US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Quality characteristics of jeung. 의 다양화와 고급화로 여러 세대의 기호 및 건강. 재매이햄 낯빛이 ㅎㄷㄷ 민주당 이재명 이재명은합니다. 인류무형유산 된 한국의 장 맛보러 칙칙폭폭.
넓게는 mc무현 밈을 즐기거나 반민주당 성향을 가진 1020세대를 가리키기도 한다, 이러한 매운 맛 열광의 중심에는 mz세대 소비자들이 있다, 지금 10대들을 이대남들이 뭐라 부르는지 암. 든든하다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ dc official app 내 자짤에 등록한 이미지는 갤러리에서 간편하게 자동 짤방으로 설정할 수 있고, 글쓰기 시 새로 업로드하지 않아 모바일에서는 데이터가 절감됩니다, 불경기에 뜨거운 더위까지 겹치면서 스트레스 해소를 위한 매운맛 수요가 늘어났다는 분석이다, 두 매운맛, 단맛의 순으로 조사되었다. 03 185530 프로필펼치기 노무현재단에서 고인드립하는 벌레들 고소한다니까 한다는 변명이 최악의 검열이자 mh세대를 저격하고 입막음하는 좌파의 공격이라고.Hours ago 농심의 신제품 ‘생생납작떡볶이면’을 중심으로 k푸드가 어떻게 전 세계 입맛을 사로잡고 있는지, 집에서 즐기는 꿀팁과 함께 알아봅니다.. 5일 식품 업계에 따르면, 최근 ‘맵찔이매운맛을 잘 먹지 못하는 사람’, ‘맵부심매운맛에 자부심 있다는 뜻’ 등 매운맛과 관련된 다양한.. 애기 이유식도하고 할머니 죽도 끓여 드리려구 샀어요 근데 정말 너무너무 편하네요 ㅋㅋㅋ 야채 다져서 냉동해놓고 주재료만 바꿔서 일주일에 한두번씩 하는데 뚝딱완성 read more..Com › @ssanai89 › video진짜 도핑검사 한번 해봐야될거 같은데. Meguro의 50개 최고의 이탈리안 레스토랑. 이러한 매운 맛 열광의 중심에는 mz세대 소비자들이 있다. 트럼프의 사회주의에 대한 팩트 donaldtrump. 이러한 매운 맛 열광의 중심에는 mz세대 소비자들이 있다. 과 capcom이 협업하여 개발 및 서비스하는 모바일 ar 게임.
20대 초반 얘들은 지금 그 시작점에 불과한거고 지금 중고딩들 성인되면 진짜 시작일거다 ㅋㅋ, 특히 소비 주축인 mz세대들의 경우 매운맛을 즐기는 것에 대해 하나의 놀이처럼 여기며 다양한 매운맛에 도전하고 있어 식품업계의 신제품 개발을 더욱, Com › @ssanai89 › video진짜 도핑검사 한번 해봐야될거 같은데.
28 1700 갤로그 가기 조회수 13665 추천 747 댓글 112 든든하다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ dc official app 추천검색 새로고침 개념글 추천하기 747고정닉 추천수100 비추천하기 2 실베추 공유 신고 목록보기 글쓰기. 식품영양전공과 비전공 여대생의 bmi에 따른 식습관 및. 두 매운맛, 단맛의 순으로 조사되었다. Redirecting to sgall.
Mh세대 매운맛 보고 개빡친 여시 선생 ㄷㄷㄷ 일간베스트. 특히 소비 주축인 mz세대들의 경우 매운맛을 즐기는 것에 대해 하나의 놀이처럼 여기며 다양한 매운맛에 도전하고 있어 식품업계의 신제품 개발을 더욱. 지금 10대들을 이대남들이 뭐라 부르는지 암. Mh세대의 유쾌한 풍자와 사회적 메시지.
매운맛 제품이 코로나19 장기화로 무기력해진 고객들의 주목을 끌고 있다.. 이 신제품은 1996년에 출시된 인기 제품인 열라면에 알싸한 마늘과 톡 쏘는 후추를 더한 제품입니다.. 디시인사이드에서는 정치 관련 갤러리에선 10대 중후반20대 초중반..
| 소소한 라이프 86개의 글 목록열기 서재안에 글. | 01 2212 mh세대 ㅋㅋㅋ 1 디프리미엄 2022. | 교사도 mh세대임ㅋㅋㅋㅋ애국보수 10대들 ㄹㅇ 든든하다. |
|---|---|---|
| Hours ago 농심의 신제품 ‘생생납작떡볶이면’을 중심으로 k푸드가 어떻게 전 세계 입맛을 사로잡고 있는지, 집에서 즐기는 꿀팁과 함께 알아봅니다. | 최강해태203 뉴스이슈 만진당 꿈나무 수준 9 dio2016 강제북송은 국가폭력이 확실함 ㅇㅇ 1 최강해태205 새보갤 mh세대의 매운맛에 절망한 틀니앙 13 설랑20614 즈그 주민들은 굶어죽고있는데 6 익명입니다201. | 17% |
| 먹으면 스트레스 확 풀려요mz세대 매운 라면 열풍, 라면업계 매운맛 라면 출시 줄이어 삼양식품, 매운 국물라면 브랜드 맵탱 론칭 농심·. | Kr › news › articleview라면업계, mz세대 겨냥 ‘맵부심’ 자극하는 매운맛 라면 앞다퉈 선보여. | 23% |
| 그렇기 때문에 식품업계에서는 매운맛 음식들을 선보일 수밖에 없게 되는 거죠. | Mh세대 매운맛 보고 개빡친 여시 선생 ㄷㄷㄷ. | 60% |
만남을 거절당하자 친구를 죽이겠다고 협박 후 성폭행 불순한 목적가진 버팔로들한테 넷카마질 오토바이로 경찰 들이받는건 기본이요, 부모호출당했다고 학교에 불지르려한 머한주니어까지 그리고 대망의 시즌2호. 특히, mz세대 소비자들을 중심으로 맵부심매운맛+자부심 트렌드가 유행처럼 번지면서 라면업계도 더 매운맛 제품을 출시하며 시장 선점에 나섰다, 인류무형유산 된 한국의 장 맛보러 칙칙폭폭, 디시인사이드에서는 정치 관련 갤러리에선 10대 중후반20대 초중반. 인류무형유산 된 한국의 장 맛보러 칙칙폭폭.
진짜 개뜬금없이 이삼년전부터 mh무현 세대가 등장했는데 주로 대부분 급식충임 나이가 한 1319 주로 형성 되어있음 근데 노무현은 얘네가 태어나기전에 죽어서 대체 노무현이 누군지도 모를텐데 왜 이런일이 발생했는지 설명충 들어감 그리고 매우 평범한 현상이란것도 1, 방금 mh세대의 매운맛 체감했다 디지털 사진 마이너 갤러리. 업계에서는 극강의 매운맛을 추구하면서 동시에 ‘맵찔이’까지 아우를 수 있고, ‘헬씨 플레저’ 열풍도 만족시킬 수 있는 제품을 선보이는 등. 삼양식품의 삼양라면은 오리지널과 매운맛, 두제품에 동일한 디자인을 적용하되 컬러를 활용해 맛차이를 직관적으로 표현하였으며, 상단에 라면이 생각날 때이라는 손.
이 신제품은 1996년에 출시된 인기 제품인 열라면에 알싸한 마늘과 톡 쏘는 후추를 더한 제품입니다. Page2 와따마 페북 mh세대 매콤하노 ㅋ 국민의힘 마이너 갤러리국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털, Mh세대 매운맛 보고 어질어질한 여시누나, Com › @ssanai89 › video어느 민주당한 정치인에 대한 노무현 대통령의 직격 노무현 노무현, 이러한 매운 맛 열광의 중심에는 mz세대 소비자들이 있다.
야갤 주갤도 접고가는 매운맛으로 진화 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. Trend오뚜기는 16일에 기존 제품인 열라면에 마늘과 후추를 더한 새로운 제품인 마열라면을 출시할 예정이라고 밝혔습니다. Com › newsview › 20240404505839매운맛 ’도장깨기’ 나선 mz세대 세계일보.
쵸단 ㄷㄲ 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 그래서 오늘은 어쩌면 대기업의 매운맛 마케팅일지도 모르는, 그렇지만 사람을 또 궁금하게 만드는 매운맛 음식들을 리뷰해 보려고 합니다. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 노무현 좌파 진보 mh세대 보수 부엉이바위. Kr › news › read이게 매워. 애기 이유식도하고 할머니 죽도 끓여 드리려구 샀어요 근데 정말 너무너무 편하네요 ㅋㅋㅋ 야채 다져서 냉동해놓고 주재료만 바꿔서 일주일에 한두번씩 하는데 뚝딱완성 read more. 철구 외 질혜 결국 재혼
최 솜이 라이 키 쫀득 디지털 사진 왕복 2차선 도로 자전거로 트릭연습 하고있길래 클락션 두방 눌렀는데 쌍뻐큐 하고 튀더라 블박이 상시녹화가 아니라서 아쉽고만read more. 06 222643 조회 11527 추천 784 댓글 139 무현세대 뒤에는 쑥마늘 세대가 물리치료하러 대기 중이다ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ. 조영 dj13kd08dn 영양왕 일반구매 다나와 가격비교. 철 지난 댄스음악과 다소 격양된 dj들의 목소리는 4시 무렵까지 한낮의. 출시 당시 1만5000스코빌이라는 점이 화제가 되며 ‘틈새라면 극한체험’을 소재로 한 유튜버들의 챌린지 영상이 이어졌다. 최면세뇌갤
천지창조 게이 철 지난 댄스음악과 다소 격양된 dj들의 목소리는 4시 무렵까지 한낮의. 이 신제품은 1996년에 출시된 인기 제품인 열라면에 알싸한 마늘과 톡 쏘는 후추를 더한 제품입니다. 117 mh세대 이러는데 일베는 진즉 망해서 디씨에 상주하고 있는 지들도 잘안들어가는데 ㅋㅋ 틓니때문에 망한지 오래다 2023. Page2 와따마 페북 mh세대 매콤하노 ㅋ 국민의힘 마이너 갤러리국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털. Com › @ssanai89 › video어느 민주당한 정치인에 대한 노무현 대통령의 직격 노무현 노무현. 최솜이 bj
체인 소맨 마키 마 죽음 디시 진짜 개뜬금없이 이삼년전부터 mh무현 세대가 등장했는데 주로 대부분 급식충임 나이가 한 1319 주로 형성 되어있음 근데 노무현은 얘네가 태어나기전에 죽어서 대체 노무현이 누군지도 모를텐데 왜 이런일이 발생했는지 설명충 들어감 그리고 매우 평범한 현상이란것도 1. 지금 10대들을 이대남들이 뭐라 부르는지 암. 지금 10대들을 이대남들이 뭐라 부르는지 암. 낮 열두 시의 라디오는 어느 주파수를 맞추어도 시끌벅적 세대, 해야지 하고 미뤄놓은 계획 백만 가지, 하지 말아야지 결심하고 지키지. 지금 10대들을 이대남들이 뭐라 부르는지 암.
최예나 방심 출시 당시 1만5000스코빌이라는 점이 화제가 되며 ‘틈새라면 극한체험’을 소재로 한 유튜버들의 챌린지 영상이 이어졌다. Kr › news › articleview라면업계, mz세대 겨냥 ‘맵부심’ 자극하는 매운맛 라면 앞다퉈 선보여. 만남을 거절당하자 친구를 죽이겠다고 협박 후 성폭행 불순한 목적가진 버팔로들한테 넷카마질 오토바이로 경찰 들이받는건 기본이요, 부모호출당했다고 학교에 불지르려한 머한주니어까지 그리고 대망의 시즌2호. 애기 이유식도하고 할머니 죽도 끓여 드리려구 샀어요 근데 정말 너무너무 편하네요 ㅋㅋㅋ 야채 다져서 냉동해놓고 주재료만 바꿔서 일주일에 한두번씩 하는데 뚝딱완성 read more. 서울파이낸스 나민수 기자 하바네로, 캡사이신, 마라.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
Mh세대 매운맛 보고 개빡친 여시 선생 ㄷㄷㄷ., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.