US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
서버가 실패하는 이유와 gearup이 네트워크를 안정화하여 더 부드러운 게임 플레이를 돕는 방법을 알아보세요. 크래프톤 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트 배그 크래프톤, 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트. 펍지 블랙 버짓은 크래프톤이 선보이는 탐험과 발견을 주요 키워드로 풀어낸 pvpve 익스트랙션 슈터 장르 신작으로, 기존의 생존전투 중심 슈터 장르를 새롭게 해석한 것이 특징이다. 크래프톤 신작 pubg 블랙 버짓이 클로즈 알파를 앞두고 신규 트레일러를 공개했다.
| 자료제공 크래프톤 ㈜크래프톤대표 김창한은 펍지 스튜디오의 신작 ‘pubg 블랙 버짓pubg black budget, 이하 블랙 버짓’의 첫 번째 클로즈드 알파 테스트를 오는 12월에 진행. | 이번 테스트는 북미, 유럽, 아시아 지역의 pc 스팀 이용자를 대상으로 한다. |
|---|---|
| 공개된 정보에 따르면 pubg 블랙 버짓은 2. | 배그 블랙버짓 클로즈 알파 테스트 한대. |
| 테스트 신청을 완료하셨다면 steam 라이브러리 read more. | Pubg 블랙 버짓은 탐험과 발견을 중심으로 한 pvpve 익스트랙션 슈터로, 기존의 생존전투 중심 슈터 장르를 새롭게 정의한다. |
| 36% | 64% |
배그 블랙버짓 클로즈 알파 테스트 한대 치지직.. 크래프톤 신작 pubg 블랙 버짓이 클로즈 알파를 앞두고 신규 트레일러를 공개했다..블랙버짓갤 팩트에 긁혀서 ㅈㄹ떨고 완장질 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 스팀. Pubg 블랙 버짓은 pubg ip에 익스트랙션 슈터를 접목한 게임이다. 2021년부터 프로젝트 블랙버짓이라는 이름으로 개발중이었으며 최근 상표 출원을 통해 공식 발표를 앞두고 있는 것으로 보입니다, 크래프톤은 최근 공식 발표를 통해 12월 테스트 일정을 확정하고, 개발 초기 빌드를 이용자에게 처음 공개하는 단계에 들어갔다고 밝혔다, Pubg studios가 드디어 공식적으로 신작 게임 pubg black budget을 선보였습니다.
성원에 보답하고자 오늘부터 클로즈드 알파 테스트의 스팀 플레이테스트 접근 권한 부여를 시작하였습니다. 맵은 다양한 생물군계와 랜드마크, 지하 시설로 구성된다, 크래프톤, 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트, Kr › webzine › news배그와 익스트랙션 슈터가 만났다, pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 티. Kr › webzine › news배그와 익스트랙션 슈터가 만났다, pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 티, 펍지 블랙 버짓은 크래프톤이 선보이는 탐험과 발견을 주요 키워드로 풀어낸 pvpve 익스트랙션 슈터 장르 신작으로, 기존의 생존전투 중심 슈터 장르를 새롭게 해석한 것이 특징이다.
4개의 넓은 데크에 걸쳐 배치된 read more, Pubg studios가 드디어 공식적으로 신작 게임 pubg black budget을 선보였습니다. Kr › webzine › news배그와 익스트랙션 슈터가 만났다, pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 티. Maldives legend x 리브어보드, 몰디브 다이빙. 테스트는 12월 1214일, 1921일태평양시 기준 총 6일간 운영되며, 북미, 유럽, 아시아 지역의 pc 플랫폼스팀에서 진행된다. Com › 3506크래프톤 신작, 펍지 블랙버짓 알파 테스트 정보 총정리.
크래프톤 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트 배그 크래프톤, 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트. 크래프톤 신작 pubg 블랙 버짓이 클로즈 알파를 앞두고 신규 트레일러를 공개했다. Pubg 블랙 버짓은 탐험과 발견을 중심으로 한 pvpve 익스트랙션 슈터로, 기존의 생존전투 중심 슈터 장르를 새롭게 정의한다, Pubg 블랙 버짓 크래프톤은 새로운 익스트랙션 슈터에 pubg 라는 이름을 내어주었다 크래프톤 내에서도 pubg 배틀그라운드 ip와 엮었을 때 파급력을. 배그 블랙버짓 클로즈 알파 테스트 한대.
첫 빌드 공개된다 펍지 스튜디오의 신작 ‘펍지 블랙 버짓 pubg black budget’이 이달 첫 클로즈드 알파 테스트에 돌입한다, 크래프톤, 타르코프 라이크 pubg 블랙 버짓 12월 테스트, 블랙버짓 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 4개의 넓은 데크에 걸쳐 배치된 read more.
Pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 종료 전반적 개선 약속, 맵은 다양한 생물군계와 랜드마크, 지하 시설로 구성된다. Pubg 블랙 버짓은 pubg ip에 익스트랙션 슈터를 접목한 게임이다. 본 포스팅은 아이템베이를 홍보하기 위한 목적으로 작성된 글입니다, Com › board › view펍지 스튜디오 신작 ‘pubg 블랙 버짓’, 12월 클로즈드 알파 테스트.
Pubg black budget 클로즈드 알파 테스트 접근 권한 부여. Pubg black budget 블랙 버짓은 pubg studios가 공개한 신작 정보와, 12월 클로즈드 알파 참여 동선까지 한 번에 정리한 글입니다. 테스트는 12월 1214일, 1921일태평양시 기준 총 6일간 운영되며, 북미, 유럽, 아시아 지역의 pc 플랫폼스팀에서 진행된다. 자료제공 크래프톤 ㈜크래프톤대표 김창한은 펍지 스튜디오의 신작 ‘pubg 블랙 버짓pubg black budget, 이하 블랙 버짓’의 첫 번째 클로즈드 알파 테스트를 오는 12월에 진행. Pubg 블랙 버짓 pubg black budget.
블랙버짓갤 팩트에 긁혀서 ㅈㄹ떨고 완장질 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 스팀.. 테스트는 12월 1214일, 1921일태평양시 기준 총 6일간 운영되며, 북미, 유럽, 아시아 지역의 pc 플랫폼스팀에서 진행된다..
Kr › webzine › news배그와 익스트랙션 슈터가 만났다, pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 티. 성원에 보답하고자 오늘부터 클로즈드 알파 테스트의 스팀 플레이테스트 접근 권한 부여를 시작하였습니다, 댓글닫기 새로고침 블갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용 갤닉네임입니다, 4개의 넓은 데크에 걸쳐 배치된 read more.
Pubg studios가 드디어 공식적으로 신작 게임 pubg black budget을 선보였습니다, Com › happypielife › 224108391527pubg black budget 블랙 버짓 총정리 장르알파 일정참여 방법. Kr › webzine › newspubg 블랙 버짓, 아직 부족하다 인벤, Kr › webzine › news배그와 익스트랙션 슈터가 만났다, pubg 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 티. 자료제공 크래프톤 ㈜크래프톤대표 김창한은 펍지 스튜디오의 신작 ‘pubg 블랙 버짓pubg black budget, 이하 블랙 버짓’의 첫 번째 클로즈드 알파 테스트를 오는 12월에 진행.
김마갤 최근 슈팅 게임 커뮤니티와 개발자 채용 공고를 중심으로 블랙버짓 project black budget이라는 이름이 반복해서 등장하고 있습니다. Pubg 블랙 버짓 크래프톤은 새로운 익스트랙션 슈터에 pubg 라는 이름을 내어주었다 크래프톤 내에서도 pubg 배틀그라운드 ip와 엮었을 때 파급력을. Pubg black budget 블랙 버짓은 pubg studios가 공개한 신작 정보와, 12월 클로즈드 알파 참여 동선까지 한 번에 정리한 글입니다. Com › 3506크래프톤 신작, 펍지 블랙버짓 알파 테스트 정보 총정리. Pubg 블랙 버짓 크래프톤은 새로운 익스트랙션 슈터에 pubg 라는 이름을 내어주었다 크래프톤 내에서도 pubg 배틀그라운드 ip와 엮었을 때 파급력을. 김감전 얼굴
그린코믹스 썰만화 옴니버스 Pubg 블랙 버짓 pubg black budget. 삭제 시 닉네임 등록 가능 타인의 권리를 침해하거나 명예를 훼손하는 댓글은 운영원칙 및 관련 법률에 제재를 받을 수 있습니다. 작년 말 상표출원상표출원의 의미는 외부에공개적으로 밝힐 시점이 다가온다는 뜻2. 첫 빌드 공개된다 펍지 스튜디오의 신작 ‘펍지 블랙 버짓 pubg black budget’이 이달 첫 클로즈드 알파 테스트에 돌입한다. Com › board › lists블랙버짓 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 근이 딸캠
그록 링크 디시 Pubg 블랙 버짓 pubg black budget. 5km 규모의 오픈월드 섬을 배경으로 한다. 콜오브듀티의 dmz가 그랬고, 배틀필드의 하자드존이 그랬다. 4개의 넓은 데크에 걸쳐 배치된 read more. 본 포스팅은 아이템베이를 홍보하기 위한 목적으로 작성된 글입니다. 그록 사진 안보임
귀칼 지옥 인터뷰 하긴 정상이면 원조탈콥이나 먼저출시한아브아하겠지 에휴 ㅋㅋ 블랙버짓할정도면 짭의짭인데 ㅋㅋ dc app ㅇㅇ14. 펍지 블랙 버짓은 크래프톤이 선보이는 탐험과 발견을 주요 키워드로 풀어낸 pvpve 익스트랙션 슈터 장르 신작으로, 기존의 생존전투 중심 슈터 장르를 새롭게 해석한 것이 특징이다. 말디브 레전드 x는 길이 40미터의 라이브어보드로, 세련되게 리모델링된 13개의 캐빈에서 최대 26명의 승객을 수용할 수 있습니다. Pubg 블랙 버짓은 pubg ip에 익스트랙션 슈터를 접목한 게임이다. 블랙 버짓 클로즈 알파 테스트 신청을 하고 기다렸지만 메일함은 울리질 않고 1차 테스트 일정이 끝났군요 왜.
김건희 발바닥 Com › board › lists블랙버짓 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 댓글닫기 새로고침 블갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용 갤닉네임입니다. Playlist1 videono views. 5km 규모의 오픈월드 섬을 배경으로 한다. Pubg 블랙 버짓의 세계에서 혼자 살아남기는 어렵다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 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 12, 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 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 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.