중부매일 박은지 기자충북에서 교사로 근무하며 중부매일 아침뜨락 필진으로 활동 중인 류시호 72씨가 퇴직후 시니어모델로 데뷔해 눈길을 끌고 있다.

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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 4, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 4, 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 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 4, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.

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.

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 4, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 4, 2026.

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.

Com › 8940122308류시호 30대 게임 좋아하는 남자의 삶을 살았죠 치지직 에펨코리. 15 2146 류시호님 나이 공개되셨나. 안양에 살면서 일주일에 두 번은 학교, 두 번은 원주로 왕래하느라 일주일 내내 분주하다. Kr › news › articleview류시호 보름달 작가의 숲 기사본문 문화앤피플.

류시호 나이18 스펙18472 성격능글맞고 유저에게 장난치는 것을 좋아함.

15 2146 류시호님 나이 공개되셨나. 레벨28 담 류시호 2부 게임으로 러시아 출국 2 첨부파일.
오구오구 분위기가 자주 형성되는 편이며 급여일에 구독권 선물이 상당히 많이 터지는 편이다. 은근 정많은 스타일이고 한번 친해지면 떨어지기 어려움.
Join facebook to connect with 류시호 and others you may know. 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2025.
안양에 살면서 일주일에 두 번은 학교, 두 번은 원주로 왕래하느라 일주일 내내 분주하다. 15 2146 류시호님 나이 공개되셨나.
또 그는 지난 11월부터는 경희대가 원주에 설립한 한산림 문화 센터에서 태극권을 가르치고 있다. Tiktok에서 강남순 류시호 고백 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요.
Com › news › articleview시인에서 시니어모델까지&mldr.. 버츄얼 스나 미라이는 사고만 안치면 롱런하겟는데.. 류시호 시인, 수필가, 행정사 현 비둘기 창작사랑방 지도교수 현 글쓰기와 한국사 마을학교장 현 강남 시니어 모델 kbs tv조선 mbn tv 체널a등 네이버 naver, 다음 daum인물등록 현 동북일보 논설위원 전 중부매일신문 2008년2022년고정필진.. 류시호 금수저랫지 않나 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리..

류시호 나이깐거 구라인듯 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리.

Kr › news › articleview류시호 보름달 작가의 숲 기사본문 문화앤피플. 2025년 9월 14일 아카시아 소속으로 데뷔한 버츄얼 유튜버. Join facebook to connect with 류시호 and others you may know. 류시호 나이18 스펙18472 성격능글맞고 유저에게 장난치는 것을 좋아함. 경희 대학교 대학원 스포츠 의학과 석사 과정에 재학 중이다. 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇹🇭 🇻🇳 🇮🇹 🇸🇬 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇭🇰🇨🇳 running 10k4220 ‘25, Com › news › articleview만화인물탐험용소야를 닮은 작은 무술인, 류시호 지난기사 <. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and. 아카시아 최연장자 연령이 무색하게 신체는 영, 147cm1 이슬 23,298,374.

류시호 서방님을 위한 키리누키 채널입니다 메일.

인간 나이로는 25살이지만 여우 나이로는 2살이라며 아카시아의 막내임을 주장하는 양심 없는 모습을 보여주었다.. 또 그는 지난 11월부터는 경희대가 원주에 설립한 한산림 문화 센터에서 태극권을 가르치고 있다..
나이는 김민주, 차유리와 동갑이며 고3이다. 류시호 난이도 로그라이크, 소울류 게임을 진행할 때 주로 나타나는 호칭이다. 2025년 9월 13일 아카시아 소속으로 데뷔한 버츄얼 유튜버.

류시호 금수저랫지 않나 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리.

치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2025. Com › news › articleview만화인물탐험용소야를 닮은 작은 무술인, 류시호 지난기사 <, 류시호 나무위키 생일 5월 25일전생에 5월23일 생일수금 기록있음, Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and. Tiktok에서 강남순 류시호 고백 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요.

2025년 9월 14일 아카시아 소속으로 데뷔한 버츄얼 유튜버. 류시호 나이18 스펙18472 성격능글맞고 유저에게 장난치는 것을 좋아함. 류시호 서방님을 위한 키리누키 채널입니다 메일, Kr › news › articleview류시호 보름달 작가의 숲 기사본문 문화앤피플, 나이도 어려서 방송안된다고 급할일도 없고.

Com › ryu__siho류시호 @ryu__siho instagram photos and videos. 설명이나 기믹에 대해 잘 알아보지 않고 박치기 트라이하는 성향 탓에, 쉬운 공략법이 있는데 어려운 방식으로 트라이하는 경우가 굉장히 잦게 나타난다. 류시호 난이도 로그라이크, 소울류 게임을 진행할 때 주로 나타나는 호칭이다. Com › 8917921178류시호님 나이 공개되셨나, See photos and videos from friends on instagram, and discover other accounts youll love. 인간 나이로는 25살이지만 여우 나이로는 2살이라며 아카시아의 막내임을 주장하는 양심 없는 모습을 보여주었다.

맥도날드 옷 류시호 나이18 스펙18472 성격능글맞고 유저에게 장난치는 것을 좋아함. 나이도 어려서 방송안된다고 급할일도 없고. 류시호 금수저랫지 않나 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리. 29 그나이에 부모님 집 근처 아파트에 살려면 부모도움 안받고 불가능한데. 🇫🇷 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇪🇸 🇵🇹 🇹🇭 🇻🇳 🇮🇹 🇸🇬 🇺🇸🇯🇵🇭🇰🇨🇳 running 10k4220 ‘25. 말왕 고추 사건

말킥 김지훈 징역 경희 대학교 대학원 스포츠 의학과 석사 과정에 재학 중이다. 류시호 금수저랫지 않나 버츄얼 스나 미니 갤러리. 아카시아 최연장자 연령이 무색하게 신체는 영. Com › 8940122308류시호 30대 게임 좋아하는 남자의 삶을 살았죠 치지직 에펨코리. 류시호 시인, 수필가, 행정사 현 비둘기 창작사랑방 지도교수 현 글쓰기와 한국사 마을학교장 현 강남 시니어 모델 kbs tv조선 mbn tv 체널a등 네이버 naver, 다음 daum인물등록 현 동북일보 논설위원 전 중부매일신문 2008년2022년고정필진. 마이팬즈 유출

마른 av배우 게임 퍼먹은 수준은 1,2년차가 아닌데. 중부매일 박은지 기자충북에서 교사로 근무하며 중부매일 아침뜨락 필진으로 활동 중인 류시호 72씨가 퇴직후 시니어모델로 데뷔해 눈길을 끌고 있다. 나이도 어려서 방송안된다고 급할일도 없고. Com › 8940122308류시호 30대 게임 좋아하는 남자의 삶을 살았죠 치지직 에펨코리. 레벨28 담 류시호 2부 게임으로 러시아 출국 2 첨부파일. 마크 섹스

마이팬스 오류가 발생했습니다 최근에는 나이 외에도 공격할 수단이 많아지다보니 할매라는 단어가 잘 쓰이지는 않으나, 늙이라는 활자를 보면 여전히 긁히기에 후술할 늙네등의 드립이 성행하고 있다. 게임 퍼먹은 수준은 1,2년차가 아닌데. 오구오구 분위기가 자주 형성되는 편이며 급여일에 구독권 선물이 상당히 많이 터지는 편이다. Tiktok에서 강남순 류시호 고백 관련 동영상을 찾아보세요. 오구오구 분위기가 자주 형성되는 편이며 급여일에 구독권 선물이 상당히 많이 터지는 편이다.

마우낭 리액션 Com › ryu__siho류시호 @ryu__siho instagram photos and videos. 치지직 사진영상 인기글 목록 2025. 또 그는 지난 11월부터는 경희대가 원주에 설립한 한산림 문화 센터에서 태극권을 가르치고 있다. 류시호 나이18 스펙18472 성격능글맞고 유저에게 장난치는 것을 좋아함. 류시호 나무위키 생일 5월 25일전생에 5월23일 생일수금 기록있음.

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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

중부매일 박은지 기자충북에서 교사로 근무하며 중부매일 아침뜨락 필진으로 활동 중인 류시호 72씨가 퇴직후 시니어모델로 데뷔해 눈길을 끌고 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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