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.
학교에서 담임이 100일동안 선생님 집에서 지내게 될 학생을 저를 선택해서 이런일이 생기게됬네요. 기저귀 사러가서 딱 계산하는데 계산하시는 분이 왜 기저귀 사러왔냐고 물어봤다ㅋㅋ 들키는 싫은것 같은데 들키고 싶은기저귀를 사고 집에 오는길에 기저귀 들고있으니까 기분탓인지 사람들이 처다보는 느낌이. 맘카페에도 올려봤지만 아이와 기싸움에 밀리지 말라는 댓글만 있어 많은 분들이 보시는 결시친에 절박한 마음으로 고민 올립니다. 공공장소 기저귀 갈이 썰 풀어봐 rdaddit.
Com › talk › 328411700어떡해야 되나요ㅠㅠ 네이트 판.. 수인 갤러리에 다양한 이야기 일반 기저귀차는거 여친한테 들킨 썰 푼다.. 몇 시간 동안 쇼핑을 하고 왔고, 기저귀를 갈아줘야 했는데, 이번엔 내 차례였지..이러는거야 나도 사실 전부터 기저귀에 응가싸는거 좋아했거든. 월반을 해서 반에서 제일 막내인데 다른 언니오빠들 배변훈련을 하다보니 우래기 기저귀 교체 텀이 길어지는지 생전 겪어보지도 않은 기저귀 발진이 생기려지뭐야. Com › entiz › read아직도 밤에 기저귀 차고 다니는 9살 어쩌죠. 기저귀 사러가서 딱 계산하는데 계산하시는 분이 왜 기저귀 사러왔냐고 물어봤다ㅋㅋ 들키는 싫은것 같은데 들키고 싶은기저귀를 사고 집에 오는길에 기저귀 들고있으니까 기분탓인지 사람들이 처다보는 느낌이, 딸을 화장실로 데려갔는데, 1인용이었고, 당연히 기저귀 갈이대도.
쿠팡 아닌 다른곳도 이제는 거의 그 가격으로 파는것 같고요. 지금 스무살인 저희 아들도 10살 정도까지 그랬어요. 메뉴 브런치 스토리 매거진남매둥이 아빠의 육아일기 실행 신고 라이킷16댓글공유 you can make anything by writing c. 기록하고 싶어서 다시 자려다 끄적이는 이야기 기저귀바꾸고 통잠성공. 키 149 하는애가 내 품속에서 있으니까 좋긴 하더라. 싱글벙글 지하철에 성인용 기저귀 입고 탄다는 썰.
그상태로 뭐 어쩌다가 한국 온건지 기저귀 그거 안 불편한지 이야기 한 20분정도 하는데 갑자기 얘가 답하다 말고 뾰루퉁한 표정 짓는거임, 에효 저희 딸이 외동이고 42개월인데 아직도 기저귀를 고집 합니다, 내 취미이기도 한데팬티안에 성인용 기저귀 용량 큰거 입고지하철에서 12살 정도 보이는 귀여운 여자애 옆에 서서오줌 지리면 그 여자애. 「사, 사버렸다」방에 들어와서 도착한 박스를 여니 안에 들어있는 건 어린이용 기저귀하고 설사약. 일반 작년 수능에 똥기저귀 차고 똥싸면서 수능본 썰. 매일매일 기저귀 차고 잤고 수련회 때도 담임 선생님께 특별히 부탁해야 했구요.
기저귀 사러가서 딱 계산하는데 계산하시는 분이 왜 기저귀 사러왔냐고 물어봤다ㅋㅋ 들키는 싫은것 같은데 들키고 싶은기저귀를 사고 집에 오는길에 기저귀 들고있으니까 기분탓인지 사람들이 처다보는 느낌이, 경험담 abdl로 살아온 인생썰 4탄 중3, 걸릴뻔한 사건, 당시에 나는 방광에 문제가 없었지만 단순히 좋아서 혹은 성적 기호로 기저귀를 차고 다녔고 그건 우리 부모님 말고는 아무도 모르는 사실이었어. 관장약 주입되고 기저귀차고 못참아서 나이 한참어린 여자애 앞에서 똥지리는거임 그럼 물티슈로 닦아주고 베이비파우더 뿌리고 다시 기저귀채워줌. 경희대병원에서 한방치료도 거의 1년 했는데 소용이 없었어요. 기저귀차고 중학생 여자애한테 누나 누나 하면서.
맘카페에도 올려봤지만 아이와 기싸움에 밀리지 말라는 댓글만 있어 많은 분들이 보시는 결시친에 절박한 마음으로 고민 올립니다. Kr블라이스웹소설, 웹툰, 정액제 셀렉트, 연재 플랫폼. 관장약 주입되고 기저귀차고 못참아서 나이 한참어린 여자애 앞에서 똥지리는거임 그럼 물티슈로 닦아주고 베이비파우더 뿌리고 다시 기저귀채워줌. 이 바뀐뒤로 가격이 많이 올랐네요 96매 기준 대략 35천원 42천원 정도로 올랐습니다, Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 중갤 유아퇴행 서양녀랑 동거한 썰.
Com › talk › 328411700어떡해야 되나요ㅠㅠ 네이트 판.. 씻고 나와서도 그냥 난 팬티만 입고 걘 기저귀만 차고 침대에서 껴안고 이야기나눴다..
| 이건 내가 중학교 3학년 때 친구집에 놀러갔을 때 일이야. | 씻고 나와서도 그냥 난 팬티만 입고 걘 기저귀만 차고 침대에서 껴안고 이야기나눴다. | 기록하고 싶어서 다시 자려다 끄적이는 이야기 기저귀바꾸고 통잠성공. | Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 중갤 유아퇴행 서양녀랑 동거한 썰. |
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| Com › sogyu0714 › 223416466069내돈내산 맥스드라이마저 새던 땅땅이, 잠기저귀 정착썰. | 그래서 누나한테 이거 누가 쓰는거냐고 물어보니까 자신이 쓴다고 말해줬는데 양아치면서 연상의 누나가 잘때 기저귀를 쓴다는 갭이 뭔가 꼴렸었음. | 공지 목록 공지글 글 제목 작성일 7 공지 배당금으로 지키는 엄마의 자리👩🍼 🏻육아휴직 후 퇴사. | 모집중에 써보는 디질뻔한 썰 파이널판타지14 갤러리. |
| 하지만, 기저귀는 똥오줌이 새지 않는다는 장점이 있다. | 당시에 나는 방광에 문제가 없었지만 단순히 좋아서 혹은 성적 기호로 기저귀를 차고 다녔고 그건 우리 부모님 말고는 아무도 모르는 사실이었어. | 학교에서 담임이 100일동안 선생님 집에서 지내게 될 학생을 저를 선택해서 이런일이 생기게됬네요. | 사는 얘기 댓글부탁해 제가 몇달전에 겪은 일입니다 담임은 여자예요. |
| 사는 얘기 댓글부탁해 제가 몇달전에 겪은 일입니다 담임은 여자예요. | 공공장소 기저귀 갈이 썰 풀어봐 rdaddit. | 하지만, 기저귀는 똥오줌이 새지 않는다는 장점이 있다. | 딸을 화장실로 데려갔는데, 1인용이었고, 당연히 기저귀 갈이대도. |
기저귀차고 중학생 여자애한테 누나 누나 하면서, 비싸더라도 발진생기지말라구 여름기저귀를 4월부터 입혔는데 이게 무슨일이냐고. 에효 저희 딸이 외동이고 42개월인데 아직도 기저귀를 고집 합니다. 그상태로 뭐 어쩌다가 한국 온건지 기저귀 그거 안 불편한지 이야기 한 20분정도 하는데 갑자기 얘가 답하다 말고 뾰루퉁한 표정 짓는거임.
최하린 누드 이미 내 아랫도리엔 기저귀가 착용되어 있더라 그리고 화장실도 존나가고싶은데 못움직이게함. Kr블라이스웹소설, 웹툰, 정액제 셀렉트, 연재 플랫폼. 몇 시간 동안 쇼핑을 하고 왔고, 기저귀를 갈아줘야 했는데, 이번엔 내 차례였지. 경희대병원에서 한방치료도 거의 1년 했는데 소용이 없었어요. 하지만, 기저귀는 똥오줌이 새지 않는다는 장점이 있다. 최고의 암웨이 제품
체인소맨 192화 모집중에 써보는 디질뻔한 썰 파이널판타지14 갤러리. Com › sogyu0714 › 223416466069내돈내산 맥스드라이마저 새던 땅땅이, 잠기저귀 정착썰. 기저귀차고 중학생 여자애한테 누나 누나 하면서. 사는 얘기 댓글부탁해 제가 몇달전에 겪은 일입니다 담임은 여자예요. 딸을 화장실로 데려갔는데, 1인용이었고, 당연히 기저귀 갈이대도. 츄파춥스 스퀴시 도안
최 솜이 노출 일반적인 속옷 은 똥오줌을 받아주지 못하기 때문에 똥오줌이 샌다. Com › mgallery › board싱글벙글 중갤 유아퇴행 서양녀랑 동거한 썰. 잡담 5000명 앞에서 기저귀 방뇨썰 ㄷㄷ. 비싸더라도 발진생기지말라구 여름기저귀를 4월부터 입혔는데 이게 무슨일이냐고. 매일매일 기저귀 차고 잤고 수련회 때도 담임 선생님께 특별히 부탁해야 했구요. 체인 소맨 레제 해석 디시
채은채 촉각슈트 씻고 나와서도 그냥 난 팬티만 입고 걘 기저귀만 차고 침대에서 껴안고 이야기나눴다. 공공장소 기저귀 갈이 썰 풀어봐 rdaddit. 공공장소 기저귀 갈이 썰 풀어봐 rdaddit. Com › mgallery › board작년 수능에 똥기저귀 차고 똥싸면서 수능본 썰. 사는 얘기 댓글부탁해 제가 몇달전에 겪은 일입니다 담임은 여자예요.
최 솜이 폭로 태어나서 쭉 하기스 네이쳐메이드를 쿠팡에서 사서 쓰고 있었는데요. 아마 6살7살때쯤일꺼야,당시 나는 어린이집에 다녔었어시골이라 유치원은 없고 어린이집만 있어서 친구들도 다 어린이집에 다녔음그 당시 어린이집이 마치고 집에 갈 시간인데통학차량이 1대밖에 없다보니까 1대로 계속 왔. 비싸더라도 발진생기지말라구 여름기저귀를 4월부터 입혔는데 이게 무슨일이냐고. Livebabdl64394009 전에 기저귀카페에 기저귀 기부글이 올라온적이 있었음 마침 지역도 비슷하길래 중간지점에 만났지 그런데 그분이 대뜸 기저귀에 응가 싸보실래요. 경험담 abdl로 살아온 인생썰 4탄 중3, 걸릴뻔한 사건.
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.
Com › acomom2304 › 223230320477기저귀바꾼 날 통잠 성공한 썰 feat., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.