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.
드라마픽멜로가 체질 민준이김명준 옆에 없으니까 더 생각나는 소민이주빈 감정에 솔직해지기로 한 소민이주빈의 폭풍 직진 ♀️ ♀️ 멜로가. 채널a 예능프로그램 아이콘택트에 출연한 배우 이주빈과 김명준이 소원해진 계기에 관해 대화했다. 디시트렌드 착한 사나이 이동욱x박훈x이문식x한재영의 ‘살벌’ 대면. 평소 편한 여사친&남사친 사이인 두 사람은 드라마 멜로가 체질에.
서로 속마음에 대해 털어놓는 시간을 가졌는데요. 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에서는 배우 이주빈과 김명준이 눈맞춤을 진행했다. 본명 이주빈 나이 1989년 9월 18일 키 163cm 몸무게 46kg 혈액형 ab형 학력 동덕여자대학교방송연예학학사 데뷔 2017년 sbs 드라마 귓속말 1. 충격주의 연예인들의 레전드 어린시절 여배우편, 채널a 예능프로그램 아이콘택트에 출연한 배우 이주빈과 김명준이 소원해진 계기에 관해 대화했다, 앞서 지난 1일 방송된 아이콘택트에서 배우 김명준, 이주빈 씨는 과거부터 남사친, 여사친 관계로 지내오다 jtbc 드라마 멜로가 체질에서 운명처럼, 이주빈 네가 있으면 숨막혀, 일부러 피했다 김명준과 흔들린 우정 김학진 기자 업데이트 2020. 서로 속마음에 대해 털어놓는 시간을 가졌는데요.기자들도 다음주 방송이 궁금했나 보구나ㅎㅎㅎ 강호동.. 하지만 김명준이 눈맞춤을 원한 이유는 단순히 관계 회복만은 아니었다.. 연예인 이주빈님의 소식이 올라오는 갤입니다.. 드라마랑 영화 중에 고르라면 영화할 타임이 맞는 read more..지난 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에서 이주빈과 김명준이 대화하는 모습이 펼쳐지고 있다. 프로필 2017년 드라마 귓속말로 데뷔한 6년 차 배우로 활동 기간이 길지 않음에도 불구하고 미스터 션샤인, 멜로가 체질, 조선로코 녹두전, 그 남자의, 멜로가 체질에서 연인 연기를 펼쳤던 이주빈, 김명준이 솔직한 대화를 통해 소원해진 사이를 회복했다. 09 오전 1043 채널a 신개념 침묵 예능프로그램 아이콘택트 방송화면 갈무리 ⓒ 뉴스1, 그런 것들이 힘들게 했던 것 같다고 고백했다, Com › view › 1271818아이콘택트 이주빈, 김명준 피한 이유. 09 오전 1043 채널a 신개념 침묵 예능프로그램 아이콘택트 방송화면 갈무리 ⓒ 뉴스1. Com › view › 20200608n42555이주빈, 멜체 이후 김명준 일부러 피한 이유. 배고프다고 하면 도시락 챙겨오고 집에 있는 read more. 전체 맥락을 이해하기 위해서는 본문 보기를 권장합니다. 멜로가 체질 이주빈 김명준 어떤 사이일까 네이버 블로그, 이 빤수줌년은 김지원이랑 대놓고 망붕하는 징그러운 아줌마 ㅋ 이주빈 글에는 피뎁타령하네 개더러운년아. 평소 편한 여사친&남사친 사이인 두 사람은 드라마 멜로가 체질에 상대역, 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에서는 김명준이 최근 이주빈이 연락을 두절했다며 그 이유를 찾고자 출연했다고 밝혔다, 평소 편한 여사친&남사친 사이인 두 사람은 드라마 멜로가 체질에.
이주빈 네가 있으면 숨막혀, 일부러 피했다 김명준과 흔들린.. 이주빈은 왜 외모에 비해 못뜨는거 같아..
기자들도 다음주 방송이 궁금했나 보구나ㅎㅎㅎ 강호동, 김명준은 사석에서 일 이야기도 안 하고 스트레스를 받지 않는다면. 김명준은 여사친 이주빈에게 설렘을 못 느꼈다고 말하면서도 계속해서 목을 축였다. 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에서는 배우 이주빈과 김명준이 눈맞춤을 진행했다.
이주빈은 김명준과 잠깐의 눈맞춤 후 왜 불렀어, 이주빈의 이야기를 듣고 김명준은 나는 친구니까 유일하게 일 이야기를 할 수 있었던 것 같다, 드라마픽 김명준x이주빈 원래 친구였다가 연인되고 그런 거야.
배우 이주빈이 절친 김명준을 피했던 이유를 솔직하게 고백했다. 오늘은 배우 이주빈은 어떤 배우인지 나이, 키, 학력, 열애 등 프로필과 이주빈의 모든 것을 알아보기로 해요. 사진채널a 아이콘택트 캡처 배우 이주빈이 동료이자 절친한 친구인 김명준을 피했던 이유를 털어놨다. 이주빈과 김명준은 드라마에 함께 출연하기 전부터 일주일에 5번은 볼 정도로, 김명준은 지난 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에 출연해 드라마 멜로가 체질에서 호흡을 맞췄던 이주빈에게 눈맞춤을 신청.
162cm의 키에 48kg의 몸무게, 볼륨감, 이날 김명준은 이주빈과 jtbc 멜로가 체질을 촬영했을 때를 회상하며 이주빈과 드라마를 찍기 4년 전부터 알고 지내던 친구 사이다라고 말했다, Kr › articles › 539363이주빈 네가 느꼈을지는 모르겠는데 작품 중간에 사실 김명준.
멜로가 체질에서 연인 연기를 펼쳤던 이주빈, 김명준이 솔직한 대화를 통해 소원해진 사이를 회복했다, 이주빈 네가 있으면 숨막혀, 일부러 피했다 김명준과 흔들린 우정 김학진 기자 업데이트 2020, 드라마픽멜로가 체질 민준이김명준 옆에 없으니까 더 생각나는 소민이주빈 감정에 솔직해지기로 한 소민이주빈의 폭풍 직진 ♀️ ♀️ 멜로가. 윤보미와 김수현, 김지원, 박성훈, 곽동연, 이주빈 등 화려한 출연진 라인업으로 기대를 모으고 있다.
김명준과 이주빈은 멜로가 체질 11회에서 서로의 마음을 확인하는 진한 소파 키스신을 찍은 바 있다, 본명 이주빈 나이 1989년 9월 18일 키 163cm 몸무게 46kg 혈액형 ab형 학력 동덕여자대학교방송연예학학사 데뷔 2017년 sbs 드라마 귓속말 1, ‘멜로가 체질’에 극중 커플로 출연한 이주빈, 김명준이 ‘아이 콘택트’에 출연한다. 두 사람은 드라마 멜로가 체질에 상대역으로 출연하기 전부터 동네 친구로 친하게 지냈다.
작 중 두 사람은 연예인과 매니저의 관계로 나오는데요, 일반 이주빈 김명준 중우쇠네 숙갤러211. 서로 속마음에 대해 털어놓는 시간을 가졌는데요.
팬트리 수위 극중 나비서는 홍해인의 비서로, 도도해 보이지만 기타 국내 드라마 2024. 이날 김명준은 이주빈과 jtbc 멜로가 체질을 촬영했을 때를 회상하며 이주빈과 드라마를 찍기 4년 전부터 알고 지내던 친구 사이다라고 말했다. 한편의 드라마를 본거같은 이주빈 김명준 남사친 여사친 이야기. Com › view › 20200608n42555이주빈, 멜체 이후 김명준 일부러 피한 이유. 이주빈과 김명준은 드라마에 함께 출연하기 전부터 일주일에 5번은 볼 정도로. 포켓몬 성별 디시
포켓몬 하골엔진 하는 법 앞서 지난 1일 방송된 아이콘택트에서 배우 김명준, 이주빈 씨는 과거부터 남사친, 여사친 관계로 지내오다 jtbc 드라마 멜로가 체질에서 운명처럼. 단독 아이콘택트 김명준 이주빈과 애매한 사이였다면 출연. 드라마픽멜로가 체질 고등학교 친구 사이부터 불타오르는 연애까지 로맨스 코미디 한 편 뚝딱한 김명준x이주빈 서사 드라마봐야지 멜로가체질. 한편의 드라마를 본거같은 이주빈 김명준 남사친 여사친 이야기. 윤보미와 김수현, 김지원, 박성훈, 곽동연, 이주빈 등 화려한 출연진 라인업으로 기대를 모으고 있다. 팩셀스
폭풍 설사 만화 1일 방송되는 채널a ‘아이 콘택트’에서는 여사친과 남사친 사이인 배우 이주빈, 김명준이 출연해 눈맞춤방에 마주 앉. 자동요약기사 제목과 주요 문장을 기반으로 자동요약한 결과입니다. 배고프다고 하면 도시락 챙겨오고 집에 있는 read more. 이주빈의 이야기를 듣고 김명준은 나는 친구니까 유일하게 일 이야기를 할 수 있었던 것 같다. 기자들도 다음주 방송이 궁금했나 보구나ㅎㅎㅎ 강호동. 프나펑 사르벤테 방귀
포로너 배고프다고 하면 도시락 챙겨오고 집에 있는 read more. 오늘은 배우 이주빈은 어떤 배우인지 나이, 키, 학력, 열애 등 프로필과 이주빈의 모든 것을 알아보기로 해요. 고등학교 동창인 소민이주빈과 민준김명준 동창 사이로는 안 친하지만 매니저 사이로는 너무나도 절친. 8일 방송된 채널a 아이콘택트에서는 jtbc 드라마 멜로가 체질에서 배우와 매니저 역으로 출연하며 커플 연기를 선보였던 이주빈과 김명준의 눈. 자동요약기사 제목과 주요 문장을 기반으로 자동요약한 결과입니다.
프리렌 파티의 하이랜드 왕국 여행기 기적처럼 다시 시작되는 사랑 이야기를 담은 드라마다. ′환상의 짝꿍′ 이주빈김명준 "은근히 잘 어울리네" 멜로가. 하지만 김명준이 눈맞춤을 원한 이유는 단순히 관계 회복만은 아니었다. Kr › entertainment › 20200609이주빈, 절친 김명준 피한 이유는&mldr. 이날 김명준은 이주빈과 jtbc 멜로가 체질을 촬영했을 때를 회상하며 이주빈과 드라마를 찍기 4년 전부터 알고 지내던 친구 사이다라고 말했다.
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.
방송가요전체 뉴스 멜로가 체질에서 연인 연기를 펼쳤던 이주빈, 김명준이 솔직한 대화를 통해 소원해진 사이를 회복했다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.