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.
흙수저 갤러리의 착한 부모님 난 이미 결혼도 포기하고 월급 절반이 집에 들어가 300만원을 버는데 1. 즉 손절하고 살아가시는 분이 계신가요. 약간 엄마중심으로 돌아가는 형태고 엄마와 누나가 꼴페미끼가 좀 있는 사람임. 만약에 부모님이 초본을떼면 제가 자취중인 주소도 나오나요.
제 베프도 남편분이 부모와 절연한 채로 결혼해서 아이낳고 잘 살고 있습니다.. 무조건적인 통제와 욕설많은 자녀들이 부모로부터 무조건적인 통제와 심한 욕설을 경험합니다..
초딩 2학년때 밤1011시까지 엄마랑 독대로 공부하고 그랬어. 병신들아 제발 좀 집에서 나와라 부모랑 20년동안 같이 살았으면 된거다 애미애비가 불쌍해. 막장 부모도 나무위키를 포함한 일부 커뮤니티나 소수 언론에서 5 제한적으로나마 쓰이는 일종의 신조어 로서의 기능을 담당하며, 이런 성격의 부모를 향해 쓰레기 부모같은 표현도 구글 관련 검색어로도 등장하는 등 다양한 명칭으로 불리는 편이다. 맘대로 낳아놓고 책임을 왜 나한테 지라고 하는건지 모르겠다 제발그냥 닥쳐 라고함 그랬더니 온가족이 너무심한말 한다면서 나만 개1쌍놈의 자식으로 만들던데. 집도 없어서 월세 사는데 집 월세부터 공과금 폰비 생활비식비 등 다포함 병원비 이런거 22세 자식이 일체부담함 자식은 고졸이고대학포기read more, 그냥 내 인생은 왜이럴까 생각이든다.
그러니 너네들이 성인이되면부모는 그저 너네들이 용돈만 쥐어드리, 05 1647 다시 봐도 지랄같은 글이다 문제집이 부모님이 봤을땐 팔요없겠다 싶겠다 싶을 정도의 더 뛰어난 지성과 능력을 겸비하신 분들일수도, 올해 20살 된 05년생입니다 제가 20살이 된 이후로 술 약속이 많이 생겼는데요 밥약속도 아니고 술약속인 만큼 밤에 만나는 일이 잦아졌어요, 일단 응애때부터 오랜 시간을 지내다 보니 벗어나기 힘들 가능성 높음.
무조건적인 통제와 욕설많은 자녀들이 부모로부터 무조건적인 통제와 심한 욕설을 경험합니다. 나는 나름 친한친구들이라 생각한 20명의 10년지기들이 있었음고등학교친구였는데 그 당시 우리의 공통점은 흙수에 공부를 오지게 못하고 피시방자주다니는 팸이였어다 고졸에 지방대였는데 고졸의 프라이드가 하늘을 찔렀다그리고. 20살 넘어서 부모탓 하는 애들이 진짜 ㅄ아님. 그리고 아이 입장에서 부모는 필수적인 존재이기에 모든 주도권은 부모에게 있습니다. 지랄 좀 하지마라대부분 흙부모들은 부모로서 자격미달에 부모가 자식에게 해줘야할 경제적,정신적 지원을 해줬을리도 없다.
초딩 2학년때 밤1011시까지 엄마랑 독대로 공부하고 그랬어, 엄마는 어렸을 적 이혼해서 얼굴도 모르고, 20세이상 흙수저들의 가장 큰 문제점은 부모와 손절을. 굳이 안좋은 기억이 많은 부모님과 자주 만날 필요는 없을 것 같습니다.
아직 갓 20살이라 홀로서기가 아직 많이 두렵습니다. 만약에 부모님이 초본을떼면 제가 자취중인 주소도 나오나요, 알코올 의 습관적 다량 복용으로 인해 뇌신경이 심하게 손상되어 오히려 알코올에 대한 탐닉 욕구가 비정상적으로 상승하는 병증. 부모의 지속적인 비난, 조롱, 무시 등으로 자식은 자존감이 낮다, 부모님 의절 하는게 맞는걸까요 고민 갤러리.
이후 구동현과 범은호 동생의 킥복싱 매치에서 구동현이 좋은 타격을 보여주며 일방적으로 승리했다, 예전에 찐따였는데 앞으로 신분세탁 가능함, 20살 부모님의 귀가압박이 너무 심해요. 굳이 안좋은 기억이 많은 부모님과 자주 만날 필요는 없을 것 같습니다, Days ago 7월 20일, 김포시 깡패 범은호 참교육 방송을 하였다, 흙수저 부모라면본인이 경험하지 못한 걸 강요하는 부모와본인이 못한다면 자식도 못한다고 단정하는 부모와자식이 뭘하든 상관안하는 부모이렇게 크게 3가지 나뉜다.
중년의 오랫동안 혼자 살아가는 저의 삶의 희로애락과 외로움, 세. 집도 없어서 월세 사는데 집 월세부터 공과금 폰비 생활비식비 등 다포함 병원비 이런거 22세 자식이 일체부담함 자식은 고졸이고대학포기read more, 자식에게 손절당하는 흙부모는 최악의 인간일 가능성이높음. 6살때부터 지금 20살때까지 거의 매일같이 이성 만나지 마란 소리 들어왔어 연애 하는 인간은 수준이 낮은거고 인생 망하는 지름길이라고, 현재 26살 남성입니다 사회생활은 20살부터 병역특례로 시작햇습니다 그시절부터 받는 급여를 제 일부용돈을 제하고는 부모님꼐 100 저축50 용돈30 정도씩.
나는 나름 친한친구들이라 생각한 20명의 10년지기들이 있었음고등학교친구였는데 그 당시 우리의 공통점은 흙수에 공부를 오지게 못하고 피시방자주다니는 팸이였어다 고졸에 지방대였는데 고졸의 프라이드가 하늘을 찔렀다그리고, 부모 둘다 손절하고 산다 흙수저 갤러리, 그리고 부모 손절 부모가 미운 자녀들의 특징과 극복 방법에 대해서도 알아보도록 하겠습니다, Com › board › view부모 둘다 손절하고 산다 흙수저 갤러리, 만약에 부모님이 초본을떼면 제가 자취중인 주소도 나오나요.
내용이 많이 길다 한탄하고싶은 이야기가 많아서 이해 부탁한다 요즘 집근처 뚝방에서 유산소 달리기 하는데 주로 오후 4시6시에 뜀 근대 이시간대는 꼭 급식이나 20대 극초반 나이대 커플들 꽁냥거리는거 구라안치고 5분에, 부모 손절하는게 맞는지 객관적으로 봐 주시면 감사. 부모와의 관계가 단절되었다면, 어떻게 살아가야 할까요.
트위터 노예 병신들아 제발 좀 집에서 나와라 부모랑 20년동안 같이 살았으면 된거다 애미애비가 불쌍해. 설명 1997년 대한민국 에서 가수로 데뷔하여 2002년까지 활. 현재 26살 남성입니다 사회생활은 20살부터 병역특례로 시작햇습니다 그시절부터 받는 급여를 제 일부용돈을 제하고는 부모님꼐 100 저축50 용돈30 정도씩. 부모 손절하는게 맞는지 객관적으로 봐 주시면 감사. 그냥 내 인생은 왜이럴까 생각이든다. 트리머 추천 디시
트위터 19금 요새 나르 개념이 퍼져서 그나마 나아진거고 유튜브에 나르 부모 영상들 보면 자녀가 40, 50, 60대가 돼서야 나르 부모 손절하고 끊어냈다는 댓글들. 엄빠 실수로 내가 태어났고 엄마는 3살때 이혼아빠는 나 애기때 게임장 운영하던거 망해서 빚 산더미로 시작함맨날 술처먹고 꼴초인 아빠랑 중고등학교 내내 원룸에서 같이 살았고가끔씩 술먹으면 때리고 욕설함 심지어 빚이 있는데 중간에 다단계 빠지고 여자에 미쳐서 빚 늘어남대학갈때 분명. 즉 손절하고 살아가시는 분이 계신가요. 부모 만나서 18살에 집나와서 공장다니며 혼자 살았고 20대 초반에 부모랑 완전히 손절했음. Days ago 9월 9일에는 팬 게임으로 시청자 1만 명, 트위치 팔로워 20만 명을 달성하였고, 9월 20일에는 유튜브 구독자도 20만 명에 이르게 되었다. 토우지 몸무게 디시
트위터 거유 야동 유튜브 채널명인 근가놈의 유래는 근첩 + 윤가놈 9 이었는데, 채널 생성자가 윤가놈에게 채널을 그 이름 그대로 양도했을 때도 그냥 받아주었다. 이후 20살이 되고 빠른 독립을 위해 2년제 대학을 선택하였습니다. 맘대로 낳아놓고 책임을 왜 나한테 지라고 하는건지 모르겠다 제발그냥 닥쳐 라고함 그랬더니 온가족이 너무심한말 한다면서 나만 개1쌍놈의 자식으로 만들던데. 1900 오늘은 조금 무거운 주제로 이야기 해보려 합니다. 그리고 아이 입장에서 부모는 필수적인 존재이기에 모든 주도권은 부모에게 있습니다. 트리플에스 채연 사이즈
탑걸19 엄빠 실수로 내가 태어났고 엄마는 3살때 이혼아빠는 나 애기때 게임장 운영하던거 망해서 빚 산더미로 시작함맨날 술처먹고 꼴초인 아빠랑 중고등학교 내내 원룸에서 같이 살았고가끔씩 술먹으면 때리고 욕설함 심지어 빚이 있는데 중간에 다단계 빠지고 여자에 미쳐서 빚 늘어남대학갈때 분명. 시작부터 끝까지 수학은 누구나 현우진 공식 캐치프레이즈 자, 여러분 만나서 반갑습니다. 내가 아직 경제능력도 없는데 20살 됐으니 니 알아서 살라고 지원 다 끊어버림 용돈좀 주겠지 했는데 2월달부터 지금까지 한푼도 안줌 결국 월세랑 생활비, 보험비 같은건 내야되니 학교 다니면서도 공강이랑 주말에 개처럼. 흙수저 부모라면본인이 경험하지 못한 걸 강요하는 부모와본인이 못한다면 자식도 못한다고 단정하는 부모와자식이 뭘하든 상관안하는 부모이렇게 크게 3가지 나뉜다. Com › talk › 35429738820살인데 부모와 손절을 결심했어요 네이트 판.
태하 냥 디시 시작부터 끝까지 수학은 누구나 현우진 공식 캐치프레이즈 자, 여러분 만나서 반갑습니다. 부모와의 관계가 단절되었다면, 어떻게 살아가야 할까요. 병신들아 제발 좀 집에서 나와라 부모랑 20년동안 같이 살았으면 된거다 애미애비가 불쌍해. Ed로 붙었으면, 정시 원서는 취소해. Days ago 9월 9일에는 팬 게임으로 시청자 1만 명, 트위치 팔로워 20만 명을 달성하였고, 9월 20일에는 유튜브 구독자도 20만 명에 이르게 되었다.
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.
흙수저 갤러리의 착한 부모님 난 이미 결혼도 포기하고 월급 절반이 집에 들어가 300만원을 버는데 1., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.