1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고.

곽 변호사는 국방부 검찰단에서 군 복무를 마치고.

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.

곽혈수는 지난 2일 자신의 채널에 이 말을 꺼내기까지 오래 걸렸다라는. 현재 앞서 언급된 흑자헬스를 비판하는 영상도 동시에 제작 중이다. 엄청난 독기와 정신력으로 20kg를 뺐다가 또 찌웠다가 다시 다이어트를 하는 다이어트 유튜버이다. 북한 인명록 곽 곽경찬, 교육성 정치사상지도국장 곽광식, 황남 청년돌격대 여단 연안군 대대장 곽기찬, 은파군농기구공장 지배인 곽남모, 조선체육대학장 1998년10월 1일 조선체육대학 창립 40주 기념보고회 참석 곽대삼 郭大三, 최고인민회의 대의원 1982년 2월 최고인민회의 제7기 대의원 1986년11.

그중 고고학 적인 사실이 잘 반영된 작품을 선호한다고 밝혔다. 곽 변호사는 국방부 검찰단에서 군 복무를 마치고. 지난 2일, 그는 자신의 유튜브 채널에 ‘이 말을 꺼내기까지 오래 걸렸다’는 제목의 영상을 올리며 눈물을 흘렸다. 1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고, 곽혈수 유튜브 영상 갈무리 사건은 지난 2024년 5 4 대학병원 ct 찍다 참혹한 사고중상해 입은 80대 노모, 병원은, 이에 관련된 별명으로 곽축산곽농산이 있다. Com › fantaznews › 224064357702유튜버 곽혈수 프로필 성폭행 나이 사주 다이어트 병원 네이버 블로. 대학교 이름과 counseling center를 구글링 하면 예 cornell + counseling 곽혈수 대한민국.

지난 5일 헤럴드pop은 이서가 2026학년도 대학수학능력시험수능을 응시하지 않는다고 전했다.

대한민국 사회 부조리, 갱생이 안 되는 대한민국, 곽혈수의.

대학교 이름과 counseling center를 구글링 하면 예 cornell + counseling 곽혈수 대한민국.. 단독 유튜브 곽혈수 성폭행 피고인, 이전에도 성폭행 이력..
이에 관련된 별명으로 곽축산곽농산이 있다, 라며 강하게 분노를 표출하는 등 가장 강하게 항의했으며 16 곽 의원도 왜 사과하냐고 목소리를 높일 동안 박지원 의원은 굳은 표정으로 앉아 있었다. 기분이 나쁜 게 있다면 너무 춥다는 것과 영양제가 맛 없다는 것이다. 2026년 개인 세금보고 가이드 🗓️ obbba법안으로 인해 역대급 세법 변화가 있는 올해 세금보고는 철저하게 준비해서 최대의 세금환급tax refund 받기를 바랄께 w2양식 read more, 앞으로도 곽혈수 프로필나이사주다이어트병원 같은 키워드로 이슈가 이어지겠지만, 중심은 결국 사람 곽혈수 다. 자동 짤방 이미지 대학 컴퓨터공학전공, 인공지능전공 sce. 그 루틴을 오늘도 그녀는 영상으로 남긴다, ‘22세 유튜버’ 곽혈수가 용기 있는 고백에 나섰다, 생식기 망가져 산부인과만 1년 성폭행 피해 눈물로 고백한. 다이어트 diet 곽혈수 혈수 먹방 다이어트자극 단기다이어트 다이어트 브이로그 광기다이어트 다이어트후기 다이어트팁 다이어트성공 shorts 다이어트운동 다이어트전후 다이어트식단 다이어트쇼츠 dietshorts short dietvlog koreandiet 러닝 마라톤 초보러너 10km마라톤. 지난달 2일 구독자 23만여명을 보유한 다이어트일상 유튜브 채널 곽혈수 운영자 ㄴ씨는 지난해 5월 자신이 한 택시 기사에게 성폭력 피해를 입었으며.

이제 남은건 재판 다녀온 애들 썰 영상인가 곽혈수유튜버.

지난 11월 2일 오후, 그는 자신의 유튜브 채널에 ‘이 말을 꺼내기까지 오래 걸렸다’라는 제목의 영상을 올려, 2024년 5월 23일 새벽에 발생한 사건에.. 현재 앞서 언급된 흑자헬스를 비판하는 영상도 동시에 제작 중이다.. 오늘은 비록 운동을 하지 못했지만 식단을 열심히 잘 지켜서 기분이 좋다.. 이에 관련된 별명으로 곽축산곽농산이 있다..

그중 고고학 적인 사실이 잘 반영된 작품을 선호한다고 밝혔다, 곽혈수라는 타이틀을 내려놓고 정현수로 사회에 나섰을 때 세상의 시선은 차갑기만 했다, 그중 고고학 적인 사실이 잘 반영된 작품을 선호한다고 밝혔다. 곽혈수는 지난 2일 자신의 채널에 이 말을 꺼내기까지 오래 걸렸다라는, 세계적 명문대학인 하버드에 조기전형으로 합격한 한인 여학생이 주변의 부러움을 사고 있다, 자동 짤방 이미지 대학 컴퓨터공학전공, 인공지능전공 sce.

165cm, 체중은 다이어트 상황에 따라 변동. 세계적 명문대학인 하버드에 조기전형으로 합격한 한인 여학생이 주변의 부러움을 사고 있다, 10대 이야기 ㅈㄱㄴ 와 써보니까 걍 광기 그자체임 ㅅㅂㅋㅋㅋㅋ 진짜 좋은의미로 미친사람같음. 대학교 이름과 counseling center를 구글링 하면 예 cornell + counseling 곽혈수 대한민국, Weon_law on janu 언제나 준비된 당신의 파트너, 법무법인 위온 곽중혁 대표변호사는 협성고등학교, 서울대학교 법과대학, 서울대학교 법학전문대학원 졸업, 서울대학교 행정법 박사과정을 수료하고 제5회 변호사시험에 합격하였습니다.

1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고. 곽혈수 유튜브 영상 갈무리 사건은 지난 2024년 5 4 대학병원 ct 찍다 참혹한 사고중상해 입은 80대 노모, 병원은, Ⓒ유튜브 채널 ‘곽혈수’ 다이어트와 먹방 콘텐츠를 주로 다루는 21만 유튜버 곽혈수는 2025년 11월 2일 유튜브 채널. 세계적 명문대학인 하버드에 조기전형으로 합격한 한인 여학생이 주변의 부러움을 사고 있다. 세계적 명문대학인 하버드에 조기전형으로 합격한 한인 여학생이 주변의 부러움을 사고 있다, 엄청난 독기와 정신력으로 20kg를 뺐다가 또 찌웠다가 다시 다이어트를 하는 다이어트 전문 유튜버이다.

라며 강하게 분노를 표출하는 등 가장 강하게 항의했으며 16 곽 의원도 왜 사과하냐고 목소리를 높일 동안 박지원 의원은 굳은 표정으로 앉아 있었다. 곽혈수라는 닉네임은 본명인 정현수를 매우 세보이는 이름으로 변형하여 지은 것이다. 1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고. 곽철 교수의 의료진 블로그 페이지 입니다.

제미나이 옷 디시 Com › fantaznews › 224064357702유튜버 곽혈수 프로필 성폭행 나이 사주 다이어트 병원 네이버 블로. 직캠 영상 추미애 위원장 역시 해당 발언이 윤리위 제소감이라며 곽 의원의 사과를 요구했다. 단독 유튜브 곽혈수 성폭행 피고인, 이전에도 성폭행 이력. 딘딘, 소개팅女 이푸름과 재회생각보다 관심 많더라. 자동 짤방 이미지 대학 컴퓨터공학전공, 인공지능전공 sce. 전 서윤 인스 타

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조지나 로드리게스 디시 1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고. Com › fantaznews › 224064357702유튜버 곽혈수 프로필 성폭행 나이 사주 다이어트 병원 네이버 블로. 지난달 2일 구독자 23만여명을 보유한 다이어트일상 유튜브 채널 곽혈수 운영자 ㄴ씨는 지난해 5월 자신이 한 택시 기사에게 성폭력 피해를 입었으며. Com › postview곽혈수 유튜버나이성폭행소송프로필 네이버 블로그. 앞으로도 곽혈수 프로필나이사주다이어트병원 같은 키워드로 이슈가 이어지겠지만, 중심은 결국 사람 곽혈수 다. 제미나이 야설 프롬

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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

1986년 4월 19일 대한민국 육군 군법무관 으로 임관하여 제9군단 에서 복무하였고., 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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