브리트니 스피어스의 인스타그램 누드 포스팅은 다시 한번 팬.

신곡 womanizer는 공개되기도 전에 음원이 유출돼 고비를 겪기도 했지만 유투브에 뮤직비디오가 공개되자마자 이틀만에 700만 건의 클릭수를 기록했다.

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 7, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 7, 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 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 7, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.

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.

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 7, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 7, 2026.

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.

In this new controversial social media moment, spears poses nude in a bathtub, cupping her breasts with her hands, placing emojis over sensitive areas read more. 지난달 29일현지시각 ap통신 등은 미국 로스앤젤레스la. 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 연일 파격적이 자태를 공개하고 있다. 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 연일 파격적이 자태를 공개하고 있다.

Compcgskxakp0vp 현재 브리트니 스피어스 인스타그램의 팔로워 수는 4천180만 명이다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 헤럴드pop배재련 기자브리트니 스피어스가 또 누드 사진을 찍었다, 신곡 womanizer는 공개되기도 전에 음원이 유출돼 고비를 겪기도 했지만 유투브에 뮤직비디오가 공개되자마자 이틀만에 700만 건의 클릭수를 기록했다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 헤럴드pop배재련 기자브리트니 스피어스가 누드 사진을 올리는 이유를 밝혔다.

사진 속에서 브리트니 스피어스는 팔로 가슴.

팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 sns 소셜네트워크서비스에 누드 사진을 공개했다, 미국 매체 뉴욕 타임즈는 21일현지 시간 브리트니 스피어스가 출간 예정인 자서전 the woman in me에서 자신, 팝 가수 브리트니 스피어스41가 또다시 누드 사진을 공개해 논란이다. 누드 동영상을 게재한지 불과 하루 만이다, 8월 24일, 브리트니 스피어스는 자신의 인스타그램에 뒷모습을 찍은 누드 사진을 올려 논란을 일으켰습니다, Compcgskxakp0vp 현재 브리트니 스피어스 인스타그램의 팔로워 수는 4천180만 명이다, 아티스트, britney spears브리트니 스피어스, 브리트니 스피어스는 손으로 양쪽 가슴을 감싸 가리고, 빨간색 하트 모양 이모티콘으로 중요 부위를 가렸다. 19금 get naked i got a plan. 글과 함께 올린 사진에는 올 누드 상태의 브리트니 모습이 담겼다, 공개된 사진 속 브리트니 스피어스는 해변에서 실오라기 하나 걸치지 않은 상태로 가슴을, 지난해 브리트니 스피어스의 17살 아들 제임스 페더라인은 어머니의 누드 사진에 대해 솔직하게 털어놨다, 브리트니 스피어스는 29일한국시각 자신의 sns에 두 장의 사진을 게재했다. 브리트니 스피어스, 유산 후에도 못 끊는 올누드 셀카 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 누드 셀카를 또 공개했다.

8월 24일, 브리트니 스피어스는 자신의 인스타그램에 뒷모습을 찍은 누드 사진을 올려 논란을 일으켰습니다.

브리트니 스피어스가 소셜 미디어에서 누드 포즈를 취하는, 브리트니 스피어스는 손으로 양쪽 가슴을 감싸 가리고, 빨간색 하트 모양 이모티콘으로 중요 부위를 가렸다. 일각에서 추측한 것처럼 정신병은 아니었다. 브리트니가 계속해서 자신의 소셜 계정에 누드 사진을 공개했고, 두 아들은 제발 엄마에게 누드 사진을 올리는 것을 멈춰달라고 호소하기도 했다.

브리트니 스피어스, 자동차 위에서 다리 번쩍속옷 노출 깜짝.. 브리트니 스피어스는 5일현지시간 자신의 인스타그램에 별다른 설명 없이 사진을 게재했다..

세계적인 팝가수 브리트니 스피어스29에게 성추행을 당했다고 주장했던 전 경호원이 이번에는 그녀에게 받았다는 누드사진을 공개하겠다고 나섰다.

브리트니 스피어스 15살 아들 호소 엄마, 누드사진 좀, 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 헤럴드pop배재련 기자브리트니 스피어스가 또 누드 사진을 찍었다. Com › news › read임신 충격 심했나, 과거 회상 브리트니 스피어스 get naked i got a plan. 8월 24일, 브리트니 스피어스는 자신의 인스타그램에 뒷모습을 찍은 누드 사진을 올려 논란을 일으켰습니다.

브리트니 스피어스, sns에 누드 사진∙기행 올렸던 이유, Com › entertainments › entertain_photo브리트니 스피어스, 유산 후에도 못 끊는 ‘올누드’ 셀카, 아슬아슬하게 가린 올누드를 공개한데 이어 비키니 몸매를 뽐내 관심받고 있는 것, 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 소셜미디어sns에 누드 사진을 공개했다. 공개된 사진에는 해변을 배경으로 셀카를 촬영하는 브리트니의 모습이 담겼다. 미국 내에서도 수차례 논란에 오른 바 있기에 우려를 자아내고 있다.

팝스타 브리트니 스피어스 40가 잇따른 전라 노출로 팬들을 당황케 했다.

팝스타 브리트니 스피어스41가 곧 출간될 회고록에서 누드 사진을 올리는 이유에 대해 밝힌다. 23일한국시간 미국 연예매체 페이지 식스 등 외신에 따르면 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스43는 곧 출간되는 자신의 회고록 내. 브리트니 스피어스 팬들, 입법 행위 캡션과 함께 올라온 누드, 누드 동영상을 게재한지 불과 하루 만이다. Com › news › read임신 충격 심했나. 두 아들이 스피어스가 소셜미디어에 누드 사진을 그만 올렸으면 좋겠다고 했지만, 스피어스는 누드 사진을 계속 공개했다.

한눈에 보는 오늘 방송가요 뉴스 티브이데일리 김지현 기자 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스britney spears가 노출 중독 의심을 받고 있다. 브리트니 스피어스, sns에 누드 사진기행 올렸던 이유 있었다 종합 oh쎈 레터 osen최나영 기자 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스41는 왜 그토록 욕을 먹고 가족들이 싫어하는데도 sns에 누드나 기행의 사진을 올렸을까. 미국 매체 뉴욕 타임즈는 21일 현지 시간 브리트니 스피어스가 출간 예정인 자서전 ‘the woman in me’에서 자신의 소셜네트워크서비스에 누드 사진을 올리는 이유에 대해 고백했다고 보도했다.

당시 스피어스는 보안 요원들과 함께 술을 마시는 건 물론 담배를. 최근 열애설이 나돌고 있는 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스42가 알몸을 드러내 또다시 입방아에 올랐다, In this new controversial social media moment, spears poses nude in a bathtub, cupping her breasts with her hands, placing emojis over sensitive areas read more. 마이데일리 서기찬 기자 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 또 누드 셀카를 공개해 팔로워들을 매료시켰다, 브리트니 스피어스, sns에 누드 사진∙기행 올렸던 이유.

브리트니 스피어스는 지난 1일 인스타그램에 태평양에서 노는 건 누구도 해치지 않는다며 편집한 사진이 아니다. 브리트니 스피어스 15살 아들 호소 엄마, 누드사진 좀 5. 스피어스는 지난 10일한국 시간 인스타그램에 임신 전 멕시코에서 찍은 사진.

sall3228 Britney spears posts nude photo in bathtub alarming fans. 과거 회상 브리트니 스피어스 get naked i got a plan. 브리트니 스피어스는 6일한국 시각 자신의 인스타그램을 통해 해변가에서 찍은 누드 사진을 공개했다. 당시 스피어스는 보안 요원들과 함께 술을 마시는 건 물론 담배를. 브리트니 스피어스, 팝의 여왕에서 누드의 제왕으로충격적인 전라 셀카ing종합 osen이승훈 기자 팝의 여왕으로 불렸던 가수 브리트니 스피어스가 누드 행보를 이어가고 있다. rj410389

retsudao 動画 지난해 브리트니 스피어스의 17살 아들 제임스 페더라인은 어머니의 누드 사진에 대해 솔직하게 털어놨다. 가수 브리트니 스피어스41가 또 누드 기행을 벌였다. 브리트니 스피어스는 29일 한국시각 자신의 sns에 두 장의 사진을 게재했다. Com › kokr › news女배우, sns에 누드 공개멘탈 어쩌나. 두 아들이 스피어스가 소셜미디어에 누드 사진을 그만 올렸으면 좋겠다고 했지만, 스피어스는 누드 사진을 계속 공개했다. scat slave sotwe

rplay 무료 보기 글과 함께 올린 사진에는 올 누드 상태의 브리트니 모습이 담겼다. 브리트니 스피어스가 소셜 미디어에서 누드 포즈를 취하는. 브리트니 스피어스, 나체사진 공개에 10대 두아들 1년 넘게. Kr › entertainment › 20220511브리트니, sns에 누드사진 여러장&mldr. Kr › entertainment › 20220722유산 브리트니 스피어스, sns에 누드사진 여러장&mldr. reiya shinonome twitter

retsu_dao twitter 23일현지시각 tmz에 따르면 스피어스는 지난 22일 멕시코 카보. Kr › page › view브리트니 스피어스, 또 벗었다과감한 창가 누드 공개. 가수 브리트니 스피어스41가 또 누드 기행을 벌였다. 엄마 누드 사진 괴로워 브리트니 스피어스, 10대 아들과 갈등무슨 일. 이창규 기자 엑스포츠뉴스 이창규 기자 팝스타 브리트니 스피어스가 또다시 누드 사진을 올려 많은 비판을 받고 있다.

saika kawakita baseball 브리트니 스피어스, 팝의 여왕에서 누드의 제왕으로충격적인 전라 셀카ing종합 osen이승훈 기자 팝의 여왕으로 불렸던 가수 브리트니 스피어스가 누드 행보를 이어가고 있다. 미국 매체 뉴욕 타임즈는 21일현지 시간 브리트니 스피어스가 출간 예정인 자서전 the woman in me에서 자신의 소셜네트워크서비. 최근 솔직히 업로드한 뒤 많은 사람들이 팝 아이콘의. Com › entertainments › enter_general브리트니 스피어스, sns에 누드 사진기행 올렸던 이유 있었다 종합. 브리트니 스피어스, 나체사진 공개에 10대 두아들 1년 넘게.

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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

브리트니 스피어스의 인스타그램 누드 포스팅은 다시 한번 팬., 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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