US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
랜덤채팅의 그녀 박은혁 작가님 여신강림 야옹이 작가님 연놈 상하 작가님 연애혁명 232 작가님 외모지상주의 박태준 작가님 용이 산다 read more. 캐릭터의 생동감이 더 크니까요 아이러브캐릭터 공식블로그 2024. 서울 서초구 에 위치한 예비군 훈련 을 전담하는 부대이다. 남성작가 편 네이버 웹툰 작가 실물보기 웹툰 작가 실물은 어떨까.
카이리키 베어かいりきベア는 니코니코 동화에서 vocaloid 오리지널 곡을 투고하는 작곡가이다. 일기쓰기 대신 sns계정에 사진을 올려 일상을 기록하고 짧은 글귀도 적어봤지만. 조셉 리 1987년 미국 인디애나 출생으로 배우이자 화가다.서로를 그리는 아트토이 페인팅 ️ 일반 원데이클래스 정규반 예약은 프로필링크 @drinkingdrawing 🔹수업종류 일반아크릴화, 인물반려동물화, 나이프화, 백드롭페인팅, 베어브릭페인팅, 수채화, 펜 드로잉 🔹혼자 또는 친구, 연인과 미술 작업을 해보세요. Com › community › board웹툰작가의 실물과 캐릭터 비교 백업유머 게시판 2015. 작중 배경은 2004년 8월부터 2006년 8월까지 제52보병사단 211연대 2대대를 그린 작품이다. 2023년 넷플릭스 시리즈 〈성난 사람들〉을 통해 주목받으며 프라임타임 에미상 primetime emmy awards 남우조연상 후보에 올랐다. 친한 지인들 사이에선 비브 viv라는 애칭으로 불렸다. 캐릭터의 생동감이 더 크니까요 아이러브캐릭터 공식블로그 2024.
Interview 와사비베어 슈가 레인 작가, 핸드메이드를 고집하는 이유요. 어느 작가가 친절하고 덤 잘챙겨줬는지 이런건 몰라서 안적었긔. 랜덤채팅의그녀 여신강림 연놈 연애혁명 용이산다 유미의세포들 뷰티풀군바리 윈드브레이커 평범한8반 부활남 마음의소리 신의탑 프리드로우 복학왕 외모지상주의 공감jpg 타인은지옥이다 금수저 레바툰 빵빵이 빵빵이의일상 웹툰 인기웹툰 웹툰추천 웹툰작가. 2015년 격투 게임 토너먼트 evo 현장에 스트리트 파이터 시리즈 의 발로그 로 코스튬 플레이를 한 채 나타나 사람들을 놀래켰다. 네이버웹툰 연애의 기록 작가 베어리 인터뷰 소년의 기록병의 기록에 이은 세번째 연재물 실화에 기반등장인물 이름외모는 모두 달라.
오늘는 여성작가편에 이어 남성작가분들의 실물을 포스팅을 할까. 톰 실링 영화 스위트 프랑세스에서 농부의 아내를 강간하려다 자기 총에. Photo by phil chester. 작가 미상 werk ohne autor 은 2018년 개봉한 독일 영화로 독일의 성장, 로맨틱 드라마 영화다. 사이다툰을 주로 올리는 일반적인 영상툰과 다르게 상당히 수위가 있는 영상툰을 제작하며, 주로 카푸어 이야기 및 요즘 20, 30대가 비트코인으로 노숙자가 되는 이유, 서울대를 사칭한 실제 사기꾼 이야기 등 자신의 잘못된 선택으로 인해 실패한 인생을 살아가는 사람들의 이야기를 제작해 인기를. ‘플로리안 헨켈 폰 도너스마르크’가 각본과 감독을 맡았다.
시드니 아다무 아요 에데비리 카르멘이 채용한 셰프이자 더베어의 수셰프, 이번 포스팅에서 소개드릴 제품은 베어브릭 잭슨폴록 스플래쉬 1000%입니다. 제75회 베네치아 국제영화제 황금사자상 경쟁후보작이다. 다만 사회경험이 적어 정신적으로 궁지에 몰렸을 때 대처할 바를 모르고 방황하기도 한다, 톰 실링 영화 스위트 프랑세스에서 농부의 아내를 강간하려다 자기 총에, 오늘은 베어 더 뮤지컬 후기이자, 홍기범 배우님을 처음으로 실물영접한 후기를 가져왔습니다.
카이리키 베어かいりきベア는 니코니코 동화 에서 vocaloid 오리지널 곡 을 투고하는 작곡가이다, ‘플로리안 헨켈 폰 도너스마르크’가 각본과 감독을 맡았다, 글쓴이박민지 공개일20240716 사랑해, 그리고 기록해 일기쓰기는 평생 숙제같다, 구독자 여러분, 간밤에 109불까지 밀리는 것 보고 잠. 오늘는 여성작가편에 이어 남성작가분들의 실물을 포스팅을 할까.
| 위에 있는 박스는 지지난 시리즈인 시리즈 겉박스이고, 아래에 있는 박스가 시리즈 겉박스입니다. | 연재 초기부터 댓글엔 작가 본인얘기 아니냐라는 식의 언급. | 제75회 베네치아 국제영화제 황금사자상 경쟁후보작이다. |
|---|---|---|
| 메디콤토이의 베어브릭과 팝아티스트 잭슨폴록이 콜라보한 제품으로 카페나 거실 등에 인테리어 소품으로 전시하기 좋습니다. | 글쓴이박민지 공개일20240716 사랑해, 그리고 기록해 일기쓰기는 평생 숙제같다. | 병의 기록 주인공 문석호의 중학교 학창 시절과 고등학교 중퇴 이후 검정고시 준비 그리고 대학교 입학 이후 군입대 직전까지의 삶을 그린 작품이다. |
| 위에 있는 박스는 지지난 시리즈인 시리즈 겉박스이고, 아래에 있는 박스가 시리즈 겉박스입니다. | 스무 살이 되기 전부터 ‘버넌 리’라는 필명을 사용했다. | Comblbltannn96 네이버 웹툰 작가 실물보기 웹툰 작가 실물은 어떨까. |
제이미 리 커티스에 따르면 아버지 역할에 관심이 없었다고, 남성작가 편 네이버 웹툰 작가 실물보기 웹툰 작가 실물은 어떨까, 1월 30일 아침 밤사이 109불 폭락은 가짜였습니다. 작가 미상 werk ohne autor 은 2018년 개봉한 독일 영화로 독일의 성장, 로맨틱 드라마 영화다, 남성작가 편 네이버 웹툰 작가 실물보기 웹툰 작가 실물은 어떨까. 제이미 리 커티스에 따르면 아버지 역할에 관심이 없었다고.
카르멘이 채용한 셰프이자 더베어의 수셰프. 하단에 기술된 극사실주의 작가 1세대에 속하는 척 클로스 chuck close의 작품 및 그리는 과정을 담은 작업실 사진이다. 어느 작가가 친절하고 덤 잘챙겨줬는지 이런건 몰라서 안적었긔. 이말년 씨리즈 이말년 이병건 출처 작가들의 오너캐와 실물작성자 pupplestorm고시생툰,매지컬 고삼즈 이세리 이가영 골방환상곡 wony 박종원 불암콩콩코믹스 최불암 최의민 클로져 이상용,돌직구 최훈 마음의 소리 조석정글고,쌉니다 천리마마트.
Com › 지워서드러난얼굴지워서 드러난 얼굴 noblesse.. 띠니 극극극극 씹찐따라 인사도 안하고 그냥 슬쩍 고르고 계산해달라고만 했어서.. 오늘은 베어 더 뮤지컬 후기이자, 홍기범 배우님을 처음으로 실물영접한 후기를 가져왔습니다..
서로를 그리는 아트토이 페인팅 ️ 일반 원데이클래스 정규반 예약은 프로필링크 @drinkingdrawing 🔹수업종류 일반아크릴화, 인물반려동물화, 나이프화, 백드롭페인팅, 베어브릭페인팅, 수채화, 펜 드로잉 🔹혼자 또는 친구, 연인과 미술 작업을 해보세요. 그렇게 비비언 리 홀먼 vivian leigh holman에서 비비언 리 vivien leigh가 되었다. 서울 서초구 에 위치한 예비군 훈련 을 전담하는 부대이다. Interview 와사비베어 슈가 레인 작가, 핸드메이드를 고집하는 이유요.
대표곡으로는 베놈과 달링 댄스, 실패작 소녀 등이 있다. 병의 기록 주인공 문석호의 중학교 학창 시절과 고등학교 중퇴 이후 검정고시 준비 그리고 대학교 입학 이후 군입대 직전까지의 삶을 그린 작품이다. 랜덤채팅의그녀 여신강림 연놈 연애혁명 용이산다 유미의세포들 뷰티풀군바리 윈드브레이커 평범한8반 부활남 마음의소리 신의탑 프리드로우 복학왕 외모지상주의 공감jpg 타인은지옥이다 금수저 레바툰 빵빵이 빵빵이의일상 웹툰 인기웹툰 웹툰추천 웹툰작가. 다만 사회경험이 적어 정신적으로 궁지에 몰렸을 때 대처할 바를 모르고 방황하기도 한다, Com › community › board웹툰작가의 실물과 캐릭터 비교 백업유머 게시판 2015.
제미나이 클로드 비교 디시 오늘는 여성작가편에 이어 남성작가분들의 실물을 포스팅을 할까. 2023년 넷플릭스 시리즈 〈성난 사람들〉을 통해 주목받으며 프라임타임 에미상 primetime emmy awards 남우조연상 후보에 올랐다. 카이리키 베어かいりきベア는 니코니코 동화 에서 vocaloid 오리지널 곡 을 투고하는 작곡가이다. 제75회 베네치아 국제영화제 황금사자상 경쟁후보작이다. 대표곡으로는 베놈과 달링 댄스, 실패작 소녀 등이 있다. 제민경 보지
정자 생성 3일 디시 위에 있는 박스는 지지난 시리즈인 시리즈 겉박스이고, 아래에 있는 박스가 시리즈 겉박스입니다. Com › 지워서드러난얼굴지워서 드러난 얼굴 noblesse. 랜덤채팅의 그녀 박은혁 작가님 여신강림 야옹이 작가님 연놈 상하 작가님 연애혁명 232 작가님 외모지상주의 박태준 작가님 용이 산다 read more. 1월 30일 아침 밤사이 109불 폭락은 가짜였습니다. 1월 30일 아침 밤사이 109불 폭락은 가짜였습니다. 정액 sotwe
정 빅토리아 디시 주인공 원준의 첫사랑이자 대학 선배로, 단아하고 청순한 외모를 가졌으나 집안 문제와 개인적인 상처로 인해 원준의 마음을 밀어내며 엇갈립니다. 오늘은 베어 더 뮤지컬 후기이자, 홍기범 배우님을 처음으로 실물영접한 후기를 가져왔습니다. 카이리키 베어かいりきベア는 니코니코 동화에서 vocaloid 오리지널 곡을 투고하는 작곡가이다. 1월 30일 아침 밤사이 109불 폭락은 가짜였습니다. 톰 실링 영화 스위트 프랑세스에서 농부의 아내를 강간하려다 자기 총에. 졔제 김서우 얼굴
조유안신 Interview 와사비베어 슈가 레인 작가, 핸드메이드를 고집하는 이유요. ‘플로리안 헨켈 폰 도너스마르크’가 각본과 감독을 맡았다. 구독자 여러분, 간밤에 109불까지 밀리는 것 보고 잠. 서울 서초구 에 위치한 예비군 훈련 을 전담하는 부대이다. 하단에 기술된 극사실주의 작가 1세대에 속하는 척 클로스 chuck close의 작품 및 그리는 과정을 담은 작업실 사진이다.
조복서 자위 제이미 리 커티스에 따르면 아버지 역할에 관심이 없었다고. 작가 미상 werk ohne autor 은 2018년 개봉한 독일 영화로 독일의 성장, 로맨틱 드라마 영화다. 랜덤채팅의그녀 여신강림 연놈 연애혁명 용이산다 유미의세포들 뷰티풀군바리 윈드브레이커 평범한8반 부활남 마음의소리 신의탑 프리드로우 복학왕 외모지상주의 공감jpg 타인은지옥이다 금수저 레바툰 빵빵이 빵빵이의일상 웹툰 인기웹툰 웹툰추천 웹툰작가. 어느 작가가 친절하고 덤 잘챙겨줬는지 이런건 몰라서 안적었긔. Kr 짤툰 짤툰작가 짤툰훈남 훈남웹툰작가 웹툰작가 유수민.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 5, 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 5, 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 5, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 5, 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.
제이미 리 커티스에 따르면 아버지 역할에 관심이 없었다고., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.