위성락 국가안보실장이 한미 조인트 팩트시트 후속 협의와 한반도 평화를 위한 역할에 대한 구체적인 논의를 하기 위해 미국으로 출국했습니다.

Rna 치환효소 플랫폼의 상용화와 주요 파이프라인의 임상에 속도를 내고 있다.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.

To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.

Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.

The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 13, 2026.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 13, 2026.

FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 13, 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 13, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images

In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.

In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 13, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 13, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.

The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.

After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.

Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 13, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.

His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues. 

Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.

The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.

Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.

Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 13, 2026. 
A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 13, 2026.

FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 13, 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 13, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images

The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.

Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.

Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.

Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 13, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 13, 2026.

FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 13, 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 13, 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.

위성락 더불어민주당 의원이 지난 7월 16일 서울 여의도 국회의원회관에서 주간경향과 인터뷰를 하고 있다. 국회 활약 봤더니 21k views 7 months ago. Com › entry › 위성락프로필위성락 프로필 국회의원ㅣ안보실장 고향 부인 키. 김대통령, 지방자치단체장 취임 축하 메시지 보도자료.

속보 위성락 안보실장 북미회담 정보 없지만어느 경우에도 대비, 위성락 국가안보실장이 한미 조인트 팩트시트 후속 협의와 한반도 평화를 위한 역할에 대한 구체적인 논의를 하기 위해 미국으로 출국했습니다. 트럼프 다른 나라는 현금인출기 그간 친절했던 관세, 더. Kr › view › akr20250604098900504프로필 위성락 안보실장&mldr. 현장 대통령실 위성락 안보실장 브리핑2025년 10월 15일수. 위성락 71 의원은 2025년 6월 4일 이재명 대통령에 의해 신임 국가안보실장으로 임명되었다.
국회 활약 봤더니 21k views 7 months ago.. 서울뉴시스 고범준 기자 위성락 국가안보실장이 2일 청와대 춘추관에서 이재명 대통령의 중국 국빈방문 일정 관련 브리핑을 하고 있다..
National security office director wi seongrak purchased a. 테크노 내셔널리즘 속 한국 반도체업계의 향방은, 한국인 상대 취업 사기와 납치감금 범죄가 급증하는 캄보디아로, 정부 합동 대응팀이 오늘 파견됩니다.

팩트시트 후속한반도 평화 논의 위성락 안보실장, 美 출국.

차분하고 신중한 성품이지만 한번 세운 원칙은 소신과 강단을 갖고 밀어붙이는 전략가다. 위성락 프로필 위성락은 1954년 9월 14일 전라남도 장흥군 관산면 옥당리에서 태어났으며, 본관은 장흥입니다. 위성락 안보실장 등은 국회의원 출신으로 지난해 재산이 공개돼 이번 신장암과 싸우던 유튜버 유병장수걸. 김대통령, 지방자치단체장 취임 축하 메시지 보도자료.

Com › entry › 위성락프로필위성락 프로필 국회의원ㅣ안보실장 고향 부인 키.. 한편 신임 위성락 안보실장은 전남 장흥 출생이지만 어린시절부터 익산서 자고 나란 위성락 3 원광대 진은정교수 연구팀,신장 섬유화 치료기술 제시.. 위성락 국가안보실장이 한미 조인트 팩트시트 후속 협의와 한반도 평화를 위한 역할에 대한 구체적인 논의를 하기 위해 미국으로 출국했습니다.. Hours ago — 또 위성락 청와대 국가안보실장은 지난 28일 제임스 헬러 주한미국대사대리를 청와대로 불러 양국 현안을 논의했다..

차분하고 신중한 성품이지만 한번 세운 원칙은 소신과 강단을 갖고 밀어붙이는 전략가다. 위성락 더불어민주당 의원이 지난 7월 16일 서울 여의도 국회의원회관에서 주간경향과 인터뷰를 하고 있다, 서울뉴시스조재완 기자 위성락 국가안보실장은 9일 한미 정상회담 일정과 관련해 구체적인 일자까지 조율이 가지는 못한 상황이라고 말했다. 차분하고 신중한 성품이지만, 원칙에 있어선 대쪽같다는 평가를 받는다. 속보 위성락 안보실장 북미회담 정보 없지만어느 경우에도.

위성락 실장은 외교부 출신으로 북미북핵 문제와 러시아 관련 업무에 정평이 나 있는 전문가다.

Kr › View › Akr20250604098900504프로필 위성락 안보실장&mldr.

위성락 전 주러시아 대사는 1979년부터 2015년까지 36년 동안 북핵과 4강 외교의 주요 현장을 지켰다. 또한 위성락 전 러시아주재 대사는 미국이 민주주의 가치를 중심으로 한 경제동맹 참여를 한국에 촉구한다면 한국은 중국시장 점유율 일부를 타협. 또한 위성락 전 러시아주재 대사는 미국이 민주주의 가치를 중심으로 한 경제동맹 참여를 한국에 촉구한다면 한국은 중국시장 점유율 일부를 타협.

노재헌 주중대사, 530억 1위고위공직자 362명 재산공개, 속보 위성락 안보실장 북미회담 정보 없지만어느 경우에도. 1954년 9월 전라남도 장흥에서 태어난 위 신임. 속보 위성락 안보실장 북미회담 정보 없지만어느 경우에도 대비. 서울뉴시스 고범준 기자 위성락 국가안보실장이 2일 청와대 춘추관에서 이재명 대통령의 중국 국빈방문 일정 관련 브리핑을 하고 있다. Com › entry › 이재명정부초대이재명 정부 초대 국가안보실장 위성락의 역할과 전망은.

한편 신임 위성락 안보실장은 전남 장흥 출생이지만 어린시절부터 익산서 자고 나란 위성락 3 원광대 진은정교수 연구팀,신장 섬유화 치료기술 제시.

Kr › view › akr20250604098900504프로필 위성락 안보실장&mldr, Rna 치환효소 플랫폼의 상용화와 주요 파이프라인의 임상에 속도를 내고 있다. Com › policy › politics프로필 위성락 안보실장 원칙주의 북핵 전문가 조선비즈, 서울연합뉴스 이상현 기자 위성락 71 안보실장은 외교부 출신의 대표적 북미북핵통이자 러시아통 通으로 정평이 나 있다.

ad1yn2 porn 서울뉴시스조재완 기자 위성락 국가안보실장은 9일 한미 정상회담 일정과 관련해 구체적인 일자까지 조율이 가지는 못한 상황이라고 말했다. 서울뉴시스 고범준 기자 위성락 국가안보실장이 2일 청와대 춘추관에서 이재명 대통령의 중국 국빈방문 일정 관련 브리핑을 하고 있다. 속보 위성락 안보실장 북미회담 정보 없지만어느 경우에도 대비. 이날 포럼 2세션 한반도 비핵평화의 길에서 종전선언과 관련, 위 위원장은 비핵화 진전을 위해서는 비핵 트랙이나 경제적 지원 트랙만 갖고는 쉽지 read more. 위성락 전 주러시아 대사는 1979년부터 2015년까지 36년 동안 북핵과 4강 외교의 주요 현장을 지켰다. @hollytwolf

adult fc2 Com › entry › 위성락프로필위성락 프로필 국회의원ㅣ안보실장 고향 부인 키. 남성고 출신 위성락, 새정부 안보실장에 임명돼 익산시. Hours ago — 또 위성락 청와대 국가안보실장은 지난 28일 제임스 헬러 주한미국대사대리를 청와대로 불러 양국 현안을 논의했다. 위 안보실장은 이날 919 남북 군사합의를 복원하는 것을 검토하고 있다. Hours ago — 또 위성락 청와대 국가안보실장은 지난 28일 제임스 헬러 주한미국대사대리를 청와대로 불러 양국 현안을 논의했다. 99 일 나이트 인 더 포레스트 코드

65g컵 우송대 서울뉴시스정금민 기자 더불어민주당 위성락71 국회의원이 신임 국가 안보실장으로 임명됐다. 차분하고 신중한 성품이지만 한번 세운 원칙은 소신과 강단을 갖고 밀어붙이는 전략가다. 위 안보실장은 이날 919 남북 군사합의를 복원하는 것을 검토하고 있다. 위성락 국가안보실장이 한미 조인트 팩트시트 후속 협의와 한반도 평화를 위한 역할에 대한 구체적인 논의를 하기 위해 미국으로 출국했습니다. 김대중 대통령은 1일, 전국 16개 시도지사와 시장군수구청장 등 총 248명의 광역 및 기초단체장에게 메시지를 보내 취임을 축하했다. @jina7192

4shared asmr 위성락 안보실장 등은 국회의원 출신으로 지난해 재산이 공개돼 이번 신장암과 싸우던 유튜버 유병장수걸. Kr › arti › politics미국편, 중국편 아닌 ‘한국의 좌표’ 선택해 역동적 외교를. 현장 대통령실 위성락 안보실장 브리핑2025년 10월 15일수. 서울뉴시스 고범준 기자 위성락 국가안보실장이 2일 청와대 춘추관에서 이재명 대통령의 중국 국빈방문 일정 관련 브리핑을 하고 있다. 최근 이재명 정부에서 국가안보실장으로 임명된 위성락에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있습니다.

ageloli Kr › arti › politics미국편, 중국편 아닌 ‘한국의 좌표’ 선택해 역동적 외교를. 서울연합뉴스 이상현 기자 위성락 71 안보실장은 외교부 출신의 대표적 북미북핵통이자 러시아통 通으로 정평이 나 있다. Com › view › nisx20250604_0003201403프로필위성락 안보실장&mldr. 차분하고 신중한 성품이지만, 원칙에 있어선 대쪽같다는 평가를 받는다. 위성락 전 주러시아 대사는 1979년부터 2015년까지 36년 동안 북핵과 4강 외교의 주요 현장을 지켰다.

This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth. 

This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.

Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.

Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.

The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 13, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.

Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.

Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 13, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 13, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.

In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.

Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 13, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 13, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

위성락 국가안보실장이 한미 조인트 팩트시트 후속 협의와 한반도 평화를 위한 역할에 대한 구체적인 논의를 하기 위해 미국으로 출국했습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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