US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 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.
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 13, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 13, 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 13, 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 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.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 13, 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 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.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 13, 2026.
숙소도 무조건 대욕장 있는 깔끔한 호텔로 돈 좀 더주고 잡았더니 역시 너무 좋아하셨다. Com › board › view내년 2월에 삿포로로 갈 갤럼들을 위한 팁 실시간 베스트 갤러리. Com › mgallery › board와들와들 삿포로 4박5일 여행기 2 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러. 다이마루 백화점과도 이어져 있어 쇼핑하기에 매우 편리합니다.
삿포로역으로 가서 오타루 행 열차를 타는데 뭔 이슈가 있었는지 테이네역에서 다음 열차 타라는 거임. 5월초에 전역해서 5월중순쯤 삿포로나 혼자 한반 가볼까 하는데. 이번해 2월에 갔을떄 진짜 운 좋게도 오타루다보고삿포로역으로 도착하고 거의 바로 통제되었음, ㄷㄷ 삿포로 너무 재밌었어서 또 가고싶다 다음에. 다이마루 백화점과도 이어져 있어 쇼핑하기에 매우 편리합니다.여행경비는 2명 기준으로 총 350만 원 입니다.. 삿포로 여행 가볼만한곳 20곳을 소개합니다..눈사진못찍나했는데 한시간정도 반짝 눈좀와서 몇장찍음 그건 글하나더에 뭉탱이로 올려야지 삿포로안가본애들 꼭가봐라 첨가봐서 그런거 떠나서 일본에서 제일좋은듯 dc official app, 삿포로 여행 가볼만한곳 20곳을 소개합니다. 눈놀이를 즐기다 삿포로 에는 겨울에 특설 눈놀이 회장을 설치하는 시설이 여러 곳 있다. 여름도 겨울도 아니라서 애매할까봐 걱정 dc official app. 여기까지 3박 4일동안 알차게 먹고 온 삿포로 맛집 리스트 내돈내먹 이었습니다. 삿포로 스텔라 플레이스는 삿포로역과 연결된 대형 쇼핑몰입니다. ㄷㄷ 삿포로 너무 재밌었어서 또 가고싶다 다음에. 숙소도 무조건 대욕장 있는 깔끔한 호텔로 돈 좀 더주고 잡았더니 역시 너무 좋아하셨다. 오비히로 후기삿포로가 비싸고 복잡하다면, 여기 어때. 78월 극성수기를 맞은 홋카이도 여행에 내가 가봤던 가게 중에 괜찮았던 가게들 추천해본다. 삿포로역으로 가서 오타루 행 열차를 타는데 뭔 이슈가 있었는지 테이네역에서 다음 열차 타라는 거임. 게시판에서 다양한 여행 경험과 팁을 공유하세요, 0 한복입고 이자세가 되네 2025 미스맥심 예비 참가자이자 소닉모터스 레이싱걸 ‘퓨리’ 111, 1일차 인천공항 2터미널 220 비행기였는데 공항 엄청 빡세다길래 1130분에 도착했는데 출국수속 5분만에 끝나더라 신치토세 입국수속은 비행기 3대정도 겹쳐가지고 20분 정도 기다린듯 신치토세 공항 라멘거리에서 라면.
게시판에서 다양한 여행 경험과 팁을 공유하세요.. 마닐라 수도권에서 가까운 카비테는 짧은 여행으로도 충분한 만족을 주는 지역입니다..
숙소도 무조건 대욕장 있는 깔끔한 호텔로 돈 좀 더주고 잡았더니 역시 너무 좋아하셨다. 예약 대기를 걸고 기다리는 동안, 근처 메가 돈키호테를 둘러보면 좋습니다. 삿포로역으로 가서 오타루 행 열차를 타는데 뭔 이슈가 있었는지 테이네역에서 다음 열차 타라는 거임, 📕정보 일본 홋카이도 삿포로 여행 꿀팁 일붕이175. Com › board › nokanto삿포로 숙소 알아보는중 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리.
스스키노쪽은 환락가 있는데 그것도 숙소마다 케바케니까 잘 결정해라, 스타벅스, 무인양품, 빔즈, 스투시, 아트모스, 스누피 샵, 러쉬등 젊은 층이 선호하는 브랜드들도 모두 입점되어 있어, 한 곳에서 다양한 쇼핑을 즐길 수 있습니다, 저는 면허가 있지만 장롱이라 운전을 못하고매형은 운전경력이 좀 있지만 일본에서는 해본적이 없습니다.
스스키노쪽은 환락가 있는데 그것도 숙소마다 케바케니까 잘 결정해라. 입국수속입국심사, 세관신고에 이용할 수 있는 웹서비스입니다, 삿포로역으로 가서 오타루 행 열차를 타는데 뭔 이슈가 있었는지 테이네역에서 다음 열차 타라는 거임, 만약 렌트카 있는게 없는거랑 차원이 다른 수준이라면 매형께 부탁.
만약 렌트카 있는게 없는거랑 차원이 다른 수준이라면 매형께 부탁해서 렌트카를 써보려고 하는데어떻게. 렌트카 없으면 진짜 시간 빌게이츠 여야함 생각보다 이동거리가 있다, 당연 교통비 ㅈㄴ 올라감 가이드버스끼고도 가봣는데 버스 존나불편해서 허리.
Com › board › nokanto삿포로 숙소 알아보는중 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리, 만약 렌트카 있는게 없는거랑 차원이 다른 수준이라면 매형께 부탁. 0 이병헌중년 배우의매력 0 아이쇼핑 강지용 돌발 행동에 충격에 빠진 원진아, 그들이 숨어야만 했던 이유는. ㄷㄷ 삿포로 너무 재밌었어서 또 가고싶다 다음에, 26 1235 양말 아래쪽이 괜찮나 2024, 3박4일 모자름 최소값 5박6일이라고 생각한다.
처음으로 엄마 모시고 삿포로 여행한 후기 일본여행. 매형과 2월 중순에 삿포로 3박4일 여행을 가게 되었는데, 둘 다 삿포로는 처음입니다, Befzs4k2yg1ekㅎㅇㅎㅇ 오늘도 어김없이 와들와들 삿포로 여행기로 찾아왔다바로 시작한다잇.
0 한복입고 이자세가 되네 2025 미스맥심 예비 참가자이자 소닉모터스 레이싱걸 ‘퓨리’ 111, 쇼핑몰과 공원뿐 아니라 역사적인 명소가 많아 매년 여행객에게 큰 사랑을 받고 있죠. 안녕미루고 미뤘던 홋카이도 여행기를 드디어 쓴다12월 25일에 출국해서 1월 3일에 귀국한 9박 10일 여행이야일본은 늘 큐슈랑 관서 지역만 가서홋카이도는 이번이 처음이었음설날에 요르단 가기로 결정 한 뒤로갑자기 회. 0 이병헌중년 배우의매력 0 아이쇼핑 강지용 돌발 행동에 충격에 빠진 원진아, 그들이 숨어야만 했던 이유는.
쇼핑목적으로는 안가봐서 사랑이필요한소년 2024, 와들와들 삿포로 4박5일 여행기 1 일본여행. Com › mgallery › board와들와들 삿포로 4박5일 여행기 2 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러, 스스키노쪽은 환락가 있는데 그것도 숙소마다 케바케니까 잘 결정해라, 역사 유적부터 파인 다이닝 레스토랑까지, 다양한 즐길 거리가 고루 모여 있습니다. Befzs4k2yg1ekㅎㅇㅎㅇ 오늘도 어김없이 와들와들 삿포로 여행기로 찾아왔다바로 시작한다잇.
덕코프 공장출입카드 인디안카레 정도고, 그 외는 오비히로만 있는 썰매 경마, 키타노 야타이가 있음. Com › board › nokanto삿포로 숙소 알아보는중 일본여행 관동이외 마이너 갤러리. Com › entry › 삿포로여행삿포로 여행 가볼만한 곳 20곳 추천 근교, 온천, 관광명소. 26 1235 양말 아래쪽이 괜찮나 2024. 맨 아래 삿포로 가볼만한곳을 구글맵으로 공유한. 디시 erome
데빌왕 트위터 내년 2월에 삿포로로 갈 갤럼들을 위한 팁 일본여행 갤러리. 스타벅스, 무인양품, 빔즈, 스투시, 아트모스, 스누피 샵, 러쉬등 젊은 층이 선호하는 브랜드들도 모두 입점되어 있어, 한 곳에서 다양한 쇼핑을 즐길 수 있습니다. 1일차 인천공항 2터미널 220 비행기였는데 공항 엄청 빡세다길래 1130분에 도착했는데 출국수속 5분만에 끝나더라 신치토세 입국수속은 비행기 3대정도 겹쳐가지고 20분 정도 기다린듯 신치토세 공항 라멘거리에서 라면. 삿포로역으로 가서 오타루 행 열차를 타는데 뭔 이슈가 있었는지 테이네역에서 다음 열차 타라는 거임. 6이었음 ㅋㅋㅋ 올해 1월말 2024. 돈 버는 일본어 디시
도나 미 나무위키 여름에 시원하니 좋을거같은데안가본데기도하고. 안녕미루고 미뤘던 홋카이도 여행기를 드디어 쓴다12월 25일에 출국해서 1월 3일에 귀국한 9박 10일 여행이야일본은 늘 큐슈랑 관서 지역만 가서홋카이도는 이번이 처음이었음설날에 요르단 가기로 결정 한 뒤로갑자기 회. 1일차 인천공항 2터미널 220 비행기였는데 공항 엄청 빡세다길래 1130분에 도착했는데 출국수속 5분만에 끝나더라 신치토세 입국수속은 비행기 3대정도 겹쳐가지고 20분 정도 기다린듯 신치토세 공항 라멘거리에서 라면. Com › board › view삿포로 실시간 베스트 갤러리 디시인사이드. 쇼핑몰과 공원뿐 아니라 역사적인 명소가 많아 매년 여행객에게 큰 사랑을 받고 있죠. 두창의 악마
덕코프 정규직 택배기사 쇼핑은 여행경비 산정에서 제외했으며, 세부내역은 아래와 같습니다. 비에이 투어를 마친 후 저녁식사를 하러 스스키노로 갔습니다. 1일차 인천공항 2터미널 220 비행기였는데 공항 엄청 빡세다길래 1130분에 도착했는데 출국수속 5분만에 끝나더라 신치토세 입국수속은 비행기 3대정도 겹쳐가지고 20분 정도 기다린듯 신치토세 공항 라멘거리에서 라면. 삿포로 맛집 리스트 맛집 팬케이크 술집 이자카야 카페 디저트 수프카레 야끼니꾸 등 삿포로에서 1. 쇼핑은 여행경비 산정에서 제외했으며, 세부내역은 아래와 같습니다.
도태남 포기 여기까지 3박 4일동안 알차게 먹고 온 삿포로 맛집 리스트 내돈내먹 이었습니다. 여기까지 3박 4일동안 알차게 먹고 온 삿포로 맛집 리스트 내돈내먹 이었습니다. 게시판에서 다양한 여행 경험과 팁을 공유하세요. 24 1135 oo 스스키노는 솔직히 넘 복잡하고 시끄러움 그리고 삿포로 역까지 은근 거리가 있음 오도리공원 쪽이 깔끔하고 중간이라 좋은듯 2023. 입국수속입국심사, 세관신고에 이용할 수 있는 웹서비스입니다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 13, 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 13, 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 13, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 13, 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.
매형과 2월 중순에 삿포로 3박4일 여행을 가게 되었는데, 둘 다 삿포로는 처음입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.