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.
손흥민에게 임신 협박 여성, 이미 3억 뜯었다. 3억 챙긴 손흥민 협박 공갈 20대녀 징역 5년 구형. 영국 스포츠 전문매체 기브미스포츠가 22일한국시각 손세이셔널 손흥민의 순자산 가치와 관련한 흥미로운 보도를 내놨다. 29일 오후 5시쯤 김 장관은 워싱턴dc 상무부 청사를 찾아 러트닉 장관과 회동했다.
영국 스포츠 전문매체 기브미스포츠가 22일한국시각 손세이셔널 손흥민의 순자산 가치와 관련한 흥미로운 보도를 내놨다.. 손흥민에게 임신 협박 여성, 이미 3억 뜯었다 국가대표 축구 선수 손흥민33토트넘씨의 아이를 임신했다며 돈을 뜯으려 한 혐의를 받는 일당이 경찰에 체포됐다..
| 박승태가 본인의 어머니와 대화한 카톡 내용. | 손흥민 소속사는 손흥민은 명백한 피해자라며 선처는 없다고 밝혔다. | 손흥민 소속사는 손흥민은 명백한 피해자라며 선처는 없다고 밝혔다. | 이 같은 주장에 일부 누리꾼들은 경기 후 클럽을 찾은 손흥민을 비난하기도 했습니다. |
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| 양 씨가 주장하는 임신 시점은 손흥민 측 진술과 차이가 있는 것으로 알려졌다 뉴스1. | 전 연인이 손흥민 3억 뜯었다내가 남친 남성도 등장 sbs 뉴스. | 트란스퍼마크트 발 여러 아시아 축구 선수들의 몸값을 비교한 사진 손흥민 몸값은 현재 아시아에서 866억으로 1위 그렇다면 바로 나 박승태의 몸값은. | 전 연인이 손흥민 3억 뜯었다내가 남친 남성도 등장 sbs 뉴스. |
| Com › article › 2025051663777손흥민, 임신 협박녀와 연인 관계였다&mldr. | 변호인은 손 씨가 a씨에게 돈을 준 이유에 대해 a씨가 손 씨에게 조작된 자료를 건네며 3억원을 달라고 협박했다고 했다. | 양 씨가 주장하는 임신 시점은 손흥민 측 진술과 차이가 있는 것으로 알려졌다 뉴스1. | 이들 중 한명은 이미 작년에 3억 원을 받아낸 것으로 알려졌는데, 압수수색을 통해 휴대전화 등을 확보한 경찰은 이들에 대해 구속영장을 신청했습니다. |
| 손흥민 관련 허위사실을 유포했던 클럽 md직원의 sns 저한테 손흥민 관련 질문하지 마세요. | 서울 강남경찰서는 16일, 공갈 혐의를 받는 20대 여성 a씨와 공갈미수 혐의를 받는 40대 남성 b씨에 대한 구속. | 이 같은 주장에 일부 누리꾼들은 경기 후 클럽을 찾은 손흥민을 비난하기도 했습니다. | 이 초음파 사진이 진짜인지, 아니면 조작된 것인지는 현재 경찰이 수사 중이며 손흥민 선수 측은 이것이 허위일 가능성에 무게를 두고 있는데요. |
| 17% | 20% | 23% | 40% |
오늘은 최근 연예계와 스포츠계를 뒤흔든 손흥민 선수 관련 충격적인 협박 사건에 대해 자세히 알아볼게요. 저는 제가 아는 김흥민 형의 얘기를 한 겁니다. 출연료 무려 406억원다큐영화 홍보 나선 멜라니아, 손흥민은 자동차, 면도기, 스포츠음료 등.
영국 스포츠 전문매체 기브미스포츠가 22일한국시각 손세이셔널 손흥민의 순자산 가치와 관련한 흥미로운 보도를 내놨다. 손흥민 광고료 12억원 추정1년간 156억원 벌었다 손흥민이 1년간 156억원의 광고 수익을 올렸다. 손흥민, 임신 협박녀와 연인 관계였다3억 건넨 이유는, 그리고 2015년 8월 28일, 이적료 3,000만 유로 2,200만 파운드한화 약 408억 원를 기록하며 프리미어 리그의 토트넘 홋스퍼 fc와 5년 계약을 확정하면서 아시아출신 축구 선수 중에서 역대 최고 이적료 기록을 경신했다. Com › site › data손흥민 협박녀 체포임신했다 3억 뜯어내.
당시 a씨는 이 임신 사실을 외부에 알리겠다며 손흥민 선수에게 3억 원이라는 큰돈을 요구했습니다. 영국 스포츠 전문매체 기브미스포츠가 22일한국시각 손세이셔널 손흥민의 순자산 가치와 관련한 흥미로운 보도를 내놨다. 서울 강남경찰서는 15일 공갈 혐의를 받는 20대 여성 a씨와 공갈 미수 혐의를 받는 40대 남성 b씨에 대한 구속영장을 신청했다고 밝혔다. 2‘연매출 30억’ 양준혁 3000평 방어 양식장 공개장민호 먹방 대박 3화사, 40kg대에도 건강美글래머러스 드레스 자태 4원로배우 남정희 별세향년 84세, 발인 26일 5홍진영, 차원이 다른 몸매만원대 수영복 감당 불가 ev140주년 ‘메르세데스벤츠’ 10종 신차. 손흥민은 3억을 주며 여자와 합의를함.
다만 a씨가 주장하는 임신 시점이 손흥민 측 진술과 차이가 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 속보 김정관 산업부 장관 러트닉 美 상무, 내일 다시 만나, 03 0236 일뽕새끼들 침공때문에 지금은 야갤처럼 각 팀갤로 흩어졌지만 한때 해충갤은 드립 올타임레전드였지 ㅋㅋ 1. 회담은 약 1시간 30분 동안 진행됐으며, 오후 6시 30분쯤 종료됐다, 손흥민 협박범 신상털기, 엉뚱한 여성에.
손흥민 관련 허위사실을 유포했던 클럽 md직원의 sns 저한테 손흥민 관련 질문하지 마세요. 2‘연매출 30억’ 양준혁 3000평 방어 양식장 공개장민호 먹방 대박 3화사, 40kg대에도 건강美글래머러스 드레스 자태 4원로배우 남정희 별세향년 84세, 발인 26일 5홍진영, 차원이 다른 몸매만원대 수영복 감당 불가 ev140주년 ‘메르세데스벤츠’ 10종 신차, 한국 축구대표팀 주장인 손흥민 33토트넘 홋스퍼의 아이를 가졌다고 협박하고 수억원을 요구한 일당이 경찰에 붙잡힌 가운데, 손흥민이 협박한, 3억 챙긴 손흥민 협박 공갈 20대녀 징역 5년 구형.
각서내용에는 3억을 주는대신 임신중절 평생 비밀유지 있었다함. 저는 제가 아는 김흥민 형의 얘기를 한 겁니다. 사진연합뉴스 축구 국가대표 손흥민 선수가 과거 연인이던 20대 여성으로부터 ‘임신 협박’을 당해 3억원을 건넨 것으로 나타났다. 손흥민에게 임신 협박 여성, 이미 3억 뜯었다, 손흥민은 구설수에 오르기 싫어 각서받고 돈 줌. 트럼프케네디 센터에서 열린 본인의 다큐 멜라니아 시사회에 참석했다 read more.
트란스퍼마크트 발 여러 아시아 축구 선수들의 몸값을 비교한 사진 손흥민 몸값은 현재 아시아에서 866억으로 1위 그렇다면 바로 나 박승태의 몸값은. 각서내용에는 3억을 주는대신 임신중절 평생 비밀유지 있었다함. 2024년 8월 디시인사이드와 여성시대에 손흥민이 강남 클럽에 방문 또한 a씨가 손흥민에게 3억 원을 받았을 때 무속인 c씨에게 8천만 원을. 전 연인이 손흥민 3억 뜯었다내가 남친 남성도 등장 sbs 뉴스. 4일 방송된 엠넷 ‘tmi뉴스’에서는 광고 모델료 비싼 스타 랭킹을 공개했다.
bj 그릴래영 야동 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ긱스 미친놈들인가 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 함안버들 2023. 그러면서 손흥민은 명백한 피해자라며 선처는 없다고 밝혔다. 03 0131 산체스 3억 손해 개웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 340 best 드물정도다 2023. 2‘연매출 30억’ 양준혁 3000평 방어 양식장 공개장민호 먹방 대박 3화사, 40kg대에도 건강美글래머러스 드레스 자태 4원로배우 남정희 별세향년 84세, 발인 26일 5홍진영, 차원이 다른 몸매만원대 수영복 감당 불가 ev140주년 ‘메르세데스벤츠’ 10종 신차. 03 0236 일뽕새끼들 침공때문에 지금은 야갤처럼 각 팀갤로 흩어졌지만 한때 해충갤은 드립 올타임레전드였지 ㅋㅋ 1. bj쭈리
bj 미디 디시 회담은 약 1시간 30분 동안 진행됐으며, 오후 6시 30분쯤 종료됐다. 최근 발 부상에서 회복해 epl 복귀전을 치른 손흥민 선수가 지속적인 협박 피해를 당했다며 경찰에 고소장을 제출했습니다. 손흥민 소속사는 손흥민은 명백한 피해자라며 선처는 없다고 밝혔다. 4일 방송된 엠넷 ‘tmi뉴스’에서는 광고 모델료 비싼 스타 랭킹을 공개했다. 도널드 트럼프 미국 대통령의 부인 멜라니아 여사가 29일현지 시간 워싱턴d. blowjob sotwe
berial kemono 손까들은 652만원은 있는지ㅇㅇ 손흥민의 순자산 가치는 얼마인가. 서울뉴시스최은수 기자 잉글랜드 프로축구 프리미어리그epl 토트넘홋스퍼 주장 손흥민33 선수가 과거 교제했던 여성에게 허위 임신. 경찰은 15일 밤 이들에 대한 구속 영장을 신청했다. 03 0236 일뽕새끼들 침공때문에 지금은 야갤처럼 각 팀갤로 흩어졌지만 한때 해충갤은 드립 올타임레전드였지 ㅋㅋ 1. 손흥민에게 임신 협박 여성, 이미 3억 뜯었다 국가대표 축구 선수 손흥민33토트넘씨의 아이를 임신했다며 돈을 뜯으려 한 혐의를 받는 일당이 경찰에 체포됐다. bj엘리 nude
bj최솜이 야동 양 씨가 주장하는 임신 시점은 손흥민 측 진술과 차이가 있는 것으로 알려졌다 뉴스1. 경찰은 15일 밤 이들에 대한 구속 영장을 신청했다. 손흥민 관련 허위사실을 유포했던 클럽 md직원의 sns 저한테 손흥민 관련 질문하지 마세요. 한국 축구대표팀 주장인 손흥민 33토트넘 홋스퍼의 아이를 가졌다고 협박하고 수억원을 요구한 일당이 경찰에 붙잡힌 가운데, 손흥민이 협박한. 손흥민은 자동차, 면도기, 스포츠음료 등.
bj 이타 이 초음파 사진이 진짜인지, 아니면 조작된 것인지는 현재 경찰이 수사 중이며 손흥민 선수 측은 이것이 허위일 가능성에 무게를 두고 있는데요. 사진연합뉴스 축구 국가대표 손흥민 선수가 과거 연인이던 20대 여성으로부터 ‘임신 협박’을 당해 3억원을 건넨 것으로 나타났다. Com › board › view손흥민 3억 뜯은 여성&mldr. 다만 a씨가 주장하는 임신 시점이 손흥민 측 진술과 차이가 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 03 0131 산체스 3억 손해 개웃기네 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 댓글로 가기 340 best 드물정도다 2023.
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.
축구 국가대표 손흥민 선수가 과거 연인이던 20대 여성으로부터 ‘임신 협박’을 당해 3억원을 준 것으로 드러났다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.