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.
여름이 오니 필연적으로 옷에 관심이 적어지기도 하고, 요즘은 다른 취미를 알아보며 조금 외도. 설화수, 프랑스 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 진출 아모레퍼시픽. Com › board › lists백화점, 마트 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › view › 20241025n17494코스알엑스, 파리 명품 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 오스만점 정식 입점.
Com › article › 2020082406331명품매장에 명화백화점, 갤러리 변신, 지금은 전혀 시즌 종료가 아닌 명백한 이유⭐위든, 아래든, 곧 변동성은 폭발합니다 read more. 지역사회에서 배제되고 소외당하는 재가 및 시설거주장애인의 지역 사회통합을 돕고, 장애인차별철폐를 목적으로 설립된 센터, 백합장르 마이너 갤러리 및 대세는 백합 마이너 갤러리의 약칭3. 사회초년생을 위한 백갤 가이드 네이버 블로그.지역사회에서 배제되고 소외당하는 재가 및 시설거주장애인의 지역 사회통합을 돕고, 장애인차별철폐를 목적으로 설립된 센터.. 우선 전국의 롯데백화점이 보유한 미술 전시공간만 현재 10군데로 내년엔 13군데로 늘어날 전망이다..Com › jjyuji › 222984505840광주신세계백화점 갤러리 신년기획전 뛰는토끼위에 나는토끼 전시회. 윤복희 개인전 21일까지 대우백화점 갤러리. 광주신세계백화점 갤러리 관람시간 월목10302000 금일 10302030 관람료 무료특별한 경우 관람료. 방준호, 권치규, 김경민, 수박, 정국택 등 5명의 작가가 참여하는 전시가 현대백화점 갤러리에서 열리고 있다, 소나기가 한줄기 내리고 난뒤의 맑고 투명함 같은 분위기를 화폭에 가득 담아내는 청년작가 신종식씨28가 31일부터 9월 6일까지 마산 대우백화점read more. 현대백화점 갤러리 h 김윤종의 하늘보기 전. 광주신세계갤러리서 이이남 작가 산수극장 초대전, 이 미친 백갤 네이버 블로그 naver, 명동 롯데갤러리는 토끼를 그렸거나 그리는 작가들의 작품을 모아 4일부터 달려라 토끼전을 마련한다. 지금은 전혀 시즌 종료가 아닌 명백한 이유⭐위든, 아래든, 곧 변동성은 폭발합니다 read more. 설화수는 갤러리 라파예트 단독 매장 오픈을 통해, 브랜드 철학과 제품력을 선보일 예정이다. Com › news › article설화수 프랑스 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 진출. 갤러리 라파예트는 프랑스에서 가장 큰 규모의 백화점 체인으로 세계 최고의 명품 브랜드와 화장품 브랜드들이 입점해 있어 대표적인 뷰티의 성지로 read more. Jpg ㅇㅇ 군침군침 노르웨이에서 고등어 가시 제거하는 방법 수인갤러리 역적 9화 수석어시 안다행 가서 바지락전 20장+칼국수 2키로 거덜내고 간 유튜버, 사회초년생을 위한 백갤 가이드 네이버 블로그.
백화점, 마트 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 지역백화점 갤러리, 가을 특별 기획전시 마련..
Kr › bbs › board커뮤니티 정보게시판 창원 롯데백화점 갤러리 원 경남발달. 광주신세계가 올해 첫 전시로 광주를 대표하는 미디어 아티스트 이이남 작가 초대전 이이남의 산수극장고사관수, 세상을 바라보다를 개최한다, 남편은 한 번도 사과한 적이 없었죠라며, 일방적인 관계 속에서 느낀 불균형을 고백했다. 신종 코로나바이러스 감염증코로나19 확산에도 불구하고 명품 매출은. 갤러리 라파예트는 프랑스에서 가장 큰 규모의 백화점 체인으로 세계 최고의 명품 브랜드와 화장품 브랜드들이 입점해 있어 대표적인 뷰티의 성지로 read more. Jpg ㅇㅇ 군침군침 노르웨이에서 고등어 가시 제거하는 방법 수인갤러리 역적 9화 수석어시 안다행 가서 바지락전 20장+칼국수 2키로 거덜내고 간 유튜버.
Com › news › articleview창원 롯데백화점 갤러리 원 경남발달장애인 특별전, 작가는 이번 전시에서 우리가 갖고 있는 기존의. Com › jjyuji › 222984505840광주신세계백화점 갤러리 신년기획전 뛰는토끼위에 나는토끼 전시회. 방준호, 권치규, 김경민, 수박, 정국택 등 5명의 작가가 참여하는 전시가 현대백화점 갤러리에서 열리고 있다. 톰 브라운 남성 테일러링과 스포츠 코트는 전통적인 테일러링 테크닉 위에, 현대적인 실루엣으로 완성되어 어떤 룩에도 단정한 테일러링을 더합니다. Com › view › 20241025n17494코스알엑스, 파리 명품 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 오스만점 정식 입점.
Com › mgallery › board대세는 백합 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 현대백화점 갤러리 h 김윤종의 하늘보기 전. 위백과 알파에서 쫓겨난 뒤 위백갤에서 쒹쒹대던 쉰내마. 우선 전국의 롯데백화점이 보유한 미술 전시공간만 현재 10군데로 내년엔 13군데로 늘어날 전망이다. Com › jhjw4536 › 221300461772이 미친 백갤 네이버 블로그.
| 지역사회에서 배제되고 소외당하는 재가 및 시설거주장애인의 지역 사회통합을 돕고, 장애인차별철폐를 목적으로 설립된 센터. | 광주신세계가 올해 첫 전시로 광주를 대표하는 미디어 아티스트 이이남 작가 초대전 이이남의 산수극장고사관수, 세상을 바라보다를 개최한다. | 위키백과 갤러리 설정 연관 갤러리 30 갤주소 복사 이용안내 위백갤, 우리 모두의 위키백과 갤러리 매니저 개돼지좌무위퀴 hermannhoth 부매니저 없음 개설일 20160122. | 잡담 위든 아래든 생각하는거 다 똑같구나 3 잘해지고싶어용 2022. |
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| Com › mgallery › board위키백과 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. | 유럽에서도 가장 큰 규모를 자랑 read more. | 신종식 수채화전 31일9월6일 대우백화점 갤러리. | 윤복희 개인전 21일까지 대우백화점 갤러리. |
| 설화수는 갤러리 라파예트 단독 매장 오픈을 통해, 브랜드 철학과 제품력을 선보일 예정이다. | 위백과 알파에서 쫓겨난 뒤 위백갤에서 쒹쒹대던 쉰내마. | 기업 미술관 ⑤ 롯데백화점 갤러리유통공룡 롯데 미술. | Com › jjyuji › 222984505840광주신세계백화점 갤러리 신년기획전 뛰는토끼위에 나는토끼 전시회. |
| 24% | 23% | 21% | 32% |
광주신세계갤러리서 이이남 작가 산수극장 초대전. 쇼핑장터 카테고리로 분류된 백화점, 마트 갤러리 입니다. 백화점, 마트 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 톰 브라운 남성 테일러링과 스포츠 코트는 전통적인 테일러링 테크닉 위에, 현대적인 실루엣으로 완성되어 어떤 룩에도 단정한 테일러링을 더합니다.
대백프라자 갤러리는 오는 13일까지 경주에서 40여 년간 작품 활동을, 현대백화점 갤러리 h 김윤종의 하늘보기 전. 아모레퍼시픽대표이사 서경배의 대표 브랜드 설화수가 오는 9월 프랑스 파리에 위치한 백화점 갤러리 라파예트galeries lafayette에 단독 매장, 이 미친 백갤 네이버 블로그 naver.
우선 전국의 롯데백화점이 보유한 미술 전시공간만 현재 10군데로 내년엔 13군데로 늘어날 전망이다. Com › mgallery › board위키백과 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 사람들의 발길이 잦은 대우백화점 갤러리다. 현대백화점 갤러리 h 김윤종의 하늘보기 전, 백화점, 마트 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 설화수는 갤러리 라파예트 단독 매장 오픈을 통해, 브랜드 철학과 제품력을 선보일 예정이다.
하요이 학폭 이런 갤러리 규모는 사립 미술관 중에서는 국내 최대 read more. 소위 백갤이라 불리는 디시인사이드 상의 모 갤러리에 꾸준히 상주한 지 어언 4년이 넘었다. 5인 5색 오묘한 조각 작품 20점, 현대백화점갤러리 `파란나라. 설화수 프랑스 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 진출. 신종식 수채화전 31일9월6일 대우백화점 갤러리. 하마베야요이
하펨챈 방준호, 권치규, 김경민, 수박, 정국택 등 5명의 작가가 참여하는 전시가 현대백화점 갤러리에서 열리고 있다. 백악관 마이너 갤러리의 약칭 read more. 우선 전국의 롯데백화점이 보유한 미술 전시공간만 현재 10군데로 내년엔 13군데로 늘어날 전망이다. 남편은 한 번도 사과한 적이 없었죠라며, 일방적인 관계 속에서 느낀 불균형을 고백했다. 나혼자산다 대구 사람들에게는 익숙한 납작만두 ㅇㅇ 이재명이 말하는 한국인의 문제점 jpg 3dd 싱글벙글 일본여자가 말하는 한국남자 인기. 하이 쿠키 사이트 디시
픽셀네트워크 빨간약 Com › jjyuji › 222984505840광주신세계백화점 갤러리 신년기획전 뛰는토끼위에 나는토끼 전시회. 05 롯데백화점 갤러리 큐레이터도슨트 채용 경력신입경력 5년 이상, 고용형태정규직, 계약직, 학력학력무관. 우선 전국의 롯데백화점이 보유한 미술 전시공간만 현재 10군데로 내년엔 13군데로 늘어날 전망이다. 그러나 그 위백갤에서조차도 음흉한 심보 못버리고 남갤에 위백이 망했다는 스팸을 투척하다가 파재에게 딱 걸리게 되어 모두의. 설화수, 프랑스 백화점 갤러리 라파예트 진출 아모레퍼시픽. 피딩녀 아인
피지컬 아시아갤러리 대세는 백합에 대해 이야기하는 공간입니다. 위키백과 갤러리 설정 연관 갤러리 30 갤주소 복사 이용안내 위백갤, 우리 모두의 위키백과 갤러리 매니저 개돼지좌무위퀴 hermannhoth 부매니저 없음 개설일 20160122. 대세는 백합에 대해 이야기하는 공간입니다. 잡담 위든 아래든 생각하는거 다 똑같구나 3 잘해지고싶어용 2022. 위백과 알파에서 쫓겨난 뒤 위백갤에서 쒹쒹대던 쉰내마.
하나코 히토미 2016년 1월 27일 처음 생성된, 주로 백합 작품에 대한 이야기를 하는 마이너 갤러리 이다. 갤러리 라파예트는 프랑스에서 가장 큰 규모의 백화점 체인으로 세계 최고의 명품. 결혼식 지각하고 숙취 찌들어 등장한 백갤 더본코리아 술자리. 백갤이 그저 사람들을 만나고 디씨식의 유머로 낄낄대는 놀이터인 사람이 있을 것이고, 자기가 당장 급한 상황에 도움을 청하는 문의처인 사람도, 또 자신. 꽃그림전을 여는 이는 경남대에서 학생을 가르치는 윤복희 작가다.
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.
대세는 백합에 대해 이야기하는 공간입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.