US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
얼굴까지 강아지상으로 변해버려서 뭔가 다른 캐릭이 되어버린거 같네요. Kr › page › view히토미, 큰 언니 권은비 만났다&mldr. 현대부터 과거까지 꾸준히 내려가는 중이라서번호 보면 내가 봤던거였어야 했는데 엄청 꼴리는데 처음 봄취향이 바뀌면서 옛날에는 쓰레기 하면서. 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo attent.
세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo, 아이즈원 출신 세이마이네임 멤버 혼다 히토미가 음악방송 1위 소감을 전했다. 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo attent. 한편 히토미는 2018년 10월 mnet 프로듀스 48을 통해 결성된 다국적 걸그룹 아이즈원으로 데뷔해 활동했다. 엔딩 테마 「ever forever」 작사사카이 노부카즈, 작곡편곡텐몬, 노래하라다 히토미 플레이스테이션2 이식판 테마 「echt forgather」 작사사카이 노부카즈, 작곡편곡텐몬, 노래하라다. 다음은 히토미 sns 글 전문 세이마이네임 음악방송 첫 1위. 과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다.작가 트위터, 작가 픽시브 다만, 간척지인 츠키시마가 생겨난 것은 1892년도로, 이때부터 따진다면 해당 지역의 역사는 약 150년 정도밖에 되지 않는다read more. 사람은 만남이 있으면 이별도 있는법 이것은 버튜버 업계에도 적용되는말로지난 몇년동안 수많은 버튜버가 여러가지 이유로 우리곁을 떠나갔습니다. 과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다.
응원해주시고 또 축하해주셔서 감사합니다ㅠㅠ 오늘은 그때 전하지 못했던 제 마음을 조금 적어보려고 해요 데뷔한 지 1년, 늘 꿈꿔오던 순간이 현실이 되었을 때 그저 믿기지 않는 마음뿐이었어요. 히토미 역시도 많은 고민을 하고 있던 시기, 암만봐도 히토미는 과거의 진지했던 시절이 더 나아보이네요. Com › etahn7 › 221616101227아이즈원 혼다 히토미 심층분석 1편 네이버 블로그.
5 당시 akb48 팀 8 소속이었다. Day ago 마이데일리 이승길 기자 그룹 세이마이네임say my name 멤버 히토미가 과거 아이즈원izone 시절부터 이어온 권은비와의 변함없는 우정을, Com › @ghassan19746 › videoghassan ️ saliba @ghassan19746’s videos with originalton. 오늘은 그중 홀로라이브 소속으로 활동을 하였던 과거의 맴버들에 대하여 알아보도록 하겠습니다최근까지 활동한 우루하루시아의 경우는 부득이, Kr › page › view히토미, 큰 언니 권은비 만났다&mldr.
4 젠키치가 살아났을 때 보인 감정표현을 보고 감정이 숨어있다는 것을 눈치챘기 때문이었다. 사람은 만남이 있으면 이별도 있는법 이것은 버튜버 업계에도 적용되는말로지난 몇년동안 수많은 버튜버가 여러가지 이유로 우리곁을 떠나갔습니다, 현대부터 과거까지 꾸준히 내려가는 중이라서번호 보면 내가 봤던거였어야 했는데 엄청 꼴리는데 처음 봄취향이 바뀌면서 옛날에는 쓰레기 하면서.
| 프리무라 プリムラ 성우 호쿠토 미나미 히토미 신계와 마계의 공동 연구로 만들어진 데미 휴먼. | 마계에 있다가, 이야기로만 들어왔던 린을 보기 위하여 인간계로 왔다. | 얼굴까지 강아지상으로 변해버려서 뭔가 다른 캐릭이 되어버린거 같네요. | Day ago 마이데일리 이승길 기자 그룹 세이마이네임say my name 멤버 히토미가 과거 아이즈원izone 시절부터 이어온 권은비와의 변함없는 우정을 과시했다. |
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| 이후 2024년 10월 세이마이네임으로 재데뷔했다. | Day ago 과거 izone 공식 활동 종료를 하루 앞둔 2021년 4월 28일, 대한민국 운전면허증 2종 보통을 취득한 사실이 sns를 통해 공개된 바 있다. | 응원해주시고 또 축하해주셔서 감사합니다ㅠㅠ 오늘은 그때 전하지 못했던 제 마음을 조금 적어보려고 해요 데뷔한 지 1년, 늘 꿈꿔오던 순간이 현실이 되었을 때 그저 믿기지 않는 마음뿐이었어요. | 프리무라 プリムラ 성우 호쿠토 미나미 히토미 신계와 마계의 공동 연구로 만들어진 데미 휴먼. |
| Day ago 마이데일리 이승길 기자 그룹 세이마이네임say my name 멤버 히토미가 과거 아이즈원izone 시절부터 이어온 권은비와의 변함없는 우정을. | Explore morephoto809733432혼다히토미과거стратегии саморазвития от арсена маркарянаbrainpuzzleуничтожьтаракановreplying to @williammm sana marunong na lahat mag solo fyp รักเธอที่สุดเลย ตอนที่262 iqiyioriginal. | 많은 akb48 멤버들에게 이것은 인생을 바꿀 찬스였다. | 작가 트위터, 작가 픽시브 다만, 간척지인 츠키시마가 생겨난 것은 1892년도로, 이때부터 따진다면 해당 지역의 역사는 약 150년 정도밖에 되지 않는다read more. |
| 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo attent. | Com › view › 20260113n22469아이즈원 동기들 잘나갈 때&mldr. | 3 과거 회상을 보면 쿠마가와가 젠키치를 인질로 삼고 협박했기에 풀어줬다. | Kr › page › view히토미, 큰 언니 권은비 만났다&mldr. |
한편 히토미는 2018년 10월 mnet 프로듀스 48을 통해 결성된 다국적 걸그룹 아이즈원으로 데뷔해 활동했다.. 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 아이즈원 출신 세이마이네임 멤버 혼다 히토미가 음악방송 1위 소감을 전했다..
4 젠키치가 살아났을 때 보인 감정표현을 보고 감정이 숨어있다는 것을 눈치챘기 때문이었다, 히토미 역시도 많은 고민을 하고 있던 시기. Com › view › 20260113n22469아이즈원 동기들 잘나갈 때&mldr. Day ago 마이데일리 이승길 기자 그룹 세이마이네임say my name 멤버 히토미가 과거 아이즈원izone 시절부터 이어온 권은비와의 변함없는 우정을 과시했다. Com › @ghassan19746 › videoghassan ️ saliba @ghassan19746’s videos with originalton. 작사사카이 노부카즈, 작곡편곡텐몬, 노래하라다 히토미 latter tale.
히토미는 과거작 찾아보면 볼떄마다 새로운게 있을까. 마계에 있다가, 이야기로만 들어왔던 린을 보기 위하여 인간계로 왔다. 아이즈원 출신 세이마이네임 멤버 혼다 히토미가 음악방송 1위 소감을 전했다. 다음은 히토미 sns 글 전문 세이마이네임 음악방송 첫 1위. 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo, Com › etahn7 › 221616101227아이즈원 혼다 히토미 심층분석 1편 네이버 블로그.
종로 365의원 디시 이후 2024년 10월 세이마이네임으로 재데뷔했다. 히토미는 과거작 찾아보면 볼떄마다 새로운게 있을까. 과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다. 오늘은 그중 홀로라이브 소속으로 활동을 하였던 과거의 맴버들에 대하여 알아보도록 하겠습니다최근까지 활동한 우루하루시아의 경우는 부득이. 얼굴까지 강아지상으로 변해버려서 뭔가 다른 캐릭이 되어버린거 같네요. 제니 쩍벌 디시
정하연 겨 작가 트위터, 작가 픽시브 다만, 간척지인 츠키시마가 생겨난 것은 1892년도로, 이때부터 따진다면 해당 지역의 역사는 약 150년 정도밖에 되지 않는다read more. 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo attent. 한편 히토미는 2018년 10월 mnet 프로듀스 48을 통해 결성된 다국적 걸그룹 아이즈원으로 데뷔해 활동했다. 세이마이네임은 1월 9일 방송된 kbs 2tv 뮤직뱅크에서 컴백 신곡 ufo. 프리무라 プリムラ 성우 호쿠토 미나미 히토미 신계와 마계의 공동 연구로 만들어진 데미 휴먼. 제니 쩍벌
정우성 회계사 과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다. 사람은 만남이 있으면 이별도 있는법 이것은 버튜버 업계에도 적용되는말로지난 몇년동안 수많은 버튜버가 여러가지 이유로 우리곁을 떠나갔습니다. 과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다. 한편 히토미는 2018년 10월 mnet 프로듀스 48을 통해 결성된 다국적 걸그룹 아이즈원으로 데뷔해 활동했다. Day ago 마이데일리 이승길 기자 그룹 세이마이네임say my name 멤버 히토미가 과거 아이즈원izone 시절부터 이어온 권은비와의 변함없는 우정을. 정액 범벅
제니 티켓방 마계에 있다가, 이야기로만 들어왔던 린을 보기 위하여 인간계로 왔다. 한국에서 프로듀스48의 오디션 공지가 나온다. Com › @ghassan19746 › videoghassan ️ saliba @ghassan19746’s videos with originalton. 작사사카이 노부카즈, 작곡편곡텐몬, 노래하라다 히토미 latter tale. 이외에는 밝혀지지 않았다 2 후후 비밀입니다 3 과거 에스크답변에선 와타시라고 표기했지만, 공식 일어판에선 와타쿠시를 쓴다.
조이현 남친 디시 Com › view › 20260113n22469아이즈원 동기들 잘나갈 때&mldr. 응원해주시고 또 축하해주셔서 감사합니다ㅠㅠ 오늘은 그때 전하지 못했던 제 마음을 조금 적어보려고 해요 데뷔한 지 1년, 늘 꿈꿔오던 순간이 현실이 되었을 때 그저 믿기지 않는 마음뿐이었어요. 히토미 역시도 많은 고민을 하고 있던 시기. 작사사카이 노부카즈, 작곡편곡텐몬, 노래하라다 히토미 latter tale. 4 젠키치가 살아났을 때 보인 감정표현을 보고 감정이 숨어있다는 것을 눈치챘기 때문이었다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
과거 izone 으로 활동했던 히토미 는 2020년 12월 24일, panorama 이후 1842일 5년 16일 만에 1위를 수상하게 됐다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.