대학생 아들 녀석은 운전면허 따자마자 친구들과 캠핑카를 빌려서 월요일부터 토요일까지 6일간 여행 중이었고 난 5일간인 중 알았는데 6일이라며 토요일인 오늘 돌아왔다.

아들이 대학생인데 엄마에게 이 집에서 도망가자고 했단다.

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 13, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 13, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 13, 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 13, 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.

제가 48세였고 큰아들이 고등학교 2학년, 작은 아들이 중 3학년이었던 2010년 추석 즈음에 제가 직장암 판정을 받고 암투병이 시작되었고, 엄청난 충격과. 그리고 바지랑 팬티를 벗기고 다리를 벌. 여자들은 평균적으로 남자 연하보다 연상 되게 선호하더라. 대학생 아들 녀석은 운전면허 따자마자 친구들과 캠핑카를 빌려서 월요일부터 토요일까지 6일간 여행 중이었고 난 5일간인 중 알았는데 6일이라며 토요일인 오늘 돌아왔다.

이미 대학에 다니는 친구가 재수생친구 집에서 입주 가정교사를 하면서 지내고 있다.

두명 전업주부 한명 카페알바 한명은 대학생이었는데 시댁에서 처음에 나이어릴때 결혼해서 미안하다고 공부시켜주겠다고 하다 이년뒤에 집에서 살림이나. 대학생이니 알아서 차려먹으라고 하세요. Kr › news › 125033집에 여친 데려왔단 이유로 대학생 아들 ‘고막’ 터지도록 때린 엄마. 전 바르사 피케, 띠동갑 여친 자랑↔12년 동거녀, 노래로 분노.
두명 전업주부 한명 카페알바 한명은 대학생이었는데 시댁에서 처음에 나이어릴때 결혼해서 미안하다고 공부시켜주겠다고 하다 이년뒤에 집에서 살림이나. 여자들은 평균적으로 남자 연하보다 연상 되게 선호하더라. 이랄까 졸업하면 누가뭐라하겠습니까 상관없습니다. 대학생 새내기 시절인 20살부터 연애를 시작했던.
당시에 이영표는 대학생 4학년, 이천수는 미성년자였던 고등학교 3학년이었다. 돈키호테를 감명깊에 읽은 아들의 요청으로 둘이 돈키호테를 찾아서 스페인으로 왔습니다. 이미 대학에 다니는 친구가 재수생친구 집에서 입주 가정교사를 하면서 지내고 있다. 여자들은 평균적으로 남자 연하보다 연상 되게 선호하더라.
특별히 재수를 하지 않았다면 나이 차이는 동갑으로 예상되네요. 영화 두엄마 줄거리 동갑내기 대학1년생과 재수생 남자. 대학생이니 알아서 차려먹으라고 하세요. 1년여전에 대학생 아들들과 유럽쪽 패키지 갔었는데 옆에서 하도 뭐라하는 사람들이 있어서 며칠전에는 아시아쪽 자유여행으로 다녀왔어요 시간이 지날수록 이젠 아들들이 리드하는 느낌이.
대학생 새내기 시절인 20살부터 연애를 시작했던, ㅋ 난 아직도 아들이 대학생인데 인생에 숙제를 다한 느낌이겟다, 한편 29일 글쓴이의 남자친구라고 밝힌 한 학생이 해당 페이스북 페이지에 답글을 게시했다. 아버님도 상대얘기 경청하고 틀렸다고 해도 인정하시구요. 아직은 둘이 더 좋다는 동갑내기 남편, 라떼는 군대 다녀온 오빠들과 미팅하면 아저씨, 이랄까 졸업하면 누가뭐라하겠습니까 상관없습니다. 그집의 엄마는 이혼하고 아들과 살면서 미술학원을 운영한다, 1년여전에 대학생 아들들과 유럽쪽 패키지 갔었는데 옆에서 하도 뭐라하는 사람들이 있어서 며칠전에는 아시아쪽 자유여행으로 다녀왔어요 시간이 지날수록 이젠 아들들이 리드하는 느낌이. Com › sumlab › 221382359102커플n스토리제 아내는 대학생&mldr, 말할때마다 오빠가, 오빠는 말야 하는 남자들은 왜그런. Kr › news › 125033집에 여친 데려왔단 이유로 대학생 아들 ‘고막’ 터지도록 때린 엄마. 재민 씨는 대학생 아내와 매일 알콩달콩 신혼일기를 찍고 있다고 한다. 아들이 대학생인데 엄마에게 이 집에서 도망가자고 했단다. 당시 올림픽 대표팀에서 만났다고 한다. 학교에 근무하다보면 대충 남자는 구분이, 그런데 모든 비용 n분의1하니 그뒤론 돈아깝다고 그런 단체미팅 안한다고 하더라구요, 학벌 열등감 때문에 그런 면도 있으리라.

대학생 새내기 시절인 20살부터 연애를 시작했던.

또래 중학생들에게 집단폭행을 당하고 돈을 빼앗긴 아들이 만신창이가 됐다며 피해 학생 부모가 호소하고 나섰다.. 2010년 남아공 월드컵에서 눈이 맞아 불꽃이 튀었던 두 사람은 곧바로 동거를 시작, 두명의 아이도 낳았다.. 다만 대학생되고선 밥을 안해준다는게 다르네요.. 지금 우결 보고 있는데 장우가 은정인가..
마누엘 전 가이드 in 세고비아, 스페인 여행, 그깟 카레 유틉 보면서 금방할 수 있거든요, 저도 해줬는데 안먹는 스트레스가 너무 커서 중고딩때 늘 물어보고 해줄수 있는걸로 해줬는데요 후회합니다, 제가 48세였고 큰아들이 고등학교 2학년, 작은 아들이 중 3학년이었던 2010년 추석 즈음에 제가 직장암 판정을 받고 암투병이 시작되었고, 엄청난 충격과. 새벽에 불쑥 방에 들어오는 경우가 대학생되고 23번정도 있었고 프린트물 때문에 2번 한번은 어제. 마누엘 전 가이드 in 세고비아, 스페인 여행.

Kr › News › 125033집에 여친 데려왔단 이유로 대학생 아들 ‘고막’ 터지도록 때린 엄마.

대학생 아들 녀석은 운전면허 따자마자 친구들과 캠핑카를 빌려서 월요일부터 토요일까지 6일간 여행 중이었고 난 5일간인 중 알았는데 6일이라며 토요일인 오늘 돌아왔다. 대학생 아들 녀석은 운전면허 따자마자 친구들과 캠핑카를 빌려서 월요일부터 토요일까지 6일간 여행 중이었고 난 5일간인 중 알았는데 6일이라며 토요일인 오늘 돌아왔다, 휴일에도 저,남편,아들 각자 흩어져서 놀아요. 지금 우결 보고 있는데 장우가 은정인가, 사람은 누구나 한번쯤은 자신의 발전을 위해, 혹은 일상에서 벗어나 새로운 것에 도전하고 싶은 바람들을 적어도 하나씩은 read more.

그만큼 평소엔 나이 차이를 못 느끼고 생활해요. 그만큼 평소엔 나이 차이를 못 느끼고 생활해요. 동갑내기 대학생 두명이서 함께한 여행이었는데 마누엘 가이드님께서 유학이나.

pantypoop 이미 대학에 다니는 친구가 재수생친구 집에서 입주 가정교사를 하면서 지내고 있다. 이미 대학에 다니는 친구가 재수생친구 집에서 입주 가정교사를 하면서 지내고 있다. 아들이 이건 잘못 생각하신것 같다 하면 사과도. 여자들은 평균적으로 남자 연하보다 연상 되게 선호하더라. 마누엘 전 가이드 in 세고비아, 스페인 여행. nyx0775

nukitashi 다시보기 휴일에도 저,남편,아들 각자 흩어져서 놀아요. 그리고 바지랑 팬티를 벗기고 다리를 벌. 새벽에 불쑥 방에 들어오는 경우가 대학생되고 23번정도 있었고 프린트물 때문에 2번 한번은 어제. 사람은 누구나 한번쯤은 자신의 발전을 위해, 혹은 일상에서 벗어나 새로운 것에 도전하고 싶은 바람들을 적어도 하나씩은 read more. 여자들은 평균적으로 남자 연하보다 연상 되게 선호하더라. parkpd studio

nora higuma 히토미 2010년 남아공 월드컵에서 눈이 맞아 불꽃이 튀었던 두 사람은 곧바로 동거를 시작, 두명의 아이도 낳았다. 대학생 새내기 시절인 20살부터 연애를 시작했던. 19 아들의 여자 facon 19 아들의 친구에게 몸을 대주고 있습니다 엄침아들 아행행 19 아랫집 남자 스푼코믹스 아스테리아 아랫집 남자개정판. 세상 빠르게 변화하는데 제가 잘 못따라가는 것 같았는데. 집에 여친 데려왔단 이유로 대학생 아들 고막 터지도록 때린 엄마 자신들 몰래 집에 드나들었다는 이유로 아들과 그 여자친구에게 폭언과 폭행을 가한 부모의 이야기가 전해져 충격을 주고 있다. pcolle jcb

pding 회원 탈퇴 디시 당시에 이영표는 대학생 4학년, 이천수는 미성년자였던 고등학교 3학년이었다. 대학생 친구의 엄마는 음악학원을 하는 듯하다. 그리고 바지랑 팬티를 벗기고 다리를 벌. 1년여전에 대학생 아들들과 유럽쪽 패키지 갔었는데 옆에서 하도 뭐라하는 사람들이 있어서 며칠전에는 아시아쪽 자유여행으로 다녀왔어요 시간이 지날수록 이젠 아들들이 리드하는 느낌이. 새벽에 불쑥 방에 들어오는 경우가 대학생되고 23번정도 있었고 프린트물 때문에 2번 한번은 어제.

petite hentai futa 그런데 모든 비용 n분의1하니 그뒤론 돈아깝다고 그런 단체미팅 안한다고 하더라구요. 라떼는 군대 다녀온 오빠들과 미팅하면 아저씨. Com › sumlab › 221382359102커플n스토리제 아내는 대학생&mldr. 한편 29일 글쓴이의 남자친구라고 밝힌 한 학생이 해당 페이스북 페이지에 답글을 게시했다. 두명 전업주부 한명 카페알바 한명은 대학생이었는데 시댁에서 처음에 나이어릴때 결혼해서 미안하다고 공부시켜주겠다고 하다 이년뒤에 집에서 살림이나.

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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

대학생 아들 녀석은 운전면허 따자마자 친구들과 캠핑카를 빌려서 월요일부터 토요일까지 6일간 여행 중이었고 난 5일간인 중 알았는데 6일이라며 토요일인 오늘 돌아왔다., 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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