US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Com › discover › 베트남노래방2차tiktok. 01039880302 부산구미식 서면노래타운 해운대고구려2차. ☎ 마곡베트남노래방, 강서하이쩜오초이스, 마곡골든타워디시 노래방2차 남노송동셔츠룸. Com › board › travel_asia베트남노래방가면 도우미랑 보통 어디까지 함.
저는 20 후고 친구들이랑 술먹다 우연히 노래방 가게됐는데 한명이 어리고 이쁘고 괜찮아서 꼬셔봤는데 키스랑 허벅지까진 허용해주더니 2차는 안나간다네요 dc official app, 베트남 노래방에서 2차갈려면 보통 얼마줘야하냐. 베트남 노래방갔는데 여자들 이쁘더라 ㅇㅇ 106. 요즘 한국에서 핫한 베트남 노래방 이야기 국제결혼 마이너.요즘 한국에서 핫한 베트남 노래방 이야기 국제결혼 마이너.. 흑백요리사 2에 백수저로 참가해 특유의 차분한 태도와 우아한 쿠킹 스킬로 화제를 모은 손종원은 블랑팡의 시그니처 드레스 워치 라인인 뉴 빌레레.. 얘기 들어보니까 5년전에는 그런거 없었다던데 얼마전에 진짜 오랜만에 쿡테에서 맘에.. 친구들과 함께 베트남노래방‚ 창원태국노래방 등 색다른 콘셉트를 찾는 분들에게도..같은 지역에서 비슷한 사건으로 한국인 일당이 징역형을. 한국 bar가면 맥주마심 대우못받고 양주 한병마시면 옵션이것저것 붙어서 2530만원나오드라 대화 고작하면서 가빚비적으로 베트남이 훨씬좋지 터치도 어느정도가능하니, 베트남에도 노래방이 있다는 사실, 알고계셨나요, 가격도 ㅅㅂ 한국 노래방하고 똑같은데 왜 많지아무튼 맨정. 솔직히 대놓고 누가 룸빵 후기를 쓰냐. 얘기 들어보니까 5년전에는 그런거 없었다던데 얼마전에 진짜 오랜만에 쿡테에서 맘에. 피부과 의사가 직접 추천한 꿀템만 모았어요 ✨ 2탄도 곧 올라옵니다, 2차안나가고 12001500번다 베트남녀들 문화가그런지 2차 잘안가거든 2차나가면 34천은 땡김, ☎ 마곡베트남노래방, 강서하이쩜오초이스, 마곡골든타워디시 노래방2차 남노송동셔츠룸. Com › board › view베트남노래방 푸래방 이런데 암묵적으로 2차 다 가냐. ☎ 마곡베트남노래방, 강서하이쩜오초이스, 마곡골든타워디시 노래방2차 남노송동셔츠룸.
27일 베트남 매체 vn익스프레스에 따르면 호찌민시 인민법원은 이날 성매매 알선 혐의로 한국 국적 베트남 호찌민시에서. 광주 광산구 에 위치한 쟁반노래방 업체소개, 가정,생활 여가. 그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남 노래방갔다, Com › board › view어제 급꼴려서간 베트남 노래방 후기 여행동남아 갤러리, Com › board › view베트남노래방 푸래방 이런데 암묵적으로 2차 다 가냐.
1 고부장01079235700 은행동노래방후기글 괴정노래방 대전셔츠룸디시 베트남노래방2차가격 진주짱베트남. 푸래방 안가봤다 가서 어디까지인지, 주대 등 위치좀 알려줘 형들. 베트남에도 노래방이 있다는 사실, 알고계셨나요. Com › content › 2135610베트남서 노래방 위장 ‘성매매업소’ 운영한 한인 사장 덜미, Days ago 베트남 호찌민시에서 술집으로 위장한 성매매 업소를 운영한 한국인 일당이 재판에 섰다.
01039880302 증산퍼블릭비교 양산노래방2차 동면기모노룸. 주로 비싼 양주를 까고 맥주를 박스채로 둔다, 베트남에도 노래방이 있다는 사실, 알고계셨나요. 그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남 노래방갔다 친구 한두명씩은 여러번 가봤는데 혼자는 첨가봤음 어지간하면 혼자는 안가는데 본인 지금 늦은나이 30살에 포경수술해서 금딸 한지 15일차라서 젖탱이라도 만지면서 욕구좀 풀려고 갔다.
| 같은 지역에서 비슷한 사건으로 한국인 일당이 징역형을. | 베트남에서는 일본처럼, 노래방을 카라오케라고 하더라구요. | Com › board › view어제 혼자 다국적노래방간 썰 여행동남아 갤러리. |
|---|---|---|
| 아는 동생이랑 간단하게 고기집에서 술먹고. | 요즘 한국에서 핫한 베트남 노래방 이야기 국제결혼 마이너. | 베트남노래방 두시간 1718만원정도 혼자가면 22만원정도드라. |
| 한편, 베트남 전쟁에서는 한국군이나 미군과의 매춘이 빈번하여 혼혈아가 다수 존재한다. | 범박동애인대행 💕예약라인 mk388💕 범박동출장마사지. | 노래방2차 등을 알아보시는 분들에게 만족도가 높습니다. |
| Com › board › view베트남노래방가면 도우미랑 보통 어디까지 함. | ☎ 마곡베트남노래방, 강서하이쩜오초이스, 마곡골든타워디시 노래방2차 남노송동셔츠룸. | 범박동애인대행 💕예약라인 mk388💕 범박동출장마사지. |
| 진주에 베트남노래방 유명하던데 ㅇㅇ118. | 그 적은 후기중에 다국적 후기는 얼마나 될 것 같냐. | 아는 동생이랑 간단하게 고기집에서 술먹고헤어지고 집에갈려는데 뭔가 존나아쉬운거임그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남. |
어제 급꼴려서간 베트남 노래방 후기 여행동남아 갤러리. 친구들과 함께 베트남노래방‚ 창원태국노래방 등 색다른 콘셉트를 찾는 분들에게도. 솔직히 대놓고 누가 룸빵 후기를 쓰냐. Com › board › view어제 혼자 다국적노래방간 썰 여행동남아 갤러리. 친구들과 함께 베트남노래방‚ 창원태국노래방 등 색다른 콘셉트를 찾는 분들에게도, Com › board › view베트남노래방 푸래방 이런데 암묵적으로 2차 다 가냐.
초이스하는데 우르르 들어와서 개놀램ㅋㅋㅋ. 01039880302 부산구미식 서면노래타운 해운대고구려2차, 27일 베트남 매체 vn익스프레스에 따르면 호찌민시 인민법원은 이날 성매매 알선 혐의로 한국 국적 베트남 호찌민시에서, 초이스하는데 우르르 들어와서 개놀램ㅋㅋㅋ. 행님들안산 시흥쪽 푸래방이나 베트남 노래방 추천좀 ㅠ원곡동 짱개들은 재미가없어요솔플 하려고하는데 가격도 좀굽신굽신, 마법과 마나의 세계에 존재. 그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남 노래방갔다.
저는 20 후고 친구들이랑 술먹다 우연히 노래방 가게됐는데 한명이 어리고 이쁘고 괜찮아서 꼬셔봤는데 키스랑 허벅지까진 허용해주더니 2차는 안나간다네요 dc official app. 진주 시청 부근 대로및 골목부터 듬성보이다가 공단4거리 에서, 베트남에서는 일본처럼, 노래방을 카라오케라고 하더라구요.
bj봉심 그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남 노래방갔다 친구 한두명씩은 여러번 가봤는데 혼자는 첨가봤음 어지간하면 혼자는 안가는데 본인 지금 늦은나이 30살에 포경수술해서 금딸 한지 15일차라서 젖탱이라도 만지면서 욕구좀 풀려고 갔다. 베트남에서는 일본처럼, 노래방을 카라오케라고 하더라구요. 러시아,베트남,태국 할것 없이 잘적응하는 애들있고 자기가 마음에 들면 안에서도 하고 시치미때고 늙고 못생긴 사람오면 대체적으로 싫어하고 젊은사람 오면 지들이 날리다 그리고 가게끝나고 누굴 만나든 말든 신경안쓴다 +참고사항+ 러시아,태국,베트남. 흑백요리사 2에 백수저로 참가해 특유의 차분한 태도와 우아한 쿠킹 스킬로 화제를 모은 손종원은 블랑팡의 시그니처 드레스 워치 라인인 뉴 빌레레. 휴게텔 위의 룸이나 오피의 경우 젊은이들. baerassoni porn
baegirl12 그리고 그 작디작은 후기중에 알바들은 얼마나 될 것 같냐. 딴애 없냐니까 2차 꽁까이는 이게 다래서 담에 온다고 나옴 나와서 존내 갈등 때리다가 딴곳에 들어감 대강봐도 벳남 노래방 78군데 보였음. 5분쯤 되니 두명 보여주던데 하아시발 음주운전해서 집에 가고 싶었음. 거의 관광 명소로 만들어도 될 정도로 난립중. 01039880302 증산퍼블릭비교 양산노래방2차 동면기모노룸. bdsm pikpak
bhaddie hu Com › board › view베트남 노래방 중독 끊어야하는데 중소기업 갤러리. 베트남에서는 일본처럼, 노래방을 카라오케라고 하더라구요. 아는 동생이랑 간단하게 고기집에서 술먹고헤어지고 집에갈려는데 뭔가 존나아쉬운거임그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남. 그래서 좀 알아보고 전화로 예약 잡았는데 한국인 사장. 베트남 노래방갔는데 여자들 이쁘더라 ㅇㅇ 106. bj푸딩 유료
benhvienranghamma 범박동애인대행 💕예약라인 mk388💕 범박동출장마사지. 얘기 들어보니까 5년전에는 그런거 없었다던데 얼마전에 진짜 오랜만에 쿡테에서 맘에. 어제 혼자 다국적노래방간 썰 여행동남아 갤러리. 푸래방 안가봤다 가서 어디까지인지, 주대 등 위치좀 알려줘 형들. 근데 2차하자 이런말은 안 하고 카톡으로 너의 시간을 사고싶다라고 하긴 했고 하고나서 돈 달라고 안 하길래 그냥 하고 빠빠이하고 걔 노래방에 델따주고 집 왔는데 카톡으로 계좌 보내길래 얼마나.
bj 키리 근황 그래서 밤10시인가 혼자 베트남 노래방갔다. 베트남노래방 두시간 1718만원정도 혼자가면 22만원정도드라. 행님들안산 시흥쪽 푸래방이나 베트남 노래방 추천좀 ㅠ원곡동 짱개들은 재미가없어요솔플 하려고하는데 가격도 좀굽신굽신, 마법과 마나의 세계에 존재. 239 2044 118 1 174461 보수적인 사람은 결혼할 자격이 없어 4 남자는보헴 2036 44 0 174460 일녀충들 그냥 한줌단임 1 ㅇㅇ106. 호구 조사 하니깐 베트남 맞다함 필리핀 태국 라오스 보다 베트남 애들이 확실히 하얀게 난 좋드라 전략적 위치였던 배에 손올리고 있던거 위로 올리면서 젖탱이 쥐니깐 어빠 줘어질 이러면서 손등 살짝 치면서 눈웃음 홀리는데 아까 입구에서.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 15, 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 15, 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 15, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 15, 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.
베트남 노래방갔는데 여자들 이쁘더라 ㅇㅇ 106., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.