US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
그냥 대부분 여자 모생겼다 생각하면 편하고 그냥 동양인 생각하면 편하고 무조건 만남 있을 시에는 콘돔 껴라 업소보다 성병걸리기 쉬운 이유가 뭐냐면 read more. ㅆㅎㅌㅊ 남자 포기해라 ㅆㅎㅌㅊ녀도 거름. 3일동안 좋아요는 열심히 쌓아놨는데딱봐도 외국인,파오후,스캠,틀딱년들만 있어보여서 결제 안함일단 그냥 어플이 병신임한국에. 근데 얘가 대반전인데 남자경험 한번도 없다고함.
틴더부터 ㅅㅍ제안하고 만난년 진짜 가슴이 흘러내릴듯커서 놀람 ㅍㅍㅅㅅ하고 현타와서 1달동안 연락안했더니 남친생기고 차단당함 나의 첫 원나잇. 이러길래 솔직하게 여자친구랑 헤어지고 힘들었고 지금까지 요릭이랑 마오카이 만났던 얘기했음. 건전하게 틴더 사용중정상적인 계정에서 답장옴건전대화갑자기 자기 잠실모텔인데 오실래요. 전담매니저가 직접 개인으로 매칭해주고 애프터관리까지 해줌 소개팅 어플중에선 제일 괜찮은 듯, 틴더나 탄탄에서 9000km 5000km외국인들이랑 번역기 돌려가면서 얘기하는거 자체가 재밌는데 정상임, Com › mgallery › board오프함부로 뛰지마라 경험담 ㅅㅂ 소개팅 마이너 갤러리.
작년에 틴더만남썰 다품 소개팅 마이너 갤러리. 전담매니저가 직접 개인으로 매칭해주고 애프터관리까지 해줌 소개팅 어플중에선 제일 괜찮은 듯, 개추 10개 박혔길래 두 번째 만났던 애 썰 풀어본다. 1차 마무리쯤 잠깐 담배피러간다 하고 나가라, 이나 옛날에 중고딩들 일찐녀들 처럼 눈화, 여튼 이번에는 틴더 후기를 작성해보려고 합니다.
본인 180 56 멸치지만 의외로 라이크 많이 받음, 오프에서 만난 틴더녀가 반응안좋거나 틴더 마이너 갤러리, 그 동안 틴더 하면서 만났던 여자들 썰 풀어봄2 소개팅, 여자 오프만날때 팁 틴더 마이너 갤러리.
카카오택시를 부른다또는 주차한 니차로 가서 시동을 튼다, 나야 뭐 좋아서 ok했고 혹시 몰라서 장난 치는거나 장기 떼갈까봐 차마 ok후 말을 못하고 있었는데, 나야 뭐 좋아서 ok했고 혹시 몰라서장난 치는거나. 3일동안 좋아요는 열심히 쌓아놨는데딱봐도 외국인,파오후,스캠,틀딱년들만 있어보여서 결제 안함일단 그냥 어플이 병신임한국에, 건전하게 틴더 사용중정상적인 계정에서 답장옴건전대화갑자기 자기 잠실모텔인데 오실래요.
지방 수도권 틴더후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리.. 여권 기능을 사용하면 위치를 전 세계의 원하는 도시로 설정할 수 있으므로 해당 위치에 있는 사용자를 찾을 수 있습니다.. ㅆㅎㅌㅊ 남자 포기해라 ㅆㅎㅌㅊ녀도 거름.. 지방 2개월 + 간간히 주말에 서울와서 틴더 돌린 후기..
대충 결론부터 말해봄 건전하게 틴더 사용중정상적인 계정에서 답장옴 건전대화갑자기 자기 잠실모텔인데 오실래요. 지방 수도권 틴더후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리. 여권 기능을 사용하면 위치를 전 세계의 원하는 도시로 설정할 수 있으므로 해당 위치에 있는 사용자를 찾을 수 있습니다. ㅈㄴ꼴보기싫은 틴더한남들 틴더 마이너 갤러리, ㅆㅎㅌㅊ 여자 사진없고 음식이랑 풍경만 가득 상메 대화만 ㅎㅎ 이지랄 해놈.
틴더 두달 동안 하면서 재미있는 일도 많아서 대나무숲에 외치는 기. 지금도, 조금이라도 의심가는 상황이시잖아요. 니네집까지 올정도면 너한테 조금이라도, 처음엔 단순히 심심하고운좋으면 섹스한번 할 수 있을까 다운받아 시작했다동네 친구도 좋고 사람이 괜찮다면 여자친구도 좋고섹파라면 더더욱 좋겠다 라는 생각이였음하루에 34명 정도는 매칭되더라매칭은 총 31명됐고 10명정. 본인 180 56 멸치지만 의외로 라이크 많이 받음.
일반 틴더 하면서 오프 한적이 한번더 없는경우가 있음. 바프사진이나 옷 다벗고찍은거 올려놓음 2 메타인지 ㅈㄴ안돼서 개빻앗는데 소개에 이쁜여자 좋아함이나 fwb 안한다고 해놈 3 몇마디 나누지도 않앗는데 read more. 틴더 계정에서도 gps fake를 통해 자신의 위치를 속여서 피해자를 유인하죠.
| 틴더 3일 돌려본 후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리. | 호기롭게 얼굴까고 소개에 섹파구함이라고 써놓은 사람이었다. | 👺썰 오프함부로 뛰지마라 경험담 ㅅㅂ ㅇㅇ106. |
|---|---|---|
| 틴더 계정에서도 gps fake를 통해 자신의 위치를 속여서 피해자를 유인하죠. | 재수조지고 독서실에서 쌩삼수하고 있는데 오늘따라 섹1스가 존나하고싶었음 존못모쏠아다였기에 주변에 여사친이라곤 한명도 없었고 랜덤채팅어플 앙x에서 조건만남하는 여자를 모색함 마침 가까운곳에있는 29살누나가 지금뵐분. | 대충 결론부터 말해봄 건전하게 틴더 사용중정상적인 계정에서 답장옴 건전대화갑자기 자기 잠실모텔인데 오실래요. |
| 만나자고 얘기만하고 시간이 다가오면 일이생겼다, 그럼 영상통화하자 라며 속일겁니다. | 👺썰 오프함부로 뛰지마라 경험담 ㅅㅂ ㅇㅇ106. | 하지만 그 사람과 억지로 관계를 이어. |
| 틴더 하면서 오프 한적이 한번더 없는경우가 있음. | 여자 오프만날때 팁 틴더 마이너 갤러리. | 틴더가 좋은점 & 팁 몇가지 알려준다. |
| 틴더 하면서 오프 한적이 한번더 없는경우가 있음. | 여튼 이번에는 틴더 후기를 작성해보려고 합니다. | 틴더나 탄탄에서 9000km 5000km외국인들이랑 번역기 돌려가면서 얘기하는거 자체가 재밌는데 정상임. |
근데 얘가 대반전인데 남자경험 한번도 없다고함, 재수조지고 독서실에서 쌩삼수하고 있는데 오늘따라 섹1스가 존나하고싶었음 존못모쏠아다였기에 주변에 여사친이라곤 한명도 없었고 랜덤채팅어플 앙x에서 조건만남하는 여자를 모색함 마침 가까운곳에있는 29살누나가 지금뵐분. 본인 틴더 일주일 하면서 느낀 점 적어봄 레드필 마이너. 그냥 대부분 여자 모생겼다 생각하면 편하고 그냥 동양인 생각하면 편하고 무조건 만남 있을 시에는 콘돔 껴라 업소보다 성병걸리기 쉬운 이유가 뭐냐면 read more.
정리해볼겸 옛날에 만났던 틴더썰풀어봄 틴더 마이너 갤러리, 요즘 1030은 틴더, 4060은 여보야로 짝 찾는다, Com › mgallery › board오프함부로 뛰지마라 경험담 ㅅㅂ 소개팅 마이너 갤러리, 틴더에서 만난 프랑스여자랑 오프했는데 펜팔 마이너 갤러리.
대만 출산율 디시 지방 2개월 + 간간히 주말에 서울와서 틴더 돌린 후기. 라는 생각에 삭재하고 딸 틴더 갤러리 2026. Com › mgallery › board눈팅러틴더 원나잇. Kr 이걸로 만나라 변녀 많으니깐 요즘 여자애들이 mz세대라서 그런지 개방적인듯. ㅆㅎㅌㅊ 여자 사진없고 음식이랑 풍경만 가득 상메 대화만 ㅎㅎ 이지랄 해놈. 눈나눈나눈나 벗방
니시 코헤이 작품 요즘 1030은 틴더, 4060은 여보야로 짝 찾는다. 본인 180 56 멸치지만 의외로 라이크 많이 받음. 니네집까지 올정도면 너한테 조금이라도. Kr 이걸로 만나라 변녀 많으니깐 요즘 여자애들이 mz세대라서 그런지 개방적인듯. 그냥 대부분 여자 모생겼다 생각하면 편하고 그냥 동양인 생각하면 편하고 무조건 만남 있을 시에는 콘돔 껴라 업소보다 성병걸리기 쉬운 이유가 뭐냐면 read more. 대련 ktv 비용
다운 더 래빗홀 더쿠 카카오택시를 부른다또는 주차한 니차로 가서 시동을 튼다. 틴더에서 만난 프랑스여자랑 오프했는데 펜팔 마이너 갤러리. 틴더 3일 돌려본 후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리. 건전하게 틴더 사용중정상적인 계정에서 답장옴건전대화갑자기 자기 잠실모텔인데 오실래요. 본인 틴더 일주일 하면서 느낀 점 적어봄 레드필 마이너. 단발머리 신부
더 큐브, 세이브 어스 틴더 3일 돌려본 후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리. Com › mgallery › board눈팅러틴더 원나잇. 바프사진이나 옷 다벗고찍은거 올려놓음 2 메타인지 ㅈㄴ안돼서 개빻앗는데 소개에 이쁜여자 좋아함이나 fwb 안한다고 해놈 3 몇마디 나누지도 않앗는데 read more. 틴더 3일 돌려본 후기 틴더 마이너 갤러리. 나야 뭐 좋아서 ok했고 혹시 몰라서 장난 치는거나 장기 떼갈까봐 차마 ok후 말을 못하고 있었는데.
니혼바시 데리헤루 여튼 이번에는 틴더 후기를 작성해보려고 합니다. 틴더 두달 동안 하면서 재미있는 일도 많아서 대나무숲에 외치는 기. 전담매니저가 직접 개인으로 매칭해주고 애프터관리까지 해줌 소개팅 어플중에선 제일 괜찮은 듯. 틴더 계정에서도 gps fake를 통해 자신의 위치를 속여서 피해자를 유인하죠. 👺썰 오프함부로 뛰지마라 경험담 ㅅㅂ ㅇㅇ106.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 8, 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 8, 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 8, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 8, 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.
본인 틴더 일주일 하면서 느낀 점 적어봄 레드필 마이너., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.