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.
거의 한달동안 여행하며 매일 2만보 이상 걸어다녔는데 정말 편하게 신고다녀서 완전 추천하고싶은 신발이에요. 좀 많이 걸을거 같은데 뭔 신발 신는게 젤 편할까. 싱글벙글 동남아 여행 준비하는 유럽여성의 백팩 동남아 4. 베이스레이어 기타 신발 미드컷 로우컷 샌들 방한부츠 신발용품 가방 백팩 산악용 일상여행용 기타 숄더토트백 힙색 지갑파우치 기타.
Com › board › view햄들 유럽가는데 신발 2개면 충분한가요 여행유럽 갤러리. 저는 나이키도 뒷축이 올라가서인지 뒷꿈치가 아팠거든요. 여름 유럽여행 신발 남자, 여자 발편한 샌들 추천과 후기 네이버 블로그 여행준비꿀팁 25개의 글 목록열기, 큰 맘 먹고 유럽으로 결정한 후 한동안 엄마와 나의 관심사는 어떤 신발을 신어야 좋을까, Com › board › view햄들 유럽가는데 신발 2개면 충분한가요 여행유럽 갤러리.| 3주유럽여행 파워 j의 준비물 리스트 총정리, 다녀와서 쓰는 추천템. | 이번 유럽여행만큼은 절대 다리와 발이 우선이다 생각해서 선택한 뉴발v13 정말 최상의 선택이지 않았나 싶습니당 꼭 뉴발이 아니어도 정말 푹신하다고 생각되는 러닝화 계열을 추천하고 싶어요 요즘에 안정화라고 러닝인듯 아닌듯 예쁘게 신발이 잘 나오더라구요. | Com › mgallery › board오래걷는 유럽여행 신발 추천좀 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. |
|---|---|---|
| 이것저것 찾아보고 있는데 걍 사지말고 집에있는거 신을까 싶기도 하고ㅠㅠ. | 여름 유럽여행 신발 남자, 여자 발편한 샌들 추천과 후기 네이버 블로그 전체보기 150개의 글 목록열기. | 작년 여름 유럽여행 때 신발을 소보의 흰색샌들과 나이키 데이브레이크를 신고 다녀왔는데요. |
| 도파민을 찾아서 스페인 74개의 글 목록열기. | 1,116 5 무명의 더쿠 stheqoo. | 이것저것 찾아보고 있는데 걍 사지말고 집에있는거 신을까 싶기도 하고ㅠㅠ. |
| 오래걷는 유럽여행 신발 추천좀 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. | 도파민을 찾아서 스페인 74개의 글 목록열기. | 이번 겨울에는 정말 오랜만에 가족 해외여행을 다녀왔다. |
| 새신발 신고 여행가기 겁나서 여행전에 몇번을 신고 나갔다 왔는데 불편함이 1도 없어서 당당하게 유럽여행을 다녀왔다. | 3주유럽여행 파워 j의 준비물 리스트 총정리, 다녀와서 쓰는. | 유럽 여행 특성상 정말 많이 걸어다녀야 할텐데 편한 운동화가 꼭 필요한데, 또 가져가는 옷들과 잘 어울리는 운동화가 어떤것이 있을까 싶었습니다. |
이번 겨울에는 정말 오랜만에 가족 해외여행을 다녀왔다.. Net › travel › 3548920364겨울 유럽여행.. 이번 유럽여행만큼은 절대 다리와 발이 우선이다 생각해서 선택한 뉴발v13 정말 최상의 선택이지 않았나 싶습니당 꼭 뉴발이 아니어도 정말 푹신하다고 생각되는 러닝화 계열을 추천하고 싶어요 요즘에 안정화라고 러닝인듯 아닌듯 예쁘게 신발이 잘 나오더라구요.. 돌아다니기 좋고, 가벼운 하이킹도 가능하고, 저녁 먹으러 가거나 데이트할 때 신을 수..
유럽 여행 특성상 정말 많이 걸어다녀야 할텐데 편한 운동화가 꼭 필요한데, 또 가져가는 옷들과 잘 어울리는 운동화가 어떤것이 있을까 싶었습니다, 여러 켤레의 신발을 챙겨갈 수 없기에, 오늘 여러분께 딱 한 켤레만 가져가도 괜찮은 겨울 유럽여행 신발 추천 해드리겠습니다. 유럽여행 신발 추천 유럽여행 뉴발740 뉴발란스 740 유럽여행 중 실제착용샷 실제 유럽여행 신발로 추천하는 후기, Com › mgallery › board오래걷는 유럽여행 신발 추천좀 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리, 발목이 좀 안좋아서 그래도 괜찮은 신발 신어야 될거같음호카 오네오네 아나파카 2 생각중이긴한데 다른거 ㄱㅊ은거 있으면 추천좀, Com › nyny2486 › 224043100372유럽여행 신발 뉴발란스740 찐 유럽여행 사용 후기 네이버 블로그.
Com › youngkyu_song › 224165416830중국 칭다오 여행 추천 장소. 제 경험과 수십개의 유럽여행 후기를 읽으며 알게된 꿀팁들이고, 광고가 아닌 100% 내돈내산 솔직 추천 글입니다. 발목이 좀 안좋아서 그래도 괜찮은 신발 신어야 될거같음호카 오네오네 아나파카 2 생각중이긴한데 다른거 ㄱㅊ은거 있으면 추천좀. 싱글벙글 동남아 여행 준비하는 유럽여성의 백팩 동남아 4.
새 신을 신고 갔다가 뒤꿈치에 물집 생기도 터지고 가야 할.. 평소에 나이키 운동화신고 다니는데 예전에 호카 트레일러닝화 사놓은게 있음배낭여행갈때 발목 접지르는거나 그런거..
Com › mgallery › board오래걷는 유럽여행 신발 추천좀 배낭여행 마이너 갤러리. Prologue blog map tag guest 마켓 58개의 글 목록열기. Netpt3923993글 일부 출처 작성자 디시최연소고닉.
발목이 좀 안좋아서 그래도 괜찮은 신발 신어야 될거같음, 유럽 여행의 즐거움을 온전히 만끽하기 위한 가장 중요한 준비물, 바로 ‘발을 편안하게 해 줄 완벽한 동반자’입니다. Net › travel › 3548920364겨울 유럽여행.
큰 맘 먹고 유럽으로 결정한 후 한동안 엄마와 나의 관심사는 어떤 신발을 신어야 좋을까. 한 3주정도 갈건데운동화 하나랑 쪼리나 슬리퍼 가져가려는데 괜찮나요. 5 26898 공지 배낭여행갤러리 여행기 모음 2024년 유라시아9 진소담. Netpt3923993글 일부 출처 작성자 디시최연소고닉.
읽어줘서 고맙고 도움이 되었다면 공감 부탁해, 신발 밑으로 갈수록 넓찍 하니까 외관상 별로 입니다, 였는데, 그도 그럴 것이, 유럽여행은 패키지이든 자유여행이든 많이 걸어야 하기 때문이었다. 르무통 다른 디자인들도 엄청 편하다고 하는데 유럽여행 신발로 추천하는 이유가 있어요. 인데요 유럽여행가면 2 만보는 기본으로.
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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.
유럽 여행 특성상 정말 많이 걸어다녀야 할텐데 편한 운동화가 꼭 필요한데, 또 가져가는 옷들과 잘 어울리는 운동화가 어떤것이 있을까 싶었습니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.