US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
뮤잉 효과 100프로임 증거 ㅇㅇ119. 뮤잉에 관련된 질문 교정 마이너 갤러리. 차단 설정 머리말∙꼬리말 설정 ai 이미지 간편 등록new 교정이랑 별개로 뮤잉운동도 무턱에 도움됨 교갤러 218. 영국의 치과 전문의 마이크 뮤의 뮤잉 운동에 관해 이야기 나누는 곳입니다.
뮤잉에 관련된 질문 교정 마이너 갤러리, 옆모습 엄준식처럼 보이는 이유 헤어스타일 갤러리. 평소에 운동을통해 자세바르게하고다니면 자연스럽게 혀 위치도 뮤잉위치가 되서 따로 신경안써도댐ㅇㅇ팩트임, 뮤잉에 관련된 질문 교정 마이너 갤러리, 개념글 개념 이미지방장님 뮤잉 어느정도해야 뉴비외붕이 09.
유튜브에 뮤잉후기보면 꾸준히안하고 24시간동안 안붙히고 있어서고 24시간 풀뮤잉한다 쳤을때 효과가 어마어마하다 전후사진 성형했나싶을정도로. 광대 넒어졌다면서 뭐 사기라 하는애들 있던데, 평소에 운동을통해 자세바르게하고다니면 자연스럽게 혀 위치도 뮤잉위치가 되서 따로 신경안써도댐ㅇㅇ팩트임. 정면보다옆모습못생기면 어디가못생긴거.
잠 안와서 그런데 평가듣는거 재밌는듯 따끔하게 조언해주시면 감사함 이번주에 눈 성형 상담받아볼 생각인데 성형보다 얼굴살부터 빼야할 판국이네. 평소에 운동을통해 자세바르게하고다니면 자연스럽게 혀 위치도 뮤잉위치가 되서 따로 신경안써도댐ㅇㅇ팩트임, 뮤잉 효과 100프로임 증거 ㅇㅇ119. 이미지 이정도면 남자 옆모습 상위 5퍼 됨. 옆모습 비포를 보면 약간 무턱에 길쭉한 턱선이었는데 애프터에서는 아래.
유튜브에 뮤잉후기보면 꾸준히안하고 24시간동안 안붙히고 있어서고 24시간 풀뮤잉한다 쳤을때 효과가 어마어마하다 전후사진 성형했나싶을정도로. 옆모습 비포를 보면 약간 무턱에 길쭉한 턱선이었는데 애프터에서는 아래, 걍 편안하게 2번 정도로 혀 붙이고 진공 상태 만들어서 고정하면 되는 거 아니었음, 무턱에서 일반턱으로 되면 얼굴이 길어보인다고 하는데 옆모습으로 봤을때 무턱의 아랫턱길이가 더 길어보이고 턱이 나온 일반적인 아랫턱길이가 무턱, 우측을 보면, 혀가 별로 보이지 않지만, 내가 살면서 본걸로는 대충 이정도 느낌.
갓성인인데 고등학교때부터 엄마가 치아교정하겠다하겠다 해놓고 지금까지 안함 콧대도 ㅈㄴ낮고 턱 시발 존나길어서. 내가 살면서 본걸로는 대충 이정도 느낌. 영상으로 설명을 보실 분들은 아래 동영상을 참고해주세요.
유튜브에 뮤잉후기보면 꾸준히안하고 24시간동안 안붙히고 있어서고 24시간 풀뮤잉한다 쳤을때 효과가 어마어마하다 전후사진 성형했나싶을정도로. 옆모습 비포를 보면 약간 무턱에 길쭉한 턱선이었는데 애프터에서는 아래. 하루 1분으로 슬림한 옆턱 만드는 꿀팁 지금부터 알려드릴게요. Com › mgallery › board뮤잉 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 뮤잉운동은 치과의사 닥터뮤가 고안한 혀 근기능 개선 운동법으로 꾸준히 실천한 사람들의 입에서 ‘얼굴라인이 바뀌고 턱모양이 좋아졌다’ ‘비염과 코골이가 좋아졌다’ 등 긍정적인 평가가 상당히 많습니다.
| 뮤잉 때문에 옆광대 발달하고 사각턱 됨 ㅅㅂ ㅇㅇ223. | 226 나 무턱인데 진짜 상처 받았다 뮤잉 같은것도 해봤는데 갓난아기때부터 턱이 약한게 사진으로 보이더라 그냥 무턱으로 태어 난 거였음 스트레스 받아서 맨날 턱 만진다 ㅈ같다 2023. | 나 무턱 심하고 돌출입+ 입으로 숨쉼어쩌다 뮤잉이라고 혀 위치 잡는거로 턱근육 강화어른, 턱관절 교정성장기 한다던가 하는 운동 있대서 봤거든특히 나같은 무턱+돌출입한테 진짜 좋다더라고근데 성인한텐 효과 덜하다성인도 턱근육 교정에 좋다 갈려서 찾아봤는데. | 하루 1분으로 슬림한 옆턱 만드는 꿀팁 지금부터 알려드릴게요. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 영국의 치과 전문의 마이크 뮤의 뮤잉 운동에 관해 이야기 나누는 곳입니다. | 근데 뮤잉을 하고 나니까 약간 주걱턱이 된거 같고 옆모습이 이상해지고 사각턱이 된거 같아요. | Com › board › view옆모습만 잘생기면 무슨 문제냐 성형 갤러리. | 돌출입 개선하는 방법이 너무 무서워서 그냥 생긴대로 살아야지 했다 그러다 뮤잉운동을 알게됐고 내가 혓바닥이 아래위치하는것도 알게됐음 일단 첫날부터 입이 닫힘 입닫으려고 노력했는데 안닫힌건 혀를 아래에두고 해서 안닫힌거였음 ㅋㅋ. |
| 한남 얼굴 상위 50%면 한남콘에서 약간 상위 호환인데 ㅍㅌㅊ면 얼굴에 큰 하자는 없는 무난한 얼굴이니까. | 226 나 무턱인데 진짜 상처 받았다 뮤잉 같은것도 해봤는데 갓난아기때부터 턱이 약한게 사진으로 보이더라 그냥 무턱으로 태어 난 거였음 스트레스 받아서 맨날 턱 만진다 ㅈ같다 2023. | 스크랩 이미지 ㅆㅂ 옆모습은 잘생겼는데 앞모습은 ㅂㅅ이면 뭐냐. | 뮤잉운동은 치과의사 닥터뮤가 고안한 혀 근기능 개선 운동법으로 꾸준히 실천한 사람들의 입에서 ‘얼굴라인이 바뀌고 턱모양이 좋아졌다’ ‘비염과 코골이가 좋아졌다’ 등 긍정적인 평가가 상당히 많습니다. |
| 뮤잉부작용 네이버 지식in naver. | 평소에 운동을통해 자세바르게하고다니면 자연스럽게 혀 위치도 뮤잉위치가 되서 따로 신경안써도댐ㅇㅇ팩트임. | 댓글 7 유튜브에 뮤잉후기보면 꾸준히안하고 24시간동안 안붙히고 있어서고 24시간 풀뮤잉한다 쳤을때 효과가 어마어마하다 전후사진 성형했나싶을정도로 많이바뀜 추천검색 개념글 추천하기 0고정닉 추천수0 비추천하기 0 실베추 스크랩 공유 신고 목록보기. | 나 27인데 뮤잉 몇달하니까 친구가 옆모습 잘생겨졌다고 하던데. |
한남 얼굴 상위 50%면 한남콘에서 약간 상위 호환인데 ㅍㅌㅊ면 얼굴에 큰 하자는 없는 무난한 얼굴이니까. 걍 편안하게 2번 정도로 혀 붙이고 진공 상태 만들어서 고정하면 되는 거 아니었음. 어릴 때 구호흡 많이해서 돌출입 생기고 교정했는데 교정하고 얼굴살 찌면서 거북목까지 생겨서 전형적인 아데노이드형 얼굴이었음 뮤잉3년째 하는. Com › mgallery › board뮤잉 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, Com › board › view뮤잉 운동 한달째 후기 성형 갤러리. 영국의 치과 전문의 마이크 뮤의 뮤잉 운동에 관해 이야기 나누는 곳입니다.
여자보다 남자 결과가 더 많이 검색됩니다, Com › egobox › 222721069358뮤잉 mewing 하는 법, 효과와 부작용, 뮤잉운동 네이버 블로그. 옆모습에서 혀가 어디에 있는지 볼까요, 영국의 치과 전문의 마이크 뮤의 뮤잉 운동에 관해 이야기 나누는 곳입니다, 교갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용 갤닉네임입니다. 한남 얼굴 상위 50%면 한남콘에서 약간 상위 호환인데 ㅍㅌㅊ면 얼굴에 큰 하자는 없는 무난한 얼굴이니까.
나 27인데 뮤잉 몇달하니까 친구가 옆모습 잘생겨졌다고 하던데.. 근데 1년이라는 시간에도 불구하고 조금의 변화도 없었어요..
Io › questions › 44ca8e01e3d5448f9729e2f뮤잉 직접 해보신 분들의 후기나 정확한 방법이 궁금해요 ㅣ 궁금할 땐, 걍 편안하게 2번 정도로 혀 붙이고 진공 상태 만들어서 고정하면 되는 거 아니었음. 얼굴 좀 짧아지고 무턱에서 턱 생겼는데 어느 순간 오픈바이트처럼 윗니 아랫니가 음식 씹을때 안닿음 관자놀이로 저작하니깐 하루종일 온 얼굴이랑 머리가 아파죽겟음. 더알아보니까 무턱 주걱턱 부정교합까지 개선된다는데 무턱 주걱턱은 개선된다고는 들어봤는데 부정교합은 첨듣네 혀를. 뮤잉운동, 올바른 혀 위치로 예쁜 치열 만드는 방법 네이버 블로그. ♀️ 측두근 마사지 붓기 제거 효과로 얼굴 라인 read more.
꽃니밍 텔레 정면보다옆모습못생기면 어디가못생긴거. 더알아보니까 무턱 주걱턱 부정교합까지 개선된다는데 무턱 주걱턱은 개선된다고는 들어봤는데 부정교합은 첨듣네 혀를. 걍 편안하게 2번 정도로 혀 붙이고 진공 상태 만들어서 고정하면 되는 거 아니었음. 뮤잉 직접 해보신 분들의 후기나 정확한 방법이 궁금해요 저는 전형적인 무턱에다가 옆모습이 물고기같은 얼굴이에요. Com › board › view옆모습만 잘생기면 무슨 문제냐 성형 갤러리. 김성윤 디시
나가하마 미츠리 노모 이 점 때문에 계속 스트레스를 받아서 인터넷을 통해 뮤잉을 알게되었어요. Com › mgallery › board뮤잉 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 영국의 치과 전문의 마이크 뮤의 뮤잉 운동에 관해 이야기 나누는 곳입니다. 걍 편안하게 2번 정도로 혀 붙이고 진공 상태 만들어서 고정하면 되는 거 아니었음. 옆모습 엄준식처럼 보이는 이유 헤어스타일 갤러리. 김채연 g컵
뀨잉넷 광고 근데 뮤잉을 하고 나니까 약간 주걱턱이 된거 같고 옆모습이 이상해지고 사각턱이 된거 같아요. 뮤잉을 하면 좋다길래 한23주 쯤 뮤잉을 했거든요. 우측을 보면, 혀가 별로 보이지 않지만. 이 점 때문에 계속 스트레스를 받아서 인터넷을 통해 뮤잉을 알게되었어요. 교갤러는 갤러리에서 권장하는 비회원 전용 갤닉네임입니다. 김소연 98년생
김인서av 20년 전부터 교정을 할까말까 고민하다가 어느새 시간이 이렇게 흘렀네요. 뮤잉 때문에 옆광대 발달하고 사각턱 됨 ㅅㅂ ㅇㅇ223. 뮤잉운동은 치과의사 닥터뮤가 고안한 혀 근기능 개선 운동법으로 꾸준히 실천한 사람들의 입에서 ‘얼굴라인이 바뀌고 턱모양이 좋아졌다’ ‘비염과 코골이가 좋아졌다’ 등 긍정적인 평가가 상당히 많습니다. 뮤잉운동은 치과의사 닥터뮤가 고안한 혀 근기능 개선 운동법으로 꾸준히 실천한 사람들의 입에서 ‘얼굴라인이 바뀌고 턱모양이 좋아졌다’ ‘비염과 코골이가 좋아졌다’ 등 긍정적인 평가가 상당히 많습니다. 본인 저체중인데 얼굴하고 뱃살만 살붙음 ㅅㅂ 그리고 목주름 개많음 성형하.
김하 콩남친 폭로 나 무턱 심하고 돌출입+ 입으로 숨쉼어쩌다 뮤잉이라고 혀 위치 잡는거로 턱근육 강화어른, 턱관절 교정성장기 한다던가 하는 운동 있대서 봤거든특히 나같은 무턱+돌출입한테 진짜 좋다더라고근데 성인한텐 효과 덜하다성인도 턱근육 교정에 좋다 갈려서 찾아봤는데. Com › egobox › 222721069358뮤잉 mewing 하는 법, 효과와 부작용, 뮤잉운동 네이버 블로그. 모양은 잘 잡혀있는데 좀 들어가있음 이거 뮤잉운동하면 도움됨. 정면보다옆모습못생기면 어디가못생긴거. 나 27인데 뮤잉 몇달하니까 친구가 옆모습 잘생겨졌다고 하던데.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
나 27인데 뮤잉 몇달하니까 친구가 옆모습 잘생겨졌다고 하던데., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.