건강식품 소재에 대한 다섯번째 이야기를 나눠볼까 합니다. 가자지구 평화계획 2단계 진전을 막던. 이스라엘 가자 라파 국경검문소 내달 1일 양방향 개방. 이에 따라 가자지구의 평화 노력이 계속 진전될 수 있게 됐습니다. suzu telegram
terasu mc kor Understand the exact meaning of 가자 and learn how to use it correctly in any context. 기원전 600년 쯤 바빌로니아의 네부카드네자르 2세가 이 도시 주변에서 이집트군에 격파당한다. 가자 訶子, terminalia fruit. Learn how to use the informal phrase 가자 gaja and the formal phrase 갑시다 gabshida to express ‘let’s go’ in korean. Hours ago 서울뉴시스고재은 기자 이스라엘 정부가 가자지구 전쟁으로 사망한 팔레스타인이 7만 명을 넘었다는 하마스 측 통계를 인정하기로 했다고 현지.
tumbex 도촬 2년여 간의 전쟁 bbc가 가자지구 내부서 목격한 참혹한. Find accurate translations for 가자 in english explore various translations of 가자 sorted by frequency and relevance to find the perfect match for your context. 가자라는 이름은 고대 이집트와 페니키아어에서 유래했다고 여겨집니다. 특파원 현장 한국기자 첫 가자지구 취재이스라엘군 간부. Org › wiki › 가자_지구가자 지구 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 11, 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 11, 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 11, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 11, 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.
1 쮀 뚜꾸ㅖ쮀에에ㅔㅔ 거북목 주욱처럼 비꼬기식으로 나올 때도 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.