US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 4, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 4, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 4, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 4, 2026.
Copyright c 1999 2026 dcinside. Com › board › view대정령 근황이 어쩌고보고 검색해봤는데 202110202402 만화 갤러리. 대정령 사건 요약 twitch 미니 갤러리. 실망했었지만 그래도 대정령만큼 재밌고 정감 가는 방송이 없었고, 이건 지금도 그렇고, 그래서 이후로도 옛날 방송 간간히 찾아보곤 했음.
Com › board › view대정령 근황 머독한테 사과하고 싶다jpg 스트리머 갤러리. 116 여기 머독보는사람 없을텐데 뭐 02. 근데 로펌에서 고소대상 더 추가해서 독단진행. 아내가 팬아터, 타 bj들 뒷담화한다는거를 폭로하는 트위터가 올라옴. 대정령 사건 요약 twitch 미니 갤러리. Jpg 요즘 커뮤니티 말투 profile_image 정령오리 ip보기클릭211, 대정령 팬덤이 여초화되기 시작한 이유는 크게 세가지임. 디시에서 대정령이 자기 부대에 들어왔다는 썰이 막풀림. 대정령 사건 요약 twitch 미니 갤러리. 머독이 고소한거 고소대상자 4명 선정해서 로펌에 알아서 고소해달라고 맡김, Com › board › view대정령 근황이 어쩌고보고 검색해봤는데 202110202402 만화 갤러리.오랜 팬으로서 바라는 점은 머독과의 화해가 아닌 대정령이 계속 즐겁게 방송했음 좋겠다는 거 뿐임, 어렸을적엔 진짜 좋아했던 방송인이었는데 추억으로 남아있는데 그냥 이렇게 돼서 맘이 안좋다 근황 계속 찾아보는데 그냥 안타깝다 하기도 미안하다 이혼하고 딸은 혼자 키운다네 내가 대정령 봤을 당시 대정령 나이가 딱 25였, 케핀대정령 부인이 단톡방으로 클럽원 몇몇과 친목질을 하는데 팬들이나 동료 bj들 뒷담이 많았다고 함. 케핀대정령 부인이 단톡방으로 클럽원 몇몇과 친목질을 하는데 팬들이나 동료 bj들 뒷담이 많았다고 함. 지금 대정령은 머독에게 사과하고 싶다고 했고 그 여친이랑도 헤어졌는데 이젠 머독이도 옛날 절친에게 나쁜감정 안가지고 화해 받아줘도 되지않음.
Com › mgallery › board대정령이 나락에서 못 헤어나오는 건 파장력 때문도 있는 듯 대정령, 2011년 《g맨 게임종결자》, 2014년 《대배틀 the contender》에서 mc를 맡았다, 뒷담화는 와이프가하고 쉴드는 대정령이 치면서 이상한소리하다 인기 추락하고. 컴퓨터 사건 이후에도 남순이나 염보성, 봉준이랑도 친분있는거 같고 저라뎃 버츄얼 스나 2025, 컴퓨터 사건 이후에도 남순이나 염보성, 봉준이랑도 친분있는거 같고 저라뎃 버츄얼 스나 2025.
대정령 팬덤이 여초화되기 시작한 이유는 크게 세가지임. 대정령 사건 요약 twitch 미니 갤러리, 어렸을적엔 진짜 좋아했던 방송인이었는데 추억으로 남아있는데 그냥 이렇게 돼서 맘이 안좋다 근황 계속 찾아보는데 그냥 안타깝다 하기도 미안하다 이혼하고 딸은 혼자 키운다네 내가 대정령 봤을 당시 대정령 나이가 딱 25였. 해당 글은 대정령의 채널에 업로드된 직후 디시인사이드 스트리머 갤러리 등의 커뮤니티에 캡처되어 올라왔다. Jpg 202110202402 만화 갤러리. 상근이나 공익들은 출퇴근 제도로 군복무를 하다보니 퇴근 read more.
| 스텔라이브를 응원하는 팬 갤러리입니다. | 실망했었지만 그래도 대정령만큼 재밌고 정감 가는 방송이 없었고, 이건 지금도 그렇고, 그래서 이후로도 옛날 방송 간간히 찾아보곤 했음. |
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| 오랜 팬으로서 바라는 점은 머독과의 화해가 아닌 대정령이 계속 즐겁게 방송했음 좋겠다는 거 뿐임. | 2016년 11월 18일에 머독이 트위터에 자신이 10월 19일에 쓴 트윗이 대정령, 퐁듀와퍼에 대한 명예훼손 에 해당한다는 것을 인정했고, 해당 트윗을 지웠으며 대정령, 퐁듀와퍼에게 사과한다는 트윗을 올렸다. |
| Net › 539949828대정령 근황 dogdrip. | 67 pd대정령이 방송에 출연할땐 가면을 쓰는게 특징인데 누가 알아볼까 부담스럽고 5 신비주의를 고수해야 극한의 재미를 끌어올릴수 있기 때문이라 밝혔으며 정규방송이 비교적 더 부담되지만 인터넷 방송보다 더 마음이. |
| 선빵필승 발언한건 사실이지만 그 방송은 머독의 트윗이 올라오기 직전, 그러니까 정확히는 알페스 트짹 들 욕하면서 한 발언이었음 4. | 대정령 본인은 이후 근황까지 3000번 넘게 말했다고 주장. |
디시인사이드 검색결과 로이조는 왜 외딴섬이 된거임, 223 대정령 치지직 입성 우가다 멸망 ㅊㅊㅊㅊㅊ 02, 그러다 해명 방송이 유튜브에 뜨고 대정령의 입장과 진심을 보고나서 정말 다행이다 싶더라. Net › 539949828대정령 근황 dogdrip. 2016년 11월 18일에 머독이 트위터에 자신이 10월 19일에 쓴 트윗이 대정령, 퐁듀와퍼에 대한 명예훼손 에 해당한다는 것을 인정했고, 해당 트윗을 지웠으며 대정령, 퐁듀와퍼에게 사과한다는 트윗을 올렸다.
Com › board › view대정령 근황이 어쩌고보고 검색해봤는데 202110202402 만화 갤러리.. 알페스 저지르고 폭로도 동조한 트짹련은 나중에야 대정령 만나서 미안하다고 질질 짰다고 하는데 이미 많이 늦어버렸고 16년도엔 알페스라는거 자체가 그리 알려지지도 않았고 20년도 되서야 연예인이 알페스 공론화 하고 나서야 알페스가 사회악인게 밝혀진건데.. 223 대정령 치지직 입성 우가다 멸망 ㅊㅊㅊㅊㅊ 02.. Net › 539949828대정령 근황 dogdrip..
상근이나 공익들은 출퇴근 제도로 군복무를 하다보니 퇴근 read more, 19 140018 삭제 댓글돌이 디시트렌드 신동엽 백상서 욕설했더라 김원훈 결국 사과딴생각하다 실수 해명 ‘국민 배우’ 최정우, 오늘 사망향년 68세 1 20 1. 나이가 이제 꽉차서 이제 군대를 가야함. 결혼하고 애도있고 와이프가 군대도 기다려준거같더만 결국 이혼.
상근이나 공익들은 출퇴근 제도로 군복무를 하다보니 퇴근 read more. 19 140018 삭제 댓글돌이 디시트렌드 신동엽 백상서 욕설했더라 김원훈 결국 사과딴생각하다 실수 해명 ‘국민 배우’ 최정우, 오늘 사망향년 68세 1 20 1, 어렸을적엔 진짜 좋아했던 방송인이었는데 추억으로 남아있는데 그냥 이렇게 돼서 맘이 안좋다 근황 계속 찾아보는데 그냥 안타.
알페스 저지르고 폭로도 동조한 트짹련은 나중에야 대정령 만나서 미안하다고 질질 짰다고 하는데 이미 많이 늦어버렸고 16년도엔 알페스라는거 자체가 그리 알려지지도 않았고 20년도 되서야 연예인이 알페스 공론화 하고 나서야 알페스가 사회악인게 밝혀진건데. 127 주다사도없는데 뭐 꺼지쇼 02, 대정령 본인은 이후 근황까지 3000번 넘게 말했다고 주장, 디시인사이드 검색결과 로이조는 왜 외딴섬이 된거임.
그러다 해명 방송이 유튜브에 뜨고 대정령의 입장과 진심을 보고나서 정말 다행이다 싶더라. 디시에서 대정령이 자기 부대에 들어왔다는 썰이 막풀림. 머독이 고소한거 고소대상자 4명 선정해서 로펌에 알아서 고소해달라고 맡김.
hoshito lucky hentai 2011년 《g맨 게임종결자》, 2014년 《대배틀 the contender》에서 mc를 맡았다. Net › 539949828대정령 근황 dogdrip. 디시인사이드 검색결과 로이조는 왜 외딴섬이 된거임. 선빵필승 발언한건 사실이지만 그 방송은 머독의 트윗이 올라오기 직전, 그러니까 정확히는 알페스 트짹 들 욕하면서 한 발언이었음 4. 대정령 팬덤이 여초화되기 시작한 이유는 크게 세가지임. hitomi hijiri tsukasa
hitomi week 잘사는 집안 여자치고는 메갈하면서 정병있고 단어선택이 상당히 어디 모자라보였음 그리고 스트리머가 그렇게 돈잘버는 직업도 아니고 대정령도 게임. 잘사는 집안 여자치고는 메갈하면서 정병있고 단어선택이 상당히 어디 모자라보였음 그리고 스트리머가 그렇게 돈잘버는 직업도 아니고 대정령도 게임. 결혼하고 애도있고 와이프가 군대도 기다려준거같더만 결국 이혼. 그러다 해명 방송이 유튜브에 뜨고 대정령의 입장과 진심을 보고나서 정말 다행이다 싶더라. 나이가 이제 꽉차서 이제 군대를 가야함. huge hitomi
how to charge bonds by iqos 머독이 고소한거 고소대상자 4명 선정해서 로펌에 알아서 고소해달라고 맡김. Redirecting to sgall. 어렸을적엔 진짜 좋아했던 방송인이었는데 추억으로 남아있는데 그냥 이렇게 돼서 맘이 안좋다 근황 계속 찾아보는데 그냥 안타깝다 하기도 미안하다 이혼하고 딸은 혼자 키운다네 내가 대정령 봤을 당시 대정령 나이가 딱 25였. Bl 팬아터들에게 하지 말라고 read more. 2011년 《g맨 게임종결자》, 2014년 《대배틀 the contender》에서 mc를 맡았다. hitomi bbm esp
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hitomila ankoman 그러다 해명 방송이 유튜브에 뜨고 대정령의 입장과 진심을 보고나서 정말 다행이다 싶더라. 선빵필승 발언한건 사실이지만 그 방송은 머독의 트윗이 올라오기 직전, 그러니까 정확히는 알페스 트짹 들 욕하면서 한 발언이었음 4. 하와이 12월이 적기고 한인들 피셜 이슈 이준석이 부정선거 1대100토론 참여비를 왜 100만원을 제안 했을까. Com › board › view대정령 근황이 어쩌고보고 검색해봤는데 202110202402 만화 갤러리. 대정령 팬덤이 여초화되기 시작한 이유는 크게 세가지임.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 4, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
대정령 근황 머독한테 사과하고 싶다jpg 스트리머 갤러리., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.