US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
대단한 프로의식을 갖고 있는것 같은데요. 이후 이 글에서 언급된 아이돌의 대답인. 하이브 산하 플레디스엔터테인먼트가 그룹 프로미스나인과 전속계약을 종료한다. 백지헌 의 팬으로, 한때 ’지헌이똥머리‘라는 팬튜브 을 운영하기도 했다.
백지헌은 15일 팬 소통 플랫폼을 통해 심란한 아침이지만 극복해 보자. Com › 6792184216백지헌 논란 연예인잡담 에펨코리아, 이들은 충분히 조작이 가능하고 신빙성이 없는 카카오스토리 나 카카오톡 은 절대적으로 신뢰하면서 강제전학 내용삭제 불가로 신빙성 있는 생기부는 신뢰하지 않는 등 여러모로 논리에. 걸그룹 프로미스나인의 멤버였으며, 2018년 1월 24일부터 2024년 12월 31일까지 활동했다. 프로미스나인은 이새롬, 송하영, 장규리, 박지원, 노지선, 이서연, 이채영, 이나경, 백지헌 등 아이돌학교 출신 멤버 9명으로 결성됐다. 이 그룹은 지난달 세 번째 미니앨범까지 발매하며 3년째 왕성한 활동을 벌이고 있다. 백지헌 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 무대 위에서나 일상에서도 생동감 넘치는 표정을 보여줘 인간 이모지로 불리기도 한다. 무대 위에서나 일상에서도 생동감 넘치는 표정을 보여줘 인간 이모지로 불리기도 한다. 이들은 충분히 조작이 가능하고 신빙성이 없는 카카오스토리 나 카카오톡 은 절대적으로 신뢰하면서 강제전학 내용삭제 불가로 신빙성 있는 생기부는 신뢰하지 않는 등 여러모로 논리에. 왼쪽부터 놀라운 대회 스타킹, 댄싱9 시즌2, 2tv 생생정보 에 나온 장면이다, 엔터톡 오반데ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ뭐 저렇게까지 쳐다보지 찍히는거 알텐데. 3 에서 같은 1층을 쓰는 삐융즈가 일찍 잔다는 의미로 지어줬다. 엔터톡 더불어독재 사진출처백지헌 sns 라이브 캡처. 한편, 프로미스나인은 지난해 12월 31일을 끝으로 소속사 플레디스엔터테인먼트와 전속계약이 만료된 바 있다.추천 1 1 이미지 똥남아 새키들 사쿠라 겜 read more.. 본인 얼굴에 긁혀서 연예인 얼평으로 까는건가.. 9 베트남 혼혈이라서 사는 게 고통스럽다는 디시인 2..당시 둘 모두 학업을 병행해서신지 생활 패턴이 비슷해 채널나인 in the house 룸메이트와 산다 part. 프로미스나인 백지헌이 간 서울여대 현실 한석원 마이너, 프로미스나인 백지헌, 자본주의 미소 인성논란. 이 그룹은 지난달 세 번째 미니앨범까지 발매하며 3년째 왕성한 활동을 벌이고 있다. 그룹 프로미스나인 멤버 백지헌이 ‘5인 이적설’을 부인했다. 이후 이 글에서 언급된 아이돌의 대답인. 1 이들의 무지성 억까와 논란 조장은 예전부터 이미 유명하다, 엔터톡 더불어독재 사진출처백지헌 sns 라이브 캡처. 1 한자로 따지면 音律이지만, 주민등록증에는 한글로 적혀 있다. 백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다.
왼쪽부터 놀라운 대회 스타킹, 댄싱9 시즌2, 2tv 생생정보 에 나온 장면이다. 백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다. 상세 치어리더를 비롯한 응원단 구성원이 대우는 커녕. 프로미스나인 백지헌이 간 서울여대 현실 한석원 마이너. 참가자 중에서 최종적으로 9명이 선택돼 이듬해 프로미스나인 이새롬, 송하영, 장규리, 박지원, 노지선, 이서연, 이채영, 이나경, 백지헌이라는 걸그룹으로 데뷔했다. 백지헌 사과문 이미지 공튭 영상 밀린거 언제 보냐 ㅇㅇ117.
하이브 산하 플레디스엔터테인먼트가 그룹 프로미스나인과 전속계약을 종료한다. 백지헌은 17일 자신의 sns 인스타그램 라이브 방송을 통해 팬들과 소통했다. 백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다. 당시 둘 모두 학업을 병행해서신지 생활 패턴이 비슷해 채널나인 in the house 룸메이트와 산다 part. 이후 이 글에서 언급된 아이돌의 대답인. 이 그룹은 지난달 세 번째 미니앨범까지 발매하며 3년째 왕성한 활동을 벌이고 있다.
지헌이똥머리 이전에는 newjeans 해린 의 팬이었다, 왼쪽부터 놀라운 대회 스타킹, 댄싱9 시즌2, 2tv 생생정보 에 나온 장면이다. 프로미스나인 백지헌이 간 서울여대 현실 한석원 마이너, 추천 1 1 이미지 똥남아 새키들 사쿠라 겜 read more. 본인 얼굴에 긁혀서 연예인 얼평으로 까는건가, 지헌이똥머리 이전에는 newjeans 해린 의 팬이었다.
백지헌 논란의 움짤들 엠넷 마이너 갤러리. 하지만 인터넷 커뮤니티에서 저 양갈래머리한 여자애가 누구냐며 핫해지고, 아이돌학교 방영 끝나고 추려진 멤버들이 플레디스에서 프로미스나인으로 데뷔를 했죠, 이 그룹은 지난달 세 번째 미니앨범까지 발매하며 3년째 왕성한 활동을 벌이고 있다. 대단한 프로의식을 갖고 있는것 같은데요.
이미지 아이돌 몸매 역대급은 베스티 유지 아니냐.. 백지헌은 17일 자신의 sns 인스타그램 라이브 방송을 통해 팬들과 소통했다.. 다들 지헌이가 쉬다온건 알거임근데 왜 쉬게되었냐를 잘 몰라서 정리해볼게일단 본인은 작년 12월 지헌이 스윗미보고 입덕해서 12월디엠 활동기까지 덕질을 매우 열심히 하느라 위버스에 거의 상주했고 지헌이가 최애라 제일 열심히 봤었음그 전부터 그랬는지는 모르겠지만 지헌이가 팬들과..
대단한 프로의식을 갖고 있는것 같은데요, 바닥에 누워서 사진 찍어서 논란 2021. 하이브 산하 플레디스엔터테인먼트가 그룹 프로미스나인과 전속계약을 종료한다. 백지헌 사과문 이미지 공튭 영상 밀린거 언제 보냐 ㅇㅇ117.
상세 치어리더를 비롯한 응원단 구성원이 대우는 커녕. Com › board › view백지헌 울었던 이유 한번에 정리한다 아이돌학교 갤러리. Kia 타이거즈 에서 활동한 역대 치어리더 를 정리한 문서, 무대 위에서나 일상에서도 생동감 넘치는 표정을 보여줘 인간 이모지로 불리기도 한다.
하이브 산하 플레디스엔터테인먼트가 그룹 프로미스나인과 전속계약을 종료한다, Com › board › view갤메가 실물보고 탈덕한 아이돌. 플레디스엔터테인먼트이하 플레디스는 29일 프로미스나인이새롬, 송하영, 박지원, 노지선, 이서연, 이채영, 이나경, 백지헌의 전속계약이 오는 12월 31일부로 종료된다고 알렸다. 그룹 프로미스나인 멤버 백지헌이 ‘5인 이적설’을 부인했다, 백지헌 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 웃어도 뭐라고 하고, 안웃으면 태도가 불량 하다느니 인성이 어쩌고 저쩌고 중3인데도 불구하고 최선을 다해서 웃는데.
히토미 웹사이트 추천 1 1 이미지 똥남아 새키들 사쿠라 겜 read more. 당시 둘 모두 학업을 병행해서신지 생활 패턴이 비슷해 채널나인 in the house 룸메이트와 산다 part. 유튜브 광고 미표시 논란 편집 자세한 내용은 2020년 유튜버 뒷광고 사건영향 및 반응참pd가 저격한 채널 문서의 3. 프로미스나인 백지헌이 간 서울여대 현실 한석원 마이너. 백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다. 히토미 아저씨 태그
히토미 혼욕 지헌이는 얼굴에 표정 다 드러나는 타입 아니냐. 백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다. 백지헌의 마음이 지금 다수의 아학갤러의 마음일수도있다 하지만 외모가 전부는 아니다 남자들의 마음이란 트렌드에 따라서 변한다는걸 백지헌은 15. 아이돌학교에서 백지헌양은 실력으로 크게 돋보이는 멤버는 아니었죠. Kia 타이거즈 에서 활동한 역대 치어리더 를 정리한 문서. 히토미 저장소
히토미 포켓몬스터 이들은 충분히 조작이 가능하고 신빙성이 없는 카카오스토리 나 카카오톡 은 절대적으로 신뢰하면서 강제전학 내용삭제 불가로 신빙성 있는 생기부는 신뢰하지 않는 등 여러모로 논리에. 백지헌은 17일 자신의 sns 인스타그램 라이브 방송을 통해 팬들과 소통했다. 백지헌 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 우리 이름을 지키고자 하는 우리의 마음을 이용하지 않았으면 하는 속상한 마음이라고 말했다. 걸그룹 프로미스나인의 멤버였으며, 2018년 1월 24일부터 2024년 12월 31일까지 활동했다. 히토미 최면술
히토미 여체화 상세 치어리더를 비롯한 응원단 구성원이 대우는 커녕. 바닥에 누워서 사진 찍어서 논란 2021. 현재 송하영, 박지원, 이나경, 이채영, 백지헌 등 다섯 멤버는 새로운 소속사 어센드 andn와 전속계약을 맺고 활동을 준비 중이다. Com › 6792184216백지헌 논란 연예인잡담 에펨코리아. 플레디스엔터테인먼트이하 플레디스는 29일 프로미스나인이새롬, 송하영, 박지원, 노지선, 이서연, 이채영, 이나경, 백지헌의 전속계약이 오는 12월 31일부로 종료된다고 알렸다.
히토미 헌트릭스 유머움짤이슈 움짤 인기글 목록 2024. 현재 송하영, 박지원, 이나경, 이채영, 백지헌 등 다섯 멤버는 새로운 소속사 어센드 andn와 전속계약을 맺고 활동을 준비 중이다. 백지헌 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. 바닥에 누워서 사진 찍어서 논란 2021. 엔터톡 더불어독재 사진출처백지헌 sns 라이브 캡처.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 20, 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 20, 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 20, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 20, 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.
백지헌 역시 이를 해명하며 열심히 플로버 팬덤명들을 위해 일하고 있다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.