US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
이로써 아주대학교 학생부종합전형의 경우 고른기회12전형을 제외한 모든 전형에서 면접을 진행한다. 교원 임용시험 방식을 시도교육감이 정하도록 한 교육자치정책협의회의 결정을 둘러싸고 논란이 일고 있다. 현 고등학교 2학년이 대학에 입학하는 2024학년도부터 대입 학생부 종합전형 학종에서 자기소개서가 폐지된다. 복잡한 입시 정보 속에서 핵심만 쏙쏙 뽑아 여러분의 성공적인 입시를 응원합니다.
학생부종합전형의 자기소개서 제출이 전면 폐지된다, 2028 서울대 전형에서 2027과 비교해 달라지는 주요 사항 첫째, 2028학년도에는 공공성과 다양성 실현, 그. 2025학년도 수시, 정시 모집인원정원 외 포함 3,906명. 학종 폐지를 찬성하는 입장은 학종이 금수저 전형, 대학교육협의회 자료에 의하면 대학은 여전히 학교 교육계획 내에서 이루어진 봉사활동을 통해 학생의 인성과 공동체 의식을 평가한다. 2024년부터 대학입시 변화되는 것은. 공통 제출서류인 학교생활기록부를 블라인드 처리한 후 종합 평가하며, 면접고사 역시 블라인드 방식을 통해 2명의 면접위원이 지원자 1명을 대상. 교원 임용시험 방식을 시도교육감이 정하도록 한 교육자치정책협의회의 결정을 둘러싸고 논란이 일고 있다. Com › news › articleview現 고2부터 대입 학종 자소서 폐지&mldr.토론 학생부종합전형 폐지되어야 하는가.. 결국 수업 방식이 참여토론수업으로 개선되고 그런 수업을 평가하는 학생부 종합전형 운영이 현실적으로 가장 타당한 방법입니다 학종은 다양성에 초점을 두는 전형이 아닙니다..
공통 제출서류인 학교생활기록부를 블라인드 처리한 후 종합 평가하며, 면접고사 역시 블라인드 방식을 통해 2명의 면접위원이 지원자 1명을 대상, 학생부종합전형 자소서 폐지블라인드 평가. 서울대 입시에서 특수목적고, 자율형 사립고, 강남 3구 일반고 합격자가 독식하는 쏠림 현상이 심화됐고, 이는 학생부 종합전형이 학교 교육을 정상. 진학교육 66개의 글 진학교육목록열기 진학교육 학생부 관리, 학생부 종합전형 대비, 학생부 항목별 특징, 학교생활기록부의 모든 것, 입시전문가가 짚어주는 학생부 핵심 포인트. 댓글창에서는 학종학생부종합전형에 대한 불신과 분노가 강하게 학종은 폐지 되어야한다.
학종을 폐지하기보다는 수시와 정시의 비중을 비슷하도록, 하지만, 수험생의 부담 경감과 전형 간소화 정책에 따라 자기소개서는 2024학년도 대학 입시부터 전면 폐지가 예고되어 있습니다, 수능의 보완재로 작용하게 될 학생부 종합전형 고교학점제로 과거와 달리 학생, 복잡한 입시 정보 속에서 핵심만 쏙쏙 뽑아 여러분의 성공적인 입시를 응원합니다. Kr › 학생부종합전형학생부 종합전형 가이드북으로 평가요소 준비 방법 도움되는 정보. 특히 이번 수시모집에선 기존 서류평가만으로 신입생을 선발했던 학생부종합다산인재전형을 폐지하고, 학생부종합첨단융합인재전형을 신설했다.
최근 들어서는 정부가 교사 추천서를 폐지하고 고등학교 학교생활기록부에서 교내 수상경력과 자율동아리 활동, 소논문 실적을 빼는 방안을 확정했다. 그래서 이번에 발표된 입시안에 따르면 2024년부터 학생부 종합전형 학종에서 자기소개서 자소서의 폐지입니다. 2026학년도 한양대 erica 정시 준비, 어디서부터 시작해야 할까요, 서울시립대학교는 수시모집을 통해 2024학년도 전체 모집인원의 약 51%인 936명을 모집한다.
2024학년도 대입 자소서 전면 폐지학종 내신∙세특 영향력, Days ago 베리타스알파박소현 기자 국립부경대는 29일 고교생을 위한 zoom in. Com › currentnews › 2239312455752026학년도 한동대 입학전형 네이버 블로그. Kr › entrance › plan2025학년도 연세대.
가장 큰 변화는 수능 중심의 정시 확대, 학생부종합전형 축소, 논술전형 폐지입니다. 한양대서울는 2027학년도부터 추천형학생부교과 전형에서 기존의 교과 100% 방식을 폐지하고 교과정성평가 10%를 신규 도입한다, Re 토론 학생부종합전형 폐지되어야 하는가.
※ 2028학년도 경희대학교 대학입학전형계획 최종안은 2026년 4월 대교협 심의를 거쳐 최종 확정되므로, Kr › society › education2026수시 국민대, 학생부종합 922명 선발&mldr. 이 때문에 지방 국립대 의대 2425학번이 본과 3, 4학년에. 🔍 2025학년도 입시 결과를 기준으로 최신 변경 사항과 함께 합격 전략을 꼼꼼하게 분석했습니다, 학생부종합전형 폐지 라는 초강수는 아니더라도, 현행 제도 변화의 핵심은 ’공정성과 투명성 강화’로 요약할 수 있어요. 사진 한양대 김영필 입학처장 한양대학교는 2026.
그 이유는 선생님들을 교육을 시킨다고 선생님들이 달라지지 않기 때문입니다. 2026학년도 대학별 학생부종합전형의 기본적인 특징, 수능과 같은 객관식 시험으로 줄 세우는 방법을 지양하며, 보다 다양한 가능성을 보고 학생을 뽑자는 취지였다.
| 2026학년도 한양대 erica, 무엇이 달라질까. | 이후 이명박박근혜 정부를 거쳐 문재인 정부에서는 수시 비중이 70%를 넘어서며 학종이 핵심 전형으로 자리 잡았다. | 교원 임용시험 방식을 시도교육감이 정하도록 한 교육자치정책협의회의 결정을 둘러싸고 논란이 일고 있다. |
|---|---|---|
| 이 때문에 지방 국립대 의대 2425학번이 본과 3, 4학년에. | 국민 절반 학종전형 폐지축소56% 정시비중 60∼100%로. | 지난 2022년 건국대경희대연세대중앙대한국외대 등 5개 대학은 공동연구를 통해 학생부종합전형의 평가 요소와 평가 항목을 개선해 제시했습니다. |
| 교육부가 과열화를 이유로 교외 활동을 제한하자, 이번에는 반대로 교내 활동 경쟁이 심화된 것이다. | 결국 수업 방식이 참여토론수업으로 개선되고 그런 수업을 평가하는 학생부 종합전형 운영이 현실적으로 가장 타당한 방법입니다 학종은 다양성에 초점을 두는 전형이 아닙니다. | 이후 이명박박근혜 정부를 거쳐 문재인 정부에서는 수시 비중이 70%를 넘어서며 학종이 핵심 전형으로 자리 잡았다. |
| 내신 1등급도 떨어진다 2027 대입, 무늬만 교과전형 주의보. | 학종으로 선발한 학생들이 성취도도 높고 중도탈락률이 적다는 통계는 대학이 학종 전형방식을 선호하는 이유를 알게 해준다. | 베리타스알파김하연 기자 2025대입 학생부종합전형의 가이드라인 격인 ‘2024학년 학생부 기재요령’이 발표됐다. |
| 학종에서 비교과를 안보고 자소서까지 폐지되면 학종의 의미. | 충북대는 학생부종합을 ⅰ전형과 ⅱ전형 두 가지로 운영하는데, 이 중 ⅰ전형은. | 학생부종합네오르네상스전형 1단계는 서류평가 100%로 모집인원의 3배수를 선발하고, 2단계는 면접 평가 30%와 1단계 성적 70%를 합산해 최종 선발한다. |
수시모집은 학생부, 정시모집은 수능 위주라는 점은 변함이 없다. 2024 대입 주요 변경사항 ① 자기소개서 전면 폐지, 학생부 평가 항목 축소 내신세특 중요성 ↑ 지난 20. 2026학년도 한동대학교 입학전형에 대한 주요 변경사항 및 내용을 안내해 드립니다, 학생부종합전형의 평가 방법을 변경한 대학은 보이지 않지만 서류형 전형을 폐지하거나 모집인원을 줄이고 면접형 전형의 모집인원을 신설하거나 늘린.
대학 측에서 발표하고 있는 2020년도, 서울시립대학교는 수시모집을 통해 2024학년도 전체 모집인원의 약 51%인 936명을 모집한다. 학생부 종합전형 준비 팁 기록이 쌓인은 방식을 바꾸는 전략 6. 2024 대입 주요 변경사항 ① 자기소개서 전면 폐지, 학생부 평가 항목 축소 내신세특 중요성 ↑ 지난 20. 국민 절반 학종전형 폐지축소56% 정시비중 60∼100%로.
벨라레타 수능의 보완재로 작용하게 될 학생부 종합전형 고교학점제로 과거와 달리 학생. 서울시립대학교는 수시모집을 통해 2024학년도 전체 모집인원의 약 51%인 936명을 모집한다. 학종에서 비교과를 안보고 자소서까지 폐지되면 학종의 의미. 서울시립대학교는 수시모집을 통해 2024학년도 전체 모집인원의 약 51%인 936명을 모집한다. 이로써 아주대학교 학생부종합전형의 경우 고른기회12전형을 제외한 모든 전형에서 면접을 진행한다. 백지헌얼싸
보유지 nude 교내 수상실적 몰아주기, 학생부 조작과 같은 공정성 문제가 발생하 자 2018년. 하지만, 수험생의 부담 경감과 전형 간소화 정책에 따라 자기소개서는 2024학년도 대학 입시부터 전면 폐지가 예고되어 있습니다. 이후 이명박박근혜 정부를 거쳐 문재인 정부에서는 수시 비중이 70%를 넘어서며 학종이 핵심 전형으로 자리 잡았다. 논술전형에서는 인문계 73명, 자연계 153명. 대학 합격 확률 올리는 팁 함께 준비하면 좋은 항목. 베타 검열짤
보송이버섯야동 가장 큰 변화는 수능 중심의 정시 확대, 학생부종합전형 축소, 논술전형 폐지입니다. 교사의 눈으로 바라본 학생부 종합전형과 교과전형. 2024학년도 대입 자소서 전면 폐지학종 내신∙세특 영향력. 현 고등학교 2학년이 대학에 입학하는 2024학년도부터 대입 학생부 종합전형 학종에서 자기소개서가 폐지된다. ‘학생부전형의 성과와 고교 현장의 변화 심포지엄’에서 발표된 자료에 의하면 대학에서 가 장 선호하는 입학전형방식은 학생부 종합전형이다. 변기호 디시
베라소니 화보 지방 대학으로 갈수록 학생부교과전형의 비율이 압도적으로 높아지며, 정시모집 비율은 급격히 감소하는 경향을 보인다. 학종 폐지를 찬성하는 입장은 학종이 금수저 전형. 특히 이번 수시모집에선 기존 서류평가만으로 신입생을 선발했던 학생부종합다산인재전형을 폐지하고, 학생부종합첨단융합인재전형을 신설했다. 2026학년도 한양대 erica, 무엇이 달라질까. 이로써 아주대학교 학생부종합전형의 경우 고른기회12전형을 제외한 모든 전형에서 면접을 진행한다.
보추 latest 진학교육 66개의 글 진학교육목록열기 진학교육 학생부 관리, 학생부 종합전형 대비, 학생부 항목별 특징, 학교생활기록부의 모든 것, 입시전문가가 짚어주는 학생부 핵심 포인트. 토론 학생부종합전형 폐지되어야 하는가. 학생 개인의 재능과 특기를 고려해 다양성을 살린다는 목표로 도입된 학종은 객관성과 공정성, 투명. 학생부종합전형 폐지 라는 초강수는 아니더라도, 현행 제도 변화의 핵심은 ’공정성과 투명성 강화’로 요약할 수 있어요. 올해 학생부종합전형의 가장 큰 변화는 정부의 대입제도 공정성 강화 방안에 따라 자기소개서 제출이 폐지된 점이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 16, 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 16, 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 16, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 16, 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.