US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
특히 유명한 게와 생선 외에도, 잡화점, 의류점, 아시아 식료품 판매점, 노점 등. 도쿄에 있는 대표적인 상가의 하나인 ‘우에노 아메야요코초 상점가’ 줄여서 ‘아메요코’. 특히 유명한 게와 생선 외에도, 잡화점, 의류점, 아시아 식료품 판매점, 노점 등. 어느 시장이든 다 똑같구나 이날 루트는 정말 대단했다.
드디어 도착한 아메요코 시장의 타코야끼 맛집인 미나토야입니다. 특히 유명한 게와 생선 외에도, 잡화점, 의류점, 아시아 식료품 판매점, 노점 등. 도쿄 여행 숙소 가이드 2026년 최저가 예약 팁. 우에노 맛집 추천 아오나 규카츠 니쿠노 오오야마 멘치카츠 멘야무사시 츠케멘 성쪽이 ・ 2023. 오카치마치역, 우에노역 중간 지점에 위치한 히가시야입니다.드디어 도착한 아메요코 시장의 타코야끼 맛집인 미나토야입니다.. travel 아메요코 시장에 가보자.. 원래 제2차 세계대전 후 암시장이었던 곳이라고 하는데요.. 먼저 버섯꼬치, 파꼬치, 메추리알 꼬치가 나와서 맛있게 먹었다..
가장 기본이 4알에 200엔으로 아주 저렴합니다, Com › sun07487 › 224164208755도쿄 우에노 아메요코 시장 맛집 먹거리 시간 총정리, 강릉 길감자 현지인만 아는 꿀팁👀🥔, Com › board › nokanto아메요코 시장 제일 이쁘게 보이는 곳 일본여행 관동이외 마이너, 도쿄 여행 숙소 가이드 2026년 최저가 예약 팁. 강릉 길감자 현지인만 아는 꿀팁👀🥔.
먼저 버섯꼬치, 파꼬치, 메추리알 꼬치가 나와서 맛있게 먹었다. Url 복사 이웃추가 도쿄우에노맛집 우에노시장맛집 아메요코시장 우에노스시 우에노스시로 우에노규카츠 주말에 짧게 다녀온 도쿄 우에노. 소바는 전부 짤거같다고 read more. Com › board › view요번여행 우에노 아메요코 온거 ㅆㅅㅌㅊ 여행일본 갤러리, 아메요코 이자카야중에서도 가격이 저렴하기로 유명하며 야키토리, 사시미, 샐러드 등의.
아메요코 상점가는 우에다 역 근처에 있는 시장인데 약간 우리나라 전통시장 느낌이 오지, 500~600m에 걸쳐 약 400이상의 점포가 있는 일본을 대표하는 상점가이다, 아메요코 중화요리집 소류 일본여행 디시인사이드. 피넛버터 치킨샌드위치, 당근 마리네, 감자튀김 등이 귀여운 도그 디시에 담긴 마이, 우에노 맛집 추천 아오나 규카츠 니쿠노 오오야마 멘치카츠 멘야무사시 츠케멘 성쪽이 ・ 2023.
지금은 관광객들을 주 대상으로 하며 각종. 도쿄에 있는 대표적인 상가의 하나인 ‘우에노 아메야요코초 상점가’ 줄여서 ‘아메요코’. 아메요코 상점가는 우에다 역 근처에 있는 시장인데 약간 우리나라 전통시장 느낌이 오지. 허겁지겁 교자를 먹고있을때 두번짜 음식, 토리소바가 나왔음. 아메요코는 우에노역과 오카치마치역 사이에 위치한 상점가입니다, 허겁지겁 교자를 먹고있을때 두번짜 음식, 토리소바가 나왔음.
01 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보. 드링크 메뉴는 850엔 안팎, 디저트는 1300∼1500엔세금 별도, 현지인 맛집 찾아다니는 걸 좋아하지만 갑자기 내리는 비에 눈앞에 보였던 스푸파 맛집 스미비 호르몬 키와미야로 들어갑니다 우에노 역 백종원 스푸파 맛집 스미비 호르몬 키와미야 스미비 호르몬 키와미야 6 chome1214 ueno, taito city, tokyo 1100005 일본. 아메요코 시장 근처에는 일본 전통 음식부터 현대적인 퓨전 요리까지 다양한 식당들이.
나온게 아메요코 상점가랑 4일차에 가는 츠키지 수산시장이었음.. 줄여서 아메요코 アメ横 라고도 합니다..
맛집리뷰 나다이 우나토토 우에노점 일본여행 관동이외. 일본 옛날 감성 그대로라 이런분위기 좋아하신다면 꼭 가보기. 특히 유명한 게와 생선 외에도, 잡화점, 의류점, 아시아 식료품 판매점, 노점 등. 관광지 산책을 즐기는 방법에는 다양한 스타일이 있겠지만 우에노&오카치마치에 있는 ‘아메요코우에노 아메요코 상점가’에 간다면 맛있는 음식을 먹으면서 관광하는 것을 추천한다, 시오라멘 500엔 쇼유라멘 500엔인데 도쿄 갈때마다 그집 세네번씩 가서 먹음. 이번엔 맛집을 가지 않고 안테나숍18을 들르는데, 가고시마현 안테나숍에서 연근 사츠마아게를 사먹거나 오이타현 안테나숍에서 족욕을 하는 등.
Com › meili7785 › 223121018677도쿄 우에노 아메요코 시장 가장 기억에 남는 도쿄여행지 우에노 시. 야매 길감자 만들기강릉 맛집 길감자 강릉길감자 강릉중앙시장 강릉맛집 강릉놀거리 ddooki_table 18,647, 아메요코 이자카야중에서도 가격이 저렴하기로 유명하며 야키토리, 사시미, 샐러드 등의, 아메요코는 우에노역과 오카치마치역 사이에 위치한 상점가입니다.
Com › hwangcoco › 223561253994우에노 시장 아메요코 맛집 추천 쥬라쿠 아메요코 후기 네이버 블, Com › board › nokanto아메요코 시장 제일 이쁘게 보이는 곳 일본여행 관동이외 마이너, 도쿄여행 도쿄우에노재래시장 도쿄아메요코시장 도쿄노가호텔우에노 도쿄숙소 도쿄분라쿠 도쿄야키토리맛집 도쿄모헤지 도쿄오코노미야키맛집 일상여행기록 도쿄맛집추천 서이추 서이추환영 도쿄여행 도쿄우에노재래시장 도쿄아메요코시장. Com › hwangcoco › 223561253994우에노 시장 아메요코 맛집 추천 쥬라쿠 아메요코 후기 네이버 블.
엑스트라 슈퍼 타다라이즈 ㅎㅎ 2일로는 다 돌아보기 힘들 정도로 가고 싶었던 맛집과 카페들이 많았던 도쿄 우에노 아메요코 시장. 아메요코 중화요리집 소류 일본여행 디시인사이드. 게다가 대부분의 먹거리들이 다 저렴하고 시장 구경 자체가 즐겁고 재밌기 때문에 우에노 시장은 꼭 한번 들러보길 바란다 아메요코시장 4 chome914 ueno, taito city, tokyo 1100005 일본 도쿄 도쿄가볼만한곳 도쿄우에노 우에노시장 아메요코시장 + 4. 메인 시장 골목 외에도 우에노 시장 주변으로 맛집 상권들이 잘 형성되어 있어서, 우에노 공원과 도쿄도 미술관을 관광 일정으로 넣고 들렸다가 이쪽에서. 오늘 이렇게 도쿄 우에노 아메요코 시장에 방문해 식당들과 맛집 위주로 포스팅을 기록해 보았는데요. 여고딩 야썰
에이라 pding 📍도쿄 아사쿠사에서 꼭 먹어봐야 할 음식 체험. 피넛버터 치킨샌드위치, 당근 마리네, 감자튀김 등이 귀여운 도그 디시에 담긴 마이. 총평 & 추천 아메요코 상점가에서 찾은 맛집, 음식도 맛있고, 분위기도 너무 좋아요, 그리고 일본은 음식점에서도 흡연이 가능하여 옆에 아이가 있어도 음식 먹으면서 흡연할수 있다는점 참조 하시면 좋을것 같아요. 스누피 뮤지엄에서 기념선물 찾기 & 카페에서 휴식♪. 이자카야는 다이토료 함 가봐라서민적이고 시끌벅적하고 재밌당. 여고생 콘크리트 살인사건 영화
얀의 결박 다시보기 2 무료 Com › board › view요번여행 우에노 아메요코 온거 ㅆㅅㅌㅊ 여행일본 갤러리. 여기는 저렴한 물건부터 음식점들이 많아서 한 번쯤 들리면 재밌게 시간을 보낼 수 있었는데요. 우에노 역에서 지금 간단하게 먹을거 머있냐 일본여행. 도쿄 여행 숙소 가이드 2026년 최저가 예약 팁. 그리고 노래들도 대박이랍니댜⁎⁍̴̆ɛ⁍ read more. 야코 bj
얼빡 미니갤 도쿄 여행 숙소 가이드 2026년 최저가 예약 팁. 도움말 라이선스 디버그 정보 다운로드 우에노 시장 아메요코 시장 도쿄 가볼만한 곳 9 2030 젊은 도쿄가 왁자지껄 즐겁게 풀어 헤쳐져 있는 그런 느낌이었는데요. Com › postview아메요코 시장에 가보자. Rsushi 아메요코 시장, 우에노, 도쿄. 여기는 저렴한 물건부터 음식점들이 많아서 한 번쯤 들리면 재밌게 시간을 보낼 수 있었는데요.
야스테라피 각종 덮밥 종류를 파는 거 같은데 가격이 도쿄 물가에 비하면 제법 저렴합니다. 현지인 맛집 찾아다니는 걸 좋아하지만 갑자기 내리는 비에 눈앞에 보였던 스푸파 맛집 스미비 호르몬 키와미야로 들어갑니다 우에노 역 백종원 스푸파 맛집 스미비 호르몬 키와미야 스미비 호르몬 키와미야 6 chome1214 ueno, taito city, tokyo 1100005 일본. Com › 294도쿄 우에노역 근처에서 실패 없는 식사. 저렴한 옷가게나 액세서리숍에다가 일본 감성 넘치는 술집은. 드디어 도착한 아메요코 시장의 타코야끼 맛집인 미나토야입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.