주거형태 근린생활시설 면적 전용 136m² 공용 100m².

화이트톤의 넓고 깨끗한 거실 및 공용공간.

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 9, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 9, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 9, 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 9, 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.

또치아나 @younmiddochi 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 웰니스 리조트 하이디 하우스 ️스파하이디하우스 럭셔리스파 호텔스파 댄스dance 몸매 박재범몸매 틱톡플랜 뽀송메이크업 또치아나 추천 운동하는여자 tiktok fyp kpop 추천떠라 kpopfyp. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video임진강 내수면 어업 연천 어촌계 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 내. 홍대 공유 공방 바우하우스 서울특별시. 여성전용 2인실1인 입주 가능은 방이 넓을 뿐만아니라, 여성전용 욕실이 붙어 있어 편리합니다.

서울 여성전용 쉐어하우스 교통편하고 가성비 좋은 온더스테이 미아 봄기운이 가득한 4월, 서울 한달살기. 주소 서울특별시 강남구 논현로36길21 도곡동 4층. Com 도쿄게스트하우스 신주쿠게스트하우스 신주쿠숙소 신주쿠예쁜숙소 신주쿠조용한숙소 일본여행 일본여자3인숙소 도쿄여자3인숙소 신주쿠3인숙소 도쿄예쁜숙소 도쿄외곽숙소 도쿄호텔 도쿄여행 서이추환영.
Kr › cohouse › pgm공동체주택찾기 공동체주택찾기.. 특히 최근 제주도를 혼자 여행하시는 혼여행족분들도 많습니다..
Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항. 여성전용 공유 쉐어 하우스 서울시에 있는 여성전용 공유 쉐어하우스는 매우 많습니다. 지난해 서울지역에서 운영되는 공동주택인 쉐어하우스 이용자 다수가 여성85%이며, 마포구에 가장 많이 밀집된 것으로 나타났다.

쉐어하우스는 일반적인 원룸과 달리 공용 주방, 거실, 세탁실 등을 공유하기 때문에 생활비를 절약할 수.

컨디션좋은 관리자가 불편한거없이 관리하는. 컨디션좋은 관리자가 불편한거없이 관리하는, 숙소는 홍익대학교에서 18분 거리에 있습니다. 시설 공유부, 샤워, 화장실, 세면대, 세탁기, 주방주방 가전, 조리기구 등, 피트니스실. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video임진강 내수면 어업 연천 어촌계 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 내, 일반 원룸, 오피스텔처럼 수백만원 의 보증금 부담 no, 쉐어하우스는 일반적인 원룸과 달리 공용 주방, 거실, 세탁실 등을 공유하기 때문에 생활비를 절약할 수. 상상이상으로 좋다는 요즘 2030 공유주택 근황│원룸보다 셰어하우스가.

홍대 공유 공방 바우하우스 서울특별시.

서울 여성전용 쉐어하우스 교통편하고 가성비 좋은 온더스테이 미아 봄기운이 가득한 4월, 서울 한달살기, 여성전용 2인실1인 입주 가능은 방이 넓을 뿐만아니라, 여성전용 욕실이 붙어 있어 편리합니다, 2인 1실인 경우도 있고, 1인실인 경우도 있으며 신축으로 너무나 예쁜 공간에서 이용하실 수도 있는데요, 39만 49만 공유공간 청소, 화장지 제공, 종량제 봉투 제공, 전구등 기타 소모품 교체, 방역방충, 보안안전, 공용공간 매주 청소, 화장지 제공합니다. 소음에 민감하고, 공동 규칙을 따르는 생활이 어려우신 분들은 공유 쉐어 하우스 생활이 어려우실 거예요.

이런 혼여행자분들이 많이 찾는 숙소가 바로 게스트하우스입니다. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초여행 속초숙소 더마크 레지던스호텔 강원 속초시 동해대로 3951. 모여사는세상 쉐어하우스 모세입니다 신규오픈 국민대 버스5분 서경대 도보1분 성신여대 버스15분.

Hongdae cozywomens shared home. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항. Com › anarche69 › 223810653734여성전용숙소 코리빙 공유하우스 콤피 comfi 네이버 블로그. 침대, 침구, 전기요, 행거, 서랍장 제공. 쉐어하우스는 여러 사람이 하나의 주거 공간을 공유하며 생활하는 형태를 뜻합니다.

개인 방은 독립적으로 사용하지만, 거실, 주방, 욕실.. 좋아요 43개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항 비오는날 미애언니 속초항 속초 속초여행 전미애가간다 라이브로잘나가는여자 라이브방송 전미애성우 라이브방송전미애.. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 어선어업 출항합니다 강원호 연안자망 청호어촌계 김영식 어촌..

또치아나 @younmiddochi 님의 Tiktok 틱톡 동영상 웰니스 리조트 하이디 하우스 ️스파하이디하우스 럭셔리스파 호텔스파 댄스dance 몸매 박재범몸매 틱톡플랜 뽀송메이크업 또치아나 추천 운동하는여자 Tiktok Fyp Kpop 추천떠라 Kpopfyp.

좋아요 43개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항 비오는날 미애언니 속초항 속초 속초여행 전미애가간다 라이브로잘나가는여자 라이브방송 전미애성우 라이브방송전미애, 모여사는세상 쉐어하우스 모세입니다 신규오픈 국민대 버스5분 서경대 도보1분 성신여대 버스15분. 이런 혼여행자분들이 많이 찾는 숙소가 바로 게스트하우스입니다.

이미 일본이나 유럽 등의 해외에서는 공유 쉐어하우스가 자리를 잡은 상태입니다, 유명 건축가분들이 쉐어하우스 맞춤형으로 설계,건축하여 생활 편의성이 높고 24시간 cctv와 바로 인근 치안센터 위치로 여성분들에게 보다 안전한 주거환경을 제공합니다. 39만 49만 공유공간 청소, 화장지 제공, 종량제 봉투 제공, 전구등 기타 소모품 교체, 방역방충, 보안안전, 공용공간 매주 청소, 화장지 제공합니다, Kr › cohouse › pgm공동체주택찾기 공동체주택찾기, 또, 여성끼리의 쉐어하우스는 청소 의식이 높은 경향에 있어, 공유 공간이 비교적 청결하게 유지되기 쉬운 것도 특징입니다. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 속초여행 속초항걷기 어선어업 강원귀어 미애언니 전미애가간.

탑걸19 서울에 자리한 hongdae cozywomens shared home에서는 정원, 금연실 객실, 무료 wifi, 공용 라운지 등을 제공합니다. 소음에 민감하고, 공동 규칙을 따르는 생활이 어려우신 분들은 공유 쉐어 하우스 생활이 어려우실 거예요. 주거형태 근린생활시설 면적 전용 136m² 공용 100m². 1주일12개월 이상 상황별 맞춤형 임대기간. 서울시공유주택은 단순한 저렴한 방이 아니에요. 탑100야동

토미오카 기유 처벌 좋아요 27개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 속초항 속초여행 속초항걷기 어선어업 강원귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 어업 귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 라이브로잘나가는여자 미디어커머스 전미애성우 전미애 전미애대표 라이브방송전미애 라이브방송. 여성전용 공유하우스, 이렇게 다릅니다. 공공의 목적 아래 ‘설계, 운영, 안전, 커뮤니티’까지 체계적으로 관리돼요. 체류형쉼터 이동식주택 우주선주택 휴가이티아이 스페이스하우스 캠핑장 글램핑장 농막 조립식주택 이동식주택 농촌체류형쉼터 전미애의맛있는이야기 라이브로잘나가는여자 미애언니 전미애가간다 문의01077880051 체류형쉼터 농막 스페이스하우스 조립식. 남녀공용쉐어하우스ㅣ여성입주자가 직접 살아보고 느낀 것 세가지 첫 번째, 여자들 끼리만 사는 집보다더 안전하다고 느껴진다. 트동야

트위터 계정 추천 디시 우주woozoo는 새로운 친구와 함께하는 따뜻한 삶을 위한 공유주거 플랫폼으로, 단기 임대, 원룸텔 등 다양한 옵션을. 숙소는 홍익대학교에서 18분 거리에 있습니다. 좋아요 27개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 속초항 속초여행 속초항걷기 어선어업 강원귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 어업 귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 라이브로잘나가는여자 미디어커머스 전미애성우 전미애 전미애대표 라이브방송전미애 라이브방송. Oakhouse 아파트랑 여자 전용 쉐어하우스 최근 후기. 1인실은 55100만, 3인실 3870만원이며, 괸리비는 5만원에 수도와 인터넷, 정수기, 쌀, 기본 조미료 포함입니다. 타카이 아야 품번

타침보 세련된 쉐어하우스 에서 내집처럼 함께해요. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항. 좋아요 27개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 속초항 속초여행 속초항걷기 어선어업 강원귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 어업 귀어 미애언니 전미애가간다 라이브로잘나가는여자 미디어커머스 전미애성우 전미애 전미애대표 라이브방송전미애 라이브방송. Com › @dyh00kyodbe9 › video속초항 어선어업 비오는날 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 출항. 쉐어하우스 뜻 쉐어하우스는 일반적으로 개인 공간과 공용공간이 분리된 거주 공간이다.

트위터 ㅅㅌ 서울 여성전용 쉐어하우스 교통편하고 가성비 좋은 온더스테이 미아 봄기운이 가득한 4월, 서울 한달살기. 소음에 민감하고, 공동 규칙을 따르는 생활이 어려우신 분들은 공유 쉐어 하우스 생활이 어려우실 거예요. 특히 최근 제주도를 혼자 여행하시는 혼여행족분들도 많습니다. 좋아요 24개,dyh00kyodbe9전미애 @dyh00kyodbe9 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 임진강 내수면 어업 연천 어촌계 미애언니 전미애가간다 어선어업 내수면 유재학 대표 전미애의 맛있는이야기 2023 경기도 귀어학교 1기 1조 연천군 중면 군중로 임진강 내수면 내수면어업 귀어 경기귀어학교1기 귀어귀촌 어촌. 개인 방은 독립적으로 사용하지만, 거실, 주방, 욕실.

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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 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 9, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

주거형태 근린생활시설 면적 전용 136m² 공용 100m²., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

Download