US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
야 근데 비상계단엔 왜 cctv설치 안하냐. 다행히 목격자가 있어서 경찰 신고와 조사로 마무리되었지만, 언제 다시 재발될지 모른다는 불안감은 늘 있었다. Cctv로 다 찍히는데 경비원도딸치느라신고안하는거. 저는 예전 오피스텔에 살때 cctv를 설치한 집 건너편에 살았는데 진짜 불편하더라고요사전 양해를 구한 것도 아니고 공용구간이 아니니 현관 나갈떄마다 내가 감시.
엘베 5층까지 올려놓고 ㅋㅋㅋ 근데 존나 체위도 세개밖에 안나오고 해서 한 10분동안 못싸고 마무리.. 신축아파트면 비교적 방음상태가 양호하므로 스킨십 소리가 울려퍼질 일은 없을 것입니다.. 다행히 목격자가 있어서 경찰 신고와 조사로 마무리되었지만, 언제 다시 재발될지 모른다는 불안감은 늘 있었다.. 바지 거꾸로 입어서 다시 벗고 입으려는데 cctv있음..윗집인지 아랫집인지 물증은 없지만, 화장실에서도 담배냄새가 나는거나 전에 사신분 이야기로는 아랫놈이 맞는거 같습니다, 사하구 위치한 아파트 네트워크 카메라 설치  . 다른곳의 비상계단 출입구 관리용 감시카메라입니다. 9층짜리 건물이고 cctv녹화중이라 붙어있긴했는데 눈으로 둘러보았을땐 전혀없었습니다 lg cctv 비상계단.
윗집인지 아랫집인지 물증은 없지만, 화장실에서도 담배냄새가 나는거나 전에 사신분 이야기로는 아랫놈이 맞는거 같습니다. 사하구 위치한 아파트 네트워크 카메라 설치  , 저는 예전 오피스텔에 살때 cctv를 설치한 집 건너편에 살았는데 진짜 불편하더라고요사전 양해를 구한 것도 아니고 공용구간이 아니니 현관 나갈떄마다 내가 감시, 엘베에서 내리는 모습과 비상계단 드나.
모형 cctv 설치시 법적인 문제가 되나요, 1층에는 있던데 꼭대기 층 옥상쪽에도 없는건 가요, 72 댓글 가끔 쇼핑하다 비상 계단에서 담배피는 담배충이라 전 반대, 그알에서는 이 cctv가 화질이 안 좋아서 어두운 밤에 빠져나가면 누군지 알 수 없다고, 재수학원 디시에 검색했을때 비상계단에서 섹스한대서. Cctv설치 전국 연합회 ip카메라, 스마트폰cctv,uhd,팬션cctv,hikvison cctv,네트웍카메라,cctv배선,qhd,전원주택cctv,하이크cctv, 고화질.
Cctv설치 전국 연합회 ip카메라, 스마트폰cctv,uhd,팬션cctv,hikvison cctv,네트웍카메라,cctv배선,qhd,전원주택cctv,하이크cctv, 고화질. 1분 뒤, 1층 계단으로 태연하게 내려온 남성은 어김없이 손소독제를 바르고 아파트를 떠났습니다, 도심 속 상가, 사무용 건물, 복합 빌딩은 하루에도 수백 명이 드나드는 공간입니다, 엘리베이터가 없는 건물의 경우 특히 계단과 출입구의 보안 관리가 중요합니다.
화재발생 6분여가 흐른 시점에 찍힌 cctv엔 알몸에 침낭만 두른 채 탈출한 남성원내 등 서둘러 대피하고 있는 사람들의 모습이 들어 있다.. 야근데 아파트계단에 무조건 cctv있음..
매일 밤 담배냄새 때문에 스트레스 받습니다ㅠㅠ 둘러보니까 cctv같은건 안보여서 혹시 센서등이나 비상등에 설치되어 있을까해서 질문 올립니다. Cctv가 각 층마다 설치되어 있는지도 미지수, 제대로 작동하는 것인지도 미지수. Com › qna › dirs아파트 비상계단 cctv 네이버 지식in. Cctv가격비용설치수리문의 cctv전국설치연합 16610595, 아이오트 무선cctv라고 선없는 집앞 cctv 설치했는데 대박임휴대폰에 알림 바로바로 오고 선도 필요없고 6개월에 한번씩만 c타입으로 충전해주면 됨 대박임 ㅇㅇ. 왜 아파트 비상계단에는 cctv가 없나요.
도심 속 상가, 사무용 건물, 복합 빌딩은 하루에도 수백 명이 드나드는 공간입니다, 2025트리 만븧님의 트리에 메시지를 남겨주세요. 디시인사이드의 다양한 갤러리에서 흥미로운 글과 이야기를 공유하고 소통하는 공간입니다, 화재발생 6분여가 흐른 시점에 찍힌 cctv엔 알몸에 침낭만 두른 채 탈출한 남성원내 등 서둘러 대피하고 있는 사람들의 모습이 들어 있다. 🎥 제9공영 노외주차장 비상계단 cctv 설치 행정예고 제9공영 노외주차장옥밭굴주차장 비상계단 부분 cctv 설치와 관련하여 이해관계인 및 주민 여러분의 의견을 듣고자 「행정절차법」제46조의 규정에 따라 다음과 같이 행정예고 합니다.
72 댓글 가끔 쇼핑하다 비상 계단에서 담배피는 담배충이라 전 반대. 비상계단에서 키스를 했는데 하기 전에천장에 cctv있는 지 구석구석 훑ㅇ어보고 했는데요경비아저씨가 이 건물에 cctv가 여러개 있다고 하시곤그냥 가셨어요 그 뒤로도 봤는데 전혀 카메라같이 생긴 것은 없는데. 우선 가장 큰 문제는 비상계단 입구를 비추고 있는 cctv다.
| 비상계단, 복도에서 흡연을 하는 사람들이 많아서모형 cctv를 설치를 할려고 하는데 이게 법적인 문제가 되나요. | Cctv가격비용설치수리문의 cctv전국설치연합 16610595. | Cctv로 다 찍히는데 경비원도딸치느라신고안하는거. |
|---|---|---|
| 비상계단마다 cctv을 설치을 할 이유가 잘 없고 비용이 상당히 많이 나옵니다. | Com › qna › dirs아파트 비상계단 cctv 네이버 지식in. | 금연아파트, 서울 51곳 전국 264곳 지정 계단복도엘리베이터 등 금연구역 정해 7일부터 흡연 시 과태료 5만원 부과 관리소 안 걸리면 그만실효성 의문 이웃 호소문에도 피울 사람은 계속 피워 보건소 현장 적발 현실적으로 어려워 아파트 내 금연. |
| Io › questions › 435dbe08bef5d13a996464de5d건물 계단로에는 cctv가 없나요. | 모형 cctv 설치시 법적인 문제가 되나요. | 비상계단 막아놓고 뻔뻔한 주민 실시간 베스트 갤러리. |
| Com › board › view야근데 아파트계단에 무조건 cctv있음. | 안녕하세요 정겨운고릴라200입니다 건물 계단로에 가보니 cctv가 없는곳이 많아보입니다 원래 설치 안해도 되는건지요. | 1층에는 있던데 꼭대기 층 옥상쪽에도 없는건 가요. |
| 화재발생 6분여가 흐른 시점에 찍힌 cctv엔 알몸에 침낭만 두른 채 탈출한 남성원내 등 서둘러 대피하고 있는 사람들의 모습이 들어 있다. | 아파트 각 층 비상계단에 cctv가 설치되어있나요. | 신축아파트면 비교적 방음상태가 양호하므로 스킨십 소리가 울려퍼질 일은 없을 것입니다. |
기괴한 일의 장본인이 아파트 거주민이었기 때문이다. Io › questions › 435dbe08bef5d13a996464de5d건물 계단로에는 cctv가 없나요. 거긴 저녁에 가면 직원들 퇴근하고 아무도 없었음. Cctv가격비용설치수리문의 cctv전국설치연합 16610595.
이하늬 윤계상 거울 디시 Cctv설치가격,cctv설치수리가격비용에대한 cctv상담및 cctv설치견적도 드리고 있으니 문의바랍니다. 72 댓글 가끔 쇼핑하다 비상 계단에서 담배피는 담배충이라 전 반대. 우선 가장 큰 문제는 비상계단 입구를 비추고 있는 cctv다. 디시인사이드의 다양한 갤러리에서 흥미로운 글과 이야기를 공유하고 소통하는 공간입니다. 금연아파트, 서울 51곳 전국 264곳 지정 계단복도엘리베이터 등 금연구역 정해 7일부터 흡연 시 과태료 5만원 부과 관리소 안 걸리면 그만실효성 의문 이웃 호소문에도 피울 사람은 계속 피워 보건소 현장 적발 현실적으로 어려워 아파트 내 금연. 이와라 검색
이안 폭로 $áä¬è²ä¬ æl âé 12 1. 72 댓글 가끔 쇼핑하다 비상 계단에서 담배피는 담배충이라 전 반대. 야근데 아파트계단에 무조건 cctv있음. 거긴 저녁에 가면 직원들 퇴근하고 아무도 없었음. 와 시발 하고 가봤는데 cctv있어서 실망했던거 생각남. 이서 디시
이하늬 윤계상 사진 보정 디시 고층건물에서 화재와 같은 재난 발생시 비상계단, 피난용 승강기 및 피난안전구역의 출입구 각각에 설치된 cctv를 이용하여 건물내 각 층에 재실중인 재실자 밀도를 실시간으로 모니터링함으로써 신속하고 정확하게 피난을 수행할 수 있고, 또한, 건물내 재실자 밀도 모니터링 시스템을 재난안전. 그것도 마일드세븐 한 종류로만요 계단에 누런색이 꽁초 모양으로 배어 버렸습니다. 육안상으로 봤을 때 없었으면 아직 설치가 안 된 아파트입니다. Cctv로 다 찍히는데 경비원도딸치느라신고안하는거. 그알에서는 이 cctv가 화질이 안 좋아서 어두운 밤에 빠져나가면 누군지 알 수 없다고. 이주은 치어리더 키
이연이 야동 1층에는 있던데 꼭대기 층 옥상쪽에도 없는건 가요. 그알에서는 이 cctv가 화질이 안 좋아서 어두운 밤에 빠져나가면 누군지 알 수 없다고. 기괴한 일의 장본인이 아파트 거주민이었기 때문이다. 비상계단, 복도에서 흡연을 하는 사람들이 많아서모형 cctv를 설치를 할려고 하는데 이게 법적인 문제가 되나요. 동네 공원, 고속버스 뒷자리, 공중화장실, 영화관, 비상계단, 주차장, 골목, 병원 샤워실, 병원 6인실 풀방, 노래방, 찜질방, 롯데월드 열기구, 울집 가족들 다 있을때 내 방에서, 쇼핑몰 계단, 룸소주방, 빌라옥상, 여친 친구네 갔을때 옆방서, 여친원룸 걔 언니랑 셋이 자다 꼴려서 여친이랑 했는데.
이직로그 에스더 디시 동네 공원, 고속버스 뒷자리, 공중화장실, 영화관, 비상계단, 주차장, 골목, 병원 샤워실, 병원 6인실 풀방, 노래방, 찜질방, 롯데월드 열기구, 울집 가족들 다 있을때 내 방에서, 쇼핑몰 계단, 룸소주방, 빌라옥상, 여친 친구네 갔을때 옆방서, 여친원룸 걔 언니랑 셋이 자다 꼴려서 여친이랑 했는데. 아이오트 무선cctv라고 선없는 집앞 cctv 설치했는데 대박임휴대폰에 알림 바로바로 오고 선도 필요없고 6개월에 한번씩만 c타입으로 충전해주면 됨 대박임 ㅇㅇ. Cctv가격비용설치수리문의 cctv전국설치연합 16610595. 다행히 목격자가 있어서 경찰 신고와 조사로 마무리되었지만, 언제 다시 재발될지 모른다는 불안감은 늘 있었다. 아파트 각 층 비상계단에 cctv가 설치되어있나요.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 7, 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 7, 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 7, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 7, 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.
아파트 비상계단 cctv qwer1234 조회수 6,084 2025., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.