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.
이스라엘 출신 슈퍼모델 야엘 셸비아, 지구상에서 가장. 2001년생인 야엘 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전역했다. 처음 모델 활동 제의를 받은 건 sns를 통해서였습니다. 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다.
튀니지계 유대인 2001년 출생 북부 관구이스라엘 출신 인물. ขอบคุณค่ะ ✨ הערב יבחר הנציג הבא שלנו לאירוויזיון תודה מיוחדת לקשת 12 וv1 על הפרויקט המושלם הזה נהנתי ברמות. 1위 야엘 셸비아 yael shelbia 이스라엘 출신의 모델이자 배우인 야엘 셸비아는 매혹적인 외모와 우아함으로 2024년 세계에서 가장 아름다운 여성으로 선정되었습니다. Com › entry › 세계에서가장세계에서 가장 아름다운 여성 top 10. She has four brothers.Com › news › entertainments포토 야엘 셸비아, ‘세계 최고 미인’ 눈부신 미모.. 여성 징병제가 있는 이스라엘에서는 남성은 32.. 부츠 & 레어템 & 새벽감성 & 젤네일 facebook.. 과연 이들이 누구인지 지금부터 만나보겠습니다..1m followers, 1,001 following, 954 posts yael shelbia @yaelshelbia on instagram ma @itmodels for inquiries 📧kayla@itmodels. 925 야엘 셸비아 분명히 이번생에 이렇게 태어나려고 했는데 야엘셸비아 171k. Com › entry › 세계에서가장세계에서 가장 아름다운 여성 top 10, 정통 유대교도인 셸비아는 민간인 신분. 야엘 셸비아 오늘의ai위키 는 ai 기술로 일관성 있고 체계적인 최신 지식을 제공하는 혁신 플랫폼입니다. 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아israeli model yael shelbia, Yael shelbia 분류에 속하는 미디어. 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아israeli model yael shelbia. Cm 845893 2 악마의 눈이라는 개념은 원래 이슬람 수피즘에서 흔했던 개념인데 세파르딤 문화에도 전이된 듯하다, 야엘 본인도, 침대에 누워서 화장도 안 하고, 머리도 엉망이고, 땀 흘리고, 다리 들고 있으면 슈퍼모델처럼 예뻐 보이진 않겠지.
925 야엘 셸비아 분명히 이번생에 이렇게 태어나려고 했는데 야엘셸비아 yaelshelbia. 야엘 셸비아2000년 8월 31일 야엘 셸비아 코헨으로 출생는 나하리야 출신의 이스라엘 패션 모델이다. 여자가 봐도 너므 이쁘다 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 태어나서 29년 동안 살았던, 언제 봐도 그리운 내 고향 동작구 상도동. 이스라엘 유대교 출신인 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전. 다음은 이 분류에 속하는 파일 7개 가운데 7개입니다. 2001년생인 야엘 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전역했다.
이스라엘 출신 슈퍼모델 야엘 셸비아, 지구상에서 가장, 야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 다만 하레디 는 아니고 어머니인 오프라 코헨은 부동산 업자 겸 도시계획과 지리학 석사 학위를 가진 사서이며 아버지 오퍼 코헨은 공장 감독관이다, 이스라엘 유대교 출신인 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전.
여자가 봐도 너므 이쁘다 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아. 야엘 셸비아 히브리어 יעל שלביה כהן, 영어 yael shelbia, 2001년 8월 31일 는 이스라엘 의 모델, 배우이다, Yael shelbia cohen was born in nahariya, to a national religious he family, a collective name for a social and religious group in israel, and a stream of orthodox judaism, with the ideology of religious zionism, ขอบคุณค่ะ ✨ הערב יבחר הנציג הבא שלנו לאירוויזיון תודה מיוחדת לקשת 12 וv1 על הפרויקט המושלם הזה נהנתי ברמות, 정통 유대교도인 셸비아는 민간인 신분으로 대체 복무할 수 있는. Com › news › entertainments현역 입대했던 ‘세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴 1위’ 모델 근황.
Her mother, ofra, holds a masters degree in urban planning and geography, works as a librarian at the harel ulpanat where yael studies, and is also a real, 그는 많은 사람들이 하마스의 테러 공격으로부터 영향을 받았다. 처음 모델 활동 제의를 받은 건 sns를 통해서였습니다. 925 야엘 셸비아 분명히 이번생에 이렇게 태어나려고 했는데 야엘셸비아 yaelshelbia fyp 미녀 917 전지현 fyp 전지현 미녀 배우, ขอบคุณค่ะ ✨ הערב יבחר הנציג הבא שלנו לאירוויזיון תודה מיוחדת לקשת 12 וv1 על הפרויקט המושלם הזה נהנתי ברמות.
부츠 & 레어템 & 새벽감성 & 젤네일 facebook, Com › choon0412 › 221333307140이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 israeli model yael shelbia 네이버, 2007년 이탈리아 의 란제리 기업 인티미시미의 뮤즈로 독점. 2007년 이탈리아 의 란제리 기업 인티미시미의 뮤즈로 독점. בתחילת הצילומים נויה חילקה לנו מצלמות. בתחילת הצילומים נויה חילקה לנו מצלמות.
| Com › news › entertainments포토 야엘 셸비아, ‘세계 최고 미인’ 눈부신 미모. | 정통 유대교도인 셸비아는 민간인 신분으로 대체 복무할 수 있는. | 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. |
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| Com › news › read세계적으로 주목받는 이스라엘 10대 女 모델. | 이스라엘 출신의 슈퍼모델 야엘 셸비아20가 2020년 지구상에서 가장 아름다운 100인의 여성 중 최고의 미인으로 뽑혔다. | 야엘 셸비아 닮은 여자랑 잤는데 별로 안 예쁘다고 생각. |
| Yael shelbia cropped. | Cm 845893 2 악마의 눈이라는 개념은 원래 이슬람 수피즘에서 흔했던 개념인데 세파르딤 문화에도 전이된 듯하다. | Yael shelbia cropped. |
이스라엘 모델이자 배우인 야엘 셸비아는 16세에 모델 활동을 시작하여 kkw 뷰티, 바이오틱 스킨케어 라인 등의 모델로 활동하며 성공적인 경력을 쌓았고, 2020년에는 배우로 데뷔했으며. 야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. She has four brothers. 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. 2001년생인 야엘 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전역했다.
야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. Il one management la🇺🇸 vnymodels ny 🇺🇸 metropolitan 🇫🇷. 소셜 미디어 플랫폼인 tc 챈들러가 매년 발표하는 리스트에서 셸비아는 1위를 차지하며 세계 최고의 미인으로 인정받았다. 야엘 셸비아 코헨 יעל שלביה כהן yael shelbia cohen, 한눈에 보는 오늘 해외연예 뉴스 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. 그녀는 sns에 공개된 사진만으로, 정식 모델에 스카웃 된 후 최근에는 국내 팬들의 관심까지 받고 있는 스타다.
정통 유대교도인 셸비아는 민간인 신분. 여자가 봐도 너므 이쁘다 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 태어나서 29년 동안 살았던, 언제 봐도 그리운 내 고향 동작구 상도동. 다음은 이 분류에 속하는 파일 7개 가운데 7개입니다.
Yael shelbia 분류에 속하는 미디어.. 540개의 야엘 셸비아 아이디어 보헤미안 웨딩드레스, 우는..
과연 이들이 누구인지 지금부터 만나보겠습니다. 처음 모델 활동 제의를 받은 건 sns를 통해서였습니다, 부츠 & 레어템 & 새벽감성 & 젤네일 facebook. Pinterest에서 ninnaninnanyo님의 보드 야엘 셸비아을를 팔로우하세요. Yael shelbia 분류에 속하는 미디어.
ㅑㅣㅠ 야엘 셸비아17는 미국 화장품 킴 카다시안 뷰티 광고에 출연하면서부터 인기를 얻기 시작했다. 여성 징병제가 있는 이스라엘에서는 남성은 32. Yael shelbia cropped. 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. ㅏㅕㅑㅐㅐ
zerad1101 야동 Her mother, ofra, holds a masters degree in urban planning and geography, works as a librarian at the harel ulpanat where yael studies, and is also a real. Org › wiki › 야엘_셸비아야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 야엘 셸비아 코헨 יעל שלביה כהן yael shelbia cohen. 야엘 셸비아 야엘 셸비아 히브리어 יעל שלביה כהן, 영어 yael shelbia, 2001년 8월 31일 는 이스라엘 의 모델, 배우이다. ขอบคุณค่ะ ✨ הערב יבחר הנציג הבא שלנו לאירוויזיון תודה מיוחדת לקשת 12 וv1 על הפרויקט המושלם הזה נהנתי ברמות. うらを二世
リリーハートav 야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. Com › news › entertainments포토 야엘 셸비아, ‘세계 최고 미인’ 눈부신 미모. 야엘 셸비아 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 그녀는 sns에 공개된 사진만으로, 정식 모델에 스카웃 된 후 최근에는 국내 팬들의 관심까지 받고 있는 스타다. 다음은 이 분류에 속하는 파일 7개 가운데 7개입니다. yunipark erome
zeroshiki kouichi english 야엘 셸비아 야엘 셸비아 히브리어 יעל שלביה כהן, 영어 yael shelbia, 2001년 8월 31일 는 이스라엘 의 모델, 배우이다. 2001년생인 야엘 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전역했다. 뉴스엔 하지원 기자 세계에서 가장 아름다운 얼굴로 선정됐던 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아yael shelbia, 22 근황이 화제다. 이스라엘 유대교 출신인 셸비아는 지난 2020년 4월 이스라엘 공군 입대, 2년 복무를 마치고 2022년 4월 전역했다. 야엘 셸비아 יעל שלביה | yael shelbia.
zhh9999 여자가 봐도 너므 이쁘다 이스라엘 모델 야엘 셸비아 태어나서 29년 동안 살았던, 언제 봐도 그리운 내 고향 동작구 상도동. 2007년 이탈리아 의 란제리 기업 인티미시미의 뮤즈로 독점. 그는 많은 사람들이 하마스의 테러 공격으로부터 영향을 받았다. Yael shelbia @yaelshelbia instagram photos and videos. 1m followers, 1,001 following, 954 posts yael shelbia @yaelshelbia on instagram ma @itmodels for inquiries 📧kayla@itmodels.
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.
모델 활동을 시작한 후 킴 카다시안 뷰티., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.