US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 9, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
오쿠보 공원왔는데 ㄹㅇ 무섭긴하다 일본여행 관동이외. 일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원 외국대학 갤러리. Kr › nownews › 20241118601008scmp 도쿄 ‘성매매 관광지’ 됐다. 이곳 오쿠보공원은 타칭보의 성지라 불리우는데, 간단하게 말하면 서있는 여성에게 가서 가격 합의를 보고.
Kr › nownews › 20241118601008scmp 도쿄 ‘성매매 관광지’ 됐다. 원래 주말에는 홋카이도 빨통큰 여자 오는거 아니었음. Com › community › board일본 여행가서 조심해야 하는거jpg 루리웹, 하루 510명 남성 만나절반은 외국인 scmp는 도쿄 길거리에서 불법 성매매에 종사하는 19세 여성 루이 가명의 사례를 소개했다. 도쿄 신주쿠에 위치한 오쿠보 공원이 일본의 성매매 온상이 되고 있습니다, 호스트클럽에 외상을 져 술값을 변제하는 것이 목적이라고 답해 충격을 줬습니다, Net567264202 저렇게 서있는 애들을 타친보라고 하는듯 프리랜서 챙녀라고 슈킹해가도 무리없는 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 오쿠보 공원 주변에서 성매매 혐의로 체포된 여성들 중 40% 이상이 호스트 클럽에 갈 돈을 벌려고 했다. 먼저 본좌는 니뽄 걸쁘랜도 만들기 100일차 실패 스탬프 3장 찍은 사람이니라우매한 범인들을 위해서 타칭보 후기를 말해주겠노라먼저 본좌는 맘에 드는 일녀를 찾기 위해 오쿠보 공원 30바퀴 정속주행을 감행했다. 일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원. 오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다. 오쿠보공원에서 여자들 서있길래 한시간정도 구경함 늙다리땍딱이들 싸와디캅들도 여자들한테 구애를함 가격때문인건지 나이때문인건지 국적때문인, 재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라. 카부키쵸 위에 오쿠보 공원에도 타칭보라고 비슷한 계열 있음, 오쿠보역보다 멀지만 도쿄메트로 후쿠토신선 과 도에이 오에도선 환승역인 히가시신주쿠역, 그리고 세이부 신주쿠선 세이부신주쿠역 도 인접해 있다. 52만엔, 비싸면 3만엔에 ㅅㅅ가능 평범한 사복입고 누구 기다리는척 핸드폰을 하고 있다, 오쿠보공원 근처에서 140명의 여성을 불법 성매매 혐의로 체포했습니다. 원래 주말에는 홋카이도 빨통큰 여자 오는거 아니었음. Com › nickykim156423 › 223421059334호스트로 인생을 망친 일본 여성들과 가부키초의 길거리 매춘 실체.일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원, 오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다, 네이버에 찾아도 정확한 핫플 위치를 모르겠죠. 근처에 볼일있어서 오쿠보공원 바로옆 저렴한호텔 1박 체크인하고 12시쯤 바로나와 거리배회를 시작함 장소는 검색하면 나오지만, 장소는 오쿠보공원.
그때 있었던 일 말해주니까 나보고 막 조심하라고 하더라. 재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라. 말 길어질 거 같아서 일단 사진 투척여기는 오쿠보 공원新宿区立大久保公園이라는 곳이다.
오쿠보역보다 멀지만 도쿄메트로 후쿠토신선 과 도에이 오에도선 환승역인 히가시신주쿠역, 그리고 세이부 신주쿠선 세이부신주쿠역 도 인접해 있다, 도쿄 신주쿠에 위치한 오쿠보 공원이 일본의 성매매 온상이 되고 있습니다, 이 글은 공항에서 막 도쿄 시내에 도착한 1일차를 기준으로 쓰고 있다, Net › 567264202관광명소화 되고 있다는 도쿄 오쿠보공원 타친보 dogdrip.
오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보 新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다. 서던 테라스, 다카시마야 타임스퀘어를 거쳐 동쪽 출구의 쇼핑센터, 이세탄 백화점 지하 푸드코트 관광 서비스는 무료지만 쇼핑은 당연히 자비 부담입니다. 오쿠보공원이때 오후 5시였나 그럴껀데 공원 바깥족 골목 거리에서는 미자들이 섞여 똥술처먹고 휴대폰만지며 조건원조교제하는 일녀들을 뒤로, 맑은날 아침에 오니까 어제와 같은 모습은 아니였다.
맑은날 아침에 오니까 어제와 같은 모습은 아니였다.. 일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원..
카부키쵸 위에 오쿠보 공원에도 타칭보라고 비슷한 계열 있음, 52만엔, 비싸면 3만엔에 ㅅㅅ가능 평범한 사복입고 누구 기다리는척 핸드폰을 하고 있다, 그중 40%의 여성이 호스트클럽 유흥비 마련을 위해 매춘에 뛰어들었다. 여러 지역 축제들도 자주 열려서 도쿄 도민들에겐 익숙한 장소죠. 오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보 新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다.
재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라, 재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라. 신주쿠 유흥가 가부키초 성매매 여성 급증. 일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원 외국대학 갤러리, 재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라, Net › 523607600즉석 조건만남의 장이 돼버린 도쿄 오쿠보공원 dogdrip.
공원에서는 지금 아이스크림 페스한다고 시끌벅쩍한데 뒷편으로 가면 여자애들 길따라 서있고 남녀 뭉쳐있는 무리도 제법 많은데 길이 ㄹㅇ 조용함 숨이. 일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원 외국대학 갤러리. 도쿄 오쿠보공원 타칭보 후기 쓴다 여행일본 갤러리, 내시발 살다살다 말로만 들었지 거길 실제로 가게될줄은 몰랐음오쿠보공원 바로 앞에 호텔이 있거든내가 거기 묵었었음ㄹㅇ로 저녁.
애미창년같은 라멘축제때문에 기집애들 없음ㅋㅋ 견찰 존나 왔다갔다함. 원래 주말에는 홋카이도 빨통큰 여자 오는거 아니었음. 오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다. 05 023835 photonmaiden 밴쿠버 도쿄항공권 왕복으로 살수있음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 2024, 걍 지나가는게 낫겠다 타칭보 ㅂㅈ들도 걍 넝마주이들밖에없음 dc official app. 거리 위치는 신주쿠 신오쿠보 가는 길 사이에 있고또 여기 근처에는 가끔 포텐에도 올라온 토요코키즈들이 모인다는 도호시네마즈 가 바로 근처에 있음내가.
정주아 거리 위치는 신주쿠 신오쿠보 가는 길 사이에 있고또 여기 근처에는 가끔 포텐에도 올라온 토요코키즈들이 모인다는 도호시네마즈 가 바로 근처에 있음내가. 좀 귀여워 보이는 애한테 말거니까대충 20중반 2만엔이라 하길래 떨떠름하게 있으니 1. Net567264202 저렇게 서있는 애들을 타친보라고 하는듯 프리랜서 챙녀라고 슈킹해가도 무리없는 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 타칭보 다른지역에서 특정장소가 있지만 신주쿠 오쿠보공원으로 대표되는 유명한 분들 아저씨들이 먼저 말걸고 교섭해서 금액이 맞으면 호텔직행. 인근 토요코トー横로 불리는 장소는 가출 청소년이 집결하는 장소이며, 여기 모인 애들을 토요코키즈. 정글 av 배우
정으 인근 토요코トー横로 불리는 장소는 가출 청소년이 집결하는 장소이며, 여기 모인 애들을 토요코키즈. 도쿄의 번화가인 신주쿠는 이 도시를 방문하는 관광객들에게는 쇼핑 천국과 같은 곳이다. Com › kws3128pdm › 223669989156너 얼마야. 재미는 있음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흑형들 담배피다 경찰이 끄라하는거 보니까 흑형들 반응 재밌더라. Kr › nownews › 20241118601008scmp 도쿄 ‘성매매 관광지’ 됐다. 전생슬 히토미
조이현 딥페 05 023835 photonmaiden 밴쿠버 도쿄항공권 왕복으로 살수있음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 2024. 한달에 106명 아저씨랑 만나서 1300만원 벌고 그돈으로 한류풍 호스트가서 다 탕진 ㅋㅋㅋ. 도쿄의 번화가인 신주쿠는 이 도시를 방문하는 관광객들에게는 쇼핑 천국과 같은 곳이다. 오쿠보 공원 주변에서 성매매 혐의로 체포된 여성들 중 40% 이상이 호스트 클럽에 갈 돈을 벌려고 했다. 초만에 구별하는 방법 일단 타칭보 대부분이 미성년자이기 때문에 얘네들도 경찰에 걸리면 귀찮으니 키 커보이려고 굽이 최소 3cm 이상인 통굽 혹은 부츠류의 신발을 신고 휴대폰을 보고. 조교 javrank
존예 목까시 도쿄 신주쿠에 위치한 오쿠보 공원이 일본의 성매매 온상이 되고 있습니다. 20명이 넘는 여성들은 한꺼번에 스마트폰을 한 손에, 시간을 쓰고 있는 모습으로 만남을 하는 것처럼 보인다. 20명이 넘는 여성들은 한꺼번에 스마트폰을 한 손에, 시간을 쓰고 있는 모습으로 만남을 하는 것처럼 보인다. 아마 밤에 가까워지는 시간대가 되면 렌탈여친거리로 변모하는게 아닌가 싶음. 5만으로 해준다고 하더라 나 폰 데이터 없어서 파파고 안되는데 자기 폰으로 말 치라고 빌려주고 친절하더라 그 다음으론 한바퀴 다.
조로 산 ㅂㅇ 신오쿠보공원 돌아봤어오후 5시쯤 가니 두세명잇더라78시늠 젤 많은듯 물도좋고9시에 걍찰단속그냥 설렁설렁임 오고나니 에이스들은 다 팔렷고그중에 한국인남자 한명 경찰한테 취조당하고잇더라 ㅋㅋ 훈방되긴한듯쪽팔리기 그러. 그때 있었던 일 말해주니까 나보고 막 조심하라고 하더라. 신오쿠보공원 돌아봤어오후 5시쯤 가니 두세명잇더라78시늠 젤 많은듯 물도좋고9시에 걍찰단속그냥 설렁설렁임 오고나니 에이스들은 다 팔렷고그중에 한국인남자 한명 경찰한테 취조당하고잇더라 ㅋㅋ 훈방되긴한듯쪽팔리기 그러. 오쿠보공원은 도쿄 한인촌 신오쿠보新大久保로부터 불과 도로 하나만 떨어져 있는 곳입니다. 그중 40%의 여성이 호스트클럽 유흥비 마련을 위해 매춘에 뛰어들었다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 9, 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.
일본 성매매 집합소 도쿄 오쿠보 공원 외국대학 갤러리., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.