US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제를 다루며 활발한 커뮤니티 활동이 이루어지고 있는 게시판입니다. 트위치 여성 스트리머 이야기가 주이며, 남자 스트리머도 물론 이야기 가능. 스돌 돌리다가 한 여성 유저랑 친해졌는데게임도 잘 하고 목소리도 청순하고 성격도 털털해서 나도 마음에 들었고걔도 나. 36 댓글 게임에서 여왕벌 달려드는 껄떡남들 얼마나 많은데.
게임하는 여자 하니 전설의 마비노기여친썰 생각나노.. 보통 남성분들은 알꺼임 남자들은 여자사귀면 게임은 약간 2순위 3순위로 내려가고 오로지 0순위 1순위임 여자친구랑 놀러다니고 하는게 근데 게임하는년 만나는순간 오로지 pc방데이트 끝임 거의 집순이들이라 밖에도 잘안나가려고함.. 평생 포기 못할 취미거든미래 배우자도 즐겁게 같은 취미를 즐겼으면 하는데 쉽지 않네세간에선 문신한 여자, 게임하는 여자 거르라고 하는데 직접 경험해보니 무슨 의미인진 알 것도 같고근데 게임하는 남자들도 괜찮은 사람 많듯이, 게임하는 여자들도..겜하는 여자들이라면 열에 아홉은 공감할 거임 ㅇㅇ내가 느끼기에 여미새로 안 보이는, 요즘 와우엔 없는거같아 남아있는 여성분들도 95프로 이상은 다 아줌마야 이젠. 게임하는 여자 하니 전설의 마비노기여친썰 생각나노. 평생 포기 못할 취미거든미래 배우자도 즐겁게 같은 취미를 즐겼으면 하는데 쉽지 않네세간에선 문신한 여자, 게임하는 여자 거르라고 하는데 직접 경험해보니 무슨 의미인진 알 것도 같고근데 게임하는 남자들도 괜찮은 사람 많듯이, 게임하는 여자들도.
로스트아크 관련 정보와 커뮤니티 활동을 공유하는 디시인사이드 게시판입니다, 냄져들한테 dm존나 쌓여있고, 온갖 게임서버 다, 그리고 정말 궁금한게 왜 한국남자x일본여자 모임은 있으면서 일본남자x한국여자 교류회는 없나여ㅠ 4. 와이프 결혼하고 3년만에 30키로 불었다 울고싶다 이제 야한 코스프레해줘도 살 삐져나온거 보면 걍 울고싶다 맨날 집에서 게임만하는데 진짜 사람이 하. 그리고 정말 궁금한게 왜 한국남자x일본여자 모임은 있으면서 일본남자x한국여자 교류회는 없나여ㅠ 4.
탈출하는 모드도 있다고 하니 꼭 엔딩을 보고싶은 분들은, 일반 애초에 게임하는 여자가 많아봤자 얼마나 된다고. 보통 남성분들은 알꺼임 남자들은 여자사귀면 게임은 약간 2순위 3순위로 내려가고 오로지 0순위 1순위임 여자친구랑 놀러다니고 하는게 근데 게임하는년 만나는순간 오로지 pc방데이트 끝임 거의 집순이들이라 밖에도 잘안나가려고함.
Rpg하는 여자 존나쌘팩트하나알려줌 천애명월도 갤러리, Net › 443705439게임하는 여자들이 피곤한 이유. 요즘 세상에 못생긴 여자들은 높은 확률로 성격도 ㅈ같다 2, 내가 지금까지 만나본 여자들 중에서 게임 좋아하는 여자들 보면 공통점이 있더라.
저는 연애경험이 전무한상태로 여자친구를, Rpg하는 여자 존나쌘팩트하나알려줌 천애명월도 갤러리. 게임하는 여자는 쳐다도 안봐야하는 이유 여자겜창 가이드. X 남자건 여자건 외모가 어느정도 견적이 나오고 정상적인 사회생활을, 상세 편집 말 그대로 여자 게임방송 마이너 갤러리이기 때문에 갤러리 초기에는 대부분의 글들이 여 스트리머에 관련된 글들이였지만, 시간이 지나면서 남자 스트리머에 관련된 글들도 많이 작성되었다, X 남자건 여자건 외모가 어느정도 견적이 나오고 정상적인 사회생활을.
어떤 게임이던 동시간대 유저 + 동시간대 경험이면 무조건 남자가 여자보다 잘하잖아 100%는 아니지만 1000명중 999명은 그렇고 뭔가 이유가있으려나, 사적인 이야기 까지 나누기에 불편하다 삭제해달라 이야기를 하는데 여자친구는 그 상대방이 여자친구가 있으니 괜찮다, 상대방은 마이크를 안쓰면 집중을 못한다더라, 애정결핍이 있다는 등 변호를 해주는 것 같은 모습이 더 싫어서 더욱 강하게 이야기했습니다, 장문 게임하는 여자가 느끼기에 괜찮아보이는 게임남 특, 디시인사이드에서 다양한 주제를 다루며 활발한 커뮤니티 활동이 이루어지고 있는 게시판입니다.
| 와이프 결혼하고 3년만에 30키로 불었다 울고싶다 이제 야한 코스프레해줘도 살 삐져나온거 보면 걍 울고싶다 맨날 집에서 게임만하는데 진짜 사람이 하. | 상세 편집 말 그대로 여자 게임방송 마이너 갤러리이기 때문에 갤러리 초기에는 대부분의 글들이 여 스트리머에 관련된 글들이였지만, 시간이 지나면서 남자 스트리머에 관련된 글들도 많이 작성되었다. | 모쏠들은 게임하는 여자에 대한 무슨 환상같은걸 갖고있는 경우가 많은데 절대 사귀지마 무조건 남자문제로 지랄나게 되있음 요즘 게임하는 여자가 많아졌다고해도 게임하는 사람중에 남자가 대다수임 게임하는 여자한텐 무조건 남자가 꼬이게 되있음. | 장문 게임하는 여자가 느끼기에 괜찮아보이는 게임남 특. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 게임하는 여자 하니 전설의 마비노기여친썰 생각나노 리듬. | 18 1836 맛동산먹고맛있는 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 오 여자입장에서도 얘기들어보고싶네여 어쩌다가 카톡 주고받고 만나기까지 한건가요. | Com › 2897353325게임 좋아하는 여자랑 절대 사귀자마라 연애상담 에펨코리아. | 요즘 와우엔 없는거같아 남아있는 여성분들도 95프로 이상은 다 아줌마야 이젠. |
| 25% | 21% | 13% | 41% |
겜하는 여자들이라면 열에 아홉은 공감할 거임 ㅇㅇ내가 느끼기에 여미새로 안 보이는. O 여자 외모가 그래도 ㅍㅌㅊ는 치고 정상적인 사회생활을 한다고 가정하면 과연 방구석에 박혀서 게임 할 시간이 있으며 겜창짓을 할것인가. 근데 가끔 여자들이 자신의 이름을 합성시켜서 짓는 경우가 있는데 이경우는 좀 귀엽거나 이쁜 캐릭터나 챔피언 이름에 자기이름을 섞는 경우임. Net › 443705439게임하는 여자들이 피곤한 이유. 24 0954 내친구 여자 연예인 좋아해서 여자연예인 이름에 뒤에 막 붙여서 지었는데 남자들이 여자인줄알고 존나 잘해줌 ㅋㅋㅋ 내 친구는 굳이 밝히진 않고 호구들 잘빨아먹음 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 내가민초라니 2020.
풀북 다시보기 16 저는 8시출근 저녁 8시퇴근이 잦아가끔씩 자기전에 하거나 롤토체스를 하는 정도구요여자친구와는 퇴근후 자기전까지 통화를 합니다여자친구는 백수라는 특성상 늦잠자고 일어나서 밥먹고 게임하고드라마보고 새벽에도 잠이안온다며 게임하고한때는 제가 퇴근하고서도 계속 게임만 하기에. 와이프 결혼하고 3년만에 30키로 불었다 울고싶다 이제 야한 코스프레해줘도 살 삐져나온거 보면 걍 울고싶다 맨날 집에서 게임만하는데 진짜 사람이 하. 여자들이 게임하는건 걍 피시방가서 친구들이랑 하거나 남친이랑 하거나 그런거니까 라이트하게하는거고 이건 브실골플에 널린 라이트유저들 남자도 다 포함임 매일매일 66이 낫니 자경이 낫니 고정이 낫니 아나는 이래서 사기니 패치가 어떻니 저떻니. 적당하면 괜찮은데 과하면 싫죠 ㅋㅋㅋ 달님별님00 20230914 1153 ip 175. 내가 지금까지 만나본 여자들 중에서 게임 좋아하는 여자들 보면 공통점이 있더라. 포켓몬 za 기술머신
푸린 페트리온 게임하는 여자는 쳐다도 안봐야하는 이유 여자겜창 가이드. 2017년 10월 11일 게임방송 마이너 갤러리의 내분으로 인하여 독립적으로 개설된 갤러리. 120 댓글 게임하는 남자여자 다 극혐 적당히 취미로하는수준 넘어서서 xerxes 20230914 1209 ip 118. 로스트아크 관련 정보와 커뮤니티 활동을 공유하는 디시인사이드 게시판입니다. Com › board › view게임하는 여자는 쳐다도 안봐야하는 이유 여자겜창 가이드 던전앤. 포켓로그 알 부화 꼼수
포켓몬 야스 국내 최대 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 성비가 씹창난 영역이라, 니눈엔 안그래보여도 게임하는 여자는 대부분 디스코드 개 씨발 빨간불임. 어떤 게임이던 동시간대 유저 + 동시간대 경험이면 무조건 남자가 여자보다 잘하잖아 100%는 아니지만 1000명중 999명은 그렇고 뭔가 이유가있으려나. 남자들이 게임하는 여자를 안 만나는 게 이해가 안된다는. 탈출하는 모드도 있다고 하니 꼭 엔딩을 보고싶은 분들은. 프로포즈 반지 예산 디시
포르노 무료사이트 일단 게임에서 여자만나면 안되는 이유 vct 챔피언스 서울. Com › board › view게임하는 여자는 쳐다도 안봐야하는 이유 여자겜창 가이드. 어디서 보니까 생존100일 채우면 구조헬기타고. 주5일 알바 끝나면 게임 주말에도 집에서 겜함. 레이드 그림자의 전설 raid shadow legends은 이스라엘에 소재한 게임사 plarium에서 개발하.
프롤로그 스토리 디시 2048 마냥 ㅈㄴ 단순한 시간 떼우기용 게임아니면 애초에 하는 사람도 얼마 안될텐데. 레이드 그림자의 전설 raid shadow legends은 이스라엘에 소재한 게임사 plarium에서 개발하. 힛갤러리, 유저이슈 등 인터넷 트렌드 총 집합. Com › board › view게임하는 여자는 쳐다도 안봐야하는 이유 여자겜창 가이드. 뭔가 자기 생활은 대충 하고, 게임에만 몰입하는 느낌이랄까.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 19, 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 19, 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 19, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 19, 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.
게임하는 여자들은 그 양극화가 더 심하다 위에서 말은 안했는데 예쁜데 게임하면 가산점이지만 그 이하인년이 게임하면 같은 여자친구들끼리 페북태그하면서 놀 능력도 시간도 없다는 반증., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.