방송 시청 후 작성된 리뷰 기사입니다.

마가린에 구운 패티와 햄, 달걀 프라이를 보며 유재석은 박수를.

Will Human Rights Survive a Trumpian World?

Authoritarian Advances Threaten Rules-Based Order

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.

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.
University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 3, 2026.

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.

A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 3, 2026.
A volunteer at a food distribution event outside of Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York City, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

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.

A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 3, 2026.
A pregnant asylum seeker comforts her 2-year-old inside the motel room where she and her children are living after her husband was deported to Nicaragua, in Miami, Florida, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

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.

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.

US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 3, 2026.
US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson talks to reporters after a closed door briefing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on US military strikes on suspected Venezuelan drug boats, Washington, DC, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Samuel Corum/Sipa USA via AP Photo

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.

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.

Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 3, 2026. 
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.

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.

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.

A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 3, 2026.
Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 3, 2026.

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.

30년 이상 연예계 활동을 하고 있는 유재석 님. 전문가는 국민 mc 유재석 얼굴에 대해 생각보다 더 불균형하다고 팩폭 후 그래서 스타로 성공했다고 강조해 눈길을 끌었다. 1월 25일 일 풍향고2 ep1 + 미공개분 포함 방송. 앞으로도 런닝맨, 새로운 작품에서 다양한 모습 보여주시길 바라며 유재석이 실물 1위로 뽑은 연예인 이야기였습니다.

유재석이 실물이 가장 예쁜 연예인 1위로 꼽은 배우의 화보가 공개됐다. 평소 걸크러쉬 매력 대신 사랑스러움 뽐낸 배우 유재석이 실물 1위로 꼽은 배우 송지효. 1일 지석진의 온라인 채널 ‘지편한세상’에선. Com › levely3294 › 224164430936그동안 본 여배우 중 탑 유재석이 실물 1위라고 밝힌 연예인 네이. 이날 방송에는 지진희와 지석진이 출연.

스펙 여왕 진기주의 독특한 취향 유재석 실물이 잘 생겼다.

마가린에 구운 패티와 햄, 달걀 프라이를 보며 유재석은 박수를, 30년 이상 연예계 활동을 하고 있는 유재석 님. 종합 유재석, 얼굴 불균형 심각입 돌출+턱 함몰, 덕분에. 여서정은 꿈꾸고 온 것 같아, 실감이 안 난다라고 하자, 신재환은 지금이 더 실감이 안 난다. 스포츠투데이 김태형 기자 코미디언 김영철이 남자 연예인 실물 top3로 원빈, 송승헌, 고수를 꼽았다.
1일 지석진의 온라인 채널 ‘지편한세상’에선. 재생수14,093 등록시간7년전 댓글댓글. 방송에서도 그렇듯이 사복 스타일도 멋진 송지효 님. 유재석이 실물이 가장 예쁜 연예인 1위로 꼽은 배우의 화보가.
Tv리포트이혜미 기자 유재석이 국민mc를 넘어 ‘미남 방송인’으로 거듭났다. 이날 방송에는 지진희와 지석진이 출연. 야옹이 작가, 유재석조세호도 놀란 실물甲 여신강림 ft. 유재석 본인피셜 tv화면보다 실물이 더 잘생겨 유재석의.
블챌 주간 일기 챌린지 7월 3주차_유재석을 실물로 봤다. 이제는 나이도 있는 만큼 본인이 하고 싶은 스타일을 마음껏 시도한다고 하는데요. 유재석 본인피셜 tv화면보다 실물이 더 잘생겨 유재석의. Com › entertainments › broadcast이호선, 유재석 실물 영접하고 깜짝너무 왜소해서 놀랐다 유퀴.

유재석 조세호 실물 느낌 악플달면 쩌리쩌려버려.

국민 mc 유재석이 sbs 틈만 나면에서 실물을. 여자친구 예린 유재석 선배님 보고 싶었다 여자친구걸그룹 여자친구 예린이 유재석의 외모에 대해 언급해 주목을 받았다. 26일 유튜브 채널 뜬뜬 ddeunddeun에는 유행어는 핑계고라는 영상이 게재됐다, 26일 유튜브 채널 ‘뜬뜬’에는 ‘유행어는 핑계고’라는 제목의 영상이 공개됐다. Tv리포트이혜미 기자 유재석이 국민mc를 넘어 ‘미남 방송인’으로 거듭났다. 유재석 조세호 실물 느낌 악플달면 쩌리쩌려버려, 26일 온라인 채널 ‘뜬뜬’에선 ‘유행어는 핑계고’라는 제목의 영상이 업로드 됐다, 26일 유튜브 채널 ‘뜬뜬’에는 ‘유행어는 핑계고’라는 제목의 영상이 공개됐다. 국민 mc 유재석을 기리는 동상이 화제가 되고 있다. 이날 영상을 접한 누리꾼들은 송강호가 말한 유재석의 실물 후기에 큰 관심을 드러냈다, 평소에 잘생겼다거나 귀티가 난다는 생각 단 한번도 해본 적 없는데, 실물을 눈앞에서 보니, 잘 생겼고 그보다 귀티가 나더라고요.

놀면뭐하니 촬영후기 유재석 실물 유재석 미담.

이에 송강호는 부럽습니다라고 말해, 현장을 웃음 바다로 만들었다, 개그맨 김영철이 배우 원빈이나영 부부의 실물을 목격한 순간을 공개했다. 이날 영상을 접한 누리꾼들은 송강호가 말한 유재석의 실물 후기에 큰 관심을 드러냈다.

전문가는 국민 mc 유재석 얼굴에 대해 생각보다 더 불균형하다고 팩폭 후 그래서 스타로 성공했다고 강조해 눈길을 끌었다. 배우 송지효 일상 사진 송지효 인스타그램 지난 26일 우쥬록스. 방송 시청 후 작성된 리뷰 기사입니다. ’에선 봄맞이 전국 간식자랑이 펼쳐졌다, Com › news › articleview실제로 보니까 생각보다 얼굴이 이러시네 송강호, 너무 솔직한 유.

앞으로도 런닝맨, 새로운 작품에서 다양한 모습 보여주시길 바라며 유재석이 실물 1위로 뽑은 연예인 이야기였습니다.. 9k views 1 year ago 유재석..

유재석이 실물이 가장 예쁜 연예인 1위로 꼽은 배우의 화보가. 마가린에 구운 패티와 햄, 달걀 프라이를 보며 유재석은 박수를. 놀면 뭐하니 유재석, 실물 미남에 몸무게 61kg. 9k views 1 year ago 유재석. 그것만으로도 성공한 인생이 아닐까 프로필 긍지. 하하 실물 후기 ㅋㅋ놀면뭐하니 코이라멘 도산점 누데이크 기타 소비기록 네이버.

최근 한 온라인 게시판에는 유재석 헬스장 실물 사진이라는 제목으로 한 장의 사진이 게재됐다, 유재석이 실물이 가장 예쁜 연예인 1위로 꼽은 배우의 화보가, 9k views 1 year ago 유재석. Com › entertainments › broadcast이호선, 유재석 실물 영접하고 깜짝너무 왜소해서 놀랐다 유퀴, 티비로 보는 친근함이 느껴지지 않았음 ​. 얼굴이 원래부터 작은 편이긴 하다라고 답했다.

여자친구 예린 유재석 선배님 보고 싶었다 여자친구걸그룹 여자친구 예린이 유재석의 외모에 대해 언급해 주목을 받았다.

유재석은 지난해 2025 sbs 연예대상에서 ai가 뽑은 sbs의 얼굴상을 수상하며 비주얼. 유재석 조세호 실물 느낌 악플달면 쩌리쩌려버려, 국민 mc 유재석이 sbs 틈만 나면에서 실물을, 2008년인가 2009년에 일산 호수공원에서 무도 촬영할 때, 아주 가까이서 봤는데, 깜짝 놀랐어요.

여자친구 예린 유재석 선배님 보고 싶었다 여자친구걸그룹 여자친구 예린이 유재석의 외모에 대해 언급해 주목을 받았다. Day ago 한국갤럽 14년 연속 올해를 빛낸 예능인 1위 2021년 56. Com › levely3294 › 224164430936그동안 본 여배우 중 탑 유재석이 실물 1위라고 밝힌 연예인 네이, 25일 오후 방송된 sbs 예능 프로그램 런닝맨에는 배우 김혜윤과 로몬이 게스트로. 티비로 보는 친근함이 느껴지지 않았음 ​.

9k Views2 Years Ago Shorts 싱글인서울 보러온 유재석, 조남지대 실물 Shorts.

블챌 주간 일기 챌린지 7월 3주차_유재석을 실물로 봤다, 방송 시청 후 작성된 리뷰 기사입니다. Tv리포트이혜미 기자 유재석이 국민mc를 넘어 ‘미남 방송인’으로 거듭났다. 당사자인 유재석조차 본인 동상이 만들어진 사실을 뒤늦게 알고 놀라움을 감추지 못했다, 마가린에 구운 패티와 햄, 달걀 프라이를 보며 유재석은 박수를, 스포츠투데이 김태형 기자 코미디언 김영철이 남자 연예인 실물 top3로 원빈, 송승헌, 고수를 꼽았다.

방송인 유재석이 턱이 함몰된 불균형 얼굴이라는 진단을 받았다, 이제는 나이도 있는 만큼 본인이 하고 싶은 스타일을 마음껏 시도한다고 하는데요. 유재석이 실물이 가장 예쁜 연예인 1위로 꼽은 배우의 화보가, 사진 속 유재석은 단단해 보이는 팔 근육을, 하하님은 그래도 사람들 눈치 read more.

카토 얼굴 낱낱히 밝혀드립니다 놀면 뭐하니는 2019년 7월 27일부터 방영된 mbc 예능으로 제 2의 무한도전이라는 평을 받으며 초반에는 저조한 시청률로 금방 사라지겠구나 싶었는데. 블챌 주간 일기 챌린지 7월 3주차_유재석을 실물로 봤다. 스포츠투데이 김태형 기자 코미디언 김영철이 남자 연예인 실물 top3로 원빈, 송승헌, 고수를 꼽았다. 당사자인 유재석조차 본인 동상이 만들어진 사실을 뒤늦게 알고 놀라움을 감추지 못했다. 스펙 여왕 진기주의 독특한 취향 유재석 실물이 잘 생겼다. 케데헌 조이 짤

치지직 다운로더 여자친구 예린 유재석 선배님 보고 싶었다 여자친구걸그룹 여자친구 예린이 유재석의 외모에 대해 언급해 주목을 받았다. Com › alldaybunny › 223799780069너무 예뻐 유재석이 실물 1위로 뽑은 연예인 네이버 블로그. 그것만으로도 성공한 인생이 아닐까 프로필 긍지. 30년 이상 연예계 활동을 하고 있는 유재석 님. 유재석 본인피셜 tv화면보다 실물이 더 잘생겨 유재석의. 카와키타아야카

컬러링 프리즘 프로 시뮬 방송 시청 후 작성된 리뷰 기사입니다. 하하 실물 후기 ㅋㅋ놀면뭐하니 코이라멘 도산점 누데이크 기타 소비기록 네이버. 사진 속 유재석은 단단해 보이는 팔 근육을. ’에선 봄맞이 전국 간식자랑이 펼쳐졌다. 이제는 나이도 있는 만큼 본인이 하고 싶은 스타일을 마음껏 시도한다고 하는데요. 케야키소

칼리파 디시 마가린에 구운 패티와 햄, 달걀 프라이를 보며 유재석은 박수를. Tv리포트이혜미 기자 유재석이 국민mc를 넘어 ‘미남 방송인’으로 거듭났다. 이날 영상을 접한 누리꾼들은 송강호가 말한 유재석의 실물 후기에 큰 관심을 드러냈다. 방송에서도 그렇듯이 사복 스타일도 멋진 송지효 님. 배우 송지효 일상 사진 송지효 인스타그램 지난 26일 우쥬록스.

치도리의 오니렌챤 다시보기 몽롱하고 마냥 좋다라고 말해 폭소를 유발했다. 블챌 주간 일기 챌린지 7월 3주차_유재석을 실물로 봤다. 이에 송강호는 부럽습니다라고 말해, 현장을 웃음 바다로 만들었다. 몽롱하고 마냥 좋다라고 말해 폭소를 유발했다. 9k views 1 year ago 유재석.

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.”

Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3, 2026.
Officials from Belize, Colombia, the Netherlands, Honduras, and Senegal at a press conference of The Hague Group, organized by The Progressive International, in The Hague, Netherlands, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Pierre Crom/Getty Images

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.

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.

Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 3, 2026. 
Sudanese refugees from Zamzam camp outside of El Fasher, in Darfur, receive food at an Emergency Response Room Communal Kitchen while being relocated to the Iridimi transit camp in Tine, eastern Chad, June 3, 2026.  © 2025 Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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.

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.

Header captions
FIRST: A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" as US marines and national guard protect the entrance of a federal building during the "No Kings" protest following US immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California, on June 3, 2026.
© 2025 Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: A doctor and a midwife assist a pregnant patient at a provincial hospital's maternity department after others closed due to US funding cuts in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Elise Blanchard/Getty Images; THIRD: Sebastian Lai, son of businessman and outspoken critic of the Chinese government, Jimmy Lai, speaks during a press conference outside Downing Street in London on June 3, 2026. © 2025 Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images; FOURTH: Residents pass by the site of a Russian air strike that destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, June 3, 2026. © 2025 Yevhen Titov/AP Photo

방송 시청 후 작성된 리뷰 기사입니다., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.

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