US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 6, 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, August 6, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 6, 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, August 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 2026.
권민중은 영화 투캅스 3로 데뷔할 당시, 어마어마한 경쟁률을 뚫지 않았냐는 조충현 아나운서의 질문에 한 1,0001 정도 됐다고 밝혔다. 지난 1998년 영화 투캅스3에서 섹시한 여형사 역으로 화려하게 데뷔했던 여배우 권민중이 데뷔 후 처음으로 가족사와 누드 화보 등으로 인해. 권민중權旼重, 1975년 4월 29일 은 대한민국의 미스코리아 출신 배우이다. 8월 9일 유튜브 채널 근황올림픽에 90년대 톱여배우 근황 활동 뜸했던 사연 편이 공개됐다.
이 때 이혜영이 한 말너투캅스 본적 있니. 그리고 자신과 똑닮은 의욕만 앞서는 신참내기 형사가 등장하는데 여자다. 이당시에는 굉장히 센세이녈했던 걸크러시 권민중으로 굉장히 이슈가 됐던 기억이 난다, 또한 여자경찰이라는 독특한 캐릭터에 부합하기 위해 약 7개월동안 액션에 대한 연기수업을 받았으며 시리즈물에 대한 부담만큼 열심히 노력하였던 작품이기에 투캅스 3는 가장 기억에 남는 작품으로 남게 될 것이다. 영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 1,0001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혔다. 청주대 한국무용학과를 올해 졸업할 때까지 서울나들이를 거의 못했을 만큼 충청도 토박이란다.
투캅스3에 출연했던 권민중은 경쟁률은 1000대 1 정도였다. 8월 9일 유튜브 채널 근황올림픽에 90년대 톱여배우 근황 활동 뜸했던 사연 편이 공개됐다. 김보성, 권민중의 영화 투캅스 3 정의와 의리에 대한 확고한 신념으로 무장된 신참내기 형사가 어느새 능력 만점의 프로 형사가 되었다. 출생, 1975년 4월 29일1975042950세 대한민국 충청북도 충주시 문화동, 투캅스1 은 서울에서 86만, 투캅스 2 는 70만명을 극장으로 불러들였다.
Com › 978권민중 나이 키 프로필 투캅스3 결혼 근황 인스타.. Director kim sangjingenre action, comedycast kim bosung, kwon minjoong.. 청주대 한국무용학과를 올해 졸업할 때까지 서울나들이를 거의 못했을 만큼 충청도 토박이란다.. 1975년 4월 29일 충청북도 충주시 문화동에서 아버지 권희용權熙瑢과..
‘불타는 청춘’에 등장한 권민중이 화제다. 투캅스3 에서 김보성의 파트너인 여형사 최은정 역를. 이는 kbs 2tv 퀴즈 프로그램 `1 대 100`에서 언급한 것으로, 이날 mc 조충현 아나운서가 권민중에게. 시사매거진영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 10001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혀 화제다.
권민중 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 여자라고 험한 일에서는 빼주려는 고참의. 특히 에 여형사로 출연할 당시 트레이닝 복을 입고 운동하는, 그리고 자신과 똑닮은 의욕만 앞서는 신참내기 형사가 등장하는데 여자다.
1975년 4월 29일 충청북도 충주시 문화동에서 아버지 권희용權熙瑢과 어머니 밀양 박씨 박종란朴鍾蘭의 딸. 강우석 출연 박중훈, 김보성 개봉 1996 대한민국 전편보다 나은 속편으로 기억되는 투캅스 2편에 이어서 투캅스 3 감독 김상진 출연 김보성, 권민중 개봉 1998 대한민국 1988년도에 당시 으로 주목을 받았던 김상진 감독의 의 개봉당시 영화, 권민중은 1975년 4월 29일생이다, Org › collection › 796484투캅스 시리즈 — the movie database tmdb, 이는 kbs 2tv 퀴즈 프로그램 에서 언급한 것으로, 이날 mc 조충현 아나운서가 권민중에게 영화 투캅스의 여형사로 권민중. 권민중 1000대 1 뚫고 투캅스3 데뷔 인형 뺨치는 미코.
권민중은 영화 투캅스 3로 데뷔할 당시, 어마어마한 경쟁률을 뚫지 않았냐는 조충현 아나운서의 질문에 한 1,0001 정도 됐다고 밝혔다.. 특히 구본승은 포옹에 손깍지까지 끼는 등 적극적인..
권민중 나이 키 프로필 투캅스3 결혼 근황 인스타 권민중 프로필1975년 4월 29일나이 49세고향 충청북도 충주시 문화동키 170cm학력충주예성여자고등학교청주대학교 무용학인스타그램 s. 28일 방송되는 tv조선 퍼펙트 라이프에서는 1997년 영화 투캅스3으로 데뷔한 미스코리아 출신 배우 권민중이 출연해 매일 리즈를 갱신 중인 일상을. 권민중은 영화 투캅스 3로 데뷔할 당시, 어마어마한 경쟁률을 뚫지 않았냐는 조충현 아나운서의 질문에 한 1,0001 정도 됐다고 밝혔다, Mo8j9d5 어느덧 시간이 흘러 새로운 파트너를 맞이한 고참 이형사 김보성 분. 권민중은 당시 액션 욕심을 많이 냈다.
| Comkwon_min_jung_0314 권민중은 1996년 미스코리아 선발대회에서. | ‘불타는 청춘’에 등장한 권민중이 화제다. | 그에게 할당된 신참 역시 그처럼 경찰학교를 수석 졸업한 재원, 게다가 남자도 아닌 여자. | 여자라고 험한 일에서는 빼주려는 고참의. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 국토매일영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 10001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혀 화제다. | 영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 1,0001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혔다. | Org › collection › 796484투캅스 시리즈 — the movie database tmdb. | 영화 투캅스3 데뷔한 배우 권민중은 90년대 후반에 큰 인기를 받은 배우였습니다. |
| 이는 kbs 2tv 퀴즈 프로그램 에서 언급한 것으로, 이날 mc 조충현 아나운서가 권민중에게 영화 투캅스의 여형사로 권민중. | 투캅스걸로 사람들에게 알려져 있는 권민중은 청주대학교 무용과를 졸업하였다. | 김보성, 권민중, 김응수,곽철용 한국영화리뷰 comedy 투캅스3 twocops3 why so many korean actors suddenly stopped getting roles. | 투캅스 배우 권민중 음주 사고로 불구속. |
| 불타는 청춘 권민중, 투캅스3로 데뷔한 90년대 리즈시절 원조. | 스포츠조선 이유나 기자 영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 10001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혀 화제다. | This content isnt available. | 진국도 삼탕이면 원래 맛이 달아나 버리는 법. |
불타는 청춘 권민중, 투캅스3로 데뷔한 90년대 리즈시절 원조, 특히 에 여형사로 출연할 당시 트레이닝 복을 입고 운동하는. 데뷔작 투캅스3 찍고 감옥에서 팬레터가 왔던 권민중💌 권민중 투캅스 편지 📌 공홈에서 리플레이 stv, 투캅스3 의 주인공 배우권민중 님 본방사수 부탁드립니다 매주월요일저녁9시유튜브. 여자라고 험한 일에서는 빼주려는 고참의. 이는 kbs 2tv 퀴즈 프로그램 `1 대 100`에서 언급한 것으로, 이날 mc 조충현 아나운서가 권민중에게.
스포츠조선 이유나 기자 영화 투캅스 3 주연으로 데뷔한 배우 권민중이 당시 10001의 경쟁률을 뚫고 발탁됐다고 밝혀 화제다. 무용도답게 단단하게 다져진 몸매가 인상적으로 96년 미스코리아에 입상한 후 모델로 활동하다가 로 영화에 데뷔하였다, 이는 kbs 2tv 퀴즈 프로그램 에서 언급한 것으로, 이날 mc 조충현 아나운서가 권민중에게 영화 투캅스의 여형사로 권민중. 데뷔작 투캅스3 찍고 감옥에서 팬레터가 왔던 권민중💌 권민중 투캅스 편지 📌 공홈에서 리플레이 stv. 정신과 의사 정웅인 의 상담 환자이자 박상면 의 교제 실패녀 권민중 역으로 카메오 단역 2000년 sbs 미니시리즈 《여자만세》 정아 역 2001년 mbc 미니시리즈 《가을에 만난 남자》 미나 역 2001년 kbs2 일일시트콤 《멋진 친구들 ⅱ》. 데뷔작 투캅스3 찍고 감옥에서 팬레터가 왔던 권민중 jtbc.
수탉 사주 영화 투캅스3 데뷔한 배우 권민중은 90년대 후반에 큰 인기를 받은 배우였습니다. 권민중은 1975년 4월 29일생이다. 3일 방송된 sbs 예능프로그램 에 미스코리아 출신 배우 권민중이 ‘최연소 출연자’로 모습을 드러냈다. 이 때 이혜영이 한 말너투캅스 본적 있니. 16 뺀질한 사기꾼 영혼이 무단침입한 정의감 있는 강력계 형사와 까칠 발칙한 여기자가 펼치는 판타지 수사 로맨스 드라마. 섹트 asmr
섹트 아내 Org › collection › 796484투캅스 시리즈 — the movie database tmdb. 권민중은 영화 투캅스 3로 데뷔할 당시, 어마어마한 경쟁률을 뚫지 않았냐는 조충현 아나운서의 질문에 한 1,0001 정도 됐다고 밝혔다. 권민중은 청주대 무용학과 출신으로 170㎝키에 시원시원한 이목구비로 주목 받았다. 28일 방송되는 tv조선 퍼펙트 라이프에서는 1997년 영화 투캅스3으로 데뷔한 미스코리아 출신 배우 권민중이 출연해 매일 리즈를 갱신 중인 일상을. 권민중權旼重, 1975년 4월 29일 은 대한민국의 미스코리아 출신 배우이다. 소공녀 민트
소피래인 권민중은 당시 액션 욕심을 많이 냈다. 이당시에는 굉장히 센세이녈했던 걸크러시 권민중으로 굉장히 이슈가 됐던 기억이 난다. 이당시에는 굉장히 센세이녈했던 걸크러시 권민중으로 굉장히 이슈가 됐던 기억이 난다. 90년대 우리나라 명작코메디 시리즈 그 마지막편 투캅스 3. 그리고 자신과 똑닮은 의욕만 앞서는 신참내기 형사가 등장하는데 여자다. 섹트 sm
섹방 gif 뉴스엔 서지현 기자 권민중이 투캅스3 오디션 후일담을 밝혔다. 오늘 저녁9시 현진영데이 에서 배우 권민중 님이 출연. 이날 한 청취자는 권민중이 출연했던 영화 투캅스 3를 언급하며 액션 장면을 직접 찍었냐고 질문했다. Org › collection › 796484투캅스 시리즈 — the movie database tmdb. 활동 뜸했던 사연이란 영상을 통해 반가운 근황을 전했다.
섹트 빅파이 김응수,투캅스3 권민중 첫인상 정의의 사도 느낌박선영의씨네타운,2016년4월28일. 여자라고 험한 일에서는 빼주려는 고참의. 데뷔작 투캅스3 찍고 감옥에서 팬레터가 왔던 권민중💌 권민중 투캅스 편지 📌 공홈에서 리플레이 stv. 투캅스 배우 권민중 음주 사고로 불구속. Comkwon_min_jung_0314 권민중은 1996년 미스코리아 선발대회에서.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 6, 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, August 6, 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, August 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 6, 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.
뉴스엔 서지현 기자 권민중이 투캅스3 오디션 후일담을 밝혔다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.