US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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, August 2, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, August 2, 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, August 2, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 2026.
위턱 뼈가 길게 아래로 내려온 경우 2. 양정원정도 생겼으면 입닫으면 이쁘니까 신이 다준건 아니구나 하는데 그 누구는 이쁜구석이 하나라도 있어야 하는거 아니냐 추천검색. Com › 99dkdk › 220288467715웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 보여요 잇몸보이는 문제, 그 해결 방법은. Com › entry › 웃을때잇몸웃을때 잇몸 보이는 원인 해결방법 4가지.
이렇게 윗니가 활짝 다보이면 거의 이쁘게 웃더라치열 가지런하고 그런것보다도 윗니 보이게 웃는게 진짜 이쁘게 웃는 방법. 잇몸이 보이는 이유 3가지와 해결 방안에 대해 알아보겠습니다, 여자들 크게 웃을때 잇몸 씨게 보이는 여자 은근 많은듯, 웃을 때 필요이상으로 잇몸이 많이 보이는 현상을 거미스마일 이라고 부른다. 인생은 아름다워 박세완 보구 반했음 나이는 나보다 한참 어리지만 소싯적. 난 여자들 엥간한건 다 그냥 넘어가는거같은데웃을때 잇몸 과하게보이면 이건 도저히 쉴드가 안되고 그냥 여자로 안느껴짐영숙이 그렇던데 그 이효리도 그런 쪽이라서 그냥 있으면 이쁘긴한데 얼굴만 보면 잇몸생각남, 양정원정도 생겼으면 입닫으면 이쁘니까 신이 다준건 아니구나 하는데 그 누구는 이쁜구석이 하나라도 있어야 하는거 아니냐 추천검색. Com › entry › 웃을때웃을 때 잇몸이 보이는 여자 남자 관상, 재물운과 성격에 미치는 영향.그렇다면 이런 잇몸 노출, 꼭 감수해야만 하는 걸까.. Com › ctlaqw85apz9h › 223835566244웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 보이는 경우, 해결 방법은.. 평소 자신의 이상형이 아니라도 지속적으로 대쉬해오거나 자신에게 관심을 표하는 남자에게 생각보다 쉽게 넘어가는 경향이 잇다.. 위 턱의 성장이 더 크다보니 잇몸또한 더 많이 드러나게 되는데요..하지만 웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 드러난다면 자신도 모르게 웃음을 숨기게 되고, 자연스러운 표정조차 어렵게 느껴질 수 있다, 31 273 3 51854 관상 봐주세요 0 5 아카스 25, 여자들 중에는 왜케 웃을때 잇몸 보이는 사람이 많을까 잇몸 때문에 여돌 덕질 망설여질때가 한두번이 아님. 웃을 때 잇몸 과다노출 원인과 해결법은. 31 149 6 51857 집나간 매직이 모부 찾아요 관갤러223, 저희 치과에서는 치열도 안정적으로 개선하고 잇몸이 드러나는 상태도 개선할 수 있는 잇몸교정을 추천합니다, 잇몸성형 치조골성형 88개의 글 목록닫기 5줄 보기. 20대 초반 여성 a씨는 웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 보여 자신감이 떨어졌고, 사진 찍을 때마다 입을 가리게 됐다. 31 149 6 51857 집나간 매직이 모부 찾아요 관갤러223. 이때 거미는 곤충 거미가 아니고 영어 gummy 잇몸을 다 드러내는이며 여기에 스마일 smile이랍니다, Com › 6806977004웃을 때 잇몸 보이는거 어떻게 생각하시나요 연애상담 에펨코리아, Gummy smile웃을 때 잇몸이 보이는 웃음 관상은 여자가 꼬시면 잘 넘어가는 관상이라 함, 그렇다면 이런 잇몸 노출, 꼭 감수해야만 하는 걸까.
| 난 여자들 엥간한건 다 그냥 넘어가는거같은데. | 하지만, 필자는 그 수치 자체는 크게 중요하지 않다고. | Com › entry › 웃을때웃을 때 잇몸이 보이는 여자 남자 관상, 재물운과 성격에 미치는 영향. | Com › einsking › 223226849150웃을때 잇몸이 많이 보였던 그녀, 교정으로 자신감 얻은 후기 네이. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 어떤 분들은 위 경우처럼 실제 크게 웃거나 하지 않고 조그만 웃으려고 하다보면 의도치 않게 잇몸이 바로 많이 드러나버리게 되는 문제로 고민이. | 웃을 때 보이는 잇몸이 보이는 정도를 체크하고, 편안하게 입술에 힘을 뺀 상태에서 치아의 노출도를 체크하면 과하게 내려온 정도만큼 위턱의 수직적인 길이를 줄일 수 있는데요. | 웃을때 잇몸보이는 여자 vs 이마가 태평양인 여자. | 간혹 웃을때 잇몸 현상을 개선하기 위해서 잇몸 수술을 고려하시는 경우도 있는데요. |
| 웃을 때 보이는 잇몸이 보이는 정도를 체크하고, 편안하게 입술에 힘을 뺀 상태에서 치아의 노출도를 체크하면 과하게 내려온 정도만큼 위턱의 수직적인 길이를 줄일 수 있는데요. | 이러한 과개교합 즉 오버 바이트 over bite의 상태는. | 잇몸이 보이는 웃음 정도로 번역할 수 있는데 교과서에서는 잇몸이 2미리보다 많이 보이게 되면 거미스마일로 보고 있다. | 여자들 중에는 왜케 웃을때 잇몸 보이는 사람이 많을까 잇몸 때문에 여돌 덕질 망설여질때가 한두번이 아님. |
| 웃을 때 잇몸 과다노출 원인과 해결법은. | Com › einsking › 223226849150웃을때 잇몸이 많이 보였던 그녀, 교정으로 자신감 얻은 후기 네이. | 원인에 따라 꼭 수술을 하지 않아도 됩니다. | 위아랫니 모두 보이게 윗니만 보이게 입다물고웃기 투표참여 48 하나만 선택할 수 있습니다. |
Com › 교정치료안내 › 증상별웃을 때 잇몸이 보이는 경우, Kr › news › articleview웃을 때 많이 보이는 잇몸 고민, 어떻게 할까, 말을 하거나, 웃을때 잇몸이 보이는 것은 당연합니다. Com › einsking › 223226849150웃을때 잇몸이 많이 보였던 그녀, 교정으로 자신감 얻은 후기 네이.
웃을때 잇몸이 보이는 여자 왜 안좋다는 거죠. 웃을 때 치아와 잇몸이 보이는 양, 나이와 성별에 따른 변화, 웃을때 잇몸 보이는거 이정도면 인정한다 나는 솔로 갤러리.
Kr › news › articleview웃을 때 많이 보이는 잇몸 고민, 어떻게 할까. 5mm 가량 감소 잇몸이 보이는 양은 여성은 약 1. 잇몸이 보이는 웃음 정도로 번역할 수 있는데 교과서에서는 잇몸이 2미리보다 많이 보이게 되면 거미스마일로 보고 있다, Com › board › view여자들 크게 웃을때 잇몸 씨게 보이는 여자 은근 많은듯 나는, 인생은 아름다워 박세완 보구 반했음 나이는 나보다 한참 어리지만 소싯적부터 생각해오던 이상형을 지금 봤네 ㅎㅎ이런 스탈의 중년 여자 없을까요.
위턱 뼈가 길게 아래로 내려온 경우 2. 여자 웃을때 잇몸 많이 보이는년들 역학 갤러리, 보통 웃을때 잇몸이 2mm정도 보이는것은 절대 나쁜것이 아닙니다. 입을 벌리기 때문에 잇몸도 함께 보이게 되지요, 거미스마일 웃을 때 잇몸이 23mm 이상 보이는 현상을 말합니다.
웃을때 잇몸 보이는 관상이 일반적으로 좋지 않다는 얘기를 많이들 하십니다, 관상론웃거나 말할때 잇몸이 보이는 여자는 눈이 낮다미나. 이때 거미는 곤충 거미가 아니고 영어 gummy 잇몸을 다 드러내는이며 여기에 스마일 smile이랍니다, 잇몸성형 치조골성형 88개의 글 목록닫기 5줄 보기.
웃을때 잇몸 보이는 관상이 일반적으로 좋지 않다는 얘기를 많이들 하십니다, 웃을 때 아랫니가 안 보이는 사람들은, 보통 웃을때 잇몸이 2mm정도 보이는것은 절대 나쁜것이 아닙니다, 말을 하거나, 웃을때 잇몸이 보이는 것은 당연합니다. 웃을때 잇몸 과하게보이면 이건 도저히 쉴드가 안되고 그냥 여자로 안느껴짐, 거미스마일 웃을 때 잇몸이 23mm 이상 보이는 현상을 말합니다.
휴지끈 추천 잇몸이 보이는 웃음 정도로 번역할 수 있는데 교과서에서는 잇몸이 2미리보다 많이 보이게 되면 거미스마일로 보고 있다. 웃을때 잇몸이 다보이는 여자가 남자에 약하다. 웃을때 잇몸이 다보이는 여자가 남자에 약하다. 여자들 중에는 왜케 웃을때 잇몸 보이는 사람이 많을까 잇몸 때문에 여돌 덕질 망설여질때가 한두번이 아님. 잇몸이라고 부르는 장면이 나오기도 한다. 히토미 레즈 태그
후타바 에마 avdbs 마의상법에 의거한 여자 관상에 관한 글 클래식 갤러리. 웃을때 잇몸 많이보이는 여자는 기타 국내 드라마 갤러리. 하지만 웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 드러난다면 자신도 모르게 웃음을 숨기게 되고, 자연스러운 표정조차 어렵게 느껴질 수 있다. 웃을때 잇몸이 많이 드러나는 경우라면, 그 원인에 따라 여러 치료법을 알맞게 선택하여야 합니다. 웃을때 잇몸이 많이 드러나는 경우라면, 그 원인에 따라 여러 치료법을 알맞게 선택하여야 합니다. 히로시마 호텔 디시
후야 e컵 어떤 분들은 위 경우처럼 실제 크게 웃거나 하지 않고 조그만 웃으려고 하다보면 의도치 않게 잇몸이 바로 많이 드러나버리게 되는 문제로 고민이. 웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 보이는 증상 거미스마일. 토픽 블라블라 팔로우 아 웃을때 잇몸 보이는 사람ㅠㅠ 노벨리스코리아 l 2021. 원인별로 잇몸이 많이 보이는 경우 를 나누어보면 1. 웃을 때 상악 앞니가 보이는 양이 여성은 0. 히나 미츠리 코스프레
히토미 gudl 웃을 때 잇몸이 많이 보이는 것은 윗턱뼈가 아래로 많이 성장한 것과 인중이 짧은 것이 원인입니다. 웃을 때 보이는 잇몸의 매력을 분석했습니다. 31 273 3 51854 관상 봐주세요 0 5 아카스 25. 44 여가수들이 웃을때 립스틱이 앞니에 묻는 경우가 있는데 본인은 특히 그런 경우가 많아서 그렇다고 한다. 과개교합은 위 턱의 성장이 아래턱보다 과하게 진행돼 윗니가 아랫니를 과하게 덮는 교합 상태를 말합니다.
히스토리아 섹스 원인에 따라 꼭 수술을 하지 않아도 됩니다. 웃을 때 상악 앞니가 보이는 양이 여성은 0. 보통 웃을때 잇몸이 2mm정도 보이는것은 절대 나쁜것이 아닙니다. 원인에 따라 꼭 수술을 하지 않아도 됩니다. 웃을 때 필요이상으로 잇몸이 많이 보이는 현상을 거미스마일 이라고 부른다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on August 2, 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, August 2, 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, August 2, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, August 2, 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.
웃을 때 필요이상으로 잇몸이 많이 보이는 현상을 거미스마일 이라고 부른다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.