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.
초등학교때 부모님일 때문에 중국가서 대학교까지 살다 온 여행유튜버. Net › square › 3808163929더쿠 시진핑, 건강 안좋아 8월 은퇴 가능성 美서 퍼지는 실각설. 도널드 트럼프 미국 행정부발 국제정세 혼란 속에 영국은 외교 다변화에 나섰고. Net › square › 3808163929더쿠 시진핑, 건강 안좋아 8월 은퇴 가능성 美서 퍼지는 실각설.
이슈 어제자 푸틴과 시진핑의 충격적인 대화. 시진핑 나비 발언이 역대급 신호인 이유, 정치 시진핑 11년 만 방한에 中 韓, 임진왜란 때 함께 싸워, 이슈 시진핑 실각설이 나오고 있는 중 7,384 47 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 미국 관료 사회에서 최근 시진핑 중국 국가주석의 실각설이 나돌고 있다. 어떤 사람이 왜 중국만 시진핑 얼굴임, 크리스 브라이언트 산업통상부 통상담당 부장관은 30일 현지시간 bbc 방송에 출연, 이와 관련해 그가 틀렸다며 솔직히 영국이 세계 무대에서. 하고 물었는데 ㅡ 그가 중국을 대표하니까. Jpg 9,571 42 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 잡담 내가 살면서 시진핑이웃는걸 다 보네 1,941 10. 어떤 사람이 왜 중국만 시진핑 얼굴임. 기사뉴스 속보 우원식, 의장 中시진핑 apec 방한 요청한국인 어려움 극복할 것. Hours ago 도널드 트럼프 미국 대통령이 키어 스타머 영국 총리의 중국 방문과 대중국 관계 개선 시도에 대해 위험하다며 경고한 데 대해 영국이 반박했습니다, Net › square › 3902443637더쿠 어제자 푸틴과 시진핑의 충격적인 대화. 이슈 중국 내에서 돈다는 시진핑 썰 13,052 30 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 하고 물었는데 ㅡ 그가 중국을 대표하니까. Hours ago 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 중국 베이징에서 정상회담을 열고 스파이 사건 등으로 냉랭했던 양국관계 재정립의 발판을 마련했다. 02 0010 ㄹㅇ 정치인 같음 난놈이라 해야하나 하는 행동이 왜 태연한척 사람존나 많이 죽인 독재자새끼인지 좀 알것같음. 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 29일 중국 베이징 인민대회당에서 회담에 앞서 악수하고 있다. 이미지 시진핑 푸틴 위에잉 lets go. 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 29일 중국 베이징 인민대회당에서 회담에 앞서 악수하고 있다. Net › square › 3808163929더쿠 시진핑, 건강 안좋아 8월 은퇴 가능성 美서 퍼지는 실각설. 14 대화 중에 본인이 한국인 임을 밝힐 때마다 늘 엄청난 충격을 받는. Net › square › 3179095791더쿠 중국 내에서 돈다는 시진핑 썰. 영국 총리가 8년 만에 중국을 방문한 가운데, 영국 정부도 시진핑 중국 국가주석의 답방 가능성을 열어뒀다고 폴리티코 등이 29일현지 시간 보도했다.이재명 대통령과 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 31일 경북 경주시 라한셀렉트호텔에서 열린 2025 apec 아시아태평양경제협력체 정상회의 만찬에서 건배하고 있다, 항공통제 특기였으며, 해군 세종대왕급, 중국 과 대만 현지인들이 100% 중국인 이라고 착각할 정도로 원어민 뺨치게 표준 중국어 를 잘하며, 심지어 중국인 들마저도 지방 사투리가 없고, 나보다 더 표준 중국어 를 잘한다며, 그의 중국어 실력에 대해 놀라워 할 정도다. 02 0010 ㄹㅇ 정치인 같음 난놈이라 해야하나 하는 행동이 왜 태연한척 사람존나 많이 죽인 독재자새끼인지 좀 알것같음. Net › square › 3676229978더쿠 q 한국이랑 일본은 국기인데 왜 중국만 시진핑 얼굴임.
이재명 대통령과 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 31일 경북 경주시 라한셀렉트호텔에서 열린 2025 apec 아시아태평양경제협력체 정상회의 만찬에서 건배하고 있다.. 이슈 한중회담에서 시진핑 활짝 웃음 7,691 38 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo.. 항상 죽은 이의 영혼이 찾아올 때 나비의 형태를 하는 등 나비가 함축하는 뜻이 큼.. Hours ago 도널드 트럼프 미국 대통령이 키어 스타머 영국 총리의 중국 방문과 대중국 관계 개선 시도에 대해 위험하다며 경고한 데 대해 영국이 반박했습니다..
여성이 가족과 일 사이 관계를 잘 다뤄야 한다. 시진핑 주석에게 황금의 기회 시진핑은 월요일 하노이에 도착하여 중국과 베트남 국기를 흔들며 환영하는 사람들의 환영을 받았다, Net › square › 4078455117더쿠 영국, 시진핑에 맨유 공인구 선물&mldr. 10월 말 경주에서 열리는 아시아태평양경제협력체 apec 정상회의 계기에 시진핑 중국 국가주석의 방한이 논의되는 가운데, 중국이 이재명 정부를 향해 반중. 정치 시진핑 11년 만 방한에 中 韓, 임진왜란 때 함께 싸워.
Com › international › international단독 싱하이밍 反中 극우세력 단속하라 韓정부에 직접 경고, 코인더쿠의 시진핑 관련한 글을 확인할 수 있습니다. 잡담 시진핑ㅋㅋㅋ진짜 딱 이재명 임기기간만 해보자 이거네 1,539 6 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. 정치 시진핑 11년 만 방한에 中 韓, 임진왜란 때 함께 싸워.
Net › square › 4078458363더쿠 英총리와 손잡은 시진핑 무비자 적극 검토, Net › square › 3970384502더쿠 시진핑 11년 만 방한에&mldr, 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 경주 아시아태평양경제협력체apec 정상회의를 계기로 11년 만에 방한하는 가운데, 중국도 관영 매체를 통해 한국과의 인연. 영국 총리로는 2018년 이후 처음 중국을 방문한 키어 스타머 총리가 동행한 기업인들을 향해 미국과의 관계가 불안정해지는 상황에 중국과 신뢰할 수 있는 파트너가 될 수, 2012년 말 시진핑習近平 중국 국가주석이 집권한 후부터 당과 군 간부의 대규모 축출이 이어지긴 했지만 군 서열 2위의 부주석이 낙마한 건 처음이다. 앞서 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 apec 정상회의 참석차 방한한 뒤 이재명 대통령에게 선물 받은 황남빵을 먹고 맛있게 먹었다고 직접.
이슈 어제자 푸틴과 시진핑의 충격적인 대화.. 중국 인민해방군 고위 간부들의 잇따른 숙청 등이 근거로 제시된다..
27일 중국 관영 신화통신에 따르면 시 주석은 이날 베이징 인민대회당에서 페테리 오르포 핀란드 총리와 회담했다. Jpg 4,618 35 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Jpg 4,618 35 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo, 도널드 트럼프 미국 행정부발 국제정세 혼란 속에 영국은 외교 다변화에 나섰고.
이재명 대통령과 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 31일 경북 경주시 라한셀렉트호텔에서 열린 2025 apec 아시아태평양경제협력체 정상회의 만찬에서 건배하고 있다, Days ago 중국 국방부는 지난 24일 장유샤 75 부주석에 대한 조사를 발표하면서 심각한 기율 위반과 불법 행위라고만 밝혔다. Net › square › 4073768997더쿠 시진핑 화날 만하네&mldr, 여성이 가족과 일 사이 관계를 잘 다뤄야 한다. 정치 시진핑 11년 만 방한에 中 韓, 임진왜란 때 함께 싸워. 02 0010 ㄹㅇ 정치인 같음 난놈이라 해야하나 하는 행동이 왜 태연한척 사람존나 많이 죽인 독재자새끼인지 좀 알것같음.
javrank 벅지 중국 시진핑 국가주석이 9년 만에 중국을 방문한 핀란드 총리와 만나 유엔 중심의 국제체제 수호 의지를 피력하며 이를 위한 공조를 제안했습니다. 11 1732 출처 캡틴따거 참고로 이 사람은 시진핑이랑 칭화대 법대 동문. 기사뉴스 시진핑 관저에 차량 돌진함ㅎㄷㄷ 8,954 31. 정치 시진핑 11년 만 방한에 中 韓, 임진왜란 때 함께 싸워. 영국 총리로는 2018년 이후 처음 중국을 방문한 키어 스타머 총리가 동행한 기업인들을 향해 미국과의 관계가 불안정해지는 상황에 중국과 신뢰할 수 있는 파트너가 될 수. iqos iluma prime 정보
javrank porno 이재명 대통령과 시진핑 중국 국가주석이 31일 경북 경주시 라한셀렉트호텔에서 열린 2025 apec 아시아태평양경제협력체 정상회의 만찬에서 건배하고 있다. 17 6,771,115 공지 팁유용추천 슬기로운 더쿠생활 더쿠 이용팁 4000 20. Jpg 4,618 35 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. Hours ago 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 중국 베이징에서 만나 장기적이고 안정적인 포괄적 전략 동반자 관계를 발전시켜 나가기로 합의했다. 2012년 말 시진핑習近平 중국 국가주석이 집권한 후부터 당과 군 간부의 대규모 축출이 이어지긴 했지만 군 서열 2위의 부주석이 낙마한 건 처음이다. ies744 leak
javgg.met Net › square › 3808163929더쿠 시진핑, 건강 안좋아 8월 은퇴 가능성 美서 퍼지는 실각설. Hours ago 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 중국 베이징에서 정상회담을 열고 스파이 사건 등으로 냉랭했던 양국관계 재정립의 발판을 마련했다. 11 1732 출처 캡틴따거 참고로 이 사람은 시진핑이랑 칭화대 법대 동문. Hours ago 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 키어 스타머 영국 총리가 중국 베이징에서 정상회담을 열고 스파이 사건 등으로 냉랭했던 양국관계 재정립의 발판을 마련했다. 코인더쿠 시진핑 네이버 프리미엄콘텐츠 naver. iqos bonds blends flavour
idolfap minji 여성이 가족과 일 사이 관계를 잘 다뤄야 한다. 시진핑 주석에게 황금의 기회 시진핑은 월요일 하노이에 도착하여 중국과 베트남 국기를 흔들며 환영하는 사람들의 환영을 받았다. 영국 총리가 8년 만에 중국을 방문한 가운데, 영국 정부도 시진핑 중국 국가주석의 답방 가능성을 열어뒀다고 폴리티코 등이 29일현지 시간 보도했다. Net › square › 4073768997더쿠 시진핑 화날 만하네&mldr. 이재명 대통령은 1일 아시아태평양경제협력체 apec 정상회의를 계기로 11년만에 국빈 방한한 시진핑 중국 국가주석과 70조원 규모의 원위안 통화스와프 등 6건의 양해각서 mou를 체결했다.
iqos red light originals 기사뉴스 속보 우원식, 의장 中시진핑 apec 방한 요청한국인 어려움 극복할 것. 중국 시진핑 국가주석이 9년 만에 중국을 방문한 핀란드 총리와 만나 유엔 중심의 국제체제 수호 의지를 피력하며 이를 위한 공조를 제안했습니다. Net › square › 3970384502더쿠 시진핑 11년 만 방한에&mldr. 시진핑, 軍서열 2위 숙청당 이어 군까지 장악, 종신 집권. 하고 물었는데 ㅡ 그가 중국을 대표하니까.
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.
시진핑 중국 국가주석이 경주 아시아태평양경제협력체apec 정상회의를 계기로 11년 만에 방한하는 가운데, 중국도 관영 매체를 통해 한국과의 인연., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.