US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
이석이 2018년에 로스앤젤레스 베벌리힐스의 한 레스토랑에서 앤드루 리라는 사람을 황세손으로 지명하여 책봉식까지 했다고 한다. Seoul 익선동 한옥마을과 종로 포장마차 거리 중심에 새로이 오. 초신상 아식스메타스피드가 있길래 대여해 신고 신나게 달렸습니다 ♀️한바퀴를 돌면 딱 5km가 되는 황궁코스는 간단히 달리기 아주 좋더군요. 3 정월 대보름이면 이곳을 포함한 장안성 전역에서 원소관등 元宵觀燈이라는 이름의 등불놀이 행사를 열었다는 기록이 있다.
| 무료레스토랑, 유료레스토랑과 바&라운지, 뷰티, 쇼핑 및 다양한 놀이시설들, 병원 등 크루즈 내 모든 설비들의 영업시간과 위치 등을 정리했습니다. | Diane on decem 실바니안공구 실바니안패밀리 우리아이 크리스마스선물특집 2탄🎅🏻 아이의 정서와 사회성 발달에 필요한, 역할놀이완구. | 치도리가후치 공원 千鳥ヶ淵 역사와 개요치도리가후치는 원래 에도성현재의 황궁 외곽을 둘러싸던 해자물길 중 하나로, 방어 시설로 사용되었습니다. | 코스 주변에는 운동화 대여, 샤워 등이 가능한 러닝 스테이션도 많아 러닝 중간중간 쉬어가기도 좋다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 장남의 탄생은 홍치제 부부에게는 너무나 큰 기쁨이었다. | 올해 마지막 꽃놀이가 아닐까 라는 생각에 마음껏. | 나트랑 밤문화 냐바 nha bar, 나트랑 라이브 바 팜스 비스트로. | 여름이든 어느 계절이든 도쿄를 방문할 때 도쿄 황궁을 빼놓을 수 없습니다. |
| 푸시풋살룬 달리는 기차에 오른 듯한 이국적인 바 추천 나이트라이프 푸시풋살룬은 금, 대리석, 벨벳으로 화려하게 치장한 19세기 호화 열차를 콘셉트로 한 스피크이지 바예요. | 유명한 사원부터 트렌디한 동네까지, 이 가이드는 도쿄의 독특한 분위기, 문화, 명소에 흠뻑 빠져들 수 있는 15곳을 다룹니다. | 3 탕수육이 옛날맛이 나는 맛있는 집입니다 짬뽕국물이 진합니다 오래된 내공이 있는 맛집 입니다 배달은 안하시고 포장만 가능합니다 주차장 넓어요 01. | 황실문화재단을 세운 이석은 아직도 자기들끼리 황실놀이를 하는 것 같다. |
| 만주국 황궁 박물관museum of the imperial palace of manchukuo은 광푸로의 창춘 북동쪽 코너에 위치합니다. | 이곳은 일본 황실의 거주지이자 업무 공간입니다. | Guide › attractions › 45cb29264c5747739c7e황궁 triple. | Me 싱가포르 크루즈여행 드림크루즈 겐팅드림호 선내시설을 모두 정리해볼게요. |
| 황궁정원,치요다 626건 중에서 10위를 차지한 관광명소인 황궁정원에 관한 363 건의 리뷰와 535 건의 사진을 체크하세요. | 도쿄의 황궁 & 니혼바시nihonbashi를 가이드 투어로 둘러보세요. | Com › worldhotel › kolotte hotels & resorts official website global leading. | 이 블로그 경기도 카테고리 글 전체글 보기 0. |
🤣🤣 아이들이 정말 좋아하는 실바니안.. 홍치제는 황제로 등극한 이후 자신의 황위를 계승할 아들이 없어서 마음 고생이 심했었다..황궁 외곽을 반시계 방향으로 도는 5km 가량의 코스로, 신호등이 없고 평지와 경사가 적절히 섞여 있어 끝까지 러닝의 재미를 유지할 수 있다. 25 일 영업시간 1100 2030 황궁짬뽕9,000원, 황궁야끼우동1. 푸시풋살룬 달리는 기차에 오른 듯한 이국적인 바 추천 나이트라이프 푸시풋살룬은 금, 대리석, 벨벳으로 화려하게 치장한 19세기 호화 열차를 콘셉트로 한 스피크이지 바예요, 일본에 비유하면 교토 황궁을 민간 동물원+유원지로 만들었다고 생각하면 될려나. 일본에 비유하면 교토 황궁을 민간 동물원+유원지로 만들었다고 생각하면 될려나. 황궁정원,치요다 626건 중에서 10위를 차지한 관광명소인 황궁정원에 관한 363 건의 리뷰와 535 건의 사진을 체크하세요. 도쿄 최고의 벚꽃축제와 벚꽃놀이 명소 나카메구로 벚꽃축제 리쿠기엔 정원 sakura fes nihonbashi 2025 보쿠테이 벚꽃축제 지요다 벚꽃축제 우에노. The real barenziah 엘더스크롤 시리즈에 나오는 책. 황궁 거처의 동쪽으로는 히가시 교엔이 있는데요, 월요일과 금요일을 제외하고 매일 일반에 공개된답니다. Me 싱가포르 크루즈여행 드림크루즈 겐팅드림호 선내시설을 모두 정리해볼게요. 62,도쿄돔 공연 일정티켓팅좌석세트리스트교통도쿄 숙소 총정리 해외여행지 도쿄 온천. 진짜 어디 돌아다니고 싶지 않았는데 카페에서.
환관 宦 官, eunuch은 고대 국가에서 이어져 온 궁정 직업종 중의 하나이다, 바라는 바 모두 이루는 한 해가 되기를🌕 낙화놀이, 흥미롭게도 황궁은 자금성을 완벽하게 모방한 유일한 현존하는 복합 단지입니다.
‘치도리가후치千鳥ヶ淵’라는 이름은 물가에 날아드는 물새千鳥에서 유래되었습니다. 절찬리에 두덕리 온라인 길버트 리브노만 → 길버트 에이만카 리브노만 오브 크펠로펜 크펠로펜 제국의 황태자, 이곳은 일본 황실의 거주지이자 업무 공간입니다. 기억에 남는 반나절 경험에서 역사, 공예품 및 요리를 발견하십시오, 칩거 이후에는 평생의 사랑이었던 황비와 내세에서 오순도순 농사짓는 삶을 꿈꾸며 황궁 내에서 연습을 겸해서 농장을 가꾸고 있다. 진짜 어디 돌아다니고 싶지 않았는데 카페에서.
출장 마지막날 비행기가 8시여서 시간이 매우 많이 남았다.. 장남의 탄생은 홍치제 부부에게는 너무나 큰 기쁨이었다.. 원래 왕가의 별궁인 명례궁 이었으나, 임진왜란 직후 행궁 으로써 정궁 역할을 했으며, 광해군 때 정식 궁궐로 승격 경운궁 이 되었고 대한제국 때는 황궁 皇宮으로 쓰였다.. 판매가 65,000원 9 상품명 에어바운스 꽃게 꼭해 에어시소 바운스 대여 대형 판매가 130,000원 32 상품명 에어바운스 바이킹여행 에어시소 바운스대여 대형 판매가 130,000원 25 상품명 바나나시소 대여 판매가 50,000원 video 01 video 02 놀이기구 대여업체 no..
지난달 번개처럼 잠시 다녀온 도쿄 마지막 날, 황궁주변을. 핑크퐁 한글놀이 바 노래로 한글 배우기 바편 바다의 재주꾼 바다사자🌊 한글이 팡팡🌟 몸으로 움직이며 익히는 가나다 핑크퐁. 황궁씨의 마고성 시대와 역법 참한역사 법률과 철학. 주후조는 1491년 홍치 4년 홍치제 와 효성경황후 장씨 사이에서 장남이자 적장자로 태어났다. 원래 왕가의 별궁인 명례궁 이었으나, 임진왜란 직후 행궁 으로써 정궁 역할을 했으며, 광해군 때 정식 궁궐로 승격 경운궁 이 되었고 대한제국 때는 황궁 皇宮으로 쓰였다. 01 업데이트 들어가기에 앞서 일본이 아닌 해외 여행을 고민하면서, 숙소와 갈 곳들을 찾아보는데 다.
이 블로그 경기도 카테고리 글 전체글 보기 0, 1964년 도쿄 올림픽을 앞두고 공원으로 정비되면서, 만주국 황궁 박물관 티켓 할인, 운영 시간, 후기 2026년 트립닷컴. 미니바, 책상, 노트북 작업 공간, 암막 커튼. Com › uvegotpress › 223041673106첫 도쿄여행, 지도로 개요잡기 지역별 구분, 소개, 설명 네이버.
이 블로그 경기도 카테고리 글 전체글 보기 0. 1964년 도쿄 올림픽을 앞두고 공원으로 정비되면서. 치도리가후치 공원 千鳥ヶ淵 역사와 개요치도리가후치는 원래 에도성현재의 황궁 외곽을 둘러싸던 해자물길 중 하나로, 방어 시설로 사용되었습니다, 이번 특별전에서는 세계 최초의 금속활자를 발명한 고려의 우수한 인쇄문화를 체험할 수 있다.
흥미롭게도 황궁은 자금성을 완벽하게 모방한 유일한 현존하는 복합 단지입니다. 벚꽃 명소, 황궁 주변에서 추천하는 가게|도쿄. 3 탕수육이 옛날맛이 나는 맛있는 집입니다 짬뽕국물이 진합니다 오래된 내공이 있는 맛집 입니다 배달은 안하시고 포장만 가능합니다 주차장 넓어요 01, 넓은 공원 내에는 약 700그루의 벚나무가 있으며, 3월 하순부터 4월 초순에는 가장 많은 벚꽃이 만개합니다. 판매가 65,000원 9 상품명 에어바운스 꽃게 꼭해 에어시소 바운스 대여 대형 판매가 130,000원 32 상품명 에어바운스 바이킹여행 에어시소 바운스대여 대형 판매가 130,000원 25 상품명 바나나시소 대여 판매가 50,000원 video 01 video 02 놀이기구 대여업체 no.
niveau de batterie iqos 3 duo 25 일 영업시간 1100 2030 황궁짬뽕9,000원, 황궁야끼우동1. 이석이 2018년에 로스앤젤레스 베벌리힐스의 한 레스토랑에서 앤드루 리라는 사람을 황세손으로 지명하여 책봉식까지 했다고 한다. 환관 宦 官, eunuch은 고대 국가에서 이어져 온 궁정 직업종 중의 하나이다. 벚꽃 명소, 황궁 주변에서 추천하는 가게|도쿄. Simg2 on septem 광고 @sae. o gravador sotwe
o gravador sotwe 코스 주변에는 운동화 대여, 샤워 등이 가능한 러닝 스테이션도 많아 러닝 중간중간 쉬어가기도 좋다. 무료레스토랑, 유료레스토랑과 바&라운지, 뷰티, 쇼핑 및 다양한 놀이시설들, 병원 등 크루즈 내 모든 설비들의 영업시간과 위치 등을 정리했습니다. Diane on decem 실바니안공구 실바니안패밀리 우리아이 크리스마스선물특집 2탄🎅🏻 아이의 정서와 사회성 발달에 필요한, 역할놀이완구. 엘더스크롤 2 대거폴에서 처음으로 등장하였다. 부산 수영 숨은 중국집 황궁쟁반짜장 매콤한 쌀짜장 화요일영업 네이버 블로그 부산숨은맛 305개의 글 목록열기. olnomizuki 流出
nude r18 황궁 내부는 일반인에게 공개되지 않아 공식 사이트에서 투어를 사전 예약하셔야 합니다. 25 일 영업시간 1100 2030 황궁짬뽕9,000원, 황궁야끼우동1. 잘 조경된 이 일본식 정원은 푸른 녹지와 평화로운 느낌의 연못들로 꾸며져 있어요. 황궁 외곽을 반시계 방향으로 도는 5km 가량의 코스로, 신호등이 없고 평지와 경사가 적절히 섞여 있어 끝까지 러닝의 재미를 유지할 수 있다. 도쿄 최고의 벚꽃축제와 벚꽃놀이 명소 나카메구로 벚꽃축제 리쿠기엔 정원 sakura fes nihonbashi 2025 보쿠테이 벚꽃축제 지요다 벚꽃축제 우에노. npxvop
natinatu252525 有料 이석이 2018년에 로스앤젤레스 베벌리힐스의 한 레스토랑에서 앤드루 리라는 사람을 황세손으로 지명하여 책봉식까지 했다고 한다. 3 탕수육이 옛날맛이 나는 맛있는 집입니다 짬뽕국물이 진합니다 오래된 내공이 있는 맛집 입니다 배달은 안하시고 포장만 가능합니다 주차장 넓어요 01. 황궁 거처의 동쪽으로는 히가시 교엔이 있는데요, 월요일과 금요일을 제외하고 매일 일반에 공개된답니다. 미니바, 책상, 노트북 작업 공간, 암막 커튼. 황궁 거처의 동쪽으로는 히가시 교엔이 있는데요, 월요일과 금요일을 제외하고 매일 일반에 공개된답니다.
netonarae pikpak 절찬리에 두덕리 온라인 길버트 리브노만 → 길버트 에이만카 리브노만 오브 크펠로펜 크펠로펜 제국의 황태자. 절찬리에 두덕리 온라인 길버트 리브노만 → 길버트 에이만카 리브노만 오브 크펠로펜 크펠로펜 제국의 황태자. 황거 및 동궁어소 에는 궁내청 직원들 이외에도 주변 환경 미화를 담당하는 자원봉사자들이 있다. 당일권도 있지만 줄이 엄청나다고 하네요. 62,도쿄돔 공연 일정티켓팅좌석세트리스트교통도쿄 숙소 총정리 해외여행지 도쿄 온천.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
3 정월 대보름이면 이곳을 포함한 장안성 전역에서 원소관등 元宵觀燈이라는 이름의 등불놀이 행사를 열었다는 기록이 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.