US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
소중한인연, 맛집, 좋은장소서 힐링 ♡. Hours ago — jeffrey郑晓杰 real estate 建立的 原创音乐 歌曲。 在 tiktok 上觀看關於 原创音乐 的最新影片。. ⭐정보 수정 아지트 휴게실 스킬 루트 3가지 에이다 2025. 흔히 제우스의 우레도 뚫지 못한다며 모든 것을 막아내는 신의 방패정도로 여겨진다, 이지스aegis함이란 이지스 시스템을 탑재한 고성능 함정을 말한다, read more.
손쉽게 계좌 개설하기 카카오톡과 카카오페이앱에서 쉽게 개설할 수 있어요 예탁금은 최대 1억 원까지 예금자 보호가 적용돼요 매일 예탁금 이자를 받을 수 있어요, 1,291 followers, 1,171 following, 160 posts 가톨릭청소년이동쉼터서울a지t 천주교 서울대교구 청소년국 직영기관 @seoulajit on instagram 후원계좌 우리은행 1005 304 394554 예금주 자서울가톨릭청소년회 연락처 010 7655 9510 02 382 5677. ※ 모든 보상 아이템은 2025년 11월 19일 수 오후 11시 59분까지 수령이 가능하며, 2025년 11월 20일 목 오전 2시까지 사용이 가능합니다, Kd2 올세인츠 아지트 어디냐 씨벌 킹갤러183, 흔히 쇼와 마을이라고 하면, 야쿠자들로 득실거리는 아지트 맵과 큰두목, 그리고 쇼와 온천탕 맵이 랜드마크로 떠오르지만, 초기 버전에서는 비교적 심심한 마을이었던 셈이다.↑ please support the creators with like.. 손쉽게 계좌 개설하기 카카오톡과 카카오페이앱에서 쉽게 개설할 수 있어요 예탁금은 최대 1억 원까지 예금자 보호가 적용돼요 매일 예탁금 이자를 받을 수 있어요.. 시발 진짜 아지트 다시 살려낼수는 없는거냐 북한너무좋아 2021..가면라이더 피규어들뿐만이 아니라 정말로 다양한 슈퍼로봇들이나 건담 프라모델도 취급하는 샵인것 같더군요. Hours ago — jeffrey郑晓杰 real estate 建立的 原创音乐 歌曲。 在 tiktok 上觀看關於 原创音乐 的最新影片。. Com › board › view부산 아지트 평가 여장 갤러리 디시인사이드. 24k followers, 646 following, 134 posts 부산 클럽 아지트 퀸 @yeelrin on instagram 부산클럽 부산서면아지트 부산아지트 ️🔥내상없는,만족도 높은케어💯후회no ️🔥게스트신청v͎i͎p͎테͟이͟블͟예͟약͟ 전화📲𝟬𝟭𝟬𝟮𝟱𝟭𝟰𝟵𝟲𝟱𝟰 조판시간 밤𝟏𝟏𝟑𝟎📭팔로우 꼭 걸고𝗗𝗠. 락스타 게임즈 배급, 락스타 노스에서 개발 중인 grand theft auto 시리즈의 15번째 작품이자 6번째 넘버링 시리즈, 365일 정상영업 운영 시간동안 무료로 짐을 맡아주기 때문에 저처럼 첫날에 온 사람들은 캐리어를, 아지트 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 리프로 도착한 월드에서는 아지트 듀오를 진행할 수 없습니다. Com › board › view친구들이랑 만드는 아지트 room 갤러리. 그런 아이의 마음을 정말 잘이해해주시는 엄마.
⭐정보 수정 아지트 휴게실 스킬 루트 3가지 에이다 2025. ※ 누적 운영 보상은 메이플id당 1회만 수령 가능합니다, Artist 옥상달빛 okdal title 직업병 occupational disease azit_live_session 아지트라이브세션 ↑’좋아요’와 ‘구독’으로 창작자들을 응원해주세요.
| 김고객님 디시한번 감사드리며 아이와 행복하고 건강한 가정되시길. | 손쉽게 계좌 개설하기 카카오톡과 카카오페이앱에서 쉽게 개설할 수 있어요 예탁금은 최대 1억 원까지 예금자 보호가 적용돼요 매일 예탁금 이자를 받을 수 있어요. | 15일 경기 성남시 분당구 카카오 판교아지트 건물에 폭파 협박이 있었다는 사측의 신고가 접수돼 경찰과 군이 수색에 나섰다. |
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| 관리비포함 26만원에 숙식해결이 가능한 공간이 마련되었다는 점이다. | 모터사이클 클럽 모터사이클 클럽 motorcycl. | 매니징 포인트, 휴게실 포인트 잠수맵 관련. |
| ↑ please support the creators with like. | 철거 다했고 이제 어떻게 꾸밀까 고민중. | ↑ please support the creators with like. |
Artist 옥상달빛 okdal title 직업병 occupational disease azit_live_session 아지트라이브세션 ↑’좋아요’와 ‘구독’으로 창작자들을 응원해주세요. 365일 정상영업 운영 시간동안 무료로 짐을 맡아주기 때문에 저처럼 첫날에 온 사람들은 캐리어를. 아지트 운영 이년차 후기 간단하게 남겨 본다. ※ 누적 운영 보상은 메이플id당 1회만 수령 가능합니다, Com › board › view부산 아지트 평가 여장 갤러리 디시인사이드.
흔히 제우스의 우레도 뚫지 못한다며 모든 것을 막아내는 신의 방패정도로 여겨진다, 이지스aegis함이란 이지스 시스템을 탑재한 고성능 함정을 말한다, read more. Sns를 이용하는 청소년의 수가 급증하면서 미성년자를 대상으로 트위터에서 접근하여 성매매를 하는 성매매. Hours ago — jeffrey郑晓杰 real estate 建立的 原创音乐 歌曲。 在 tiktok 上觀看關於 原创音乐 的最新影片。. 충격의 l컵 소녀 에로스 각성 첫 대・경・련 스페셜 2024 vr no. 3번 아지트라는 경쟁력 있는 매물을 상련의 두목 양양양 등과 뜨거운 낙찰 경쟁을 진행했고 두목 장지환의 13억 입찰 선언으로 다른 갱단이 경악하며 입찰을 포기, 8 결국 빅딕의 아지트가 되었다.
근데 원래 사무실에선 read more, N 클랜원 모집 ✨따뜻하고 편안한 기질의 아지트 디코서버입니다✨. Artist 옥상달빛 okdal title 직업병 occupational disease azit_live_session 아지트라이브세션 ↑’좋아요’와 ‘구독’으로 창작자들을 응원해주세요, 이런 이유로 aegis 또는 egis라는 단어는 철벽 같은 방어, 보호와 같은 의미로.
Com › board › view부산 아지트 평가 여장 갤러리 디시인사이드. 5시간 빌드2 경험치 극대화루트 시간 효율 46, 사티아지트 라이 벵골어 সত্যজিৎ রায়, 영어 satyajit ray, 1921년 5월 2일 1992년 4월 23일는 인도 의 영화감독 이다, 메소레인저 6인방을 도와 다양한 이벤트에 참여하며 아지트를 운영하세요, 영화 《아푸》 3부작으로 전 세계적으로 이름을 알린 인물이다.
3번 아지트라는 경쟁력 있는 매물을 상련의 두목 양양양 등과 뜨거운 낙찰 경쟁을 진행했고 두목 장지환의 13억 입찰 선언으로 다른 갱단이 경악하며 입찰을 포기, 8 결국 빅딕의 아지트가 되었다. 보약 스탯 이벤트 메이플 아지트 특별 메뉴 정리입니다, Com › board › view친구들이랑 만드는 아지트 room 갤러리.
이벤트 기간2025년 9월 18일목 점검 후 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 ※획득한 스킬은 2025년 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 효과가 유지됩니다. 이벤트 기간2025년 9월 18일목 점검 후 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 ※획득한 스킬은 2025년 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 효과가 유지됩니다, Sns를 이용하는 청소년의 수가 급증하면서 미성년자를 대상으로 트위터에서 접근하여 성매매를 하는 성매매. 흔히 쇼와 마을이라고 하면, 야쿠자들로 득실거리는 아지트 맵과 큰두목, 그리고 쇼와 온천탕 맵이 랜드마크로 떠오르지만, 초기 버전에서는 비교적 심심한 마을이었던 셈이다, 365일 정상영업 운영 시간동안 무료로 짐을 맡아주기 때문에 저처럼 첫날에 온 사람들은 캐리어를. 5 더블드라이버 가면라이더 기츠 디자이어 드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 성검 소드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 대성검 가면라이더 빌드 변신동권 그리스블리자드 너클 가면라이더 빌드 v시네마 보틀세트 가면.
쇼와 마을의 초기 개편은 제1차 새단장과 제2차 새단장으로 나눌 수 있다, 부산 아지트 디시 신재생에너지발전설비기사 디시, 용사님을 위한 아늑한 게임방, 메이플 아지트가 오픈되었습니다. Ie internet explorer 브라우저에서 아지트를 사용할 수 있나요, 365일 정상영업 운영 시간동안 무료로 짐을 맡아주기 때문에 저처럼 첫날에 온 사람들은 캐리어를, 국내 웹소설과 웹툰을 3년여 동안 불법적으로 유통한 사이트 ‘아지툰’의 운영자 ㅈ씨가 저작권법 위반 혐의로 27일 구속기소됐다.
레드걸 망가 아이를위해 끝까지 고민하시는 모습이 정말 보기좋았습니다. 오스틴킴, 오늘 18일 첫 디지털 싱글 ‘허락하소서’ 발표. 가면라이더 더블 로스트 드라이버 20th 가면라이더 더블 액셀 드라이버 가면라이더 더블 csm 1. 5 더블드라이버 가면라이더 기츠 디자이어 드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 성검 소드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 대성검 가면라이더 빌드 변신동권 그리스블리자드 너클 가면라이더 빌드 v시네마 보틀세트 가면. 손쉽게 계좌 개설하기 카카오톡과 카카오페이앱에서 쉽게 개설할 수 있어요 예탁금은 최대 1억 원까지 예금자 보호가 적용돼요 매일 예탁금 이자를 받을 수 있어요. 레즈씬
딩챈 일본, 한국의 아지트와는 완전히 다른 말이다. 시발 진짜 아지트 다시 살려낼수는 없는거냐 북한너무좋아 2021. 메이플로드의 잠수맵 경험치 계산기는 메이플스토리 잠수맵 컨텐츠vip 사우나mvp 리조트를 통한 경험치 상승량을 계산하는 계산기입니다. ※ 누적 운영 보상은 메이플id당 1회만 수령 가능합니다. 흔히 쇼와 마을이라고 하면, 야쿠자들로 득실거리는 아지트 맵과 큰두목, 그리고 쇼와 온천탕 맵이 랜드마크로 떠오르지만, 초기 버전에서는 비교적 심심한 마을이었던 셈이다. 디피알 이안 디시
레진드야동 그런 아이의 마음을 정말 잘이해해주시는 엄마. ⭐정보 수정 아지트 휴게실 스킬 루트 3가지 에이다 2025. 5 더블드라이버 가면라이더 기츠 디자이어 드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 성검 소드라이버 가면라이더 세이버 대성검 가면라이더 빌드 변신동권 그리스블리자드 너클 가면라이더 빌드 v시네마 보틀세트 가면. 최강기아타이거즈 아지트 휴게실 vip 사우나 한명만 재워놔도 같이 경험치 먹음 최강기아타이거즈 2025. 3번 아지트라는 경쟁력 있는 매물을 상련의 두목 양양양 등과 뜨거운 낙찰 경쟁을 진행했고 두목 장지환의 13억 입찰 선언으로 다른 갱단이 경악하며 입찰을 포기, 8 결국 빅딕의 아지트가 되었다. 디시 필력 더쿠
딜도 실내 수영장있는 호텔 1,291 followers, 1,171 following, 160 posts 가톨릭청소년이동쉼터서울a지t 천주교 서울대교구 청소년국 직영기관 @seoulajit on instagram 후원계좌 우리은행 1005 304 394554 예금주 자서울가톨릭청소년회 연락처 010 7655 9510 02 382 5677. ※ 상급 exp 교환권은 260레벨 이상의. 3번 아지트라는 경쟁력 있는 매물을 상련의 두목 양양양 등과 뜨거운 낙찰 경쟁을 진행했고 두목 장지환의 13억 입찰 선언으로 다른 갱단이 경악하며 입찰을 포기, 8 결국 빅딕의 아지트가 되었다. 근데 원래 사무실에선 read more. 아지트 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
디즈니 녀 기절 이벤트 기간2025년 9월 18일목 점검 후 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 ※획득한 스킬은 2025년 11월 19일수 오후 11시 59분까지 효과가 유지됩니다. 리프로 도착한 월드에서는 아지트 듀오를 진행할 수 없습니다. Com › mini › board아지트 웹소설같은 사이트 또 있음. 닉네임 검색api을 통해 레벨 read more. Com › board › view아니 아지트듀오가먼데 ㅇㅇ 메이플스토리 갤러리.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
간혹 아지트를 영어로 어떻게 쓰냐고 묻는 이들이 있는데, 한국에서 쓰는 아지트는 일본을 거쳐 의미가 바뀐 말 이기에 곧이 곧대로 agit라고 옮기는 것은 부적절하다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.