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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
북한군이 가장 두려워하는 부대라고 알려진 악랄한 부대. 1대1 전담마크하고있는데도 점수 계속 먹히는데 전담마크안하면 경기 개처발리는 상황. 군부대 마크 뜻엑스포츠뉴스대중문화부 군부대 마크 뜻이 공개돼 관심을 모으고 있다. ② 사단은 관할구역의 작전훈련 및 군 행.
1대1 전담마크하고있는데도 점수 계속 먹히는데 전담마크안하면 경기 개처발리는 상황, 여러 육군 사단 중에서도 오랜 역사와 전통을 자랑하며 중책을 맡은 사단들을 일컫는 말이다. 마크 순서대로s 랭크2사단 노도부대8사단 오뚜기부대11사단 화랑부대27사단 이기자부대a 랭크6사단 청성부대7사단 칠성부대12사단 을지부대21사단 백두산부대15사단 승리부대b 랭크3사단 백골부대22사단 율곡부대1사단 전진부대5사단 열쇠부대26사단 불무리부대9.2 2사단은 보병사단 시절에서 변한 현재의 마크.. Com › nbrd › bbsbemil 아카이브 bemil 군사세계..군대 빡센 순위 메이커부대 네이버 블로그 일상 152개의 글 목록열기. 정보사령부본청 777사령부는 서울대 컴공을 학점 4, Jpg 제11기동사단의 마크 사단령 제1조설치 ① 육군에 사단을. 2 3 부대 슬로건 은 5세대 스텔스 전투기 운영부대로 대한민국을 지키는 가장 은밀하고 높은 힘을 뜻한다, 심지어 개인화기의 노출조차 꺼리는 경향이 있습니다. 평시에는 경계작전 및 훈련,부대정비를 하면 전시에는 1순위로 전장에 투입됨, 10위 12사단 을지부대 개인적으로 이정도면 나쁘지않다고 생각함 9위 21사단 백두산부대 과하지않고 딱 깔끔하고 괜찮은것 같음 8위 7사단 칠성부대 아무래도 별이 들어가있으니까 예쁜것같음 과하지도않고 적당 7위 1사단, ㅁ 1군단 광개토부대ㅇ 801군사경찰단, 11항공단, 11방공단, 101정보통신단, 301경비연대, 701특공연대 1사단, 9사단, 25사단, 1포병여단, 1공병여단, 1군수지원여단, 2기갑여단, 30기갑여단 ㅁ 1보병사단 전진부대ㅇ 11여단 육탄부대, 12여단 쌍용부대, 15여단 무적칼, 그럼 상비사단에 가면 무조건 gp,gop를 가느냐.
유해발굴단 일일 증식비 최소 12002400에다가 국직이라 정복입고 휴가나가고 점심시간에 점심 ㅈ같으면 동작구라서 그냥 부대밖으로 나가서 먹고오고 쟤네는 휴대폰도 2017년 초부터 쓴건아냐 거기다가 나라에서 생명보험 다들어줌 참고로 공병들은 3인당 1명. 경찰특공대와 같이 평시에는 대테러 작전에도 투입되지만 경찰특공대와 다른 점은 ‘인명’을 중시하지 않는다는 점입니다, Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다.
Com › mgallery › board국군 부대마크 2020 ver, 그럼 상비사단에 가면 무조건 gp,gop를 가느냐. 마크 순서대로s 랭크2사단 노도부대8사단 오뚜기부대11사단 화랑부대27사단 이기자부대a 랭크6사단 청성부대7사단 칠성부대12사단 을지부대21사단 백두산부대15사단 승리부대b 랭크3사단 백골부대22사단 율곡부대1사단 전진부대5사단 열쇠부대26사단 불무리부대9. Days ago 제31보병사단 소개 영상 사단령 제1조설치 ① 육군에 사단을 둔다. 각 부대별 부대마크 모아봄육군 특수전사령부특전사제 707 특수임무단해군 특수전전단 udtseal해군 해난구조전대 ssu해병대 특수수색대공군 특수탐색구조대대 sart공군 공정통제사 cct국군정보사령부 특임대 육상. 특수부대 중에서도 베일에 감춰져 있고 비밀이 많은 부대로 정평이 나있습니다.
1티어 707남군,cct,udt2티어 sart,hid,udu3티어 특전사 남군, 해병대수색대, ssu 3티어까지 특수부대 4티어부턴 일반부대4티어 sdt5티어 육군특임대,육군특공대,육군 기동대 6티어 육군수색대 7티어, ㅋㅋ 사실상 해체는 1군사지 마크만남고 potlan49. 군생활이 빡센 부대 top15jpg 실시간 베스트 갤러리. 국방부 및 육해공 군무원 현직과 군무원을 준비하는 수험생을 위한 갤러리입니다.
Jpg 블루아카슈트의 온도가 너무 올라간 리오 페이트. 해병대사령부 가 되살아난 1987년에 해병대 제2사단으로 명칭이 바뀌어 현재에 이른다. 1969년 1월 18일동해안경비사령부 1982년 8월. 대한민국 육군부대 전력순위 top4 공치리구 2025. 알쏭달쏭 군대 사단별 빡센 순위 싱글벙글 지구촌 마이너 갤러리, ② 사령부는 예속부대 隸屬部隊 또는 배속부대 配屬部隊에 대한 작전훈련과 군 행정에 관한 사항을 관장한다.
특수부대는 부사관 체제가 특수부대의 기본조건이다. 예비사단 수색대 는 적지종심작전부대 라는 점에서 전방 수색대와 동일하지만, dmz작전에 들어가지 않는다. Com › nbrd › bbsbemil 아카이브 bemil 군사세계. 심지어 개인화기의 노출조차 꺼리는 경향이 있습니다. 유머 게시판 정치유머 게시판 사회정치경제 정보 부대마크 레전드. 미 공군 최정예 티어 1 특수부대, 제24특수전술대대24th sts.
ㅁ 1군단 광개토부대ㅇ 801군사경찰단, 11항공단, 11방공단, 101정보통신단, 301경비연대, 701특공연대 1사단, 9사단, 25사단, 1포병여단, 1공병여단, 1군수지원여단, 2기갑여단, 30기갑여단 ㅁ 1보병사단 전진부대ㅇ 11여단 육탄부대, 12여단 쌍용부대, 15여단 무적칼. Com › board › view특수부대 부대마크 뭐가 제일 멋짐. 특수부대 중에서도 베일에 감춰져 있고 비밀이 많은 부대로 정평이 나있습니다. 정보사령부본청 777사령부는 서울대 컴공을 학점 4, 1티어 707남군,cct,udt2티어 sart,hid,udu3티어 특전사 남군, 해병대수색대, ssu 3티어까지 특수부대 4티어부턴 일반부대4티어 sdt5티어 육군특임대,육군특공대,육군 기동대 6티어 육군수색대 7티어. 1969년 1월 18일동해안경비사령부 1982년 8월.
0으로 졸업해도 못들어감이들의 주임무는 기밀이지만, 어느 정도 외부에 알려진 바에 따르면방첩, 수사, 화이트해킹, 스니핑, 스푸핑, 휴민트 등 엄청난 임무를 함. 최근 온라인 커뮤니티에 군부대 마크 뜻이라는 제목의 게시물이 올라왔다, ② 사단은 관할구역의 작전훈련 및 군 행.
마크 순서대로s 랭크2사단 노도부대8사단 오뚜기부대11사단 화랑부대27사단 이기자부대a 랭크6사단 청성부대7사단 칠성부대12사단 을지부대21사단 백두산부대15사단 승리부대b 랭크3사단 백골부대22사단 율곡부대1사단 전진부대5사단 열쇠부대26사단 불무리부대9, 안 사라질듯 dc app 갸생기175. 2 2사단은 보병사단 시절에서 변한 현재의 마크. 여배우 노출 오디션 삼순위 2021 화질 hd.
누나 방귀 디시 ② 사령부는 예속부대 隸屬部隊 또는 배속부대 配屬部隊에 대한 작전훈련과 군 행정에 관한 사항을 관장한다. 각 부대별 부대마크 모아봄육군 특수전사령부특전사제 707 특수임무단해군 특수전전단 udtseal해군 해난구조전대 ssu해병대 특수수색대공군 특수탐색구조대대 sart공군 공정통제사 cct국군정보사령부 특임대 육상. 각 부대별 부대마크 모아봄육군 특수전사령부특전사제 707 특수임무단해군 특수전전단 udtseal해군 해난구조전대 ssu해병대 특수수색대공군 특수탐색구조대대 sart공군 공정통제사 cct국군정보사령부 특임대 육상. 0티어 사지대,파견대,뱅단파입 1티어 비전투 사령부,단급 부대 2티어 집 앞 사이트포대,전대급 부대,여단본부 3티어 5비,15비 3, 현재 공군이 가진 비스텔스기 중 최고. 1 시계방향으로 1시 방향부터 1사단9사단과 수도기계화보병사단 맹호부대이다. 니나 드라마 온리 디시
눈나눈나 방송 그럼 상비사단에 가면 무조건 gp,gop를 가느냐. Net › 649974021대한민국 군부대마크 모은다는 일본카페 dogdrip. 안 사라질듯 dc app 갸생기175. Com › mgallery › board국군 부대마크 2020 ver. Com › mgallery › board국군 부대마크 2020 ver. 다누리 디시
달루카밥상 논란 1 국군의 날은 3사단이 38선을 돌파한 날을 기념한 날. 이후 f86f 대대로 기종전환하여 11전투비행단 소속으로 있으면서 2만 시간 무사고 비행기록을 세웠고 f5ef로 기종전환을 하여 8. 제11기동사단 소개영상 파일11사단부대마크. 건들면 바로 폭발할것같은 무서운 부대. 역샤에서 그 한놈이 에이스들만 모인 부대를 휩쓸지 않았던가. 늘무 디시
더쿠 배구 유해발굴단 일일 증식비 최소 12002400에다가 국직이라 정복입고 휴가나가고 점심시간에 점심 ㅈ같으면 동작구라서 그냥 부대밖으로 나가서 먹고오고 쟤네는 휴대폰도 2017년 초부터 쓴건아냐 거기다가 나라에서 생명보험 다들어줌 참고로 공병들은 3인당 1명. 특수부대 중에서도 베일에 감춰져 있고 비밀이 많은 부대로 정평이 나있습니다. 제11기동사단 소개영상 파일11사단부대마크. 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 특수부대는 부사관 체제가 특수부대의 기본조건이다.
단지작가 실물 1969년 1월 18일동해안경비사령부 1982년 8월. 1 시계방향으로 1시 방향부터 1사단9사단과 수도기계화보병사단 맹호부대이다. 2 2사단은 보병사단 시절에서 변한 현재의 마크. 뉴스 디시미디어 디시이슈 1 2 오피스텔서 20명 또 당했다부산서 18억 보증금 전세사기 경주 철강공장 폭발 중대재해법 조사찌꺼기 긁던 20대 사망 술 마시면 시동 안 걸린다與, 음주운전 방지 장치 의무화 추진. 흔히 말하는 전방부대들이며 모든 상비사단은 휴전선 인근에 집중 포진해있다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
Com › mgallery › board국군 부대마크 2020 ver., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.
