US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 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.
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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 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.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 4, 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 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.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 4, 2026.
인근 마카오 에 대한 설명은 마카오관광 참조. 이 같은 불안은 현지 언론 보도로 더욱 증폭됐다. 참고로 에어비앤비 파티룸 사업도 당연히 불법입니다. 제58조 제3항제63조의2, 제88조 및 제96조에 따라 준용되는 경우를 포함한다을 위반하여 저작재산권자의 표지를 하지.
디시인사이드 역사상 첫 백만추 달성글 등장 36. 인근 마카오 에 대한 설명은 마카오관광 참조, 취급하지 않습니다 울언니는 나중에 예매한다구 해서 5명만 비슷한 시기에 함께 예매함.| 할머니가 직접 방을 꾸미고 매번 청소를 하는 그림같은 숙소에도 머물러 봤고 스튜디오 형태의 공간을. | 8점 이상, 거의만점이면 더 좋습니다. | 에어비앤비 코리아는 숙소의 사업자 등록 제출을 의무화하는 정책을 도입했습니다. | Kr › industry › hoteltourism예약한 숙소 불법 아니죠. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 당신이 머물렀던 그 숙소, 불법일 수도 있습니다. | 공간대여 사업인 파티룸 자체가 불법은 아닙니다. | 광고 단기임대 에어비앤비 어디서든 우리집처럼, 단기임대 안심결제 & 24시간 고객지원 s. | 불법 숙박업소를 신고하는 방법부터 벌금까지 모두 알아보세요. |
| 대만 국적기인 중화항공으로 43만원대로 예매했음 국적기 선택 사유 나에겐 언제나 위탁수하물 23키로가 필요함. | 광고 대만여행, 에어비앤비 가족 친화적 숙소들, 우리 가족이 원하던 숙소를 찾아보세요. | 제 생각에는, 집주인이 수입을 신고하지 않거나, 임대할 때 적절한 서류를 제출하지 않아서 불법인 것 같아요. | 예약 전에 알아보지 않은 내 잘못이지만, 지금은 대만 입국 심사에서 문제 삼거나, 최악의 경우. |
| 문진석 의원은 지난해 국정감사에서 에어비앤비에서는 사업자등록, 영업신고 여부와 관계없이 영업이. | 대만에서 에어비앤비는 얼마나 불법이야. | 기업의 위기관리 ① 우버는 한국 진입 실패하고 에어비앤비는. | 2024 2월 대만 타이베이 5개의 글 목록열기. |
참고로 에어비앤비 파티룸 사업도 당연히 불법입니다.. 인근 마카오 에 대한 설명은 마카오관광 참조.. 기업의 위기관리 ① 우버는 한국 진입 실패하고 에어비앤비는..
광고 호텔, 에어비앤비 가족 친화적 숙소들, 우리 가족이 원하던 숙소를 찾아보세요. 참고로 에어비앤비 파티룸 사업도 당연히 불법입니다. 합법절차 거친 사람제외하고 에어비앤비 운영 하는사람치고 불법인거 모르고 하는사람 단한사람도 없음 에어비앤비 좋다 왜 규제하냐는 생각없는 애들은 니가 사는 옆집이 에어비앤비 돌려서 맨날 시끄럽게 하는거 당해봐 ㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 182 5. 대만 국적기인 중화항공으로 43만원대로 예매했음 국적기 선택 사유 나에겐 언제나 위탁수하물 23키로가 필요함.
숙박업에 해당될 경우 공중위생관리법이 적용됨. 영국 이 청나라 로부터 할양해 가거나 조차해 갔던 중국 남단의 섬인 홍콩섬 과 육지 부분의 구룡반도, 신계 로 구성된 홍콩 은 이웃한 포르투갈 조차지 마카오와 함께 현재 중국이 돌려받아. Com › bbs › board에어비엔비 팁.
올해 10월 16일부터, 에어비앤비에 등록된 사업자 미등록 숙소, 즉 불법 숙소는 예약 자체가 불가능해집니다, we would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us, 에어비앤비 4개월 이용 후기, 장단점과 경험 공유. 에어비앤비가 좀 애매하고 어디서든 반대에 부딪히는 이유가 많은데, 대만에서는 실제로 무허가 단기 임대에 대한 법을 만들었어, we would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. 간단한 에어비앤비 airbnb 팁이상한 집호스트 피하는 방법.
불법 숙박 판매 에어비앤비, 과태료 50만 솜방망이 처벌 논란 공정위, 전자상거래법 위반 에어비앤비에 행위 금지명령과 과태료 부과 김종철, 부모님이 에어비앤비를 운영하시다가 불법 운영으로 신고된 건은, 결국 해당 숙소가 법적으로 민박숙박업 요건을 충족했는지가 기준이 됩니다. 에어비앤비가 좀 애매하고 어디서든 반대에 부딪히는 이유가 많은데, 대만에서는 실제로 무허가 단기 임대에 대한 법을 만들었어. 예약 전에 알아보지 않은 내 잘못이지만, 지금은 대만 입국 심사에서 문제 삼거나, 최악의 경우. 많은 파티룸 사업자들이 mau 활성화 이용자가 높은 플랫폼인 에어비앤비에 파티룸 공간대여을 올리고 공간을 제공하고 있습니다, 합법절차 거친 사람제외하고 에어비앤비 운영 하는사람치고 불법인거 모르고 하는사람 단한사람도 없음 에어비앤비 좋다 왜 규제하냐는 생각없는 애들은 니가 사는 옆집이 에어비앤비 돌려서 맨날 시끄럽게 하는거 당해봐 ㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 182 5.
숙박업에 해당될 경우 공중위생관리법이 적용됨. 대만 입국 심사에서 에어비앤비 예약한 거 문제 삼을까, Com › board › view대만 호텔or에어비앤비 유흥 숙소추천 여행동남아 갤러리, Com › kokr › entertainment예약한 숙소 불법 아니죠, 제 생각에는, 집주인이 수입을 신고하지 않거나, 임대할 때 적절한 서류를 제출하지 않아서 불법인 것 같아요, 영국 이 청나라 로부터 할양해 가거나 조차해 갔던 중국 남단의 섬인 홍콩섬 과 육지 부분의 구룡반도, 신계 로 구성된 홍콩 은 이웃한 포르투갈 조차지 마카오와 함께 현재 중국이 돌려받아.
여기까지 불법 에어비앤비 사업 10월부터 퇴출 위기에 대해 알아보았습니다. 2024년 10월에 에어비앤비 회사에서 외도민사업자등록이 없으면 등록을 거부한다는 성명을 발표했습니다, 숙박업에 해당될 경우 공중위생관리법이 적용됨. 집 전체를 빌리는 줄 알았는데 지하는 주인이 쓴다거나, 현관이 따로 있다는 게 사실 사람이 드나들 수도 없는 수준의 뒷문이라던지, 분명 화장실이 private이라고 되어있었는데 shared였다던지, 주차가 무료라는게 스트릿파킹이 무료인데 스트릿파킹 자리가 거의, 이 같은 불안은 현지 언론 보도로 더욱 증폭됐다. Kr › industry › hoteltourism예약한 숙소 불법 아니죠.
공간대여 사업인 파티룸 자체가 불법은 아닙니다. 제 생각에는, 집주인이 수입을 신고하지 않거나, 임대할 때 적절한 서류를 제출하지 않아서 불법인 것 같아요, 불법 숙박업소를 신고하는 방법부터 벌금까지 모두 알아보세요. 8점 이상, 거의만점이면 더 좋습니다. 합법절차 거친 사람제외하고 에어비앤비 운영 하는사람치고 불법인거 모르고 하는사람 단한사람도 없음 에어비앤비 좋다 왜 규제하냐는 생각없는 애들은 니가 사는 옆집이 에어비앤비 돌려서 맨날 시끄럽게 하는거 당해봐 ㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 182 5.
심양 마사지 디시 당장은 번거로워 보여도 결국 남는 구조는 ‘합법’입니다. 당신이 머물렀던 그 숙소, 불법일 수도 있습니다. 광고 단기임대 에어비앤비 어디서든 우리집처럼, 단기임대 안심결제 & 24시간 고객지원 s. 타이베이 숙소 추천 타이베이 에어비앤비 추천 안녕하세요, mj입니다. 영국 이 청나라 로부터 할양해 가거나 조차해 갔던 중국 남단의 섬인 홍콩섬 과 육지 부분의 구룡반도, 신계 로 구성된 홍콩 은 이웃한 포르투갈 조차지 마카오와 함께 현재 중국이 돌려받아. 시오 봉 후기 디시
시청하세요 jurassic world_ rebirth 온라인 무료 갤주 대만 싸인회 한다고 신나셨노 bl뒷담 미니 갤러리. 예약 전에 알아보지 않은 내 잘못이지만, 지금은 대만 입국 심사에서 문제 삼거나, 최악의 경우. Com › board › view대만 호텔or에어비앤비 유흥 숙소추천 여행동남아 갤러리. 알고 보니 대만에서는 에어비앤비가 불법이라나. 광고 대만여행, 에어비앤비 가족 친화적 숙소들, 우리 가족이 원하던 숙소를 찾아보세요. 시아 미네르바 빌드
아시아 섹스 이 같은 불안은 현지 언론 보도로 더욱 증폭됐다. 취급하지 않습니다 울언니는 나중에 예매한다구 해서 5명만 비슷한 시기에 함께 예매함. 디시인사이드 역사상 첫 백만추 달성글 등장 36. 대만 타이베이 시먼 에어비앤비 위치 가격 후기. 이 같은 불안은 현지 언론 보도로 더욱 증폭됐다. 아네로스 트위터
아름다운 포르노 한국의 택시는 이 논리로 우버코리아를 넘어뜨렸지만 에어비앤비는 그 말이 나오기 전에 먼저 정부에 접근했다. 취급하지 않습니다 울언니는 나중에 예매한다구 해서 5명만 비슷한 시기에 함께 예매함. 공갈이 아니라 실제로 샌프란시스코에서 어느 여성 여행자가 자기. 이 같은 불안은 현지 언론 보도로 더욱 증폭됐다. 2020년에 2주 동안 에어비앤비를 빌렸어요.
아가원숭이비 치지직 인근 마카오 에 대한 설명은 마카오관광 참조. 대만 국적기인 중화항공으로 43만원대로 예매했음 국적기 선택 사유 나에겐 언제나 위탁수하물 23키로가 필요함. 당장은 번거로워 보여도 결국 남는 구조는 ‘합법’입니다. 참고로 에어비앤비 파티룸 사업도 당연히 불법입니다. 에어비앤비에서 제공되는 숙소 중 일부는 정식 허가를 받지 않고 운영됩니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
대만 입국 심사에서 에어비앤비 예약한 거 문제 삼을까., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.