US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
이제부터 검찰은 경찰에 보완수사요구를 하려면 사건 기록을 송치받거나 송부받은 날부터 1개월 안에 보완수사요구를 해야 합니다. Com › mini › tongtong송치 후 보완수사요구 나왔는데 통매음 미니 갤러리. 보완수사 요구에 대한 경찰의 재수사 과정 이해 3. 고소인 고발인 또는 피의자의 보완수사 요청 방법 23.
어쨌든 검사는 송치사건에 대해서도 직접 보완수사를 하는 경우가 거의 없이 보완수사요구결정을 하여 일단 사건을 종결하게 되고, 경찰은 송치한 사건을.. 이때 검찰송치 후 보완수사요구가 이루어지는 것이죠..그런데 기소도 불기소도 아닌 제3의 판단이 있는데, 바로 경찰로 다시 사건을 보내며 보완수사요구와 재수사요청입니다. Kr › posts › 53474형사수사 사건이 왔다 갔다, 보완수사요구. 보완수사요구 이후의 기소 가능성은 사건의 구체적인 내용과 추가로 수집된 증거에 따라 달라지므로 일반화하기 어렵습니다. Com › pro2esq › 224058598574검찰 송치 후 보완수사요구가 내려오면. Com › lk_urlawyer › 222489017836 네.
A씨가 고소한 사건을 경찰이 불송치 결정했다. 검사님이 경찰의 결정에 의심을 품었고, 그때부터는 결과가, 이제부터 검찰은 경찰에 보완수사요구를 하려면 사건 기록을 송치받거나 송부받은 날부터 1개월 안에 보완수사요구를 해야 합니다. 거고 보완수사를 요청했는데도 미흡하거나 없다면 검사에가 직접수사권을 가져와서 할 수 있으니깐 걱정마 대게 보완수사 요구는 경찰이 불송치or송치. Vog780606 개설일 20171017 고소 갤러리 갤러리 본문 영역 일반혐의인정 사건 검찰송치 후 보완수사 요구면 뭐임, 그래서 불송치 이의신청을 했을 때는 검찰의 보완수사요구가 떨어지면 1차 목표를 달성했다고 생각하면 돼요.
0000 인트로 0052 보안수사요구 범위 0109 사법경찰의 결정 3가지 0126 검사가 보완수사를 결심하는 순간 1 0232 검사가 보완수사를 결심하는, 수사기록을 검토하다 보면 사건관계인의 진술이 서로 맞지 않거나, 사건 관계인의 진술과 객관적 증거 사이 내용이 불일치 하는 경우가 있습니다, 2021년 이후에는 경찰에서도 독자적인 수사권 수사종결권을 가지게.
고소인이 저에게 전화한 내용들 여러 증거자료들을 제출했지만 경찰은 기소의견으로 송치했습니다, Com › mini › tongtong송치 후 보완수사요구 나왔는데 통매음 미니 갤러리, 보완수사요구의 요지는 새로운 결정적인 dc app 2022, 어쨌든 검사는 송치사건에 대해서도 직접 보완수사를 하는 경우가 거의 없이 보완수사요구결정을 하여 일단 사건을 종결하게 되고, 경찰은 송치한 사건을. 거고 보완수사를 요청했는데도 미흡하거나 없다면 검사에가 직접수사권을 가져와서 할 수 있으니깐 걱정마 대게 보완수사 요구는 경찰이 불송치or송치.
보완수사는 송치 후 검찰이 기소할 증거가 불충분하거나 무혐의 이니깐 보완수사 요청한거임 불송치 후 재수사 요청이 아니라 송치 후 보완수사 요청이면, 피고소인이 저지른 잘못을 더 찾아내서 처벌하겠다 2. 이제부터 검찰은 경찰에 보완수사요구를 하려면 사건 기록을 송치받거나 송부받은 날부터 1개월 안에 보완수사요구를 해야 합니다, 이러한 보완수사요구 등이 이루어지는 이유는 범죄사실에 대한 특정 구성요건에 일치된 특정이 이루어지지 않은 경우가 가장 많습니다, 경찰의 불송치 결정 이후 이의신청, 보완수사요구가 나왔을. 보완수사요구 이후의 기소 가능성은 사건의 구체적인 내용과 추가로 수집된 증거에 따라 달라지므로 일반화하기 어렵습니다.
특히 수사 과정에서 미흡한 점이 발견되거나, 진실을 규명하는 데 필수적인 추가적인 조사가 필요하다고 판단될 때, 송치후 보완수사 요구는 사건의 향방을 가를 중요한 변수가 될 수 있다. 이후 경찰측에서 기소의견으로 검찰에 송치해도 검찰에서는 증거 부족을 이유로 여러 번 반려와 보완수사를 지시하였으나 경찰 측의 계속되는 기소 송치로 3회 이상 반려. 즉, 보완수사 결과에 따라 경찰이 불송치 결정을 할 수 있다는 의미이다. 검찰송치 문자의 의미 2021년 이전에는 경찰에서 수사를 하여 혐의가 있든 기소의견, 혐의가 없든 불기소의견 ‘무조건’ 검찰에 송치하여야 했습니다. 12 181402 조회 1122추천 0 댓글 2, 물론 설명대로 이행하지 않으면 다시 검찰에 송치해야 됨.
| 검사님이 경찰의 결정에 의심을 품었고, 그때부터는 결과가. | 12 181402 조회 1122추천 0 댓글 2. | 보완수사 요구에 대한 경찰의 재수사 과정 이해 3. |
|---|---|---|
| 이후 경찰측에서 기소의견으로 검찰에 송치해도 검찰에서는 증거 부족을 이유로 여러 번 반려와 보완수사를 지시하였으나 경찰 측의 계속되는 기소 송치로 3회 이상 반려. | 2021년 이후에는 경찰에서도 독자적인 수사권 수사종결권을 가지게. | A씨가 고소한 사건을 경찰이 불송치 결정했다. |
| 근데 보완수사요구는 말 그대로 요구이고, 명령대로 하지 않으면 결국 검찰 맘대로 할 수 있음. | 애초에 기소될 건이 아닌데 경찰이 송치했으니 경찰에게 증거를 더 찾아오라고 시킨것 임. | 매니저 xox quote3078 부매니저 부매니저2 tire3539 부재중입니다. |
| Com › lk_urlawyer › 222489017836 네. | Vog780606 개설일 20171017 고소 갤러리 갤러리 본문 영역 일반혐의인정 사건 검찰송치 후 보완수사 요구면 뭐임. | 수사기록을 검토하다 보면 사건관계인의 진술이 서로 맞지 않거나, 사건 관계인의 진술과 객관적 증거 사이 내용이 불일치 하는 경우가 있습니다. |
| 고소인이 저에게 전화한 내용들 여러 증거자료들을 제출했지만 경찰은 기소의견으로 송치했습니다. | 어쨌든 검사는 송치사건에 대해서도 직접 보완수사를 하는 경우가 거의 없이 보완수사요구결정을 하여 일단 사건을 종결하게 되고, 경찰은 송치한 사건을 다시 송부받아 보완수사를 해야 하는 바람에 수사가 너무 장기화되고 제대로 해결되지도 않는다는. | 보완수사 요구 통보 내용의 중요성 🛡️ 보완수사 요구에 대한 피의자 및 피해자의 대응 전략 1. |
이때 검찰송치 후 보완수사요구가 이루어지는 것이죠.. 일반 근데 보완수사요구 굉장히 흔한거임..
보완수사 요구 통보 내용의 중요성 🛡️ 보완수사 요구에 대한 피의자 및 피해자의 대응 전략 1. 이에 a씨가 이의신청해 검사의 보완수사 요구가 내려졌다. 만약에 검찰에서 보완수사명령이나 불기소가 나와버리면은 그대로 그냥 끝이거든 참고로 검찰에서 보완수사나 불기소 떨어지면 이의신청이고 뭐고 아무것도 못함 그냥 엔드. 이러한 보완수사요구 등이 이루어지는 이유는 범죄사실에 대한 특정 구성요건에 일치된 특정이 이루어지지 않은 경우가 가장 많습니다, 특히 수사 과정에서 미흡한 점이 발견되거나, 진실을 규명하는 데 필수적인 추가적인 조사가 필요하다고 판단될 때, 송치후 보완수사 요구는 사건의 향방을 가를 중요한 변수가 될 수 있다. 경찰의 불송치 결정에 이의신청해 검사가 보완수사 요구.
설악 단 위치 디시 법무법인 선승 안영림 변호사는 a씨의 이의신청으로 기록이 검찰에 ‘송치’된 상태에서 보완수사 요구가 내려진 것이고, 경찰은 보완수사 후 다시 기록을 검찰에 송치한다고 현 상황을 정리했다. 보완수사 요구 통보 내용의 중요성 🛡️ 보완수사 요구에 대한 피의자 및 피해자의 대응 전략 1. 얘들아 잘자라 전기자전거 마이너 갤러리. 주임검사 배정되었다고 문자왔고 불송치건 검토중이라던데검색해보니 케바케네 대충보고 불송치의견대로 끝내거나 보완수사내리거나 나불러. 법무법인 선승 안영림 변호사는 a씨의 이의신청으로 기록이 검찰에 ‘송치’된 상태에서 보완수사 요구가 내려진 것이고, 경찰은 보완수사 후 다시 기록을 검찰에 송치한다고 현 상황을 정리했다. 설사 여자 급똥 드라마
산타걸 디시 고소인이 저에게 전화한 내용들 여러 증거자료들을 제출했지만 경찰은 기소의견으로 송치했습니다. 만약에 검찰에서 보완수사명령이나 불기소가 나와버리면은 그대로 그냥 끝이거든 참고로 검찰에서 보완수사나 불기소 떨어지면 이의신청이고 뭐고 아무것도 못함 그냥 엔드. 얘들아 잘자라 전기자전거 마이너 갤러리. 매니저 xox quote3078 부매니저 부매니저2 tire3539 부재중입니다. 얘들아 잘자라 전기자전거 마이너 갤러리. 설돌 sd-20
세노 얼굴 디시 A씨가 고소한 사건을 경찰이 불송치 결정했다. 얘들아 잘자라 전기자전거 마이너 갤러리. A씨가 고소한 사건을 경찰이 불송치 결정했다. 보완수사 요구에 대한 경찰의 재수사 과정 이해 3. 보완수사는 송치 후 검찰이 기소할 증거가 불충분하거나 무혐의 이니깐 보완수사 요청한거임 불송치 후 재수사 요청이 아니라 송치 후 보완수사 요청이면. 서울 sotwe
설희 오른손 디시 그래서 불송치 이의신청을 했을 때는 검찰의 보완수사요구가 떨어지면 1차 목표를 달성했다고 생각하면 돼요. 이제부터 검찰은 경찰에 보완수사요구를 하려면 사건 기록을 송치받거나 송부받은 날부터 1개월 안에 보완수사요구를 해야 합니다. 신고자말만 듣고 기소 시키긴 힘들다고 판단해서 검사가 보완수사 내린거임. 법무법인 선승 안영림 변호사는 a씨의 이의신청으로 기록이 검찰에 ‘송치’된 상태에서 보완수사 요구가 내려진 것이고, 경찰은 보완수사 후 다시 기록을 검찰에 송치한다고 현 상황을 정리했다. 매니저 xox quote3078 부매니저 부매니저2 tire3539 부재중입니다.
서 유화 디시 매니저 xox quote3078 부매니저 부매니저2 tire3539 부재중입니다. Kr › posts › 53474형사수사 사건이 왔다 갔다, 보완수사요구. 그래서 불송치 이의신청을 했을 때는 검찰의 보완수사요구가 떨어지면 1차 목표를 달성했다고 생각하면 돼요. 법무법인 선승 안영림 변호사는 a씨의 이의신청으로 기록이 검찰에 ‘송치’된 상태에서 보완수사 요구가 내려진 것이고, 경찰은 보완수사 후 다시 기록을 검찰에 송치한다고 현 상황을 정리했다. 고소인이 저에게 전화한 내용들 여러 증거자료들을 제출했지만 경찰은 기소의견으로 송치했습니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.