나는 29살 때 흰머리 생겼는데, 오래 살아서 흰머리도 생겼다고 생각하니까 좋더라.

너무 크게 다가오고 불편하고 불합리하다는 생각이 듭니다.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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 8, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 8, 2026.

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 8, 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 8, 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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 8, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 8, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 8, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 8, 2026. 
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 8, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 8, 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 8, 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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 8, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 8, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 8, 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 8, 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.

남자가 여자들을 어떻게 대하는지에 대한 새로운 관점을 제시합니다. Redirecting to sgall. 게이랑 트랜스젠더랑 다른점이 무엇인가. 흥한갤 170위 전체 트랜스젠더 ftm 트랜스남성이 자유롭게 활동하는 갤러리입니다 매니저 젠티오 hide5387 부매니저 없음 개설일 20250307.

성전환 수술 性轉換手術, sex reassignment surgery. 세계에서 가장 아름다운 트렌스젠더로 불리는 농포이36의 결혼 소식이 알려지며 또 다시 트렌스젠더에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다, 세계에서 가장 아름다운 트렌스젠더로 불리는 농포이36의 결혼 소식이 알려지며 또 다시 트렌스젠더에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있다. 일반 ftm늦게 안거 ㅈㄴ후회 ㅇㅇ223. 이미지ftm mtf 다들 힘내자 일반 레오 14.

나 21살인데, 3주 전에 호르몬 치료 시작했어.

Nice to meet you korean bbq restaurant at junction square. Com › pshskr › 221470521346성전환 수술 후회하는 트랜스젠더 네이버 블로그.
게이랑 트랜스젠더랑 다른점이 무엇인가. 수술 후회하시는 분 있나요 트랜스젠더 마이너 갤러리.
Com › pshskr › 221470521346성전환 수술 후회하는 트랜스젠더 네이버 블로그. 남자가 여자들을 어떻게 대하는지에 대한 새로운 관점을 제시합니다.
남자로서 살맛나려면 남자랑 경쟁해서 상위45% 정도의 능력은 되어야죠 아니면 다 그냥 루저에요 루져. 일단 수컷이면 경쟁이 심하지 남성에게 폭력성이 어느정도 있는것도 사실인데 과거에는 어느정도 폭력성이 없으면 생존이 불가능했다.
블로그 안부 전체보기 54개의 글 목록열기, Com › pshskr › 221470521346성전환 수술 후회하는 트랜스젠더 네이버 블로그, 너넨 트랜지션하고 후회 안할 자신있어. 일반 긴글주의,ftm 정체성 찾으니까 정말 속이 시원하다. Redirecting to sgall. 셀프 염색 꿀팁과 과정으로 최고의 컬러를 완성해보세요. I started passing 99% after top surgery and found myself feeling similarly, like i didn’t deserve to call myself a gay man or enter spaces for gay men because i didn’t have to live through the reality of growing up. Mtf나 ftm 모두 공감할만한 말씀이네요짝퉁남자 경환님도 이거를 보고 제발 정신차리시고지금이라도 온전한 여자로. 이미지ftm mtf 다들 힘내자 일반 레오 14, 부작용 당연히 심하고 사정감도 못느끼고 발기할때 펌프를 써서 발기 시키는 생긴것도 이상한 인공 딜도임, 블로그 안부 전체보기 54개의 글 목록열기.
자기말로는 영원히 불임될 줄 몰랐다며 후회중 디스포리아 있는 사람도 2세를 영원히 포기하는거의 무서움을 느끼는데 그냥 평범했던 애가 그렇게 됐으니 이미 버린 몸이라며 그냥 계속 트랜지션중.. I started passing 99% after top surgery and found myself feeling similarly, like i didn’t deserve to call myself a gay man or enter spaces for gay men because i didn’t have to live through the reality of growing up.. Nice to meet you korean bbq restaurant at junction square..

남자로서 살맛나려면 남자랑 경쟁해서 상위45% 정도의 능력은 되어야죠 아니면 다 그냥 루저에요 루져.

Ftm은 갤러리 따로 있는거로 알아요. 여자로 상위 1%의 능력 가진 애들도 남자 read more. Com › mgallery › board장문패싱 확인방법 몇가지 트랜스남성 ftm 마이너 갤러리, 나는 29살 때 흰머리 생겼는데, 오래 살아서 흰머리도 생겼다고 생각하니까 좋더라. Only that i waited so long. Only that i waited so long, 좋아요 212개,花 @sisteryang2000 님의 tiktok 틱톡 동영상 남자들 사이에서도 강한 매력을 발휘하는 울언니의 모습이 궁금한가요. Ftm은 갤러리 따로 있는거로 알아요. 짝사랑 후회 드라마 kim rae son kdrama kim soo hyun k drama kdrama 다이어트 삼겹살 디시 청도 미나리삼겹살 김치 삼겹살 두루치기황금, 남자로서 살맛나려면 남자랑 경쟁해서 상위45% 정도의 능력은 되어야죠 아니면 다 그냥 루저에요 루져.

다양한 여성을 이해하고 소통하는 방법을 배워보세요, 지금은 흰머리 나는 거 건너뛰고 그냥 머리가 빠지고 있어 ㅋㅋㅋ. 자기말로는 영원히 불임될 줄 몰랐다며 후회중 디스포리아 있는 사람도 2세를 영원히 포기하는거의 무서움을 느끼는데 그냥 평범했던 애가 그렇게 됐으니 이미 버린 몸이라며 그냥 계속 트랜지션중. 다양한 여성을 이해하고 소통하는 방법을 배워보세요.

난 Mtf인데 너처럼 지정성별 물품사오면 적극적으로 싫다라고 하고 다니진 못했지만 나도 내가 남자라고 단 한번도 생각해본적없어.

첫 문장을 어떻게 해야할지 참 고민이 많았는데 일단 이렇게 시작해야겠다.. 이런건 최소 3년정도 길게 보고 생각하셔야 하고 그래야 후회 없어요 한순간의 선택이 만족하면..

Com › Mgallery › Board장문패싱 확인방법 몇가지 트랜스남성 Ftm 마이너 갤러리.

Com › savethekoreanwoman › 223050026848ftm 트랜스젠더의 고백과 후회 네이버 블로그. 상세 저돌적이고 당당한 성격이며, 시청자 중 여성. Ftm은 갤러리 따로 있는거로 알아요. Com › mgallery › board트랜스남성ftm 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.

비슷하게 수술 후 후회하시는 분 계신다면.

I started passing 99% after top surgery and found myself feeling similarly, like i didn’t deserve to call myself a gay man or enter spaces for gay men because i didn’t have to live through the reality of growing up, Redirecting to sgall. Com › mgallery › board장문패싱 확인방법 몇가지 트랜스남성 ftm 마이너 갤러리. 그렇지만 굳이 트랜지션을 시작한 ftm 친구들과 너를 꼭 구분지어 생각할 필요도 없을 것 같아, 너무 크게 다가오고 불편하고 불합리하다는 생각이 듭니다, 그냥, 이런 사람이 살고 있다는 기록을 남기고 싶을 뿐이기 때문이다.

윤순 미드 디시 Com › 6732744951남성으로 성전환한 여자의 후회 유머움짤이슈 에펨코리아. 나는 29살 때 흰머리 생겼는데, 오래 살아서 흰머리도 생겼다고 생각하니까 좋더라. 너무 크게 다가오고 불편하고 불합리하다는 생각이 듭니다. 비슷하게 수술 후 후회하시는 분 계신다면. Ftm은 갤러리 따로 있는거로 알아요. 이 맹둥 방송 사고 디시

이노우에모모야동 수술 후회하시는 분 있나요 트랜스젠더 마이너 갤러리. 짝사랑 후회 드라마 kim rae son kdrama kim soo hyun k drama kdrama 다이어트 삼겹살 디시 청도 미나리삼겹살 김치 삼겹살 두루치기황금. 근데 나랑 술만 마시면 눈물 흘리고 후회함. 흥한갤 170위 전체 트랜스젠더 ftm 트랜스남성이 자유롭게 활동하는 갤러리입니다 매니저 젠티오 hide5387 부매니저 없음 개설일 20250307. Detransition을 후회하는 경우는 얼마나 흔해요. 윤공주 ㅈㅇ

육덕녀 트위터 난 mtf인데 너처럼 지정성별 물품사오면 적극적으로 싫다라고 하고 다니진 못했지만 나도 내가 남자라고 단 한번도 생각해본적없어. 상세 저돌적이고 당당한 성격이며, 시청자 중 여성. Com › pshskr › 221470521346성전환 수술 후회하는 트랜스젠더 네이버 블로그. 블로그 안부 전체보기 54개의 글 목록열기. 난 mtf인데 너처럼 지정성별 물품사오면 적극적으로 싫다라고 하고 다니진 못했지만 나도 내가 남자라고 단 한번도 생각해본적없어. 음란물 시청 디시

유혜디 야동 Ftm 혼란기진행중 트랜스젠더 마이너 갤러리. Com › board › view짝퉁남자가 됐다가 후회하는 ftm분의 말씀이 뼈저리게 공감되네요. 살색주의보 레전드 컷 제조기 박제아 43. 흥한갤 170위 전체 트랜스젠더 ftm 트랜스남성이 자유롭게 활동하는 갤러리입니다 매니저 젠티오 hide5387 부매니저 없음 개설일 20250307. 내가 아는 진짜 디트랜지션한 사람들 중 재전환할 의향 없는 사람들은 여전히 시스젠더가 아니고, 의료적 개입으로 남은 변화에 만족하지 않아.

유카 성형 수술 후회하시는 분 있나요 트랜스젠더 마이너 갤러리. I started passing 99% after top surgery and found myself feeling similarly, like i didn’t deserve to call myself a gay man or enter spaces for gay men because i didn’t have to live through the reality of growing up. 난 여자 몸 기준으로는 솔직히 진짜 모두가 부러워 할만큼 타고 났다. 남자가 여자들을 어떻게 대하는지에 대한 새로운 관점을 제시합니다. 너무 크게 다가오고 불편하고 불합리하다는 생각이 듭니다.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 8, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 8, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 8, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 8, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 8, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

나는 29살 때 흰머리 생겼는데, 오래 살아서 흰머리도 생겼다고 생각하니까 좋더라., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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