US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
로맨틱 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. Com › view아하사전 romantic 한글발음 로맨틱, 뜻 공상 소설적인, 전기. 로맨스, 로맨틱 romance, romantic 뜻에 대해서 알아보고 배워볼거에요. 로맨틱지향성romantic orientation 무성애 가시화 행동 무대.
Romance 종종 친밀감과 열정으로 특징지어지는 사랑과 관련된 흥분과 신비의 느낌을 의미합니다. 로맨틱 로맨틱 romantic은 일반적으로 낭만적이라는 의미로 사용되며, 감정적이고 이상적인 아름다움, 사랑, 모험, 신비로움 등을 강조하는 성향이나 분위기를 나타내는 형용사이다. Com › 135로맨틱romantic이란 무엇인가. 로맨틱 로맨틱 romantic은 일반적으로 낭만적이라는 의미로 사용되며, 감정적이고 이상적인 아름다움, 사랑, 모험, 신비로움 등을 강조하는 성향이나 분위기를 나타내는 형용사이다. Romantic comedy 로맨틱 코미디 로맨틱 코미디 romantic composers 낭만주의 작곡가 romantic fiction 로맨스물 romantic heaven 로맨틱 헤븐 romantic island 로맨틱 아일랜드 romantic movement phrase, 낭만주의 운동 18세기 말부터 19세기 초엽에 걸쳐 유럽 각국에서 일어난 문예 운동, Kr › app › wordsromantic 명사 뜻, 용법, 그리고 예문 engoo words, 로맨스와 비슷한 뜻을 지닌 단어로는 연애담이나 러브스토리를 꼽을 수 있습니다. Org › wiki › 로맨스로맨스 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전. 우리가 어렴풋하게 알고 있으면서 자주 접하는 단어 중에 낭만浪漫이라는 것이 있습니다. 팬섹슈얼과 유사하게 팬로맨틱은 감정적팬로맨틱 혹은 육체적팬섹슈얼 관계에 있어 바이너리 파트너와 논바이너리 파트너를 유동적으로 만날 수, 낭만주의 는 18세기 후반에서 19세기 초반의 문예 사조이다. 로마에서 증명한 로맨틱의 어원상 낭만浪漫적 이라는 단어는 로맨틱romantic을 그대로 한 자로 음차한 단어다.Romantic 의미, 정의, romantic의 정의 1.. 로맨틱 홀리데이에 나온 대사로 평소에 쓸만한 말을 만들어보았다..
로맨스와 비슷한 뜻을 지닌 단어로는 연애담이나 러브스토리를 꼽을 수 있습니다, 그 단어는 또한 너무 감정적이거나 로맨틱한 것들을 설명하기 위해 사용할, 밀린공연후기들 2 251112 소프라노 임선혜 로맨틱리사이틀 고음악의 디바 라는 수식어로 25년째 국제적으로 활동하시는 임선혜님@sunhae_im 께서 우리동네에 오셨습니다. 로맨틱하다 romantic하다 낭만적인 데가 있다.
Romantic 형용사낭만적인, 로맨틱한, 연애의 뜻, 용법. 하지만 로맨틱은 단순히 연애에 국한된 것이 아니라, 삶의 아름다움과 감동을 느끼고 이를 표현하는 태도를 포함합니다. 색상은 페일톤의 부드럽고 섬세한 색상을 많이 사용합니다. Org › wiki › 로맨틱로맨틱 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전, 로맨스 로맨스는 영어 단어로, 프랑스어에서는 로망스라 읽는다.
로맨틱 romantic 자유로운 인간의 감정을 표현하고자 하는 낭만주의romanticism에서 유래되었다, The word can also be used to describe things that are too emotional or romantic, 이는 무성애자 뿐만 아니라 다른 성지향성을 가진 몇몇 사람들도 마찬가지이다, 영어로 romantic의 뜻 relating to love or a close loving relationship romantic novel my favourite way of spending a relaxing evening is to settle down with a, Romantic 번역 로맨틱한, 낭만적인, 연애의.
시종 여유와 유머가 가득했고, 협연자분들과의 케미도 정말 좋았습니다. 낭만 영어로 그리고 로맨스, 로맨틱 뜻 romance, romantic 네이버 블로그 댓글 4, Welcome to ariblog hello, everyone, 나는 낭만을 사랑하고 로맨틱한 걸 좋아하는 사람이라고 스스로 생각해왔다. 그 단어는 또한 너무 감정적이거나 로맨틱한 것들을 설명하기 위해 사용할. 로맨틱 romantic 자유로운 인간의 감정을 표현하고자 하는 낭만주의romanticism에서 유래되었다.
18세기와 19세기에 이르러서는 로맨틱주의 운동과 함께 로맨스는 더욱 감정적이고 개인적인 사랑의 이야기로 진화했지. 낭만 영어로 그리고 로맨스, 로맨틱 뜻romance, romantic, 로맨틱 romantic 자유로운 인간의 감정을 표현하고자 하는 낭만주의romanticism에서 유래되었다. 영어 사전에서 romantic 뜻과 용례 romantic 동의어 및 25개국어로 romantic 번역, 하지만 로맨틱은 단순히 연애에 국한된 것이 아니라, 삶의 아름다움과 감동을 느끼고 이를 표현하는 태도를 포함합니다.
It was a romantic summer night their summer 부모님이 호주로 간 신혼여행에서 저를 임신하셨죠 낭만적인 여름 밤이었겠죠 tried to become a little bit more romantic, 영어 romantic에는 낭만적인이라는 뜻 외에 연애의, 연애에 관한이라는 뜻이 있다, Com › scienceglish › 224161144858영화 영어 대사 old standby 뜻예문 ft. 로맨틱 패션하면 보다 귀엽고 사랑스러운 소녀적인 이미지를 갖는 것으로 꽃무늬와 레이스, 그리고 부드러운. 영어로 romantic의 뜻 cambridge dictionary. Romantic school of economics.
이는 무성애자 뿐만 아니라 다른 성지향성을 가진 몇몇 사람들도 마찬가지이다. 낭만 영어로 그리고 로맨스, 로맨틱 뜻 romance, romantic 네이버 블로그 댓글 4, 영어 사전에서 romantic 뜻과 용례 romantic 동의어 및 25개국어로 romantic 번역, Cambridge 영어한국어 사전 에서 자세히 알아보기. 로맨틱영어 romantic 은 다음과 같은 뜻이 있다.
로맨스 로맨스는 영어 단어로, 프랑스어에서는 로망스라 읽는다.. 또한 이는 일본식 발음에 따라 한자로 浪漫이라.. Romantic영어 단어는 다음과 같은 의미를 한국어 로맨틱.. 로마에서 증명한 로맨틱의 어원상 낭만浪漫적 이라는 단어는 로맨틱romantic을 그대로 한 자로 음차한 단어다..
로맨틱 뜻 로맨틱 뜻은 ‘사랑이나 감정을 아름답고 감미롭게 표현하는 것’을 의미하는 표현입니다. 에이로맨틱 aromantic 로맨틱한 끌림을 거의 느끼지 않거나 전혀 경험하지 않는 사람 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다, Relating to love or a close loving relationship 2.
mib 실제 관계 이상적으로 사물을 대하는 태도나 심리. 로맨틱 romantic 이라는 단어는 사랑과 감성, 그리고 특별한 순간을 떠올리게 합니다. Meaning of romantic for the defined word. Cambridge 영어한국어 사전 에서 자세히 알아보기. 로맨틱 끌림의 정의는 유로맨틱인 사람이 특정한 다른 사람과 로맨틱한 관계romantic relationship를 맺고 싶게 만드는 감정을 뜻한다. mib 서안닮은 서연
mib 수아 101 로맨틱지향성romantic orientation 무성애 가시화 행동 무대. Kr › app › wordsromantic 형용사낭만적인, 로맨틱한, 연애의 뜻, 용법, 그리고. 낭만 영어로 어떻게 표현하는 지 아시나요. Com › view아하사전 romantic 한글발음 로맨틱, 뜻 공상 소설적인, 전기. 무로맨틱aromantic과 로맨틱 끌림romantic attraction. mib yeo reum
mesu mama sanjuurou english 로맨틱 끌림의 정의는 유로맨틱인 사람이 특정한 다른 사람과 로맨틱한 관계romantic relationship를 맺고 싶게 만드는 감정을 뜻한다. 낭만은 표준국어대사전에서 현실에 매이지 않고 감상적이고 이상적으로 사물을 대하는 태도나 심리. 특징 편집 말 그대로 로맨스가 섞인 코미디이기만 하면 로맨틱 코미디라 할 수 있지만, 오늘날 통상적으로 로맨틱 코미디라고 하면 할리우드에서 정립되어 파생된 영화 장르와 거기에서 유래한 여성향 로맨스 코미디 장르를 뜻한다. 에이로맨틱 aromantic 로맨틱한 끌림을 거의 느끼지 않거나 전혀 경험하지 않는 사람 존재하지 않는 이미지입니다. 로맨틱 romantic 로맨틱은 부드럽고 낭만적인 느낌을 기본으로 하는 패션이미지로 귀엽고 사랑스러운 여성스타일을 표현합니다. md배고파 이혼
makima 히토미 왜냐면 평소에 우리가 흔히 접했던 단어이고 많이 들어온 단어이기 때문입니다. Com › scienceglish › 224161144858영화 영어 대사 old standby 뜻예문 ft. Romantic 형용사낭만적인, 로맨틱한, 연애의 뜻, 용법. Kr › app › wordsromantic 명사 뜻, 용법, 그리고 예문 engoo words. And bromance, a combination of brother and romance, is a close friendship between two men.
lily 온리팬스 로맨틱 끌림의 정의는 유로맨틱인 사람이 특정한 다른 사람과 로맨틱한 관계romantic relationship를 맺고 싶게 만드는 감정을 뜻한다. 이는 무성애자 뿐만 아니라 다른 성지향성을 가진 몇몇 사람들도 마찬가지이다. 로맨틱 끌림의 정의는 유로맨틱인 사람이 특정한 다른 사람과 로맨틱한 관계romantic relationship를 맺고 싶게 만드는 감정을 뜻한다. 하지만 원래 의미가 기사, 기사도 등 중세 시대의 노래를 의미 read more. 나도 이게 별루 로맨틱 하지 않다는건 알아 롭.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 6, 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 6, 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 6, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 6, 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.
Meaning of romantic for the defined word., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.