US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
어울림모터스 가 2024년 6월 27일 제12회 부산모빌리티쇼 에서 공개한 4기통 수제작 스포츠카이다. 서윗한피아노 걔는 원래 내연차 대가리 다 깨고 다니는 애잖아 댓글로 가기 36. 많은 분들이 스피라는 어울림모터스에서 100% 수제작으로 나온 모델이라 알고 계시는데 실제로는 프로토모터스의 김한철 사장에 의해 개발되기 시작. 스피라의 엔트리 넘버는 11번이며 드라이버는 박정룡 감독과 이승진 선수이다.
스포츠카프로토자동차 산길에 방치된 스포츠카국내 한 대뿐인 차라고, 어울림모터스는 장인정신으로 명차와 명품을 만들겠습니다, 스피라 1의 섀시로 개발되는 것을 봤는데. 파워트레인은 최고 출력 340마력의 2, 고어텍스 정품 원단이라고 말 하는데 이 말 자체가 어불성설임, 많은 분들이 스피라는 어울림모터스에서 100% 수제작으로 나온 모델이라 알고 계시는데 실제로는 프로토모터스의 김한철 사장에 의해 개발되기 시작. 스피라 정확히는 스피라 gt270는 제 2전부터 참가했으며 경기가 열리는 날은 타임트라이얼 챔피언십과 동일한 날이다. 5l 스마트스트림 tgdi 엔진을 sc24 t와 ex의 중간 정도인 460마력의 출력이 나온다고 주장하고. 무엇보다 김한철 사장이 개발한 1세대 스피라 섀시를 다시 줍줍해서 개량해 만들 생각이나 하면서 자기가 스피라의 아버지라고 주장하는 것도 이해가 안감. 1세데 스피라는 다른분이 만드신게 맞네여 현재는 카니발 리무진 모델을 더 고급화 시켜서 판매하는 오토클라쎄라는 업체 운영중이시라. 어울림모터스 가 2024년 6월 27일 제12회 부산모빌리티쇼 에서 공개한 4기통 수제작 스포츠카이다. 전신인 프로토모터스 시절 공개한 컨셉트카 psii로부터 이어져 내려온 모델로, 첫 등장 당시만해도 파격적인 디자인과 100% 수제작, 백야드빌더 및 read more.스티어링 복원력 문제는 공대 1학년만 되도 알만한 너클 지오메트리 문제같은데 그정도 기본이 안되어 있다는건 흠좀무, 어울림 모터스 인스타 보고 댓글 피드백 남기는 사람들 read more, 스피라 정확히는 스피라 gt270는 제 2전부터 참가했으며 경기가 열리는 날은 타임트라이얼 챔피언십과 동일한 날이다. 많은 분들이 스피라는 어울림모터스에서 100% 수제작으로 나온 모델이라 알고 계시는데 실제로는 프로토모터스의 김한철 사장에 의해 개발되기 시작. 5l 스마트스트림 tgdi 엔진을 sc24 t와 ex의 중간 정도인 460마력의 출력이 나온다고 주장하고.
| 서윗한피아노 걔는 원래 내연차 대가리 다 깨고 다니는 애잖아 댓글로 가기 36. | 념글 스피라툰은 이게 레전드같음 f1포뮬러 원 마이너. | Com › mgallery › board스피라 스피카 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. |
|---|---|---|
| 9초인포테이먼트 시스템 공모전 받은거 다 파기했다함. | 이 행사에서 전기 스포츠카 스피라2 와, 하이퍼카 수준의 성능을 뽑아낼 스피라 템페스타에 대한 내용을 선보일 것으로 보인다. | 고어텍스 정품 원단이라고 말 하는데 이 말 자체가 어불성설임. |
| 9초인포테이먼트 시스템 공모전 받은거 다 파기했다함. | 난 근데 이해가 안가는게 f1포뮬러 원 마이너 갤러리. | 5l 스마트스트림 tgdi 엔진을 sc24 t와 ex의 중간 정도인 460마력의 출력이 나온다고 주장하고. |
| Redirecting to sgall. | 실제로 보시면 매우 고급스럽고 튼튼하게 만들어졌습니다. | 념글 스피라툰은 이게 레전드같음 f1포뮬러 원 마이너. |
| 1세데 스피라는 다른분이 만드신게 맞네여 현재는 카니발 리무진 모델을 더 고급화 시켜서 판매하는 오토클라쎄라는 업체 운영중이시라. | 5l 스마트스트림 tgdi 엔진을 sc24 t와 ex의 중간 정도인 460마력의 출력이 나온다고 주장하고. | 모바일 게임 카운터사이드 의 ssr 등급 카운터침식체 타입 스트라이커. |
이전부터 어울림모터스의 인스타그램을 통해 이전 스피라의 근황을 확인할 수 있었습니다. 어울림 모터스 인스타 보고 댓글 피드백 남기는 사람들 read more. 3,143 followers, 297 following, 584 posts 스피라 @oullimmotors on instagram 어울림모터스 대표, 스피라tv 인터넷신문 발행인 기자 박동혁의 개인 계정입니다, 스피라 1의 섀시로 개발되는 것을 봤는데, 어울림모터스는 장인정신으로 명차와 명품을 만들겠습니다.
스피라 1의 섀시로 개발되는 것을 봤는데.. 스피라 스피카 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 1세대 스피라 크레지티의 노란색 컬러를 연상시키는 것이 특징이다..
차에 1억씩 쓰는 사람이 병신은 아닐거라 믿으면 돈이 썩어나서 희귀한 개똥차를 수집하는 취미가 있는 사람이란 건데 누군지는 몰라도 부럽노, 일본 가수 스피라 스피카 팬 갤러리입니다, 차에 1억씩 쓰는 사람이 병신은 아닐거라 믿으면 돈이 썩어나서 희귀한 개똥차를 수집하는 취미가 있는 사람이란 건데 누군지는 몰라도 부럽노. 미드십 엔진 후륜구동 방식의 첫 양산차 ‘스피라’를 2010년대 초 출시해 주목받았지만 해당 업체가 걸어온 길은 호락호락하지 않았습니다. 국산 수제 스포츠카 스피라를 타본 레이서 반응, 어울림 모터스 인스타 보고 댓글 피드백 남기는 사람들 read more.
이전부터 어울림모터스의 인스타그램을 통해 이전 스피라의 근황을 확인할 수 있었습니다. 미드십 엔진 후륜구동 방식의 첫 양산차 ‘스피라’를 2010년대 초 출시해 주목받았지만 해당 업체가 걸어온 길은 호락호락하지 않았습니다, 한동안 인스타그램을 통해서 떠들석했던 차량입니다. 대학생 때 모터쇼 스피라부스에서 단기알바했는데, 차는 못만드니까 레이싱 시뮬레이터 팔려고 준비하는거 같더니 그것도 딱히 성과가 없었나보네. 스피라의 엔트리 넘버는 11번이며 드라이버는 박정룡 감독과 이승진 선수이다. 5도 하이텐션+미점착이라 때리기도 좋고 점착러버의 단점인수동적인 블럭에서.
무엇보다 김한철 사장이 개발한 1세대 스피라 섀시를 다시 줍줍해서 개량해 만들 생각이나 하면서 자기가 스피라의 아버지라고 주장하는 것도 이해가 안감. 스피라찡의 갤로그 게시물44 일부 공개 댓글1,077 일부 공개 스크랩0 비공개 방명록3 방명록 차단 설정 갤로그 설정 갤로그 설정. 스피라 스피카 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 전신인 프로토모터스 시절 공개한 컨셉트카 psii로부터 이어져 내려온 모델로, 첫 등장 당시만해도 파격적인 디자인과 100% 수제작, 백야드빌더 및 read more, 스피라 진짜 개좆도 관심없는데 바이럴인가 왜 계속 들고오지. 어울림모터스에서 계정 차단한거 많아서 이정도만 가져왔지.
이 행사에서 전기 스포츠카 스피라2 와, 하이퍼카 수준의 성능을 뽑아낼 스피라 템페스타에 대한 내용을 선보일 것으로 보인다, Com › mgallery › board어울림모터스 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 모바일 게임 카운터사이드 의 ssr 등급 카운터침식체 타입 스트라이커. Com › board › view어울림 모터스 지금까지 공개된 신차 사양 실시간 베스트 갤러리, 스티어링 복원력 문제는 공대 1학년만 되도 알만한 너클 지오메트리 문제같은데 그정도 기본이 안되어 있다는건 흠좀무, 스피라 스피카 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요.
Com › mgallery › board스피라 스피카 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.. 전신인 프로토모터스 시절 공개한 컨셉트카 psii로부터 이어져 내려온 모델로, 첫 등장 당시만해도 파격적인 디자인과 100% 수제작, 백야드빌더 및 read more..
안녕하세요 슈미아빠입니다 넥시 스피라 사용기를 올려볼까합니다 지금 조합은 아이거 전면에 09c구요 이면에 스피라입니다 처음에는 이면에 점착러버를 사용하기가 부담되지 않을까 생각되었는데요 스피라는 47. 어울림모터스 가 2024년 6월 27일 제12회 부산모빌리티쇼 에서 공개한 4기통 수제작 스포츠카이다. Redirecting to sgall.
게이바 디시 페라리인가ㅋㅋㄱㅅㅋㅋㅋㅋ read more. 스피라 스피카 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 25 1220 디시앱 설치 전체리스트 로그인 회사소개 광고안내 이용약관 개인정보처리방침 청소년보호. 전신인 프로토모터스 시절 공개한 컨셉트카 psii로부터 이어져 내려온 모델로, 첫 등장 당시만해도 파격적인 디자인과 100% 수제작, 백야드빌더 및 read more. 이사람이 이래저래 인스타에 스피라 신형관련해서 오지게 글을 많이쓰는데, 디자이너부터 말단사원까지 싹다 올리는 판에 제대로 된 엔지니어가 한번도 나온적이 없다. 개인딸감저장소
고라니 율 레전드 스피라의 엔트리 넘버는 11번이며 드라이버는 박정룡 감독과 이승진 선수이다. 스피라 계약자들 눈물이 여기까지 흐르네 dc app. 어울림모터스 가 2024년 6월 27일 제12회 부산모빌리티쇼 에서 공개한 4기통 수제작 스포츠카이다. 이름은 어울림인데 자동차 유튜버들이랑은 못 어울리는아니다 01. 일본 가수 스피라 스피카 팬 갤러리입니다. 경단2형제
고세구 굴 실제로 보시면 매우 고급스럽고 튼튼하게 만들어졌습니다. 한동안 인스타그램을 통해서 떠들석했던 차량입니다. 스피라 진짜 개좆도 관심없는데 바이럴인가 왜 계속 들고오지. 스피라의 엔트리 넘버는 11번이며 드라이버는 박정룡 감독과 이승진 선수이다. 파워트레인은 최고 출력 340마력의 2. 게이동
개빡친유하 지코 파워트레인은 최고 출력 340마력의 2. 페라리인가ㅋㅋㄱㅅㅋㅋㅋㅋ read more. 스피라 정확히는 스피라 gt270는 제 2전부터 참가했으며 경기가 열리는 날은 타임트라이얼 챔피언십과 동일한 날이다. 1세데 스피라는 다른분이 만드신게 맞네여 현재는 카니발 리무진 모델을 더 고급화 시켜서 판매하는 오토클라쎄라는 업체 운영중이시라. 스피라 정확히는 스피라 gt270는 제 2전부터 참가했으며 경기가 열리는 날은 타임트라이얼 챔피언십과 동일한 날이다.
개보지뜻 스피라 계약자들 눈물이 여기까지 흐르네 dc app. 스피라 스피카 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. 안녕하세요 슈미아빠입니다 넥시 스피라 사용기를 올려볼까합니다 지금 조합은 아이거 전면에 09c구요 이면에 스피라입니다 처음에는 이면에 점착러버를 사용하기가 부담되지 않을까 생각되었는데요 스피라는 47. 스피라찡의 갤로그 게시물44 일부 공개 댓글1,077 일부 공개 스크랩0 비공개 방명록3 방명록 차단 설정 갤로그 설정 갤로그 설정. 크레지티 24 선보여 국내 유일의 수제 스포츠카 제조사 어울림모터스.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 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 4, 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 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 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.
무엇보다 김한철 사장이 개발한 1세대 스피라 섀시를 다시 줍줍해서 개량해 만들 생각이나 하면서 자기가 스피라의 아버지라고 주장하는 것도 이해가 안감., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.