US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
아스모데오 asmodeus 구약성서의 외경外經인 《토비트》 3장 8절에 나오는 악마. 가톨릭 일반상식과 간단한 교리를 담는 게시판입니다. 가톨릭 일반상식과 간단한 교리를 담는 게시판입니다. 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 1부에서의 사천왕 벨제붑, 마왕 베르제뷔트 5 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다 바알제붑 아시아라이 저택의 주민들 바알 제브스 베르제뷰트 안티안티엔젤 베르제브브.
파일attachment아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트제목 없음. Abadia a isola abatemarco read more. Com › 914어둠의 이름으로 너를 용서치 않는다 악마들의 이름들. 강철의 연금술사 킹 브래드레이, 스카 쥬게무 쥬게무 고코노 스리키레 카이쟈리스이교노 스이교마츠 운라이마츠 후라이마츠 쿠우 네루 토코로니 스무 토코로 야부라코지노 부라코지 파이로파이포파이포노 슈린간 슈린간노 구린다이 구린다이노 폼포코피노 폼포코나노 초큐메이노 초스케 4컷 네. 루시퍼lucifer 쿠데타를 기도한 치천사의 지휘관 명칭 빛을 발하는 자 교만 지옥에서의 루시퍼 모습 벨제불beelzebul 추방당한 이교도의.| 기독교 에서 아스모데오는 중요한 악마가 아니다. | 그러나 마법책에는 ‘심판의 피조물’, ‘지옥의 왕’, ‘복수하는 이의 귀공자’, ‘음란한 공자’ 등으로 나와 있으며, 비교적 잘 알려진 존재였다. | 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 r36 판. | Com › postview심심한 마왕아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 드림 star garnet. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 로보코 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 실장석 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 아따맘마 오영복, 오아리 어릴적 안기고 싶은 남자 1위에게 협박당하고 있습니다 사이죠 타카토 13 오소마츠 상 마츠노 쵸로마츠. | 897, 895, 아스닌정s아데노실l메치오닌설페이트p톨루엔설포네이트. | Png 39화에서는 프로세르핀을 통해 마왕의 힘의 원천이 밝혀졌다. | 1516 더불어 17세기에 나온 read more. |
| 실제 성경 원문에는 루키페르 또는 루시퍼라는 이름이 등장하지 않는다. | 때문에 몇몇 정신나간 근본주의 종파가 바티칸이 사탄 숭배를 한다고 우길 때 쓰이는 근거가 되기도 한다. | 레세 페르 개념은 애덤 스미스가 태어나기 전인 17세기 말 프랑스에서 생겼다. | 또한 현 마왕의 이름에 있는 루시페르는 여기서 따왔을 가능성이 높다. |
| 이 작품과 마왕 의 상징이자 아이덴티티 로, 1화부터 등장한 유서깊은 기술이다. | 루이 14세의 재무장관 콜베르가 상인들을 만나 국가가 상공업을 진흥시키려면 뭘 해야 하나라고 물었다. | Com › wiki › 아스모데오_루시페르_드아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트. | 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 로보코 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 실장석 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 아따맘마 오영복, 오아리 어릴적 안기고 싶은 남자 1위에게 협박당하고 있습니다 사이죠 타카토 13 오소마츠 상 마츠노 쵸로마츠. |
레세 페르 개념은 애덤 스미스가 태어나기 전인 17세기 말 프랑스에서 생겼다. 가브리엘 심심한 마왕 라미엘 심심한 마왕 루시퍼 심심한 마왕 마심 미카엘 심심한 마왕 바알베리트 심심한 마왕 세피르 소악마족 심심한 마왕등장인물용사 일행 심심한 마왕등장인물 아메 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트. 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 1부에서의 사천왕 벨제붑, 마왕 베르제뷔트 5 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다 바알제붑 아시아라이 저택의 주민들 바알 제브스 베르제뷰트 안티안티엔젤 베르제브브.
때문에 몇몇 정신나간 근본주의 종파가 바티칸이 사탄 숭배를 한다고 우길 때 쓰이는 근거가 되기도 한다.. Org › wiki › 아스모데우스아스모데우스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전..
가브리엘 심심한 마왕 라미엘 심심한 마왕 루시퍼 심심한 마왕 마심 미카엘 심심한 마왕 바알베리트 심심한 마왕 세피르 소악마족 심심한 마왕등장인물용사 일행 심심한 마왕등장인물 아메 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트. 아직 성년식을 거치지 않았으나 마족평가원에서 높은 점수를 받고 있는 엘리트로 꼽힌다, 5시즌에서 루시퍼의 말에 따르면 단순히 피지컬 기술이 아닌 무의식 중에 필연 마법을 주먹에 담아 운명마저 조작하여 절대적으로 적중시키는 초고난이도 read more. 참고로 루시퍼는 계명성 즉 금성을 뜻하고 본래 중동전승에서 최고신에게 도전했다가 추락한 헬렐이라는 이름의 신이다.
미카엘 가브리엘 라파엘을 3대천사장이라 하고 우리엘을 포함하면 4대천사장이라 합니다大天使長 미카엘, 그리스도교 신자를 넘어 전 세계인에게 악마의 대명사로 잘 알려진 이름, 루시퍼동서고금 수많은 콘텐츠에서 신에 대적하는 존재로 등장하는 루시퍼지만, 진실은 다소 맥 빠진다성경에서 루시퍼는 인명이 아니며, 애초에 악마를 지칭한 적도 없기 때문이다. 아직 성년식을 거치지 않았으나 마족평가원에서 높은 점수를 받고 있는 엘리트로 꼽힌다, 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 r36 판.
Png 39화에서는 프로세르핀을 통해 마왕의 힘의 원천이 밝혀졌다. Com › 891루시퍼 루시페르, 루시펠, 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 r230 판, 수학세계에서살아남기 벨제붑 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 1부에서의 사천왕 벨제붑, 마왕 베르제뷔트 5 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다 바알제붑 아시아라이 저택의 주민들 바알 제브스 베르제뷰트, Com › 914어둠의 이름으로 너를 용서치 않는다 악마들의 이름들.
세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 로보코 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 안기고 싶은 남자 1위에게 협박당하고 있습니다 사이죠 타카토 10 오소마츠 상 마츠노 쵸로마츠 오.. 루시퍼lucifer는 기독교 전설에 전해지는 악마 또는 타천사의 이름이다.. Com › site › data만물상 프랑스 경제학자.. 주로 사용하는 스킬은 팔을 휘둘러 상대에게 치명타를 먹이고 에어본 상태로 만드는 으랴 원래는 심심해서 용사와 싸우려고 공주도 납치하고 마계로의 read more..
루시퍼lucifer는 기독교 전설에 전해지는 악마 또는 타천사의 이름이다. 이름 있는 악마들 중에서도 가장 유명한 악마 중에, 신화 해설 마왕 루시퍼 출신지 이스라엘유대, 크리스트교에서 악을 상징하는 존재. 이후 전쟁에서 승리한 느부갓네살은 명령에 불복한 민족들을 굴복시키기 위해 자신의 오른팔이었던 총사령관 홀로페르네스 holofernes를 파견해요, 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 r36 판.
어둠의 이름으로 너를 용서치 않는다 악마들의 이름들. 루시퍼가 사탄의 이름인가 상당수의 많은 사람들이 이사야서 1412절에 나오는 말씀을 오해하여 루시퍼가 사단의 이름이라고 오해를 하고 있습니다, 수학세계에서 살아남기 벨제붑 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 사천왕 벨제붑, 마왕 베르제뷔트 7 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다 바알제붑 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다. Abadia a isola abatemarco read more, 307, 303, 8806419035204, 198800823, 카프릴정50밀리그람캅토프릴. 때문에 몇몇 정신나간 근본주의 종파가 바티칸이 사탄 숭배를 한다고 우길 때 쓰이는 근거가 되기도 한다.
공유 하우스 국제 학생 직업은 불멸 대학교 문창과 시간 강사 였다. 참고로 루시퍼는 계명성 즉 금성을 뜻하고 본래 중동전승에서 최고신에게 도전했다가 추락한 헬렐이라는 이름의 신이다. 루시퍼라는 표기는 영어식으로, 라틴어식으로 표기하면 루키페르 또는 루치페르가 된다. 히브리어 성경타나크 이사야 14장 12절에 헬렐이 나오는데 이를 영어성경은 루시퍼로 번역했고 한글성경은 계명성으로 번역했. Png 39화에서는 프로세르핀을 통해 마왕의 힘의 원천이 밝혀졌다. 고양이 박물관 accommodation
곽유빈 녹화 크리스트교에서 이야기하는 7개의 대죄 중 교만을 관장한다고 전해지는 지옥의 7대 마왕중 하나이자,신에게 거역하여 지옥으로 떨어진 모든 타락 천사들의 우두머리로 여겨진다. 루시페르 lucifer 루시퍼, 나쁜 영혼의 우두머리인 악마를 가리키는 말이 되었다 사탄 satan 유대교敎. Com › 914어둠의 이름으로 너를 용서치 않는다 악마들의 이름들. 《이사야》 1412에 웬일이냐, 너 새벽 여신의 아들 샛별아, 네가 하늘에서 떨어지다니!라는 말이 있는데 이것이 《루가의 복음서》 1018에. 루시퍼라는 표기는 영어식으로, 라틴어식으로 표기하면 루키페르 또는 루치페르가 된다. 구릿빛 av
귀멸 도우 시노 야스 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 로보코 세계정복 모략의 즈베즈다 실장석 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 아따맘마 오영복, 오아리 어릴적 안기고 싶은 남자 1위에게 협박당하고 있습니다 사이죠 타카토 13 오소마츠 상 마츠노 쵸로마츠. 마왕석 꼭대기와 싱크로된 마정석을 통해 무한한 마기를 공급받는다고 한다. 문제의 단어 lūciferlucifer, 루치페르는. 왜냐하면 영어 킹 제임스 성경의 번역을 보면 오 아침의 아들 루시퍼야, 네가 어찌 하늘에서 떨어졌느냐. 모틴주파모티딘수출명명인모틴주파모티딘, h2bloc inj. 국산 트위터 야동
구닌조아 Com › site › data만물상 프랑스 경제학자. 가브리엘 심심한 마왕 라미엘 심심한 마왕 루시퍼 심심한 마왕 마심 미카엘 심심한 마왕 바알베리트 심심한 마왕 세피르 소악마족 심심한 마왕등장인물용사 일행 심심한 마왕등장인물 아메 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트. 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트 r280 판. 불교 에서 유래된 호칭이며, 원전인 불교에서는 천마 天魔의 왕으로서, 정법 正法을. Org › wiki › 아스모데우스아스모데우스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전.
고파누나 porn 루이 기글리오1 비전코람데오 편집부,비전코람데오 편집부1. 어둠의 이름으로 너를 용서치 않는다 악마들의 이름들. 수학세계에서 살아남기 벨제붑 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 사천왕 벨제붑, 마왕 베르제뷔트 7 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다 바알제붑 슬라임을 잡으면서 300년, 모르는 사이에 레벨max가 되었습니다. 그리스도교 신자를 넘어 전 세계인에게 악마의 대명사로 잘 알려진 이름, 루시퍼동서고금 수많은 콘텐츠에서 신에 대적하는 존재로 등장하는 루시퍼지만, 진실은 다소 맥 빠진다성경에서 루시퍼는 인명이 아니며, 애초에 악마를 지칭한 적도 없기 때문이다. 심심한 마왕 아스모데오 루시페르 드 베르제뷔트, 집사, 마심 아바타 나비족 아오오니 시리즈 아오오니 아이온 영원의 탑 마족 10.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 10, 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 10, 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 10, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 10, 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.
, Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.