먹방 유튜버 쯔양 3개월 만에 공개한 근황.

Can she eat 100 pork ribs.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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 19, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 19, 2026.

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 19, 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 19, 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 19, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 19, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 19, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 19, 2026. 
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 19, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 19, 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 19, 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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 19, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 19, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 19, 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 19, 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.

먹방 유튜버 쯔양본명 박정원이 자신을 협박해 수천만 원을 뜯어낸 유튜버 카라큘라본명 이세욱의 공탁금을 받지 않을 것이라고 알렸다. 먹방 유튜버 쯔양이 자신의 사생활 관련 의혹을 제기한 유튜브 채널 가로세로연구소를 검찰에 고소한 것으로 전해졌습니다. 과거 폭로할 것쯔양 협박해 2억 뜯어낸 여성 2명 기소. 쯔양은 협박당한 여성들과는 일면식도 없었으며, 자신을 대신해 유튜브 채널 pd가 이들과 접촉했다고 설명했다.

Drjang 중국제 휴이온이나 보스토도 쓸만한것은 백만원 언저리에 형성 되어있을 정도로 기본 가격이 꽤 나가요. 지난 8일 쯔양은 ‘소소한 라면 먹방’이라는 제목. 전 대표 변호사는 쯔양보고 나가요 아가씨, 동대문 스폰녀라 하고, 대학동기란 년은 룸빵녀라고 렉카한테 찌른거 보면 어질어질해. Kt 오대장 삼겹살본 영상은 kt의 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다.

Com › National › National_general2개월 만에 돌아온 쯔양 몸무게 44㎏까지 빠져응원으로 버텨.

13일 mbc ‘라디오스타’는 김영옥, 박하나, 이유진, 쯔양이 출연하는 ‘어쩌다 국민가족’ 특집으로 꾸며진다, Kt 오대장 삼겹살본 영상은 kt의 유료광고를 포함하고 있습니다. Go to channel tzuyang쯔양 20,000 kcal. If its been a while since heebab had her favorite food. 앞서 유튜브 채널 가로세로연구소가세연는 지난달 쯔양이 △타인의 명의를 도용해 임신중절 수술을 받았고 △유흥업소에서 근무한 경험이 있으며 △탈세를. 1개 먹을때마다 500만원 기부쯔양 햄버거 먹방 감동 사연. 앵커 유명 유튜버 쯔양이 이른바 사이버 렉카 유튜버에게 실제 협박을 당한 게 맞다며 관련 영상을 공개했습니다. 스페셜 mc로는 봉태규가 출연해 풍성한 웃음을 만든다. 검찰이 먹방 유튜버 쯔양본명 박정원을 협박해 수천만원을 갈취한 혐의로 기소된 구제역본명 이준희에 징역 4년을 구형했다. 서울뉴시스최인선 인턴 기자 유튜버 쯔양27이 전前 남자친구이자 소속사 대표인 이모씨로부터 4년간 끔찍한 폭행협박착취 피해를 당한, 또한 이를 빌미로 이른바 사이버 렉카 유튜버들로부터 공갈, 협박 read more.

쯔양 측 법률대리인은 어제 가세연 채널 대표를 협박강.

2024년 10월 4일 쯔양은 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 오랜만에 인사 드려요라는 제목의 영상을 게재해 많은 이들의 시선을 사로잡았습니다, 한눈에 보는 오늘 연예가 화제 뉴스 쯔양이 먹방으로 복귀를 알렸다. 지난 8일 쯔양은 ‘소소한 라면 먹방’이라는 제목.

Days ago ‘쯔양’은 이른바 ‘먹방’ 콘텐츠 분야의 인기 크리에이터로 구독자 수 270만여 명을 보유하고 있었으나, 지난 6일 ‘뒷광고’ 논란이 일파만파 커지면서 은퇴를 선언한 바 있다. 아니 여기 오늘도 잘 먹었습니 그 성공했어요. 신규 예능 ‘어디로 튈지 몰라’ 김대호, 안재현, 쯔양, 조나단이 드디어 한자리에 뭉쳤다. Go to channel tzuyang쯔양 20,000 kcal.

쯔양 성폭행으로 임신중절수술명의도용 해명.

쯔양은 협박당한 여성들과는 일면식도 없었으며, 자신을 대신해 유튜브 채널 pd가 이들과 접촉했다고 설명했다.. 사진enanxt 어디로 튈지 몰라 어디로 튈지 몰라 쯔양, 김대호, 안재현, 조나단이 어디로 튈지 모를 먹방을 예고했다..

스페셜 mc로는 봉태규가 출연해 풍성한 웃음을 만든다. 솔직히 너무 힘든 일이니까라며 갑작스레 눈물을 흘렸고, 쯔양 역시 아직까지도 말이 안 나온다고 조용히 입을 열며 과거의 상처를 암시했습니다. 두 사람은 2021년 6월부터 2022년 11월까지 과거 유흥업소에서 일한 사실을 폭로하겠다며 협박해 쯔양으로부터 약 2억 1600만 원을 뜯어낸 혐의를 받는다. 쯔양, 김장 20포기에 수육 6kg엄청난 식사량에 깜짝 소식좌. 13일 mbc ‘라디오스타’는 김영옥, 박하나, 이유진, 쯔양이 출연하는 ‘어쩌다 국민가족’ 특집으로 꾸며진다.

2024년 10월 4일 쯔양은 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 오랜만에 인사 드려요라는 제목의 영상을 게재해 많은 이들의 시선을 사로잡았습니다. 19일 오전 서울 마포구 스탠포드호텔에서 ena, nxt, 코미디tv 공동제작 예능 어디로 튈지 몰라 제작발표회가 진행됐다. 유서에는 a씨 자신은 비밀유지 합의를 충실히 이행하려 했음에도 쯔양 측이 합의가 파기됐다고 여겨 다시 고소한 것이 이해가 가지 않는다는 내용이 담겼다.
2024년 7월 11일 새벽 쯔양은 자신의 유튜브 채널을 통해 모두 말씀드리겠습니다라는 제목으로 라이브 방송을 진행하며 이 같은 사실을 털어놓았습니다. 먹방 유튜버 쯔양 3개월 만에 공개한 근황. 먹방 유튜버 쯔양본명 박정원이 자신을 협박해 수천만 원을 뜯어낸 유튜버 카라큘라본명 이세욱의 공탁금을 받지 않을 것이라고 알렸다.
쯔양은 협박당한 여성들과는 일면식도 없었으며, 자신을 대신해 유튜브 채널 pd가 이들과 접촉했다고 설명했다. 앵커 유명 유튜버 쯔양이 이른바 사이버 렉카 유튜버에게 실제 협박을 당한 게 맞다며 관련 영상을 공개했습니다. 어디로 튈지 몰라는 짜여진 스케줄이 아닌, 맛집 사장님에서 다른 맛집.

Com › Celebnews › 223957293505먹빙 유튜버 쯔양 전 남친에 40억 착취&mldr.

사진enanxt 어디로 튈지 몰라 어디로 튈지 몰라 쯔양, 김대호, 안재현, 조나단이 어디로 튈지 모를 먹방을 예고했다.

김장하는 날 대왕스팸 오븐에 구워보기. 기록 깨기까지 멈췄다는 쯔양의 최대 위기 고백에 김구라가 신박한. 과거 폭로할 것쯔양 협박해 2억 뜯어낸 여성 2명 기소. 매니저는 집에서 둘이 나가지도 않았다. 기록 깨기까지 멈췄다는 쯔양의 최대 위기 고백에 김구라가 신박한.

메일 gardenm1120@gmail, Drjang 중국제 휴이온이나 보스토도 쓸만한것은 백만원 언저리에 형성 되어있을 정도로 기본 가격이 꽤 나가요, 쯔양은 최근 성매매 의혹과 관련해 사과문을 게재했지만, 여전히 악플과 비난이 빗발치고 있다.

메이플 보스 스 공컷 2025 쯔양님과 함께한 기부 라이브를 계기로 서울시 관악구에 위치한 보육원에 직접 방문하여 봉사활동과 함께 기부금 및 가전 전달을 진행했습니다. 김장하는 날 대왕스팸 오븐에 구워보기. 이날 영상에서 쯔양은 지금은 잘 지내고 있다. 쯔양이 나가요 하다가 전남친 만났을 거라고 키득 거리는 버러지 하나 있던데 쯔양한테 인실 당하면 좋겠네요. Go to channel tzuyang쯔양 20,000 kcal. 몬스터 펨보이

모가 미아이 디시 지난 8일 쯔양은 ‘소소한 라면 먹방’이라는 제목. 13일 mbc ‘라디오스타’는 김영옥, 박하나, 이유진, 쯔양이 출연하는 ‘어쩌다 국민가족’ 특집으로 꾸며진다. Com › national › national_general2개월 만에 돌아온 쯔양 몸무게 44㎏까지 빠져응원으로 버텨. 해당 고백이 공개된 직후, 쯔양의 pd는 경찰에 공갈 피해 고발장을. 12일 오후 10시 30분 방송되는 mbc 라디오스타이하 라스에는 배우 김영옥, 박하나, 이유진. 메이플오 av

모또모또 레전드 쯔양이 나가요 하다가 전남친 만났을 거라고 키득 거리는 버러지 하나 있던데 쯔양한테 인실 당하면 좋겠네요. 쯔양은 협박당한 여성들과는 일면식도 없었으며, 자신을 대신해 유튜브 채널 pd가 이들과 접촉했다고 설명했다. 아니 여기 오늘도 잘 먹었습니 그 성공했어요. 나가요 ㅜㅠㅠ 불쇼 해주는 타이밍이 곱창이 딱 알맞게 익는 시간입니다 6. Drjang 중국제 휴이온이나 보스토도 쓸만한것은 백만원 언저리에 형성 되어있을 정도로 기본 가격이 꽤 나가요. 메키 디시

모몽가 중장 쯔양 측은 모든 악의적 가해에 끝까지 강력하게 대응하겠다며 합의 없는 원칙적 법적 대응 입장을 밝혔습니다. 어디로 튈지 몰라는 짜여진 스케줄이 아닌, 맛집 사장님에서 다른 맛집. 서울뉴시스최인선 인턴 기자 유튜버 쯔양27이 전前 남자친구이자 소속사 대표인 이모씨로부터 4년간 끔찍한 폭행협박착취 피해를 당한. 어디로 튈지 몰라는 짜여진 스케줄이 아닌, 맛집 사장님에서 다른 맛집. 배송할꺼 1시간30분 썰다보면 잡생각이 있어나 싶다 1분만 보고계셔봐요 같이 무짱써는듯한 너낌.

모나 야동 기록 깨기까지 멈췄다는 쯔양의 최대 위기 고백에 김구라가 신박한. 과거 폭로할 것쯔양 협박해 2억 뜯어낸 여성 2명 기소. 두 사람은 2021년 6월부터 2022년 11월까지 과거 유흥업소에서 일한 사실을 폭로하겠다며 협박해 쯔양으로부터 약 2억 1600만 원을 뜯어낸 혐의를 받는다. Com › talk › 372831134쯔양 사건 설명해드림 네이트 판. 사진enanxt 어디로 튈지 몰라 어디로 튈지 몰라 쯔양, 김대호, 안재현, 조나단이 어디로 튈지 모를 먹방을 예고했다.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 19, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 19, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 19, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 19, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 19, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 19, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

먹방 유튜버 쯔양 3개월 만에 공개한 근황., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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