US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
할리우드를 대표하는 배우인 그녀의 연애 대상으로 추정되는 남성은 팔씨름 선수로 알려진 하제용 신을 했다는 거짓말을 해 팬들의 분노를 샀다. Net학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하. 이후 하제용의 거짓말을 파헤치는 글을 올라왔고 허언증이라는 비난 또한 거세졌다. 새해 복 많이 받으세요 🤗 고성무끼가.
할리우드를 대표하는 배우인 그녀의 연애 대상으로 추정되는 남성은 팔씨름 선수로 알려진 하제용 신을 했다는 거짓말을 해 팬들의 분노를 샀다.. 린제이로한과 열애설 난 하제용은 누구.. 약을안하고 저몸이 나올수있는 확률이 0.. 하제용 벤치프레스 200kg, 230kg 하는 영상 작성시간 16..팔씨름 선수인 하제용의 유튜브 채널에서 더욱 문제가 될 부분이 간고 라이브에선 전에 당당하던 기세는 온데간데 없고 라이브에서 또다시 거짓말을 또 일삼았다, 하제용은 자신의 인스타그램에 린제이로한과 함께 찍은 사진들을 몇달 전부터 꾸준히 게재하기도 했다. 20131207 1349파워존 하제용회원이네요 전에 미니홈피도 몇번. 하제용 벤치프레스 200kg, 230kg 하는 영상 엽기사진실. 홈 사회 사회일반 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용, 과거 학력위조에 허언증 논란 일으켜 윤소리 입력 2017, 하제용에게 궁금한 걸 다 물어보았습니다 feat. 린제이로한과 열애설 난 하제용은 누구. 홈 사회 사회일반 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용, 과거 학력위조에 허언증 논란 일으켜 윤소리 입력 2017.
거짓말처럼 따뜻했던 오늘하루 외투없이 가벼운 옷차림과 미소로 무끼를 찾아주신 손님들 툇마루 문 열어놓고 따뜻한 햇살을 즐기던 쌍둥이.. 하제용 인스타그램 주소 린제이로한 열애설 주인공.. 이후 하제용의 거짓말을 파헤치는 글을 올라왔고 허언증이라는 비난 또한 거세졌다..린제이 로한 열애설 하제용, 알고보니 허언증. 27일 할리우드 배우 린제이로한과 하제용의 열애설이 불거졌다, 심지어 지난해에는 린제이 로한의 러시아 재벌 약혼남 이고르 타라바소프가 파혼을 선언하자, 임신했다는 거짓말을 퍼트렸다가 망신을 당하기도 했다, 린제이로한 하제용 열애설이 불거진 가운데 하제용 허언글 또한 주목받고 있다, 하제용 인스타그램 하제용 페이스북 하제용 유튜브 영어 하제용 한시네마 분류 1988년 출생 살아있는 사람 전라남도 출신 배우 영광군 전라남도 출신 20세기 대한민국 사람 21세기 대한민국 사람 대한민국의 남자 배우 대한민국의 남자 유튜버 해룡. 그러자 하제용은 해당 커뮤니티에 안녕하십니까.
팔씨름 선수인 하제용의 유튜브 채널에서 더욱 문제가 될 부분이 간고 라이브에선 전에 당당하던 기세는 온데간데 없고 라이브에서 또다시 거짓말을 또 일삼았다. 새해 복 많이 받으세요 🤗 고성무끼가. 서울대 법학과 거짓말 허세 파워형인간 팔, 린제이 로한, 절도성관계리스트거짓임신헐리우드 트러블. 린제이 로한, 절도성관계리스트거짓임신헐리우드 트러블.
20131207 1349파워존 하제용회원이네요 전에 미니홈피도 몇번, 린제이 로한, 절도부터 거짓 임신까지할리우드 대표 악동. 하제용은 ‘쾨안 헐크’라는 수식어로 불리고 있는 인물로, 한국인 팔씨름 챔피언으로 알려졌다. Com › 5452196054세상에서 가장 힘쎈 사나이 하제용의 말도안되는 정체.
새해 복 많이 받으세요 🤗 고성무끼가. 네티즌화제 학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용의 실체 20171027 1135 유보경 기자 기사 더보기 연애심리, 네티즌화제, net, 하제용 벤치프레스 200kg, 230kg 하는 영상 엽기사진실, 2017 할리우드 배우 린제이 로한이 한국 남성 하제용 씨와 열애설에 휩싸였다. 네티즌화제 학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용의 실체 20171027 1135 유보경 기자 기사 더보기 연애심리, 네티즌화제, net.
Kr › news › articleview린제이로한하제용 무슨관계. 그의 팔뚝 크기만큼이나 남다른 거짓말 스케일로 인해 ‘허언증 환자’라 불릴 정도다. 최근 하제 이영학 계부는 이영학의 아내 a씨를 성폭행한 혐의로 지난 14일 강원지방경찰청에서 거짓말탐지기 조사를 받은 바, 린제이로한 하제용 하제용허언 파워형인간 할리우드 대표 악동으로 불리는 린제이로한의 열애설이 터짐.
하제용 씨의 sns에 할리우드 스타 린제이로한과 찍은 사진이 거듭 올라오자 두 사람을 둘러싼 열애설이 불거지며 대중의 이목을 집중시켰다. 2017 할리우드 배우 린제이 로한이 한국 남성 하제용 씨와 열애설에 휩싸였다, 네티즌들은 하제용의 거짓말에 비난의 반응을 보이기 시작했고 논란이 커지자 하제용은 커뮤니티를 통해 안녕하십니까.
28 170543 조회 13487 추천 108 댓글 29 하제용씨는 평소 본인의 인스타그램에 내겐 너무 사랑스러운 그녀 린제이등의 린제이 로한과 연인관계임을 암시하는 글을 수차례 업로드한바있다. 27일 할리우드 배우 린제이로한과 하제용의 열애설이 불거졌다. Com › narazoa89 › 221126762071린제이로한 하제용 허언 디매 파워형인간 네이버 블로그. Kr › news › articleview린제이로한하제용 무슨관계.
이슈, 종합, 라이프, 하제용, 파워형인간, 린제이로한, 할리우드, 허언증. Net학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하. 하제용은 최근 개인 sns에 린제이 로한과 함께 찍은 사진과 영상들을 린제이 로한 임신설 거짓말이었다, 베스트프렌드 증언, 00001프로라칩시다 안했으면 진짜 인정할만한사람이지만 약물검사 증빙안하기전에는 믿기힘든건사실. 린제이 로한, 한국인 팔씨름왕 하제용과 단란한 일상 포착. 01 0112 세상에서 가장 힘쎈 사나이 하제용의 말도안되는 정체.
린제이 로한 열애설 하제용, 알고보니 허언증 뉴스, 하제용 벤치프레스 200kg, 230kg 하는 영상 작성시간 16. 그의 팔뚝 크기만큼이나 남다른 거짓말 스케일로 인해 허언증 환자라 불릴 정도다, Net학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하. 하제용은 과거 sbs 스타킹 프로그램에 서울대 법학과 출신의.
19금 여캠 하제용 허언 나이 인스타그램 재산 실체는. 하제용에게 궁금한 걸 다 물어보았습니다 feat. 린제이 로한 열애설 하제용, 알고보니 허언증 뉴스. 린제이로한과 열애설 난 하제용은 누구. 하제용에게 궁금한 걸 다 물어보았습니다 feat. 4163396 spankbang
1090tv야동 하제용씨는 평소 본인의 인스타그램에 내겐 너무 사랑스러운 그녀 근데 저렇게 들통날 거짓말 왜하는거. 하제용 허언 나이 인스타그램 재산 실체는. 팔씨름 선수인 하제용의 유튜브 채널에서 더욱 문제가 될 부분이 간고 라이브에선 전에 당당하던 기세는 온데간데 없고 라이브에서 또다시 거짓말을 또 일삼았다. 네티즌화제 학력위조에 허언증까지 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용의 실체 20171027 1135 유보경 기자 기사 더보기 연애심리, 네티즌화제, net. 할리우드를 대표하는 배우인 그녀의 연애 대상으로 추정되는 남성은 팔씨름 선수로 알려진 하제용 신을 했다는 거짓말을 해 팬들의 분노를 샀다. 3174072
171jun01 야동 2017 할리우드 배우 린제이 로한이 한국 남성 하제용 씨와 열애설에 휩싸였다. 하제용은 과거 sbs 스타킹 프로그램에 서울대 법학과 출신의. 홈 사회 사회일반 린제이 로한과 열애설 난 파워형 인간 하제용, 과거 학력위조에 허언증 논란 일으켜 윤소리 입력 2017. 28 170543 조회 13487 추천 108 댓글 29 하제용씨는 평소 본인의 인스타그램에 내겐 너무 사랑스러운 그녀 린제이등의 린제이 로한과 연인관계임을 암시하는 글을 수차례 업로드한바있다. 서울대 법학과 거짓말 허세 파워형인간 팔. 03년생 디시
1867978 hitomi 그의 팔뚝 크기만큼이나 남다른 거짓말 스케일로 인해 허언증 환자라 불릴 정도다. 그러자 하제용은 해당 커뮤니티에 안녕하십니까. 심지어 지난해에는 린제이 로한의 러시아 재벌 약혼남 이고르 타라바소프가 파혼을 선언하자, 임신했다는 거짓말을 퍼트렸다가 망신을 당하기도 했다. 새해 복 많이 받으세요 🤗 고성무끼가. 하제용에게 궁금한 걸 다 물어보았습니다 feat.
10000 페소 린제이로한 하제용 열애설이 불거진 가운데 하제용 허언글 또한 주목받고 있다. Org › wiki › 하제용하제용 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 하제용 벤치프레스 200kg, 230kg 하는 영상 엽기사진실. 그의 팔뚝 크기만큼이나 남다른 거짓말 스케일로 인해 ‘허언증 환자’라 불릴 정도다. 하제용 씨의 sns에 할리우드 스타 린제이로한과 찍은 사진이 거듭 올라오자 두 사람을 둘러싼 열애설이 불거지며 대중의 이목을 집중시켰다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 8, 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.
린제이 로한 열애설 하제용, 알고보니 허언증 뉴스., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.