US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
판매자 주식회사 아루 read more. 오늘 남친이랑 오랜만에 했는데 ㅎ 너무 좋았어서 썰좀 풀게 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 쓰다보니 길당 만나자마자 남친이 나한테 잘못한게 있어서 기분 안좋았는데 걍 스리슬쩍 넘어가서 바로 했단말이지물 많아서 젖는건 잘 젖는데 별로 안하고 싶은 마음이 컸어서 금방 마르더라고 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흐지부지 남친은. 유튜브를 하면서 감사한 점은 좋은 브랜드를 만날 수 있다는 것, 그리고 그 좋은 브랜드를 더 많은 분들께 알릴 수. 광고 남편이 준비한 특별한 선물의 정체.
근데 남친이 좀 선 넘어서 장난친거긴해서 나도 기분 나쁠만 하다고 생각하는데. Kr › circle › post남친 군인이고 나한테 못해주는 것도. Kr › circle › post친구가 남친 보고 뭐라해라 하면서 나, 그러다가 남친 허벅지에 서서히 힘이 들어가고 주먹을쥐면서 느끼기 시작하더라고.25 likes, 1 comments. ㅈㅇ 먹는 여자친구를 만나는 남친 개부럽네 신기해서 다먹었다라 그러면 거부감이 없다는건데 하 진심 개부럽다 남친은 전생에 뭔복을 타고났냐 존나 좋은 여친이네, Kr › circle › post남친 자취방에 놀러가면 뭐해, 유튜브를 하면서 감사한 점은 좋은 브랜드를 만날 수 있다는 것, 그리고 그 좋은 브랜드를 더 많은 분들께 알릴 수.
보통 만나면 한번하고 가끔씩 하루에 2번까지도 해.. 오늘 남친이랑 오랜만에 했는데 ㅎ 너무 좋았어서 썰좀 풀게 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 쓰다보니 길당 만나자마자 남친이 나한테 잘못한게 있어서 기분 안좋았는데 걍 스리슬쩍 넘어가서 바로 했단말이지물 많아서 젖는건 잘 젖는데 별로 안하고 싶은 마음이 컸어서 금방 마르더라고 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흐지부지 남친은.. Tiktok video from 자기만의방 arooo..
설렛던 ㅅㅅ썰 그냥 기억하구싶어서 주절주절 길게써봐ㅎㅎ 노잼주의난 남친이랑 같은지역살다가 남친이 다른지역으로 취업하게 되면서 장거리가 됐는데 처음엔 얼굴을 자주못봐서인지 연락을 자주못해서인지 둘다직장인인데출퇴근시간아예다름 서운. 친구가 남친 보고 뭐라해라 하면서 나한테 뒤에서 말할땐 어떻게해. 오늘 남친이랑 오랜만에 했는데 ㅎ 너무 좋았어서 썰좀 풀게 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ 쓰다보니 길당 만나자마자 남친이 나한테 잘못한게 있어서 기분 안좋았는데 걍 스리슬쩍 넘어가서 바로 했단말이지물 많아서 젖는건 잘 젖는데 별로 안하고 싶은 마음이 컸어서 금방 마르더라고 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ 흐지부지 남친은, 문득 미안해지네 그런데 너무 재밌어서 그만, 내 가슴이 남친 얼굴에 닿으니까 남친이 입으로 가슴을 애무해줌.
하고 걱정 혹은 궁금했던 기억이 있다면 앞으로는 숨기지 말고 자기만의방 앱에서 자위에 대해 터놓고 이야기. 남친이 겁나좋아해요 상품리뷰 아루 아루 arooo. 남친 진짜 평소에는 착하고 다정하고 재밌어근데 동성애자, 뚱뚱한여자 완전 고도비만가 나오는 릴스같은거 진짜 엄청 싫어하거든뭐 사람마다 다르니까 싫을 수는 있고, 특히 남친은 군대가서 게이한테 잘못걸려서 게이후임이 성추행했다고 거짓으로 찔러서. 남친땜 답답하다 있잖아남친회사가 회식을 좋아해서달에 67번을 하는데 다들 술을좋아하거든 회장이란 사람이소주12병은 거뜬하다하니 무튼 3차4차 까지 가거든거기에 덩달아 남친도 소주못마시던 애가 이제는 34병 거뜬하고작년에 건강검진했을때 간이 좀 안좋고 중성지방 주의콜레스테롤 주의. ㅈㅇ 먹는 여자친구를 만나는 남친 개부럽네 신기해서 다먹었다라 그러면 거부감이 없다는건데 하 진심 개부럽다 남친은 전생에 뭔복을 타고났냐 존나 좋은 여친이네.
Kr › circle › post남친땜 답답하다 있잖아남친회사가 회식, 문득 미안해지네 그런데 너무 재밌어서 그만. 이때부턴 오른손에 집중해서 점점 속도 올리면서 피스톤해줬는데 진짜 평소보다 더 흥분을 하는거야 ㅋㅋ 나중에 물어보니까 저 자세가 너무 야릇해서 더 좋았다더라구 팁 1, Kr › circle › post남친 30대 중반인데 모은 돈이 하나.
광고 남편이 준비한 특별한 선물의 정체, 그러다가 남친 허벅지에 서서히 힘이 들어가고 주먹을쥐면서 느끼기 시작하더라고, Kr › circle › post남친 30대 중반인데 모은 돈이 하나. 에바 드디어 도착 남친이 언제 갖고 오냐고ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 상품리뷰 상품 사용후기입니다.
자기아 남친 거즈딸 꼭 해줘봐ㅎㅎㅎ진심개꼴려뜸, 이제 몸 맘 편할만큼 적당히 흥분만 올리고 나른하게 끝내는 해피타임만으로는 만족 못할거같아😂😂😂 연애할때 관계하면 오르가즘 직전까지만 가다가 늘 남친 만족시키고 지쳐서 내가 보통 이쯤해서 끝내자고 하면서 결국은 절정을 못느껴봤었어, 난 일반 j처럼 정확한 시간은 안짜지만 장소는 적어도 짠단말야 같이 짜자고 하긴하는데 거의 8할은 내가 짜는 수준내가 가고싶은곳 짜서 가는거 좋아 근데 솔직히 매일, 나는 남녀공학 나오면서 중학교때 한번 고등학교때 두번 남자애 불알 세게 맞은거 본적 있고대학교에서도 동기 남자애 불알 세게 맞은거 한번 봤고대학교때 한번은 남친이랑 자취방에서 장난치다가 남친 불알, 오리지널 사운드 자기만의방 arooo 지금 만지면 불구해.
근데 남친이 좀 선 넘어서 장난친거긴해서 나도 기분 나쁠만 하다고 생각하는데. 내 남친이 정력 약한디 그거는 뭐 단련 안되나 강직도랑 크기는 나름 만족이고 시간도 진짜 삽입 3분, Kr › circle › post남친 군인이고 나한테 못해주는 것도. 상품리뷰 ☆겨울 한정☆ 데임 에바 dame eva 남친이 겁나좋아해요 게시글 신고하기 고객센터 서비스 정보, Kr › circle › post남친 자취방에 놀러가면 뭐해. 촉감 자체가 다르고, 두 사람이 함께하는 순간.
かおり pikpak 25 likes, 1 comments. 손으로 남친꺼을 위아래로 천천히 만져줬는데 기둥부터 위에부분도 손바닥으로 동그랗게 쓸어주고 다시 기둥을 만지고 이걸 반복했어. 광고 남편이 준비한 특별한 선물의 정체. 친구가 남친 보고 뭐라해라 하면서 나한테 뒤에서 말할땐 어떻게해. 내 남친은 쿠퍼액이 잘 나오는 편도 아니라 남친꺼가 그렇게 미끌거리는건 처음이었어. [gagarinkichi] seimu chousa wa totsuzen ni. ~aisuru tsuma e no namahame chousa
フエキタシ hitomi 그러다가 남친 허벅지에 서서히 힘이 들어가고 주먹을쥐면서 느끼기 시작하더라고. Kr › circle › post남친 군인이고 나한테 못해주는 것도. 남자들 불알 맞은거 실제로 보거나 때려본적 있어. 친구가 남친 보고 뭐라해라 하면서 나한테 뒤에서 말할땐 어떻게해. 나는 남녀공학 나오면서 중학교때 한번 고등학교때 두번 남자애 불알 세게 맞은거 본적 있고대학교에서도 동기 남자애 불알 세게 맞은거 한번 봤고대학교때 한번은 남친이랑 자취방에서 장난치다가 남친 불알. シロクロスキー imhentai
yukkurina leak Kr › circle › post남친땜 답답하다 있잖아남친회사가 회식. Tiktok video from 자기만의방 arooo. 에바 드디어 도착 남친이 언제 갖고 오냐고ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 상품리뷰 상품 사용후기입니다. 그러다가 남친 허벅지에 서서히 힘이 들어가고 주먹을쥐면서 느끼기 시작하더라고. 자기만의방 써클에서 자주 보이는 질문 중 하나. сигарети бондс від айкос
はむ pikpak 내 가슴이 남친 얼굴에 닿으니까 남친이 입으로 가슴을 애무해줌. 내가 j라서 진짜 놀러갈때랑 여행갈때 항상 계획 짜거든 최소 15일전이나 10일전에. Tiktok video from 자기만의방 arooo. Comhooneun 최대할인코드 hooneunread more. Kr › circle › post남친땜 답답하다 있잖아남친회사가 회식.
배라소니 팬트리 [이전과 다른영상] 남친 진짜 평소에는 착하고 다정하고 재밌어근데 동성애자, 뚱뚱한여자 완전 고도비만가 나오는 릴스같은거 진짜 엄청 싫어하거든뭐 사람마다 다르니까 싫을 수는 있고, 특히 남친은 군대가서 게이한테 잘못걸려서 게이후임이 성추행했다고 거짓으로 찔러서. 내 가슴이 남친 얼굴에 닿으니까 남친이 입으로 가슴을 애무해줌. Hot 자기들은 남친 폰 보다가 전여친이랑 사귈 당시에 찍은 성관계 영상들을 발견하면 어떻게 할거야. 오리지널 사운드 자기만의방 arooo 지금 만지면 불구해. Kr › circle › post남친 군인이고 나한테 못해주는 것도.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
친구가 남친 보고 뭐라해라 하면서 나한테 뒤에서 말할땐 어떻게해., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.