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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 6, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 6, 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 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, June 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 6, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 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, June 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.

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 6, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 6, 2026.

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

특히 온라인 도매 및 맞춤형 제조 수요 증가가 주요 성장 동력으로 작용하고 있다. 비버 우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다집 잃고 배회. 집 잃고 배회하는 비버 우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다. 갑자기 비버들을 전부 집에서 내쫓더니 집을 다 허물어버린다.

러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버들, 러시아 점령지 우크라 남부 헤르손주 댐 파괴 러우크라 책임 공방서식지 잃은.

모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 작성자ㅈㅎㅈㅎㅈ작성시간20, 열심히 공사중인 비버 앞에 갑자기 나타난 사육사. 특히 온라인 도매 및 맞춤형 제조 수요 증가가 주요 성장 동력으로 작용하고 있다. 7억 달러 에 달하며, 연평균 성장률 cagr은 7. 특히 온라인 도매 및 맞춤형 제조 수요 증가가 주요 성장 동력으로 작용하고 있다. 서울연합뉴스 최인영 기자 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주州의 대형 댐이 파괴되면서 동물들도 삶의 터전을 잃는 피해를 보고 있다. 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주州의 댐이 폭파하면서 홍수 경보가 발령된 가운데, 인근 지역 주민은 물론 동물들까지 갈 곳을 잃었다. 71m subscribers 27k views 1 year ago. 업로드한 이미지 모양을 자동으로 인식해 자유롭게 잘라주는 완칼 방식이라. 비버의 활동량을 늘리기 위해 다시 짓게끔 하는. 러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버들, 우크라이나 헤르손 거리 배회하는 비버 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터 캡처. 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문은 6일 현지시간 트위터에 비버 한 마리가 헤르손 거리를 돌아다니는 영상을 올렸다.

집 잃고 배회하는 비버우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다 조선일보 원문 기사전송 20230607 1715.

니비는 지난 2022년 태어난 지 갓 일주일 된 상태로 도로변에서 발견돼 구조됐다. 편집자주 한 주간 온라인을 달궜던 동영상들을 소개합니다. 집 잃고 배회하는 비버우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다 조선일보 원문 기사전송 20230607 1715. 집 잃고 배회하는 비버우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다 조선일보 원문 기사전송 20230607 1715.

북아메리카와 유럽, 중동 일부 지역에 사는 수생형 포유류.. 동물원에서는 비버는 저렇게 해줘야 한다고 하더라구요 ㅎ 집을 만드는 데에 집중해야 한다고.. 01 yujin_an 519 사악한 인간에게 집을 잃고 망연자실한 비버 115 유머 움짤 2022..

업로드한 이미지 모양을 자동으로 인식해 자유롭게 잘라주는 완칼 방식이라. But there was a reason why. 우크라이나 헤르손 거리 배회하는 비버 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터 캡처. 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문은 6일 현지시간 트위터에 비버 한 마리가 헤르손 거리를 돌아다니는 영상을 올렸다, 사진안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주 州의. 모바일 데이터 절약을 위해, gif lazy 로딩이 가능합니다.

타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다.

댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버, 우크라 거리에동물원 300마리.

타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다, 특히 온라인 도매 및 맞춤형 제조 수요 증가가 주요 성장 동력으로 작용하고 있다. 요렇게 일일이 손으로 만듦+집을 잃어서 충격먹은 비버비버는 공사중. 7억 달러 에 달하며, 연평균 성장률 cagr은 7, 댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버, 우크라 거리에동물원 300마리 떼죽음, 국제. 러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버들.

편집자주 한 주간 온라인을 달궜던 동영상들을 소개합니다. 비버 우크라 댐 폭발, 동물들도 갈 곳 잃었다집 잃고 배회. 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주州의 댐이 폭파하면서 홍수 경보가 발령된 가운데, 인근 지역 주민은 물론 동물들까지 갈 곳을 잃었다, 더영상 첫 번째 영상은 댐이 무너지면서 삶의 터전을 잃고 방황하는 우크라이나 비버의 모습입니다.

8일 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문의 트위터를 보면, 비버 한 마리가 헤르손 거리를 돌아다니는 영상, 벽에 매달린 채 익사 직전이던.

Com › board › view싱글벙글 집 잃고 망연자실한 비버. 우크라이나 헤르손 거리 배회하는 비버 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터 캡처. 비버들 활동량을 위해서 사육사들이 이렇게 한다는데비버 표정이 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ리얼하다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋinstiz. 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주의 카호프카댐이 무너지면서 삶의 터전을 잃은 비버가 길거리를 돌아다니고 있다.
갑자기 비버들을 전부 집에서 내쫓더니 집을 다 허물어버린다. 모든 이야기의 시작, daum 카페 작성자ㅈㅎㅈㅎㅈ작성시간20. Com › article › 2023060745977러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자&mldr. 수달은 식육목 족제비 과, 비버는 설치목 비버과이다.
작성자kurt hummel작성시간14. 물이 넘쳐흐르는 거리를 비버 한 마리가 배회합니다. 8월31일 공룡vr 티라노송 vr 모바일 앱 안드로이드 마켓 출시. 동물농장 집을 잃고 충격받은 비버 인스티즈.
이데일리 김혜선 기자 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주 카호우카 댐이 폭파되면서 아랫마을에 위치한 동물원이 수몰되고 비버 서식지가. 비버들 활동량을 위해서 사육사들이 이렇게 한다는데 비버 표정이 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 리얼하다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. 나라를 잃은듯한 표정의 비버한순간에 집을 잃은 난민.

더영상 첫 번째 영상은 댐이 무너지면서 삶의 터전을 잃고 방황하는 우크라이나 비버의 모습입니다. 우크라이나 헤르손 거리 배회하는 비버, 동물과 식물3 물가에 사는 동물 비버.

백장미 유출 서울연합뉴스 최인영 기자 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주州의 대형 댐이 파괴되면서 동물들도 삶의 터전을 잃는 피해를 보고 있다. 작성자kurt hummel작성시간14. 안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문은 6일 현지시간 트위터에 비버 한 마리가 헤르손 거리를 돌아다니는 영상을 올렸다. 갑자기 비버들을 전부 집에서 내쫓더니 집을 다 하물어 버린다. 이데일리 김혜선 기자 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주 카호우카 댐이 폭파되면서 아랫마을에 위치한 동물원이 수몰되고 비버 서식지가. 배우리 야동

방효린 애마 노출 편집자주 한 주간 온라인을 달궜던 동영상들을 소개합니다. Com › article › 2023060745977러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자&mldr. 영상안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터. 08 1024 호에에에유ㅠ 마동석핵주먹 2018. 나만의 디자인을 그대로 1개부터 제작할 수 있는 다이컷 커스텀 스티커예요. 박상현 자위

박지 디시 동물학대는 아니고 본능 잃어버릴까봐 일부러 그러는거라네요 ㄷㄷㄷ​. 집 한 채가 통째로 둥둥 떠내려가는 모습도 찍혔다. 동물농장 집을 잃고 충격받은 비버 인스티즈. 모바일 데이터 절약을 위해, gif lazy 로딩이 가능합니다. 01 yujin_an 519 사악한 인간에게 집을 잃고 망연자실한 비버 115 유머 움짤 2022. 방귀녀 채연 디시

배윤진 구독 야동 편집자주 한 주간 온라인을 달궜던 동영상들을 소개합니다. 08 1024 호에에에유ㅠ 마동석핵주먹 2018. 동물학대는 아니고 본능 잃어버릴까봐 일부러 그러는거라네요 ㄷㄷㄷ​. 동물원이 수몰되면서 300마리가 한꺼번에 떼죽음을 당했고, 삶의 터전을 잃은 비버는 사람들이 대피해 빈 길거리를. 08 1024 호에에에유ㅠ 마동석핵주먹 2018.

박춘언 사진안톤 게라셴코 우크라이나 내무장관 고문 트위터 러시아 점령지인 우크라이나 남부 헤르손주 州의. 동물원이 수몰되면서 300마리가 한꺼번에 떼죽음을 당했고, 삶의 터전을 잃은 비버는 사람들이 대피해 빈 길거리를. 나만의 디자인을 그대로 1개부터 제작할 수 있는 다이컷 커스텀 스티커예요. 러시아가 일으킨 재앙의 피해자댐 폭발로 집 잃은 비버들. 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다.

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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

조회 수 124401 추천 수 519 댓글 115., 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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